Discussion response 7

Chapter8.ppt

Chapter 8

Assessing Social Studies

Learning

Why is Assessment Important?

Assessment is important for many reasons.
Most students, parents, and teachers have a desire to make progress.
In order for people to improve they need information on how they are doing.
Assessment is a way to lead students to take learning seriously and to hold them accountable.
In this chapter, Ellis focuses on authentic, integrated assessment strategies.

Assessment is Sometimes Criticized

Many teachers do not enjoy assigning grades to students.
Some teachers feel it takes the joy out of teaching.
Some teachers feel hurt when giving report cards out to certain students.
Some children find testing traumatic.
Other children are not good at taking tests.
Although many teachers feel this way, there are also times when children feel very happy after finding out they did something very well.

How Should We Assess?

Ellis (2007) uses an objective which states: “students will develop a sense of chronology or time order”.
He then explains how teachers have to find activities that help students have opportunities to develop their sense of time.
An example would be assigning students to make a time line of their lives and to speculate about the future.
When students have had enough time to finish this activity, an appropriate assessment might include writing or explaining how a time line works.
Assessments need to be valid, which means they must be representative of the material taught.

Integrated Assessment Strategies

Ellis (2007) mentions that when teaching elementary social studies integrated assessment strategies are absolutely necessary because they help teachers have a clearer picture of their teaching, provide information about student learning, and promote a reflective atmosphere.
He mentions three kinds of integrated assessment strategies:

Writing about learning

Talking about learning

Illustrating Learning

Writing about Learning

“I learned” statements involve students writing down what they have learned at the end of a lesson.
Key idea identification is used at the end of a lesson when students are asked to identify a key idea.
This week in review is a group assessment used with students to reflect back over a week to identify the most important things covered.
Search for meaning is a very useful strategy and occurs when teachers ask students to write what is meaningful to them.

Writing about Learning

Clear and unclear windows is a strategy in which students are required to write down how clear topics are in two windows.
Record keeping is a strategy which requires students to keep records of the assignments they have completed, the grades they received, the pages they read, and so forth. This strategy helps students to be responsible and to keep track of their work.
Self-reporting occurs when students assess their own progress.
Question authoring is a strategy in which teachers ask students to write down any questions they would like to ask about a topic.

Writing about Learning

Journal entries encourage students to write about the subjects they are studying and should be collected and returned with teacher comments.
Spot-check inventories allow teachers to find out how much students have learned in a particular time period and occur when teachers pause and ask students to write down what they have learned.
Thank-you is based on the idea that if someone does something kind the student receiving the kind act needs to pass it to others.

Talking about Learning

Pyramid discussions start by asking one or two questions. Students then discuss the questions in groups of two, then groups of four, then groups of eight, and then with the whole class. This allows all students a chance to talk and to think about important concepts.
I can teach occurs when teachers ask a student to teach a social studies concept to a parent or a brother or sister. The concept behind this approach is that students have to learn something well when they have to teach it.
Choices and feelings is based on the importance of knowing how students feel about a lesson and happens when students are allowed a few minutes after a lesson to write or say their feelings.

Talking about Learning

Circle Meetings are a good way to find out a class’s feelings and last from 10 minutes to 1 hour. The class sits in a circle. The meeting starts when one student tells how he/she feels about how things are going. The next student in the circle then goes.
Thinking aloud is a 5 to 10 minute activity in which a student discusses what he or she is learning with a partner.

Illustrated Learning

Learning illustrated is a process on which students draw pictures of concepts they learned in social studies class.
Displays are important because they makes parents and children proud of their students’ work.

Formal Testing

Ellis (2007) states that formal tests should be used sparingly.
They should be used to find out which areas students need improvement on.
Some teachers feel that tests leads to problems in trust because they feel children do not always understand the world of adults.
A social studies teacher needs to communicate the importance of test taking and accountability.
Teachers need to do all they can to make testing humane.

Essay Tests

An extended-response question requires a student to reason and explain.
These types of questions help teachers find out how much students know and help students learn to present concepts in a coherent manner.
Extended-response questions should

Focus on main ideas

Elicit higher-level thinking

Be written clearly

Objective Tests

Objective tests can include true false, multiple choice, and matching sections.
These kind of questions are easily scored.
Many of these questions can be included on a test and as a result, they are likely to represent topics adequately.
Students who do not write good essays may be able to demonstrate their knowledge in other ways through these tests.
These tests can also be fairer than essay tests because teachers sometimes favor penmanship and other variables that should not be used to assess a student.
A weakness with these tests is that teachers tend to use too many lower level questions.

Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio assessment is one of the most well known approaches to authentic assessment.
The term authentic assessment suggests that an assessment is reality based.
These types of assessments are less threatening to children.
In a social studies class, children can build a portfolio by adding a variety of entries.
Children are responsible for building their portfolio but support from the teacher is needed especially with younger children.

Assessing your Own Effectiveness

Teachers need to assess their own teaching and reflect about their work.
Ellis (2007) recommends the use of metacognitive strategies, which help teachers think about their effectiveness.
Teachers need to ask questions such as
Are my lessons organized?
Do I attempt to make connections?
Am I using activities that allow various ways of learning?

Standards and Achievement

Ellis (2007) mentions that schools today are in an age of standards and assessments.
Child centered teachers have argued that children do not have enough time to explore and that teachers “teach to the test”.
Ellis (2007) suggests that the 20 integrated assessment strategies will help in ensuring that children learn and enjoy this process.
Standards and assessments are based on three levels: knowledge, understanding, and application.

Knowledge, Understanding, and Application.

Knowledge is based on what students can recall and usually includes what, when and where questions.
Understanding often requires students to answer questions as to why something happened.
Application requires students to reason, support a conclusion, and to make comparisons.