Reserved for GrAde. Objectives and Readings (INCLUSIVE CONTENT ASSESSMENT)
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IMPORTANTNOTES.rarsummative notes/Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated Classroom (Wormeli).pdf
Assessment and Grading in the Differentiated
Classroom
Fair Isn’t Always Equal
Rick Wormeli 2007-2008
For further conversation about any of these topics:
Rick Wormeli [email protected]
703-620-2447 Herndon, Virginia, USA (Eastern Standard Time Zone)
Define Each Grade
A:
B:
C:
D:
E or F:
A Perspective that Changes our Thinking:
“A ‘D’ is a coward’s ‘F.’ The student failed, but you didn’t
have enough guts to tell him.”
-- Doug Reeves
• A • B • C • I or IP or NTY
Once we cross over into D and F(E) zones, does it really matter? We’ll do the same two things: Personally investigate and take corrective action
Prompt:
Write a well-crafted essay that provides a general overview of what we’ve learned about DNA this week. You may use any resources you wish, but make sure to explain each of the aspects of DNA we’ve discussed.
Student’s Response:
Deoxyribonucleic Acid, or DNA, is the blueprint for who we are. Its structure was discovered by Watson and Crick in 1961. Watson was an American studying in Great Britain. Crick was British (He died last year). DNA is shaped like a twisting ladder. It is made of two nucleotide chains bonded to each other. The poles of the ladder are made of sugar and phosphate but the rungs of the ladder are made of four bases. They are thymine, guanine, and cytosine, and adenine. The amount of adenine is equal to the amount of thymine (A=T). It’s the same with cytosine and guanine (C=G).
(Continued on the next slide)
The sequence of these bases makes us who we are. We now know how to rearrange the DNA sequences in human embryos to create whatever characteristics we want in new babies – like blue eyes, brown hair, and so on, or even how to remove hereditary diseases, but many people think it’s unethical (playing God) to do this, so we don’t do it. When DNA unzips to bond with other DNA when it reproduces, it sometimes misses the re-zipping order and this causes mutations. In humans, the DNA of one cell would equal 1.7 meters if you laid it out straight. If you laid out all the DNA in all the cells of one human, you could reach the moon 6,000 times!
Conclusions from Sample DNA Essay Grading
The fact that a range of grades occurs among teachers who grade the same product suggests that:
• Assessment can only be done against commonly accepted and clearly understood criteria.
• Grades are relative. • Teachers have to be knowledgeable in their subject
area in order to assess students properly. • Grades are subjective and can vary from teacher to
teacher. • Grades are not always accurate indicators of
mastery.
‘Interesting:
“The score a student receives on a test is more dependent on who scores the test and how they score it than it is on what the student knows and understands.”
-- Marzano, Classroom Assessment & Grading That Work (CAGTW), p. 30
Four Questions on DI: 1. What if we differentiated instruction for all
students, kindergarten through 12th grade? What kind of person would we graduate from our schools?
2. What if we never differentiated instruction for all students, Kindergarten through 12th grade? What kind of person would we graduate from our schools?
3. Is the world beyond school differentiated? 4. Did our own teachers differentiate for us
when we were students?
Differentiated instruction and standardized tests –
‘NOT an oxymoron!
The only way students will do well on tests is if they learn the material. DI maximizes what students learn. DI and standardized testing are mutually beneficial.
Definition
Differentiating instruction is doing what’s fair for students. It’s a collection of best practices strategically employed to maximize students’ learning at every turn, including giving them the tools to handle anything that is undifferentiated. It requires us to do different things for different students some, or a lot, of the time. It’s whatever works to advance the student if the regular classroom approach doesn’t meet students’ needs. It’s highly effective teaching.
What is fair…
…isn’t always equal.
What is Mastery?
“Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on.”
Ben Franklin, 1750, Poor Richard’s Almanac
“Understanding involves the appropriate application of concepts and principles to questions or problems posed.”
-- Howard Gardner, 1991
“Real comprehension of a notion or a theory -- implies the reinvention of this theory by the student…True understanding manifests itself by spontaneous applications.” -- Jean Piaget
From the Center for Media Literacy in New Mexico –
“If we are literate in our subject, we can:
access (understand and find meaning in), analyze, evaluate, and create the subject or medium.”
Working Definition of Mastery (Wormeli)
Students have mastered content when they demonstrate a thorough understanding as evidenced by doing something substantive with the content beyond merely echoing it. Anyone can repeat information; it’s the masterful student who can break content into its component pieces, explain it and alternative perspectives regarding it cogently to others, and use it purposefully in new situations.
Non-Mastery…
• The student can repeat the multiplication tables through the 12’s
…and Mastery
• The student can hear or read about a situation that requires repeated addition and identifies it as a multiplication opportunity, then uses multiplication accurately to shorten the solution process.
Non-mastery…
• A student prepares an agar culture for bacterial growth by following a specific procedure given to her by her teacher. She calls the experiment a failure when unknown factors or substances contaminate the culture after several weeks of observation.
…and Mastery
• A student accounts for potentially contaminating variables by taking extra steps to prevent anything from affecting an agar culture on bacterial growth she’s preparing, and if accidental contamination occurs, she adjusts the experiment’s protocols when she repeats the experiment so that the sources of the contamination are no longer a factor.
Non-mastery…
• The student uses primarily the bounce pass in the basketball game regardless of its potential effectiveness because that’s all he knows how to do.
…and Mastery
• The student uses a variety of basketball passes during a game, depending on the most advantageous strategy at that moment in the game.
Non-mastery…
• The students can match each of the following parts of speech to its definition accurately: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, gerund, and interjection.
…and Mastery
• The student can point to any word in the sentence and explain its role (impact) in the sentence, and explain how the word may change its role, depending on where it’s placed in the sentence.
Consider Gradations of Understanding and Performance from Introductory to Sophisticated
Introductory Level Understanding:
Student walks through the classroom door while wearing a heavy coat. Snow is piled on his shoulders, and he exclaims, “Brrrr!” From depiction, we can infer that it is cold outside.
Sophisticated level of understanding:
Ask students to analyze more abstract inferences about government propaganda made by Remarque in his wonderful book, All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Determine the surface area of a cube. • Determine the surface area of a rectangular prism (a
rectangular box) • Determine the amount of wrapping paper needed for
another rectangular box, keeping in mind the need to have regular places of overlapping paper so you can tape down the corners neatly
• Determine the amount of paint needed to paint an entire Chicago skyscraper, if one can of paint covers 46 square feet, and without painting the windows, doorways, or external air vents.
_______________________________________________
• Define vocabulary terms. • Compare vocabulary terms. • Use the vocabulary terms correctly. • Use the vocabulary terms strategically to obtain a
particular result.
• Identify characteristics of Ancient Sumer • Explore the interwoven nature between religion and
government in Sumer • Explain the rise and fall of city-states in Mesopotamia • Trace modern structures/ideas back to their roots in the
birthplace of civilization, the Fertile Crescent. _______________________________________________ • Identify parts of a cell. • Explain systems within a cell and what functions they
perform. • Explain how a cell is part of a larger system of cells that
form a tissue • Demonstrate how a cell replicates itself. • Identify what can go wrong in mitosis. • List what we know about how cells determine what kind
of cell they will become. • Explain how knowledge of cells helps us understand
other physiology.
