October 1, 2007
Up Next:
Group Presentations
and Alternative Assessment.
Greetings, students, and Happy October!
September was quite a productive month for us in CMC. You all created some exceptional bio poems, created models of your mentor's classrooms, wrote your first EDOK, began posting and pondering issues from your own classrooms, and got some real-world information from Teacher Bowles about classroom management in Room Seven.
October looks just as productive. You will begin group presentations, create an alternative assessment, write another EDOK (new due date of October 22), and write another Post and Ponder question and responses. Don't forget Bikes, Blues, and Barbeque, too!
October begins with group presentations. Just to remind you who presents when, I've listed the groups, chapter assignments, and due dates. Check out the list below. I've also included the guidelines.
Group One Chapter Four 10-1
Jessica S., Jamie D., and Jane K.
Group Two Chapter Five 10-8
Julie A., Quinn B., Megan Mc, Kendra J.
Group Three Chapter Six 10-22
Adam B., Jazmin C., Rachel C., Michael F.
Group Four Chapter Seven 10-29
Chase C., Shane H., Justin K.
Group Five Chapter Eight 11-5
Sarah W., Ethan R.W., Megan M., Jessica F.
Group Six Chapter Nine 11-12
Anthony H., Savita M., Brian R., Sabrina S.
Guidelines for Group Presentations
You have heard about, read about, and observed group work. Now it's your turn to put what you have learned into action. This is a good practice activity for you to consider with your own students.
1. Name your group
2. Assign roles
3. Decide how you want to be assessed: self, peer, teacher?
4. You have 30 minutes to present your chapter in order to have time for discussion and other classroom matters.
5. In presenting your topic, consider what you want your classmates to understand, what you want them to know, and what you want them to remember.
6. Final task: You will write a one-page narrative in "long-hand" about your experience in working with your group, presenting the material, and how you would change or alter this activity for secondary / middle school students. This is due the following week after your presentation.
Alternative Assessment
The second assignment, and one I hope you will all enjoy, centers around alternative assessment. You have received the guidelines for this assignment via our distribution list, but here they are again for your reading pleasure!
The assignment is due October 15, 2007.
Assessment serves several purposes: to assign grades, for placement, for graduation, for program evaluation, to motivate, to monitor progress. Mainly assessment is used to find out what students know and what they can do.
Assessment can be formative — a way for teachers to see what students know and what they need to know. Formative assessment looks at learning holistically and longitudinal as a process. It is also useful for teachers to decide if their instructional methods produce student learning.
Summative assessment views learning as a product and is a measurement of what a student knows and can do at a point in time. It measures what a student has already learned or not learned. Summative formations generally involve points, whereas formative assessments may not be for points or grades.
Performance Assessment
"Performance-based learning entails students doing something" (Blaz, 2001, p. 11). For your mid-term, you are going to do something that reflects what you have learned so far this semester. Your task will be based on the content learned in Chapters One, Two, and Three. Your product will show me what you know and what you can do with this knowledge. The assignment has three parts.
1. Create the product.
2. Write a one-page explanation of why you chose your product, how it relates to what you have learned in Chapters One through Three, and how this information is useful to you as an emerging professional.
3. Create the rubric you wish for me to use to grade your product (50 points). "Performance assessment requires students to be active participants who are learning even while they are being assessed" (Blaz, 2001, p. 11).
A task may include but is not limited to any of the following examples:
a model,
a map,
a story,
a mural,
a song,
a dance,
a PowerPoint,
a poem,
an essay,
a collage.
If you have other ideas about creations that will illustrate your learning, feel free to put them into action. Your primary goal is to show me what you know and what you are able to do with this knowledge. Because this assignment is academic and content related, it is referred to as an "alternative" assessment. An "authentic" assessment has a real-world application. If we consider that you are teacher interns and learning to create performance assignments, then this could be referred to as an authentic assessment.
Performance Rubric
Rubrics are the most common way to grade a performance assessment. For your own students, you would give them a rubric when you introduce the assignment. This provides them with specific guidelines for completing the task. It also lets them know how they will be graded.
Rubrics can be holistic or analytic. A holistic rubric evaluates the overall performance, using language as the grading descriptors (unsatisfactory, satisfactory, excellent). An analytic rubric looks at specific levels of performance and uses a point system.
You will use an analytic rubric
for your evaluation with a 50 point total value. Your criteria goes on the left side of the rubric and your rating scale goes at the top.
Suggestions for Writing a Good Rubric
(Blaz, 2001)
1. Decide on your best performance explanation first. This is the highest standard that you could achieve.
2. Avoid negatives (Bad: "Did not edit enough" / Better: "minimal editing").
3. Define terms (Bad: "many errors" / Better: "Six or more errors").
4. Avoid too many criteria.
5. Consider weighting your criteria.
6. Make sure the levels are clearly distinct and defined. Avoid relying on adjectives and adverbs to identify distinctions between levels.
Web Links
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
It helps you design your own rubrics.
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/ schrockguide/ assess.html
A great source for just about everything. There are general and specific rubric templates.
http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/powerpoint/ rubrics.ppt
An informative and concise PPT about designing rubrics.
Reference
Blaz, D. (2001). A collection of performance tasks and rubrics: Foreign languages.
Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
Freddie A. Bowles
Assistant Professor
Curriculum and Instruction
University of Arkansas
fbowles@uark.edu
Planet Gnosis is directed by Dr. Freddie A. Bowles,
Assistant Professor of Foreign Language Education
in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction,
the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Planet Gnosis is dedicated
to the exploration of education and teaching.
It is a cybersite of CornDancer.com,
a developmental website for the Mind and Spirit.
Submissions are invited.
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