At GCHS, there are concerns in regard student reading levels and low test scores. Low test scores are not a result of students not having knowledge and understanding the content, I believe the lower scores are due to students not having the ability to read and think through the process and respond.
At any given time I can walk down the hall of GCHS and see various types of formal assessment taking place on a continuous bases, and the most common type of assessment being used is paper and pencil. This is a problem and can hinder student performance as well as add to student frustration. However, the types of student assessment that I don't see enough of is projects. I find that students enjoy projects and put forth more effort, which can be a result of the hands on application and real life experience which makes the assessment more meaningful.
The question... What does student assessment look like in my classroom.
Well, let me think.
I am continuously assessing my students, in the beginning middle and end. At the beginning of my class I assess students previous knowledge. It could be a snapshot of something learned in previous math classes or a building block on the learning target for the day. My thought process in the snapshot is to help student not forget content. (which seems to be a cycle when working with students with exceptional needs).
During instruction I assess through direct questioning and encourage students ask me questions. Also, I like to give student practice problems, include opportunities for guided practice.
With a few minutes to go before the end of class period, I assess by using exit slips and at times homework. Generally, I allow time in class for students to complete assignment.
The forementioned is a typical day..
However, there are times when I have students complete project. Project assessment is the favorite for many of my students. They like to take "field trips" around the school and the campus. We use the repelling tower, flag, light poles, band director tower and much more when solving for sine, cosine, and tangent. I have students look for tessellations as we walk around the building and campus. Tomorrow, students will build pyramids and solve for surface area, volume, lateral surface area for their own individual pyramids. When working with polygons students were assessed on the creating a polygon monster (identify the polygons and solving measure of exterior and interior angles of polygons).
Common Assessment are very important and gives a snapshot of how students may perform on KCCT, and I am required to give a Common Assessment bi-weekly. What I have learned with my students is that they do not perform as well on the common assessment as the project work. I believe that the reading level is directly related to the academic performance of students on the common assessment. Although many have reader accommodations, there are a few that do not have the accommodation.
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I am not sure for a inquiry project, but am thinking about test taking strategies. But am very unsure of what is needed.
ReplyDeleteI like all of the different types of assessments that you use in your instruction. I think the variety is important as well as being able to have fun while being assessed (crazy thought- huh?). As for your inquiry I think test taking skills would be a great area to do an inquiry around. I just opened the next module you might want to check this out as for the specifics as for this project (speaking of demonstrating project based learning). I also will blog about what people did last semester to give you some more ideas. How about getting online and checking out what other teachers have done on test taking strategies- that would be a great starting point.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in the fact that I beleive a lot of the prolem lies with the students' ability to read and comprehend the things they read. I have seen it time and time again where a student can not answer a question corectly on a test but can verbally give me the right answer. Obviously, being able to read and comprehend what has been read is very very important. However, the students come to me in the sixth grade and I have so much math content I need to teach them. I have had to spend so much time focusing on reading and reading comprehension this year that there is no way I will be able to teach the content I am supposed to teach before testing starts. So many decisions are based on how well the students preform on those tests. I can teach them the math. I can even help them improve their reading skills. There needs to be a way for the students to demonstrate content knowledge besides paper and pencil.
ReplyDeleteReading difficulty is a problem in the classroom. Not only with my students who qualify for special education services but in a small population of students. I think teaching test taking strategies is a great inquiry plan. Many students in special education do not receive these skills because there are so many area to learn. The students need these skills the most, but there's too much information to teach and too little time.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of articles about project learning this past week. It seems like an ideal way to assess student learning instead of so much standardized testing. It seems the trend is moving more toward that direction. Also our district uses flashbacks and exit slips to review previous learning and check understanding for the day. It is a lot for teachers to keep up with each day but as a parent of a fourth grader, it seems like a beneficial activity.
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