1. Multiply fractions. 2. Multiply mixed numbers. 3. Multiply mixed numbers and whole numbers. 4. Critique the solutions of five students’ work as
they multiply mixed numbers. 5. Multiply mixed numbers and decimals. 6. Divide fractions. 7. Divide mixed numbers. 8. Divide mixed numbers and whole numbers. 9. Given similar problems completed by
anonymous students, identify any errors they’ve made and how you would re-teach them how to do the problems correctly.
What will you and your colleagues accept as evidence of full mastery and as evidence of almost mastery?
• Spelling test non-example • No echoing or parroting • Regular conversations with
subject-like colleagues • Other teachers grading your
students’ work • Pacing Guides and Common
Assessments?
Avoid hunt-and-peck, call-on-just-a- sampling-of-students-to-indicate-the- whole-class’s-level-of-understanding assumptions:
“Does everyone understand?” “Does anyone have any questions?” “These two students have it right, so the rest of you must understand it as well.”
Get evidence from every individual!
Don’t take time to assess, unless you are going to take action with what you discover.
Consider:
• The Latin root of assessment is, “assidere,” which means, “to sit beside.”
• From Assessment expert, Doug Reeves:
“Too often, educational tests, grades, and report cards are treated by teachers as autopsies when they should be viewed as physicals.”
Feedback vs Assessment Feedback: Holding a mirror up to a student
and showing him what he did, comparing it to what he was supposed to do; ‘NO evaluative component
Assessment: Gathering data in order to make a decision
Greatest Impact on Student Success:
Formative feedback
What does our understanding of feedback mean for our use of homework?
Is homework more formative or summative in nature? Whichever it is, its role in determining grades will be dramatically different.
Be clear: We grade against standards, not routes students take or techniques teachers use to achieve those standards.
What does this mean we should do with class participation or discussion grades?
Assessment OF Learning
• Summative, final declaration of proficiency, literacy, mastery
• Grades used • Little impact on learning from feedback
Assessment FOR Learning • Grades rarely used, if ever • Marks and feedback are used • Share learning goals with students from
the beginning • Make adjustments in teaching a result of
formative assessment data • Provide descriptive feedback to students • Provide opportunities for student for self-
and peer assessment -- O’Connor, p. 98
Teacher Action Result on Student
Achievement Just telling students # correct and incorrect
Negative influence on achievement
Clarifying the scoring criteria Increase of 16 percentile points
Providing explanations as to why their responses are correct or incorrect
Increase of 20 percentile points
Asking students to continue responding to an assessment until they correctly answer the items
Increase of 20 percentile points
Graphically portraying student achievement
Increase of 26 percentile points
-- Marzano, CAGTW, pgs 5-6
Item Topic or
Proficiency Right Wrong Simple
Mistake? Really Don’t Understand
1 Dividing fractions 2 Dividing Fractions 3 Multiplying Fractions 4 Multiplying fractions 5 Reducing to Smplst trms 6 Reducing to Smplst trms 7
Reciprocals
8 Reciprocals
9 Reciprocals
The chart on the previous slide is based on an idea found in the article below:
Stiggins, Rick. “Assessment Through the Student’s Eyes,” Educational Leadership, May 2007, Vol. 64, No. 8, pages 22 – 26, ASCD
“If we don’t count homework heavily,
students won’t do it.”
Do you agree with this? Does this sentiment cross a line?
Two Homework Extremes that Focus Our Thinking
• If a student does none of the homework assignments, yet earns an “A” (top grade) on every formal assessment we give, does he earn anything less than an “A” on his report card?
• If a student does all of the homework well yet bombs every formal assessment, isn’t that also a red flag that something is amiss, and we need to take corrective action?
Pre-Assessments
Used to indicate students’ readiness for content and skill development. Used to guide instructional decisions.
Formative Assessments
These are in-route checkpoints, frequently done. They provide ongoing and clear feedback to students and the teacher, informing instruction and reflecting subsets of the essential and enduring knowledge. They are where successful differentiating teachers spend most of their energy – assessing formatively and providing timely feedback to students and practice.
Sample Formative Assessments Topic: Verb Conjugation
Sample Formative Assessments:
• Conjugate five regular verbs. • Conjugate five irregular verbs. • Conjugate a verb in Spanish, then do its parallel in
English • Answer: Why do we conjugate verbs? • Answer: What advice would you give a student
learning to conjugate verbs? • Examine the following 10 verb conjugations and
identify which ones are done incorrectly.
Sample Formative Assessments Topic: Balancing Chemical Equations
Formative Assessments:
• Define reactants and products, and identify them in the equations provided.
• Critique how Jason calculated the number of moles of each reactant.
• Balance these sample, unbalanced equations. • Answer: What do we mean by balancing equations? • Explain to your lab partner how knowledge of
stoichiometric coefficients help us balance equations • Prepare a mini-poster that explains the differences
among combination, decomposition, and displacement reactions.
Samples of Formative Assessment
• Solve these four math problems. • What three factors led to the government’s decision to… • Draw a symbol that best portrays this book’s character
as you now understand him (her), and write a brief explanation as to why you chose the symbol you did.
• Record your answer to this question on your dry-erase board and hold it above your head for me to see.
• Prepare a rough draft of the letter you’re going to write. • What is your definition of…? • Who had a more pivotal role in this historical situation,
______________ or ________________, and why do you believe as you do?
Samples of Formative Assessment
• Identify at least five steps you need to take in order to solve math problems like these.
• How would you help a friend keep the differences between amphibians and reptiles clear in his mind?
• Write a paragraph of 3 to 5 lines that uses a demonstrative pronoun in each sentence and circle each example.
• Play the F sharp scale. • In a quick paragraph, describe the impact of the
Lusitania’s sinking • Create a web or outline that captures what we’ve learned
today about….
Additional Formative Assessment Ideas: • “Reader’s Theater” -- Turn text, video, lecture,
field trip, etc. into script and perform it
• Virtual Metaphors (Graphic Organizers)
• Projects, dioramas, non-linguistic represenations
• Multiple Choice questions followed by, “Why did you answer the way you did?”
• Correct false items on True-false tests.
Summative Assessments
These are given to students at the end of the learning to document growth and mastery. They match the learning objectives and experiences, and they are negotiable if the product is not the literal standard. They reflect most, if not all, of the essential and enduring knowledge. They are not very helpful forms of feedback.
Tips for Planning Assessments
• Correlate all formal assessments with objectives.
• While summative assessments may be large and complex, pre-assessments usually are not.
• Get ideas for pre- and formative assessments from summative assessments.
• Spend the majority of your time designing/emphasizing formative assessments and the feedback they provide.
Tips for Planning Assessments – Planning Sequence
• Design summative assessments first, then design your pre- and formative assessments.
