1. Digital Technologies
1.1. Support teachers
1.1.1. I’m still very apprehensive about technology like AI in the classroom, but when used right, it has many ways to support a teacher. One of my favourite and important sure many others, is the extent of resources we have access to. You can find so many different ideas for lessons, activities, contacting other teachers, sharing resources, etc. Pinterest is one of my favourites, along with “myphyscialeducator.com” or this very app im making this mind map on! This lies directly under improving contact and communication with both parents, other staff and students. Sharing what is going on day-to-day has never been easier.
1.2. Support learners
1.2.1. Once again, the same scenario of being able to access so much content at a time helps students explore and broaden their understanding in an independent way! One way i love using technology for students is through gamification of my lessons. I’ve created many lessons that are done by playing through trivia or a “maze” to complete the activity. This supports motivation and engagement! Having access to digital technology also helps learn more about how it can be used and the potential of the future of technology in education. Students should be able to become digitally literate!
1.3. Designing assessment tasks
1.3.1. I’m a huge fan of variety! I love finding new ways to assess and keep students involved, that’s why i thought id give it a shot with the mind map format for this assignment! When designing assessment, much like what you’ve done, is giving option. We can include images, videos, audio, interactive aspects into this assignment, where students can play to their strengths, all with the same success criteria in mind. If needed, a teacher can use it for adapting any assessment to a students individual needs, not just understanding levels or individual lesson plans, but for accessibility, like text to speech, additional audio to support text, font size adjustments and many more!
2. Upgrading, grading and Reporting
2.1. Technology
2.1.1. Technology and grades has many benefits, such as saving time by having automated grading, immediate feedback and results of how they may have done with that particular assessment.
2.2. Motivator or impediment
2.2.1. Students put so much pressure on themselves to do well in school and receive good grades. Obviously there is still reason to apply grades to students, like measuring progress and using it to do higher education. I want to establish a way to allow students to strive for success, but not feel so negative when receiving grades. They can be motivators, but there needs to be a way to positively guide them to achieve learning and more knowledge. Grades may be inhibitors because it can put a dampening on passion to learn and engagement if the students do not feel they are doing well in school. This is why we need to assess our own ways of grading our students, like constructive feedback and reflecting upon our own values around assigning zeros or what we qualify as worthy of a grade and what we are grading. This is why I plan on many formative assignments that result in a summarize assessment, so there is less pressure on large graded projects and memorization, but actually applying your knowledge.
2.3. Concerns
2.3.1. Like Ryan Hainstock has said, we need to ensure we still do our own work by checking and double checking the results of assistive technology. If it shows us a grade, we should still go through the students work, because the tech does not know our students as humans, we need to use our professional judgement. Getting instant feedback should be adjusted to be delivered and phrased how we prefer, to ensure we know what information is being given to the students. I am a big advocate of grading,and remaining transparent with grading and upgrading, but want to find ways to break the stigma of receiving grades oppose to actually absorbing what’s been taught.
2.4. “Grading practice are too often taken for granted and rarely questioned, yet they have a profound effect on student learning, motivation and engagement. By building equitable assessment tools and making grading more transparent , we can create more meaningful learning experiences that promote student growth” - Empowering Students by Demystifying grading by Feldman.
3. Learner-centered
3.1. Equity
3.1.1. This area of education, especially in assessment will always remain important to me. Students relationship with schooling often lies in how included and represented, or even acknowledged they feel daily while at school. Taking into consideration a students abilities, their home life, who they are as a person and what to them is their best effort.
3.2. Identity
3.2.1. Learning to support and contribute to the identity of my students in the classroom has been a pleasure of mine so far. Being able to adjust assessment to the needs of my students is important for success not just for them, but also for me. They are the primary users of assessment and I want to make sure they feel like it. They have also helped me find my identity in assessment. I will continue to broaden my knowledge by learning from my students and from other teachers. This course has shown me all my options and more.
4. What’s important to me, as a teacher, in creating an assessment framework for my classroom?
4.1. I’ve thought of this many times before. Ideally my assessment framework would be i would assign a final project to be due at the end of the semester and then have checkpoints to pass in throughout the semester, about a week after each unit, ensuring students have added or considered the information that has been shared in the lessons, for their final assignment. They then will pass in the final assignment at the end of the semester, as it would reflect the students learning nd give many opportunities to improve or adjust informations. They will receive feedback and just a pass or fail, until the final submission, where they will acquire a mark. I will allow for some space for these submissions but only space of about 5 days. I do not see issues with any extensions, a i think i will have buffer periods anyway (if told by the student that they may be delayed in submission, or about a week and then extensions can be given, but i do feel like i would have a maximum amount of days to extend. I like to keep the reasoning anonymous but if it’s not passed in a by the extension deadline, then there will be a zero. I want to give as many options for success and to show understanding, so remaining a formative assessment powered classroom would be my preferred way. Transparency and trust is the most important part to assessment for me, as the students have responsibilities and so do i, as the teacher and we should continue to fulfill our roles out of respect for eachother.
