Assessing Learning

Collect & analyze assessment data from multiple measures

By applying key vocabulary and content knowledge from the Lord of the Flies unit, students used a Socratic seminar dialogue to construct a fuller understanding of the novel and its significant themes. Then, for the second part of this summative assessment, I asked students to write a formal theme analysis essay. This structure gave students the chance to talk through their ideas, practicing the registers of academic dialogue before condensing their ideas into an essay. Consequently, this 2-part assessment design (1 part discussion-based, 1 part private writing) was valuable in helping students demonstrate literacy skills and mastery of content through multiple means. 

Involve students in self-assessment and reflection

At the end of my first semester of full-time student teaching, I asked my English 10 students to complete a course evaluation survey. As you can see above, this reflection allowed students the chance to ponder their areas of strength and continued development, favorite readings/activities/daily routines, and key takeaways from the course. In asking them these questions, I got students to consider how they've grown and set goals for their future learning. Beyond benefiting the students, however, this survey offered significant feedback about steps I can take to improve as a teacher. As I move forward to new classes and curricula, I will bear in mind their responses, which will improve my lesson planning. 

Use technology to support assessment and communication

During the Persepolis unit, I created two “discussion board” activities. One, on Padlet, helped students practice identifying a defensible and interesting theme from the graphic novel. I used this as a formative assessment to gauge students' depth of understanding from the reading. When I projected their responses, I used the strongest answers to facilitate a dialogue reviewing the difference between a theme and a topic. 

The second formal Persepolis dialogue, which I used as a small summative assessment, was an end of unit discussion post on Canvas. In both cases, students were encouraged to use technology to interact with each other across both Eng10 class periods, review each other’s work, and leave thoughtful comments and connections. These students were responding to the prompt I designed below. 

Low stakes, high reward

By framing my classes with "Do Now" and "Exit Ticket" activities like the one, I signal to students what the most important takeaways are from the day, helping them reflect on their progress and understanding of each lesson's content. This is especially valuable in helping students pace themselves for the research project unit (see right), where students require extra accountability to stay on track with their independent research.