• Give pre-assessments several days or a week PRIOR to starting the unit.
• Design your lesson plans AFTER reviewing pre-assessment data.
Lesson Designs: Suggested Planning Sequence
1. Identify your essential and enduring knowledge
2. Identify your students with unique needs, and what they will need in order to achieve: change content, process, or product?
3. Identify formative and summative assessments – useful feedback
Lesson Designs [Continued]
4. Design the learning experiences 5. Run a mental tape of each step in the
lesson sequence -- Check lesson(s) against criteria for successful differentiated instruction – Revise as necessary.
Lesson Designs [Continued]
6. Review plan with colleague. 7. Obtain/Create materials needed. 8. Conduct the lesson. 9. Evaluate and Revise plans for
tomorrow’s lesson.
Evaluating the Usefulness of Assessments
• What are your essential and enduring skills and content you’re trying to assess?
• How does this assessment allow students to demonstrate their mastery?
• Is every component of that objective accounted for in the assessment?
• Can students respond another way and still satisfy the requirements of the assessment task? Would this alternative way reveal a student’s mastery more truthfully?
• Is this assessment more a test of process or content? Is that what you’re after?
Clear and Consistent Evidence
We want an accurate portrayal of a student’s mastery, not something clouded by a useless format or distorted by only one opportunity to reveal understanding.
Differentiating teachers require accurate assessments in order to differentiate successfully.
Great differentiated assessment is never kept in the dark.
“Students can hit any target they can see and which stands still for them.” -- Rick Stiggins, Educator and Assessment expert
If a child ever asks, “Will this be on the test?”.….we haven’t done our job.
Successful Assessment is Authentic in Two Ways
• The assessment is close to how students will apply their learning in real-world applications. (not mandatory, but nice if it happens)
• The assessment must be authentic to how students are learning. (mandatory)
Successful Assessments are Varied and They are Done Over Time
• Assessments are often snapshot-in-time, inferences of mastery, not absolute declarations of exact mastery
• When we assess students through more than one format, we see different sides to their understanding. Some students’ mindmaps of their analyses of Renaissance art rivals the most cogent, written versions of their classmates.
Potential distractions on assessment day:
growling stomach, thirst, exhaustion, illness, emotional angst over: parents/friends/identity/tests/college/politics/ birthday/sex/blogs/parties/sports/projects/ homework/self-esteem/acne/holiday/report cards/future career/money/disease
It’s reasonable to allow students every opportunity to show their best side, not just one opportunity.
Portfolios Portfolios can be as simple as a folder of collected
works for one year or as complex as multi-year, selected and analyzed works from different areas of a student’s life. portfolios are often showcases in which students and teachers include representative samples of students’ achievement regarding standards and learning objectives over time. They can be on hardcopy or electronic, and they can contain non-paper artifacts as well. They can be places to store records, attributes, and accomplishments of a student, as well as a place to reveal areas in need of growth. They can be maintained by students, teachers, or a combination of both. Though they are stored most days in the classroom, portfolios are sent home for parent review at least once a grading period.
“Metarubric Summary” To determine the quality of a rubric, examine the:
• Content -- Does it assess the important material and leave out the unimportant material?
• Clarity -- Can the student understand what’s being asked of him, Is everything clearly defined, including examples and non-examples?
• Practicality -- Is it easy to use by both teachers and students?
• Technical quality/fairness -- Is it reliable and valid? • Sampling -- How well does the task represent the
breadth and depth of the target being assessed?
(p. 220). Rick Stiggins and his co-authors of Classroom Assessment for Student Learning (2005)
Rubric for the Historical Fiction Book Project – Holistic-style
5.0 Standard of Excellence:
• All material relating to the novel was accurate • Demonstrated full understanding of the story and its characters • Demonstrated attention to quality and craftsmanship in the
product • Product is a realistic portrayal of media used (examples:
postcards look like postcards, calendar looks like a real calendar, placemats can function as real placemats)
• Writing is free of errors in punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and grammar
• Had all components listed for the project as described in the task
4.5, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0, 1.5, 1.0, .5, and 0 are awarded in cases in which students’ projects do not fully achieve all criteria described for excellence. Circled items are areas for improvement.
Keep the important ideas in sight and in mind.
Two Rubric Ideas to Consider:
• Only give the fully written description for the standard of excellence. This way students won’t set their sights on something lower.
• 4.0 rubrics carry so much automatic, emotional baggage, parents and students rarely read and internalize the descriptors. Make it easier for them: Use anything except the 4.0 rubric – 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, 6.0.
Why Do We Grade?
• Provide feedback • Document progress • Guide instructional decisions --------------------------------------------- • Motivate • Punish • Sort students
What about incorporating attendance, effort, and behavior in the final grade?
Consider… • Teaching and learning can and do occur
without grades. • We do not give students grades in order to
teach them. • Grades reference summative experiences
only – cumulative tests, projects, demonstrations, NOT formative experiences.
• Students can learn without grades, but they must have feedback.
• Grades are inferences based upon a sampling of student’s work in one snapshot moment in time. As such they are highly subjective and relative.
Premise
A grade represents a valid and undiluted indicator of what a student knows
and is able to do – mastery.
With grades we document progress in students and our teaching, we provide feedback to students and their parents, and we make instructional decisions.
10 Practices to Avoid in a Differentiated Classroom
[They Dilute a Grade’s Validity and Effectiveness]
• Penalizing students’ multiple attempts at mastery
• Grading practice (daily homework) as students come to know concepts [Feedback, not grading, is needed]
• Withholding assistance (not scaffolding or differentiating) in the learning when it’s needed
• Group grades • Incorporating non-academic factors
(behavior, attendance, and effort)
• Assessing students in ways that do not accurately indicate students’ mastery (student responses are hindered by the assessment format)
• Grading on a curve • Allowing Extra Credit • Defining supposedly criterion-based grades
in terms of norm-referenced descriptions (“above average,” “average”, etc.)
• Recording zeroes on the 100.0 scale for work not done
0 or 50 (or 60)? = F or an F?
100-pt. Scale: 0, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 -- 83% (C+) 60, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100 -- 93% (B+)
When w orking w
ith stud ents,
do we c hoose th
e most h urtful,
unrecov erable e
nd of th e “F”
range, o r the mo
st
constru ctive, re
coverab le end
of the “F ” range?
Be clear: Students are not getting points for having done nothing. The student still gets an F. We’re simply equalizing the influence of the each grade in the overall grade and responding in a way that leads to learning.
Imagine the Reverse…
A = 100 – 40 B = 39 – 30 C = 29 – 20 D = 19 – 10 F = 9 – 0
What if we reversed the proportional influences of the grades? That “A” would have a huge, yet undue, inflationary effect on the overall grade. Just as we wouldn’t want an “A” to have an inaccurate effect, we don’t want an “F” grade to have such an undue, deflationary, and inaccurate effect. Keeping zeroes on a 100-pt. scale is just as absurd as the scale seen here.
