Refining Student Assessment

Effective strategies for assessing student understanding

What Order?• Select Materials/Equipment• Define Objectives/Goals/Purpose• Employ Knowledge of Students• Develop Student Activity• Create Lesson Strategy• Anticipate Prior Student Knowledge• Implement Scaffolding (Modeling/Guided

Practice/Ind. Practice)• Create Assessment

Elements of Component 3D- Using Assessment In Instruction

• Assessment Performance• Monitoring of Student Learning with Checks

for Understanding• Student Self-Assessment and Monitoring of

Progress• Feedback to Students

Assessment Performance LevelsDefinition Example

It is essential that students know the criteria for assessment. At its highest level, students themselves have had a hand in articulating the criteria for a particular task or project.

At the beginning of the school year, students in a science course are provided with the rubric that will be used to evaluate lab reports. They practice using the rubric often to evaluate sample reports and reports from peers to better understand all components.

Guiding Questions•Why is it important for students to understand the assessment criteria/ performance levels used to evaluate their work?•What are the advantages of students helping to design assessment rubrics? What are the challenges?

Monitoring of Student Learning with Checks for UnderstandingDefinition Example

Teachers’ skill in eliciting evidence of student understanding is one of the true marks of expertise. This is not a hit-or-miss effort, but is planned carefully in advance. But even after carefully planning, monitoring of student learning and checking for understanding must be woven seamlessly into the lesson, using a variety of techniques.

•Students respond to questions by writing answers on personal whiteboards and showing the teacher. This gives teachers the ability to capture a response from each individual student at the exact same time.•Students also fill out exit slips at the end of most lessons to give teachers a quick, informal assessment of student understanding. •Lastly, teachers consistently employ formative assessments and track student mastery of objectives to drive future lessons, create differentiation opportunities for students, and measure growth.

Guiding Questions

•What sources of evidence do I have of the extent of students’ understanding of content?•Which strategies work best for me to monitor student progress throughout a lesson?•How do I use the information the assessments provide?

Student Self-Assessment and Monitoring of ProgressDefinition Example

•The culmination of student assessment for learning is when students monitor their own learning, and take appropriate action. •Of course, they can only do this if the criteria for learning are clear and if they have been taught the skills of checking their work against clear criteria.

•Students use rubrics and drafting self- evaluation forms during the writing process to assess and improve their work.•Students track their own progress towards meeting and exceeding learning goals. After self-correcting each formative assessment, the student self-selects additional remediation activities to improve practice.•Students can always articulate their progress towards reaching learning goals.

Guiding Questions

•Do I communicate the assessment criteria to my students?•Do I convey to students the importance of self-assessment during their learning? •How do I use self-assessment to create a culture for learning?

Feedback to StudentsDefinition Example

•Feedback on learning is an essential element of a rich instructional environment; without it, students are constantly guessing as to how they are doing, and how their work can be improved. •Valuable feedback must be timely, constructive, and substantive, and provide students the guidance they need to improve their performance.

•Whenever possible, teachers conference with students to provide extended feedback on work.•Students complete reading journals while they read their independent books and teachers respond to their entries in written letter form.

Guiding Questions•What is “timely” feedback for my students?•How do students respond to and use feedback from me and their classmates?•What role does my feedback play in advancing student learning (e.g. just-in-time in-class feedback, feedback on homework assignments and classroom assessments)?

Proficient vs. DistinguishedProficient Distinguished•Teacher regularly uses formative assessment during instruction to monitor student progress and to check for understanding of student learning. •Teacher uses questions/prompts/ assessments for evidence of learning. •Students can explain the criteria by which their work will be assessed; some of them engage in self-assessment.•Teacher provides accurate and specific feedback to individual students that advance learning.

•Formative assessment is fully integrated into instruction, to monitor student progress, and to check for understanding of student learning. •Teacher uses questions/prompts/assessments to evaluate evidence of learning. •Students can explain, and there is some evidence that they have contributed to, the criteria by which their work will be assessed. •Students self-assess and monitor their progress.• Teacher and peers provide individual students a variety of feedback that is accurate, specific, and advances learning.

Discussion: Is this effective assessment?

Using “clickers” in the classroom example-Youtube

Assessment Strategies

• Stoplight Method• Fist to Five• My Favorite No• Tiered Exit Cards• Meaningful Homework Review