5. ‼️HOT TAKE‼️
5.1. I really dislike using display of scores or marks in the classroom, or something that people wouldn’t see as assessment, but shows biases and dynamics that affect performance and culture, such as captains in Phys. Ed class for team games. I think it can create unhealthy competition more than it being a motivator, playing a large part in stressful atmospheres, so i would like to avoid that dynamic in my classroom. They can still “embrace” feedback that is giving and compare of they would like but I want to create a positive space for growth.
5.2. A second hot take would be that i don’t think there is any reason for a zero until you’ve exhausted all other options. An assessment plan for this would be requesting an extension, grace periods and time frames for when its needed by. If it is just not handed in then that’s a zero. But if the student hands it in, there is effort put in to complete it to some ability, which is enough for me to give some percentage of completion. I don’t think any student is a zero student. If they have been attending class (this is where professional judgement comes into play) then they cannot know nothing, there is something they can apply.
6. Principles and Practices
6.1. Social Justice
6.1.1. Positive assessment experiences
6.1.1.1. In the beginning of the course, for assessment 1, we were to write a story about an assessment experience we have had, and annotate the different aspects of assessment and whether or not it was done correctly and with social justice in mind. The positive assessment experience sit with us as students, but I couldn’t help but notice that the negative assessment experiences almost stuck with us more. We are very quick to notice, as students, when we aren’t treated fairly or the best principles and practices aren’t being followed. This goes to show the importance of understanding how to be adaptable, how to prepare for feedback and how to indentify the approach we may take, where we aren’t the person who should come first, but the student.
6.1.2. Purpose of assessment
6.1.2.1. Understanding the purpose of assessment first before assessing is key. I will be using assessment for what I believe is its true purpose, being creating opportunities for all my students to have a chance to succeed, and at the very least, support them while trying their best. We need to know that there may be differences between our students and other teachers, but we respect their abilities and fuel growth in the culture of the classroom through assessment.
6.1.3. The relationship between learning and assessment
6.1.3.1. You have said many times throughput this course that you believe this should be a more lengthy course with more time and options and after taking it, i agree. Assessment is almost the most important aspect to a students relationship with learning and determines their entire identity while in school. It supports motivation, engagement and can just as easily tear the student down and create a negative relationship with school. We as teachers need to know when, what, where and how to assess each individual to support their success and support the best way for us to assess them accurately and justifiably.
6.2. "When students know how to learn, they are able to become their own teachers," Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher, and John Hattie, Developing Assessment-Capable Visible Learners.
6.2.1. "Understanding Why We Assess" by Stiggins: "We must begin to evaluate our assessments in terms of both the quality of the evidence they yield and the effect they have on future learning. High-quality assessments encourage further learning; low-quality assessments hinder learning."
7. Design
7.1. Relationships
7.1.1. Informing our decisions as teachers
7.1.1.1. Acknowledging our students and who they are as individuals should greatly influence our decisions. If we say to try their best, everyone’s best is different. It changes day to day. You have shown perfect examples of this in your teaching over the past 10 weeks. You figured out who we were as students, maintained trust and integrity and genuinely cared for us and how we are doing, informing your choices for the weeks to come. You cannot expect the same result from everyone, and considering this in assessment will make a teachers life easier.
7.2. Curriculum Outcomes
7.3. Learning Goals
7.3.1. How do we develop
7.3.1.1. Using Blooms Taxonomy and having them visualize the expectations and that we are there to support, because they CAN do it if we expect them to is important. Students can use the outcomes to keep the goals in mind while considering their own personal abilities. It’s like building a snowman without knowing what a snowman is!
7.4. Success Criteria
7.4.1. How to involve students
7.4.1.1. In class, we did an activity where we created a list of what success in the course looked like to us. You had predetermined ideas, but included us in creating the expectations of the semester, allowing us to have some autonomy in how we feel working towards a common goal. Conversing and knowing where your students are and how they are feeling is helpful for deciding how to continue through, requiring us to be adaptable and supportive.
7.5. Assessment Tools
7.5.1. Scoring tools
7.5.1.1. According to the Annapolis Valley RCE document of Effective & Equitable Assessment, Evaluation, & Grading, in order to design an effective and equitable assessment design, it should be congruent, balanced and responsive for student success.