A (0) on a 100-pt. scale is a (-6) on a 4-pt. scale. If a student does no work, he should get nothing, not something worse than nothing. How instructive is it to tell a student that he earned six times less than absolute failure? Choose to be instructive, not punitive. [Based on an idea by Doug Reeves, The Learning Leader,
ASCD, 2006]
100
90
80
70
60
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
-4
-5
-6
50
40
30
20
10
0
Consider the Correlation
Temperature Readings for Norfolk, VA: 85, 87, 88, 84, 0 (‘Forgot to take the reading) Average: 68.8 degrees
This is inaccurate for what really happened, and therefore, unusable.
Clarification: When we’re talking about converting
zeroes to 50’s or higher, we’re referring to zeroes earned on major projects and assessments, not homework, as well as anything graded on a 100-point scale. It’s okay to give zeroes on homework or on small scales, such as a 4.0 scale. Zeroes recorded for homework assignments do not refer to final, accurate declarations of mastery, and those zeroes don’t have the undue influence on small grading scales.
“We are faced with the irony that a policy that may be grounded in the belief of holding students accountable (giving zeroes) actually allows some students to escape accountability for learning.” -- O’Connor, p. 86
Grading Late Work
• One whole letter grade down for each day late is punitive. It does not teach students, and it removes hope.
• A few points off for each day late is instructive; there’s hope.
• Yes, the world beyond school is like this.
Helpful Consideration for Dealing with Student’s Late Work:
Is it chronic…. …or is it occasional?
We respond differently, depending on which one it is.
Are we interested more in holding students accountable
or making sure they learn?
Avoid, “learn or I will hurt you” measures. (Nancy Doda)
This quarter, you’ve taught:
• 4-quadrant graphing • Slope and Y-intercept • Multiplying binomials • Ratios/Proportions • 3-dimensional solids • Area and Circumference of a circle.
The student’s grade: B
What does this mark tell us about the student’s proficiency with each of the topics you’ve taught?
Gradebooks in a Differentiated Classroom
• Avoid setting up gradebooks according to formats or media used to demonstrate mastery: tests, quizzes, homework, projects, writings, performances
• Instead, set up gradebooks according to mastery: objectives, benchmarks, standards, learner outcomes
Set up your gradebook into two sections:
Formative Summative
Assignments and assessments Final declaration completed on the way to of mastery or mastery or proficiency proficiency
Unidimensionality – A single score on a test represents a single dimension or trait that has been assessed
Student Dimension
A Dimension
B Total Score
1 2 10 12 2 10 2 12 3 6 6 12
Problem: Most tests use a single score to assess multiple dimensions and traits. The resulting score is often invalid and
useless. -- Marzano, CAGTW, page 13
100 point scale or 4.0 Scale?
• A 4.0 scale has a high inter-rater reliability. Students’ work is connected to a detailed descriptor and growth and achievement rally around listed benchmarks.
• In 100-point or larger scales, the grades are more subjective. In classes in which teachers use percentages or points, students, teachers, and parents more often rally around grade point averages, not learning.
Consider: • Pure mathematical averages of grades for a
grading period are inaccurate indicators of students’ true mastery.
• A teacher’s professional judgment via clear descriptors on a rubric actually increases the accuracy of a student’s final grade as an indicator of what he learned.
• A teacher’s judgment via rubrics has a stronger correlation with outside standardized tests than point or average calculations do.
(Marzano)
Office of Educational Research and Improvement Study (1994):
Students in impoverished communities that receive high grades in English earn the same scores as C and D students in
affluent communities. Math was the same: High grades in
impoverished schools equaled only the D students’ performance
in affluent schools.
Avoid using the Mean: Accurate grades are based on the most consistent evidence. We look at the pattern of achievement, including trends, not the average of the data. This means we focus on the median and mode, not mean, and the most recent scores are weighed heavier than earlier scores.
Median: The middle test score of a distribution, above and below which lie an equal number of test scores
Mode: The score occurring most frequently in a series of observations or test data
“The main problem with averaging students’ scores…is that averaging assumes that no learning has occurred from assessment to assessment…that differences in observed scores…are simply a consequence of ‘random error,’ and the act of averaging will ‘cancel out’ the random error…”
-- Marzano, CAGTW, p. 96
Allowing Students to Re-do Assignments and Tests for Full Credit:
• Always, “…at teacher discretion.”
• It must be within reason.
• Students must have been giving a sincere effort.
• Require parents to sign the original assignment or test, requesting the re-do.
• Require students to submit a plan of study that will enable them to improve their performance the second time around.
Allow Students to Re-do Assignments and Tests for Full Credit:
• Identify a day by which time this will be accomplished or the grade is permanent.
• With the student, create a calendar of completion that will help them achieve it.
• Require students to submit original with the re-done version so you can keep track of their development
• Reserve the right to give alternative versions
• No-re-do’s the last week of the grading period
• Sometimes the greater gift is to deny the option.
Inclusion – Clarifying Philosophies
Before partnering and frequently throughout the partnering, clarify:
-- Each person’s role -- Acceptable grading policies
Administrative direction on these are critical.
Inclusion – Focus • All students in the inclusion/regular class are considered
to be the regular education teacher’s students.
• Focus of Regular Education teacher: the mandated curriculum and each student’s progress toward mastering it. ‘Has expertise in the subject and the teaching of it.
• Focus of the Special Education teacher: how to teach students with identified needs, as well as students’ individualized education plans. ‘Informs the regular education teacher of those goals and works with the regular education teacher to make accommodations necessary for identified students to achieve the regular education standards/objectives. ‘May or may not have expertise in the class’s curriculum.
Grading Inclusion Students
Question #1: “Are the standards set for the whole class also developmentally appropriate for this student?”
• If they are appropriate, proceed to Question #2. • If they are not appropriate, identify which
standards are appropriate, making sure they are as close as possible to the original standards. Then go to question #2.
Grading Inclusion Students
Question #2: “Will these learning experiences (processes) we’re using with the general class work with the inclusion student as well?”
• If they will work, then proceed to Question #3. • If they will not work, identify alternative pathways
to learning that will work. Then go to Question #3.
Grading Inclusion Students Question #3:
“Will this assessment instrument we’re using to get an accurate rendering of what general education students know and are able to do regarding the standard also provide an accurate rendering of what this inclusion student knows and is able to do regarding the same standard?
• If the instrument will provide an accurate rendering of the inclusion student’s mastery, then use it just as you do with the rest of the class.
• If it will not provide an accurate rendering of the inclusion student’s mastery, then identify a product that will provide that accuracy, and make sure it holds the student accountable for the same universal factors as your are asking of the other students.
Grading Gifted Students • Insure grade-level material is learned. • If it’s enrichment material only, the grade still
represents mastery of on-grade-level material. An addendum report card or the comment section provides feedback on advanced material.
• If the course name indicates advanced material (Algebra I Honors, Biology II), then we grade against those advanced standards.
• If the student has accelerated a grade level or more, he is graded against the same standards as his older classmates.
summative notes/Authentic Assessment.pdf
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Authentic Assessment
What is Authentic Assessment?
