Based on Fink Step 3 I need help in writing a paper on integrating technology and develop ways to assess students in 5th grade math

Assignment 2: Fink Step 3

Due Week 7 and worth 200 points

 

For this assignment, you will look at the technology you have integrated into your unit/training and develop ways to assess student performance when they use those technologies.

Often, educators find a great new technology or app to use with their students but then have no idea how to evaluate if it is actually helping students learn. Or, educators find that grading student performance using the new technology is cumbersome and doesn’t actually save any time or provide any value.

For example, if students have an assignment to create a PowerPoint presentation, how will they submit it to you? How will you check to make sure they didn’t just copy it from someplace on the Internet? If students are working on a group project, how can you assess student contributions? These are some issues you will need to think about when you apply technology to your lessons.

First, provide a brief (1-2 pages) description of the specific education technology you intend to incorporate into your unit/training. Include links to the product or app and describe how the students will use it. You do not need to provide specific lesson plans, but need to demonstrate that you have a clear idea of what you want the students to use and how they will use it.

For example, if you were to start using MS Office in the classroom, you could describe how you would allow students to type their papers using MS Word and create presentations using MS PowerPoint instead of hand-writing papers and doing traditional poster projects.

Next, complete the questions for Step 3 of page 15 of Fink’s guide. Include the following information when you answer each question in the worksheet. You will have to copy each question to a new Word document in order to answer it.

1. Forward-looking Assessment: The key is that you have students work on real-world problems. Think about how they will apply the knowledge you are teaching as well as how they will use the technology in the future. How can you create assessments such as a class project, portfolio assignment, a case-study, or other activity where they apply their knowledge?

2. Criteria & Standards: Think about what qualifies as poor work that does not meet your standards, satisfactory work that does meet your standards, and excellent work that exceeds your standards. Be specific. Look at your assignment rubrics for examples of this.

3. Self-Assessment: Students should have some idea of how they are doing without having to ask the teacher or instructor. How will you help them evaluate their own work and learning as they work on their assignments?

4. “FIDeLity” Feedback: This will be the formal feedback that you will give to students as well as informal feedback you will give them as they work on their assignments and assessments.

It would be a good idea to use the information that you provided for the discussion questions in the following weeks. (Note: you are not expected to use all of it if you do not have that educational technology in your overall plan.)

· Week 3 – Responsible use policy

· Week 5 – Gaming and assessing gaming

· Week 6 – Collaboration tool

· Week 7 – Multimedia tool

Use at least 2 peer-reviewed sources besides your textbook and the reports provided to support your use of technology. A good place to start is the Strayer library at research.strayer.edu.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date.

· Include a reference page of all citations used, including the textbook and the reports provided.

· The cover page, the reference page, and the appendix are not included in the required assignment page length.

Assignment 2: Fink Steps 3

Step 3: Feedback and Assessment Procedures In a content-centered course, two mid-terms and a final exam are usually considered sufficient feedback and assessment for the teacher to determine whether the students “got it” or not. But a learning-centered course calls for a more sophisticated approach to this aspect of course design. A set of feedback and assessment procedures collectively known as “educative assessment” is needed to go beyond “audit-ive-type assessment” (that which is designed solely to give the teacher a basis for awarding a grade). Educative assessment actually enhances the quality of student learning. In Figure 3 (next page), the four key components of educative assessment are contrasted with the more traditional audit-ive assessment.

Forward-Looking Assessment incorporates exercises, questions, and/or problems that create a real-life context for a given issue, problem, or decision to be addressed. To construct this kind of question or problem, the teacher has to “look forward,” beyond the time when the course is over, and ask: “In what kind of situation do I expect students to need, or to be able to use this knowledge?” Then, create a question or problem that replicates this real-life context as closely as possible. The problem also should be somewhat open-ended and not totally pre-structured. If necessary, certain assumptions or constraints can be given, in order to be able to assess the quality of student responses.

To illustrate this distinction, let me draw from a course I have taught on world geography in which students have studied, for example, a unit on Southeast Asia. A backward-looking assessment would ask students to tell what the differences are in the population and resources of the various countries in that region. In a forward-looking assessment question, I would ask them to imagine that they are working for a company that wants to establish itself in that region; the company wants the students’ opinions on which country has the necessary political stability, purchasing power for their product, prospects for economic growth, etc. This kind of question asks students to imagine a situation where they could actually use what they have learned.

Teachers should explain clearly the criteria and standards that will be used to assess student work. Teachers need to ask themselves, and then share with students: “What are the general traits or characteristics of high quality work in this area?” These are the criteria for evaluation. Then, on each of these criteria, how good does the work have to be, to be acceptably good or exceptionally good? The answers to these questions reveal the teacher’s standards.

It is also important for teachers to create opportunities for students to engage in self-assessment. Later in life, students will need to assess their own performance, and they should start learning how to do that while in the course. You may want the class to do this initially in groups, and later individually. Somewhere along the way, students need to generate—and perhaps discuss—appropriate criteria for evaluating and assessing their own work.

As the students work to learn how to perform well, teachers need to provide feedback. High quality feedback will have the characteristics of “FIDeLity” feedback:

· Frequent: Give feedback daily, weekly, or as frequently as possible.

· Immediate: Get the feedback to students as soon as possible.

· Discriminating: Make clear what the difference is between poor, acceptable, and exceptional work.

· Loving: Be empathetic in the way you deliver your feedback.

Step 3. Worksheet Procedures for Educative Assessment 1.

1. Forward-Looking Assessment Formulate one or two ideas for forward-looking assessment. Identify a situation in which students are likely to use what they have learned, and try to replicate that situation with a question, problem, or issue.

2. Criteria & Standards Select one of your main learning goals, and identify at least two criteria that would distinguish exceptional achievement from poor performance. Then write two or three levels of standards for each of these criteria.

3. Self-Assessment What opportunities can you create for students to engage in self-assessment of their performance?

4. “FIDeLity” Feedback What procedures can you develop that will allow you to give students feedback that is:

· Frequent

· Immediate

· Discriminating, i.e., based on clear criteria and standards

· Lovingly delivered