7.6. Brookhart's Teaching with Learning Targets and Success Criteria: "When students understand exactly what they’re supposed to learn and what their work will look like when they learn it, they’re better able to monitor and adjust their work, select effective strategies, and connect current work to prior learning."
7.6.1. "When students are involved in monitoring their own progress, they become more autonomous and accurate in predicting their performance, while also enjoying the process of self-assessment and seeing their progress unfold" (Brookhart, 2004, 2020)
8. Learning
8.1. OF
8.1.1. Keeping the end in mind
8.1.1.1. Options for assessment
8.1.1.2. How does it help to consider planning a unit
8.2. FOR
8.2.1. Involving students
8.2.1.1. Formative assessment
8.2.1.2. Assessment for learning
8.2.1.2.1. According to experts ranking, there are 10 tasks to complete for effectively implementing assessment for learning. Step 1. Establish a classroom culture that encourages interaction and the use of assessment tools. Step 2. Establish learning goals, and track individual student progress toward those goals. Step 3. Develop students ability to be “self-regulating” learners- able to effectively monitor, communicate about, and advance their own learning. Step 4. Actively involve students in the learning process. Step 5. Create an assessment plan for a specific unit of study. Step 6. Use a variety of approaches to assessing student understanding. Step 7. Offer feedback on student performance and adapt instruction to meet identified needs. Step 8. Use a variety of instructional methods to meet diverse student needs. Step 9. Collaborate with other teachers in the school to develop and share assessment strategies. And finally step 10. Use scores and marks to drive students motivation.
8.2.1.3. Role of students
8.2.1.4. Role of teachers
8.3. AS
8.3.1. Reflection and Feedback
8.3.1.1. Role of students
8.3.1.2. Role of teachers
8.3.1.3. Self-assessment
8.3.1.3.1. Reflection is important for fully knowing your potential, as no one knows what is happening in your head or how you’re feeling about the experience you are having at that moment, except for you. Relaying your thoughts and self awareness, can bring clarity and confidence to search for support when needed.
8.3.1.4. Peer-assessment
8.3.1.5. Goal-setting
8.3.1.6. Feedback
8.3.1.6.1. A few of my favourite tips and phrases for feedback in general are: be constructive, not destructive. Ask what you could improve or what they think or a specific part. Seek an understanding of what you are giving feedback on.
8.4. Assessment of Learning by Damian Cooper (2010): "Assessment of learning is a powerful tool for summarizing student achievement at a given point in time and for reporting this information to others. When effectively designed and implemented, it provides the evidence needed to make judgments about student learning and the effectiveness of instructional practices."
8.4.1. “Authentic ways to develop performance-based activities” on ThoughtCo: “the benefit of performance-based assessments is that students who are more actively involved in the learning process absorb and understand the material at a much deeper level.”
9. Planning
9.1. How to create an assessment plan
9.1.1. “To be effective, assessment must be organized and systematic .” (Lehman College, 2020)
9.1.1.1. “New year: building an assessment plan by Anne Davies: “assessment needs to be purposeful, and the plan should be guided by the intended outcomes, making sure that the assessment practices directly contribute to student learning”.
9.2. What to keep in mind
9.2.1. “While educators have taught critical thinking and problem for centuries, assessing these skills was more difficult than anticipated.” - Doug Wren and Amy Cashwell, 2018.pg. 71. We need to ensure we understand what we are asking of the students before choosing how to assess the student. There are so many tools for assessment but we need to plan with the end in mind.
9.3. Conversations, observations and products
9.3.1. This really helped me visualize how to breakdown teaching overall. Knowing when or using our professional judgement to decide when to have a conversation, just observe and when they produce products is great for understanding how to allow for growth and learning, while guiding the students.
10. Teaching
10.1. Formative Assessment
10.1.1. Evidence of student learning
10.1.1.1. There are many ways of generating evidence of student learning, and by doing the activity “four more!” Allows for others to share their ideas and build their toolbox of ways to assess. Some of my favourite ways to generate evidence of student learning are: seminars and discussions, debates (conversations), labs, presentations (observations) and projects, exit/entrance slips and skits (products)
10.1.2. When to use specific assessment practices
10.1.2.1. It depends widely on the situation and the environment. There are so many ways to assess, whether it be formative, summative or self, there is a way for each student to show their understanding in their best way, but we have to use our professional judgement to decide when it is best for the different kinds of assessment such as the ones mentioned above (conversations, observations and products). For example, if i am teaching physical education, I could have the students do a performance (product) to have a UDL style of adding strategy, skills and tactic overtime to observe the skills they learn.
10.1.3. How to respond to information from formative assessment
10.1.3.1. Chapter 10 of Classroom Assessment Essentials by Susan M. Brookhart, “accommodations should be designed to level the playing field so all students can demonstrate what they know and can do.”