Good question! Authentic assessment is a method of evaluation in which students perform real-life tasks to demonstrate their ability to apply relevant knowledge and skills. An authentic assessment typically includes a task for students to complete and a rubric which indicates how the task will be graded. Criterion-reference , a term typically associated with authentic assessment, stresses the ability of authentic assessment to evaluate a specific test or specific area of content material. In other words, authentic assessment directly assesses a student's mastery of certain knowledge and skills. Authentic assessment is unique to the individual experience of each student.
Authentic assessment is also known by other names:
performance-based assessment-this is this is a popular term when referring to authentic assessments. However, some feel that this is not an appropriate term as there is not reference to the authentic nature of the assessment, as it is possible to have the student perform a task that has no authentic connection to the real world. direct assessment-this refers to the direct nature of the assessment and the student shows directly how to apply the knowledge. In contract, a student would indirectly show knowledge in a multiple-choice type test. alternative assessment- as it is an alternative to traditional assessment
Why do We Need Authentic Assessment? Preparing Students for the Real World
While multiple-choice tests can be valid indicators or predictors of academic performance, too often our tests mislead students and teachers about the kinds of work that should be mastered. Norms are not standards; items are not real problems; right answers are not rationales. Multiple-choice tests also encourage memorization of facts, rather than acquiring specific skills standards are designed to enforce.
What most defenders of traditional tests fail to see is that it is the form, not the content of the test that is harmful to learning; demonstrations of the technical validity of standardized tests should not be the issue in the assessment reform debate. Students come to believe that learning is cramming; teachers come to believe that tests are after-the-fact, imposed nuisances composed of contrived questions--irrelevant to their intent and success. Both parties are led to believe that right answers matter more than habits of mind and the justification of one's approach and results. This type of assessment also sends a message to students that information is learned for a test, and as soon as the test is completed, students often do not see the importance of retaining this information.
A move toward more authentic tasks and outcomes thus improves teaching and learning: students have greater clarity about their obligations (and are asked to master more engaging tasks), and teachers can come to believe that assessment results are both meaningful and useful for improving instruction.
When students leave high school or even college they are expected to be able to function in our world based on a certain standard set of skills. Those life skills often do not include knowledge on ancient civilizations or chemical composition. It is great for students to have a well rounded education and a plethora of content knowledge, but if they cannot apply their skills to any content or task, teachers or schools have not prepared them for the real world.
Click on the video below to learn more about authentic assessment in "Assessment Overview: Beyond Standardized Testing"
Assessment Overview: Beyond Standa…
Basic Elements of Authentic Assessment:
Students are asked to develop responses rather than choose from a list of possibly correct answers Fosters higher order thinking Takes a direct approach to evaluate projects and the process of creating the final product Aligns with classroom instruction Uses student work which has been collected over time Based on clear criteria given to students Allows for multiple interpretations Students learn to evaluate own work Relates more to classroom learning
Ten Features of Authentic Assessments
1. Authentic activities have real-world relevance: Activities match as nearly as possible the real-world tasks of professionals in practice rather than decontextualized or classroom-based tasks
2. Authentic activities are ill-defined, requiring students to define the tasks and sub-tasks needed to complete the activity: Problems inherent in the activities are ill-defined and open to multiple interpretations rather than easily solved by the application of existing algorithms. Learners must identify their own unique tasks and sub-tasks in order to complete the major task.
3. Authentic activities comprise complex tasks to be investigated by students over a sustained period of time: Activities are completed in
days, weeks and months rather than minutes or hours. They require significant investment of time and intellectual resources. 4. Authentic activities provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources:
The task affords learners the opportunity to examine the problem from a variety of theoretical and practical perspectives, rather than allowing a single perspective that learners must imitate to be successful. The use of a variety of resources rather than a limited number of preselected references requires students to detect relevant from irrelevant information.
5. Authentic activities provide the opportunity to collaborate: Collaboration is integral to the task, both within the course and the real world, rather than achievable by the individual learner.
6. Authentic activities provide the opportunity to reflect: Activities need to enable learners to make choices and reflect on their learning both individuall and socially.
7. Authentic activities can be integrated and applied across different subject areas and lead beyond domain-specific outcomes: Activities encourage interdisciplinary perspectives and enable students to play diverse roles thus building robust expertise rather than knowledge limited to a single well-defined field or domain.
8. Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment: Assessment of activities is seamlessly integrated with the major task in a manner that reflects real-world assessment, rather than separate artificial assessment removed from the nature of the task.
9. Authentic activities create polished products valuable in their own right rather than as preparation for something else: Activities culminate in the creation of a whole product rather than an exercise or sub-step in preparation for something else.
10. Authentic activities allow competing solutions and diversity of outcomes: Activities allow a range and diversity of outcomes open to multiple solutions of an original nature, rather than a single correct response obtained by the application of rules and procedures.
How Does Authentic Assessment Compare to Traditional Assessment?
With traditional assessment students are asked to demonstrate their knowledge of subject matter based on multiple choice or true/false questions and matching. Unlike authentic assessment, traditional assessment does not show the thought process which led students to arrive at the answer they selected. In contrast to traditional assessment, authentic assessment is much less structured and provides a more in-depth method of evaluating understanding in a subject area. The process is valued just as much as the product when the assessment is complete. The chart below compares and contrasts some characteristic of authentic and traditional assessment.
Authentic Assessment ..................................................Traditional Assessment
perform a task................................................................select a response real-life task...................................................................simulated and contrived application and original construction.................................recall or recognition student-based................................................................teacher-based direct evidence...............................................................indirect evidence ongoing over a long period of time....................................completed once for a specific amount of time integrated seamlessly within learning...............................completed once learning is "finished"
Though there are differences in the two, it does not mean they cannot be used together. Sometimes, these two types of assessments make great partners. An widely used example is how to choose a chauffeur if there was a choice between one that has only passed the writing portion of the test and one that has only passed the driving portion. Most would choose the chauffeur that has passed the driving portion (the authentic assessment), however most would prefer their chauffeur has past both parts, the authentic assessment and the traditional assessment. This would insure that the chauffeur had basic knowledge of driving and road laws, as well as the skill to drive.
Types of Authentic Assessment:
Scoring Guides/Rubric: A scoring scale is used to assess student performance along a task-specific set of criteria. A list of required elements are grouped together to make the scoring guide with point specific designations. Portfolio/E-Portfolio: A collection of a student's work specifically selected to highlight achievements or demonstrate improvement over time (e-portfolio is electronic and usually accessible on the Internet). Authentic Task: An assignment given to students designed to assess their ability to apply standard-driven knowledge and skills to real-world challenges. Self-Assessment: Evaluating one's own performance to determine strengths and weaknesses, as well as reflecting on what improvements can be made to enhance product Oral Interviews: The teacher asks the student questions about the subject matter Story or Text Retelling: Student retells main ideas or selected details of text experienced through listening or reading. Writing Samples: Student generates narrative, expository, persuasive, or reference paper. Projects/Exhibitions: Student works with other students as a team to create a project that often involves multimedia production, oral and written presentations, and a display. Experiments/Demonstrations: Student documents a series of experiments, illustrates a procedure, performs the necessary steps to complete a task, and documents the results of the actions. Constructed-Response Items: Student responds in writing to open-ended questions. Teacher Observations: Teacher observes and documents the students attention and interaction in class, response to instructional materials, and cooperative work with other students.
