Grappling with GradingAssessment & Rubrics

Introductions• Introduce yourself• Please share• Who you are• The department you are in• The courses you teach, have taught, or are planning

to teach• Your goals for students

Workshop Goals• Review best practices in integrating learning

goals with assessments• Review different forms of assessment• Reflect on your teaching and assessment

experiences• Apply assessment practices in your courses

Assessment • How much freedom do you have in designing

your assessments? • Are there benefits to using an assessment

someone else designed? • How well do the assessments you use fit with the

learning goals for the course?

• Discuss these with a partner for 5 minutes, then share with the class.

Fink’s Integrated Course Design

Fink’s Course Design Model• Fink asks:

• What are the important situational factors in a particular course and learning situation?

• What should our full set of learning goals be?• What kinds of feedback and assessment should we

provide?• Are all the components connected and integrated?

Are they consistent with and supportive of each other?

Assessment• The first step in designing assessments is ….

• Identify the learning goals. • What do you expect students to learn by completing

this assignment? • What kinds of intellectual skills do you expect them

to practice or acquire by completing this assignment?

• Are your goals for students, in terms of their learning, explicit?

Fink• Audit-ive vs. Educative Assessment

Principles for Assessment (Steen, 1999)• Not a single event, but a continuous cycle.• An open process.• Promotes valid inferences.• Employs multiple measures of performance.• Measures what is worth learning, not just what is

easy to measure.• Supports every student’s opportunity to learn

important _______ (fill in the blank)

Fair Assessment Practices (Suskie, 2000)• Clearly stated learning outcomes; share them

with students.• Match assessment to what you teach and vice

versa.• Use multiple measures and different kinds of

measures.• Teach students how to do the assessment task.• Engage and encourage your students.• Interpret assessment results appropriately.• Evaluate the outcomes of your assessments.

Assessment Practices• Knowing the principles and practices, do

assessments you use fit these criteria? • Work with a partner and discuss how an

assessment in your class either meets the criteria, or how it could be improved.

Authentic Assessment• Examine the two different assessments.

• Which assessment do you think your students would prefer? Why?

• Which assessment do you think you would prefer your students to complete?

• Which assessment would give you a better indication of students’ mastery of learning goals? Why?

Authentic Assessment• Describes the multiple forms of assessment that

reflect • student learning • achievement • motivation• and attitudes on instructionally relevant classroom

activities

• O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996

Authentic Assessment• If you want to teach students how to swim, how

would you evaluate their abilities and skills?

• Likewise, if you want to teach students listening, speaking, reading or writing skills, how would you evaluate their performance?

• What types of assessment would you use?

Authentic Assessment Examples• Oral Interviews• Story or Test Retelling• Writing Samples• Projects/Exhibitions• Experiments/Demonstrations• Portfolios

• Any others?

Authentic Assessment Advantages• Emphasizes what students know• Requires students to develop responses • Uses samples of student work collected over an

extended period of time• Stems from clear criteria• Elicits higher-order thinking• Allows for the possibility of multiple judgments• Relates more closely to classroom learning• Teaches students to evaluate their own work• Considers differences in learning styles, language

proficiencies, cultural and educational backgrounds, and grade levels• From O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996

Assessment

Formative• Provides timely feedback

about performance or attainment of goals

• Interactive • Low stakes• Administered

continuously • Fosters life-long learning• It is empirically argued that

it has the greatest impact on learning and achievement

Summative

• Focused on achievement• Provides grades• High stakes• Administered at

intervals• Standardized or

formalized• Huba & Freed, 2000

Assessment Examples

Formative• Project (including group

projects, collaborative learning)

• Experiment• Development of a product• Performance• Community-based experience

(service learning)• Exhibition• Case study / Critical incident• Clinical evaluation• Oral exam or presentation• Interview• Comprehensive exam• Portfolio

Summative

• a midterm exam• a final project• a paper• a recital

Assessment• What is the value of summative assessments? • What can they tell us?• What is the value of formative assessments? • What can they tell us?

• How do you incorporate both types of assessments in your class?

• Discuss these with a small group, and then share with the class.

Assessment• As a result, consider the following when planning

assessment • Differentiate feedback from assessment• Make the focus on learning, not just summative

assessment• Encourage students to reflect on their learning and

experiences in class

Prior Knowledge• Consider assessing your students’ prior

knowledge before giving out assessments. • Students come to class with a variety of learning

experiences and different backgrounds. • These all should be considered before you plan

your assessments.

Prior Knowledge• Questions to consider:

• What facts and concepts should students know? • What procedures and steps should students be

familiar with? • What metacognitive practices should students be

aware of? • How is knowledge and skills applied in real world

contexts and problems in my discipline? Do my assessments reflect the complexities of the field, or are students assessed out-of-context?

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)• CATs are quick assessments that enable both you

and students to check their comprehension of important information, concepts and details for your course.

• CATs are easy to administer and relatively easy to grade. • Angelo & Cross, 1993

Examples of CATs• Knowledge & Skills• The Muddiest Point• The One-Minute Paper• Chain Notes• Student Generated Test Questions• Focused Listing• One Sentence Summary

• Reflection & Self-Assessment• Journals• Blogs

• Reactions to Instructional Methods• Exam Evaluations• Suggestion Box• Personal Course Feedback Forms• (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Examples of CATs• Reflection & Self-Assessment• Journals• Blogs

• Reactions to Instructional Methods• Exam Evaluations• Suggestion Box• Personal Course Feedback Forms• (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Assessment• What types of assessment do you use in your

classes? • What types of assessment that you are not using

do you envision yourself using?

References• Angelo, T. A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques:

A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Assess teaching & learning. Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence &

Educational Innovation. Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/index.html

• Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• Gross-Davis, B. (2009). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Huba, M. E. & Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-Centered Assessment on

College Campuses - Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

• Steen, L. A. (1999). Assessing assessment. St.Olaf College. Retrieved from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/steen/Papers/assessment.html

• Suskie, L. (2000). Fair assessment practices: Giving students equitable opportunities to demonstrate learning. The American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, May. Retrieved from http://uncw.edu/cas/documents/FairAssessmentPractices_Suskie.pdf

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