Why Use Authentic Assessment?
1. Highlights constructive nature of learning and education 2. Allows students to choose own path for demonstrating skill set 3. Evaluates how effectively students can directly apply knowledge to a variety of task 4. Legitimizes learning by completing it in a real-world context 5. Allows for collaboration among students and across curriculum
Authentic Assessment: Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages Focuses on analytical skills and the integration of knowledge Time-intensive to manage, monitor, and coordinate Promotes creativity Difficult to coordinate with mandatory educational standards Reflection of real-world skills and knowledge Challenging to provide consistent grading scheme Encourages collaborative work Subjective nature of grading may lead to bias Enhances written and oral presentation skills Unique nature may be unfamiliar to students Direct match of assessment, instructional activities, and learning objectives
May not be practical for large enrollment courses
Emphasizes integration of learning over time Challenging to develop for various types of courses and ranges of objectives
How to Use Authentic Assessment Follow these helpful steps to create your own authentic assessment:
1. Identify which standards you want your students to meet through this assessment. 2. Choose a relevant task for this standard, or set of standards, so that students can demonstrate how they have or have not met the standards. 3. Define the characteristics of good performance on this task. This will provide useful information regarding how well students have met the
standards. 4. Create a rubric, or set of guidelines, for students to follow so that they are able to assess their work as they perform the assigned task.
Creating Rubrics for Authentic Assessment Before making a rubric teachers need to identify what they want to assess. Rubrics should be created before the unit to ensure the students are taught the main components. In addition, it can assess criteria from previous units. Assessments should usually evaluate no more than five elements for each task. If too much is being assessed it is difficult to truly identify the strengths and weaknesses of a student
Once the criteria for the assessment is identified, a rubric can be created. Making a rubric is simplified with the aid of online rubric-makers. Before teachers create a rubric it is best to do a search for the specific rubric to save time. For example, input letter writing rubrics into a search address box and numerous letter writing sample rubrics will be displayed.
Making rubrics are time consuming in the initial stages but are worth the investment. Rubrics are a wonderful tool to ensure a more authentic assessment of student work. The assessment tool gives students a framework on expectations and teachers a framework on what is being graded.
(http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/jantho1)
I am also interested in learning more about Authentic Assessments and the
ePortfolio
Authentic Assessment and ePortfolio jantho1 (http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/jantho1) Dec 5, 2010
(http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/jantho1)
I am also interested in learning more about Authentic Assessments and the
ePortfolio
Authentic Assessment and ePortfolio jantho1 (http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/jantho1) Dec 5, 2010
(http://www.wikispaces.com/user/view/tinaq) Authentic Assessment & ePortfolio
A rubric provides a teacher with a scale of where the student's current knowledge and performance are currently at as well as what they may need to improve upon. A rubric provides a student with their own guidelines while they are working on an assessment. They are able to guide themselves, as well as assess their own work or the work of their classmates using the rubric provided to them. A teacher can work with his or her students to develop assessment criteria for a rubric. This way, students are taking part in the evaluation process and feel more of an attachment to what they are working on. They need to live up to their own standards (criteria) as well as that of the teacher.
Examples of Authentic Assessment Rubrics:
Web Project Rubric
Classroom Web Page Rubric
WebQuest Rubric
Middle School Research Project Rubric
*Rubric Template for creating your own rubric**
Challenges of Authentic Assessment:
Usually takes longer to plan, complete, and evaluate than other methods of assessment Difficult to ensure assessment accurately aligns with curriculum and standards Allows for greater margin of evaluator bias/judgments of assessment
Examples of Authentic Assessment http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/res/litass/class.html http://www.funderstanding.com/coaster http://boe.ming.k12.wv.us/teachers/di/di_rubrics/authentic%20assessment.htm http://www.ndtwt.org/hotlists/hotlists_LPsites.htm#AA
Sources/References: Funderstanding-Authentic Assessment Authentic Assessment Toolbox North Central Regional Educational Laboratory Wik ED--Authentic Assessment Park University-Incorporating Authentic Assessment
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summative notes/Leading to Change - Effective Grading Practices.pdf
Home Current Issue Archives Buy Contact
February 2008 | Volume 65 | Number 5 Teaching Students to Think Pages 85-87
Leading to Change / Effective Grading Practices Douglas B. Reeves
If you wanted to make just one change that would immediately reduce student failure rates, then the most effective place to start would be challenging prevailing grading practices. How can I be so sure? Try this experiment in your next faculty meeting. Ask your colleagues to calculate the final grade for a student who receives the following 10 grades during a semester: C, C, MA (Missing Assignment), D, C, B, MA, MA, B, A. I have done this experiment with thousands of teachers and administrators in the United States, Canada, and Argentina. Every time—bar none—I get the same results: The final grades range from F to A and include everything in between.
As this experiment demonstrates, the difference between failure and the honor roll often depends on the grading policies of the teacher. To reduce the failure rate, schools don't need a new curriculum, a new principal, new teachers, or new technology. They just need a better grading system.
Ineffective Grading
The results of my experiment are not surprising. Guskey and Bailey (2001) and Marzano (2000) have synthesized decades of research with similar findings. Neither the weight of scholarship nor common sense seems to have influenced grading policies in many schools. Practices vary greatly among teachers in the same school—and even worse, the practices best supported by research are rarely in evidence.
For example, the most effective grading practices provide accurate, specific, timely feedback designed to improve student performance (Marzano 2000, 2007; O'Connor, 2007). In the best classrooms, grades are only one of many types of feedback provided to students. Music teachers and athletic coaches routinely provide abundant feedback to students and only occasionally associate a grade with the feedback. Teachers in visual arts, drafting, culinary arts, or computer programming allow students to create a portfolio to show their best work, knowing that the mistakes made in the course of the semester were not failures, but lessons learned on the way to success. In each of these cases, "failures" along the way are not averaged into a calculation of the final grade.
Contrast these effective practices with three commonly used grading policies that are so ineffective they can
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be labeled as toxic. First is the use of zeroes for missing work. Despite evidence that grading as punishment does not work (Guskey, 2000) and the mathematical flaw in the use of the zero on a 100-point scale (Reeves, 2004), many teachers routinely maintain this policy in the mistaken belief that it will lead to improved student performance. Defenders of the zero claim that students need to have consequences for flouting the teacher's authority and failing to turn in work on time. They're right, but the appropriate consequence is not a zero; it's completing the work—before, during, or after school, during study periods, at "quiet tables" at lunch, or in other settings.
Second is the practice of using the average of all scores throughout the semester, a formula that presumes that the learning early in the semester is as important as learning at the end of the semester (Marzano, 2000; O'Connor, 2007). Interestingly, when teachers and administrators have been students in my graduate courses, they routinely insist that they should be evaluated on the basis of their understanding at the end of the semester rather than their work throughout the term.
Third is the use of the "semester killer"—the single project, test, lab, paper, or other assignment that will make or break students. This practice puts 18 weeks of work at risk based on a project that might, at most, have consumed four weeks of the semester.
A small but growing number of school systems are tackling the issue head-on with comprehensive plans for effective grading practices. (The policy developed by one such district, Grand Island Public Schools in Nebraska, is available at http://wikiassessments.editme.com/files/GradingandReporting/G%26R%20Guiding%20Docs.pdf.)
But even in districts that have attempted to put effective grading policies in place, enforcement is often inconsistent. Grading seems to be regarded as the last frontier of individual teacher discretion. The same school leaders and community members who would be indignant if sports referees were inconsistent in their rulings continue to tolerate inconsistencies that have devastating effects on student achievement.
High-Stakes Grading
The Alliance for Excellent Education estimated that the annual cost of high school failure exceeds $330 billion ("An Economic Case," 2007). Some of these failures are no doubt caused by excessive absences and poor student performance. But, as the experiment at the beginning of this column clearly indicates, many failures are caused by the differences in teacher grading policies.
Do another experiment: Randomly select 30 course failures from the last semester, and determine the cause for failure. Two common causes are missing homework and poor performance on a single major assignment—a term paper, lab, or project. What would it mean to your school if you could reduce the number of failing grades resulting solely from uncompleted homework?
The stakes of grading practices are not limited to student failure. When grading policies improve, discipline and morale almost always follow. For example, Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, achieved a remarkable reduction in course failures through focused attention on improved feedback and intervention for students (Reeves, 2006). I recently checked in with the school, and Principal Joel McKinney reported that the success of this challenging urban school (74 percent free and reduced-price lunch, high mobility, and increasing numbers of English language learners) did not stop with reducing 9th and 10th grade failures. As of fall 2007, enrollment in advanced placement classes had increased 32 percent; suspensions had declined 67 percent; elective opportunities in music, art, and technology had increased; class cuts and tardiness had fallen significantly; teacher morale and school climate had noticeably improved—and the course failure rate
had continued to decline (personal communication, December 5, 2007). When schools take steps to reduce failures, lots of good things happen.
The Steps to Take
Although changing grading systems is a challenging leadership task, the benefits are so great that it's worth doing.
First, create a sense of urgency. Identify the exact cost of inconsistent grading practices. How many failures can we prevent this semester if we improve our grading practices?
Second, identify teacher leaders who are already improving policies. Chances are that some teachers in your school have already eliminated the use of the average and the zero on a 100-point scale and created meaningful opportunities for corrective feedback outside of grades. Provide a forum for these teachers to share their insights with colleagues and lead the effort to develop improved policies.
Third, get the facts; gather evidence that will create a rationale for decision making. At the end of the day, your choices about teaching practice must be guided by evidence, not opinions. For example, although many people sincerely believe that giving poor grades as a punishment is effective, Guskey (2000) has marshaled 90 years of evidence to the contrary.
Fourth, reassure parents, students, and teachers that certain things will not change. Students will still have letter grades, transcripts, honor rolls, individualized education plans, and everything else that they have counted on as part of their grading system. What they won't have is irrational grading policies that give students widely different grades for the same work.
The benefits of effective grading practices are not limited to a reduced failure rate—although that benefit alone is sufficient to justify change. When student failures decrease, student behavior improves, faculty morale is better, resources allocated to remedial courses and course repetitions are reduced, and resources invested in electives and advanced courses increase. When was the last time a single change in your school accomplished all that?
References
An economic case for high school reform (Editorial). (2007, November 1). Minneapolis Star Tribune. Available: www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/11148976.html.
Guskey, T. R. (2000). Grading policies that work against standards … and how to fix them. NASSP Bulletin, 84(620), 20–29.
Guskey, T. R., & Bailey, J. M. (2001). Developing grading and reporting systems for student learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Marzano, R. J. (2000). Transforming classroom grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
O'Connor, K. (2007). A repair kit for grading: 15 fixes for broken grades. Portland, OR: Educational Testing Service.
Reeves, D. B. (2004). The case against zero. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(4), 324–325.
Reeves, D. B. (2006). Leading to change: Preventing 1,000 failures. Educational Leadership, 64(3), 88–89.
Douglas B. Reeves is Founder of the Leadership and Learning Center; 978-740-3001; [email protected].
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summative notes/Summative note 1.pdf
Summative and Authentic Assessment Designing the Summative Assessment
This is the origin of the phrase, beginning with the end in mind.” The summative assessment is the culminating task that will require students to draw upon the skills and concepts they have developed throughout the unit in order to demonstrate their understanding. Traditional units tests (with multiple-choice, true/false, and short answer questions) are poor summative assessments because they rarely require the application of skills and concepts or the demonstration of understanding. Summative assessments must require the application of skills, concepts, and understandings, rather than a mere reporting of information. Sometimes these types of summative assessments are called performance assessments because they require students to apply skills, concepts, and understandings to a new problem in a different context or to a different text(s). The best summative assessments often incorporate the essential question(s) that have focused the unit, requiring students to answer one or more of the essential questions drawing upon ideas from personal experience, from the texts studied, and from new text(s) encountered as a part of the assessment.
The assessment should be designed before the lesson/unit is taught. To be able to do this, you need to decide what is essential for students to know and then determine how students will demonstrate their understanding. Designing your assessment must occur early in the planning process to give both you and your students a clear destination for the unit; the teacher is then able to create the best roadmap for the learning experiences required to get there. Some considerations are:
How will the summative assessment require students to demonstrate their understanding and their ability to apply essential skills and concepts?
How can I incorporate/integrate the essential question(s) in the summative assessment to check for each student’s understanding?
How will I communicate the components/elements of this summative assessment to the students at the beginning of the unit so students will know what will be expected and required?
How will I communicate the criteria for a successfully completed performance assessment? (See the rubric link to the left for standard-based rubrics)
How might I integrate one of the eight required writing tasks as a part of the summative and/or formative assessment?
What role can students play to help shape the summative task that they will complete?
Authentic Assessment Authentic Assessment requires students to demonstrate skills and competencies they have mastered.
More On Authentic Assessment
summative notes/technology_upgrades.pdf
May 6, 2015
Technology Upgrades for Performance Tasks and Assignments Source: Learning to the Core: Assessing What Matters Most
by
Jay McTighe
FROM TO Book report Book Hooks – http://www.bookhooks.com/index.cfm
Create a Book Trailer – http://www.booktrailersforreaders.com/ Voicethread (iPAD APP) – http://voicethread.com/
Brainstorming on paper
Inspiration – http://www.inspiration.com/ Bubbl.us (brainstorming too) – https://bubbl.us/
Bulletin board Pinterest – https://pinterest.com/ Educlipper – http://www.educlipper.net Padlet – http://www.padlet.com
Cartoon/Comics Toondoo – http://www.toondoo.com/ Pixton – http://www.pixton.com/ Toontastic (iPAD APP) – http://launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/ Kerpoof – http://www.kerpoof.com/ Strip designer (iPAD APP) – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/strip- designer/id314780738?mt=8
Exhibit (e.g., art- work or science fair display)
Vocaroo – http://vocaroo.com/ record voice over and include a QR code on the display to listen Aurasma – http://www.aurasma.com/ turns a static image or display board it into a video.
Explanation (written, verbal)
Educreations – http://www.educreations.com/ Explain Everything (iPAD APP) –
Filmstrip Photo Exhibit Museum display
iMovie – http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
Animoto – http://animoto.com/ Photostory – http://microsoft-photo- story.en.softonic.com/
How-to guide Create an App – https://www.yapp.us/ JING – Screencasting tool – http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html
May 6, 2015
Oral presentation Podcast – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hrBbczS9
Audioboo – http://audioboo.fm/ Voicethread (iPAD APP) – http://voicethread.com/
Pen pal Skype chat – http://skype.com
Poster Infographic
Smore – https://www.smore.com/app Pictochart – http://piktochart.com/ Padlet – http://www.padlet.com Glogster – http://www.glogster.com/
Multi-media products
Prezi – http://prezi.com/
Edmodo – http://www.edmodo.com Slideshare – http://www.slideshare.net/ Capzles – http://www.capzles.com/
Research Report Website creator – http://kidswebsitecreator.com/
Science Project Science report writer –
http://sciencewriter.cast.org/welcome;jsessi onid=64D53C43AD80D6FAB1A0F95ABC FCA054
Summary
Tweet – https://twitter.com/
Timeline TimeToast – http://www.timetoast.com/ Timeline – http://xtimeline.com/index.aspx
Vocabulary Notebook Visual Thesaurus – http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
Written products
Issuu – http://issuu.com/ Flipsnack – http://www.flipsnack.com/ Meograph – http://www.meograph.com/ Blog – http://edublogs.org/ Blogger – https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?s ervice=blogger<mpl=start&hl=en&passiv e=86400&continue=http://www.blogger.co
May 6, 2015
Career Awareness At Napa County, we are building a robust college and career readiness system that will enable students to make sound decisions regarding their post-secondary goals.
NCOE launched the first countywide implementation of Naviance in October 2013. NCOE partnered with local school districts to fund this program for all middle and high school students in Napa County.
Prior to implementation, students had little exposure to career exploration, goal setting, and college planning tools. Students now have access to curriculum designed to help students define and navigate through their post-secondary journey. The curriculum helps guide students through a series of lessons covering topics like financial aid, building self-confidence, and goal setting. Students can also explore potential careers they otherwise would not consider (think Astrobiologist or Zen Master) through Roadtrip Nation’s video interview library housing hundreds of real-world examples.
Students have found the curriculum engaging and easy to navigate. Over 8,000 middle and high school students completed activities since implementation in October 2013. By 2015 we expect to be serving over 10,000 students in Napa County. are ThinkCERCA – which helps teachers create reading assignments that push their students’ critical thinking skills digital story telling http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/08/26/digital-storytelling-classrooms-987/ *website to support digital story telling http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ AMT chart (Tom)
Written products
Issuu – http://issuu.com/ Flipsnack – http://www.flipsnack.com/ Meograph – http://www.meograph.com/ Blog – http://edublogs.org/ Blogger – https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?s ervice=blogger<mpl=start&hl=en&passiv e=86400&continue=http://www.blogger.co m/home#s01
Summary Tweet – https://twitter.com/
May 6, 2015
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OYWKczRIkfl5gBqXcIiqSQrxFnvYW7A aEqbn51kIToA/edit?pli=1#gid=0 Tom March – I have a “Tools Panel” I’ve created so people and copy/paste it into their own blog or use as a launch pad from their Interactive Whiteboards: http://tommarch.com/strategies/skills-checklist/web2panel/ 100 Apps from Microsoft http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/07/03/100-apps-education-673/2/ Tools for Data Analysis http://www.edutopia.org/blog/helping-students-develop-digital-literacy-suzie-boss https://tuvalabs.com/ Username: syron Class code bh03j https://www.tuvalabs.com/explore/ Writing Tools Tomatoi.st The pomodoro technique is a popular productivity method. If you are keen to improve your writing process, you can easily adapt this method by using Tomatoi.st. It is a simple web- based tool were you can click the timer to follow the pomodoro technique. The timer will encourage student writers to be productive and organized when writing their papers. Cliché Finder It is difficult to find clichés in your own work, especially when you use it as a personal writing style. But clichés are not highly accepted in writing. To fix your output, let Cliché Finder help you edit these words and improve your work.
ProWriting Aid This is an online editing tool that helps student writers improve their articles. The tool helps edit the grammar, spelling, readability, and consistency of their article. It also checks redundancies, clichés, and abstract words in the content. The tool is highly accurate so it helps a lot in improving the quality of student’s work.
Twitter — Kids Blog http://www.edutopia.org/blog/school-wide-twitter-chats-stephen-baker http://kidsedchatnz.blogspot.co.nz/ http://yr7chat.blogspot.com/ Microsoft OneNote: Mac, Windows 7, Windows 8, iPad/iPhone, Windows Phone, Android, Free The advantage of taking notes with this app is that it allows you to include pictures, videos and weblinks right into your notes. It also stores all your notes in one place for easy access and allows you to move the text around the page.
May 6, 2015
You can also share your notes and edit them as a group which is a helpful feature for group projects and in class collaboration. It also provides the opportunity for a teacher to share their own notes or presentations so that students can add on their own notes and things they have learned.
Created by 22-year-old Sumner Murphy, Mobento is a video learning platform that curates content from world-class instructors and institutions such as Stanford, Yale, Khan Academy, and TED. The website includes more than 4,200 instructional videos arranged in 26 categories; most are about 10 minutes long. Free apps for iOS and Android devices allow users to search for, download, and watch videos on a mobile device, which works well for students with limited internet access at home. The site’s main innovation is a search tool that lets you search for keywords mentioned in the videos.
http://www.mobento.com/ A nice extension for Chrome. If you are trying to record audio for feedback (especially Formative feedback) Kaizena. Kaizena allows you to comment or RECORD audio feedback. It is very easy to install - go to the Chrome Store and get Kaizena. Then relaunch your browser and open a Google Doc. You can now record simple comments and write comments. Finally here is the short Tutorial Video
Ipadagogy wheel http://mrjexperience.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ipadagogy-wheel- 001.jpg The Hemingway App provides students and writers a way to critically analyze their writing. It works by simply writing or copy/pasting into the application page. It provides a Readability Rating, counts words sentences and paragraphs and identifies common errors. It is a super easy tool to use and helps students improve their own writing.
Welcome to Writinghouse! The fully automatic bibliography and citation maker. Save time by
creating a cited page instantly in the MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles! It's easy, fast and it's free!
http://writinghouse.org/ http://www.chronozoom.com/#/t00000000-0000-0000-0000- 000000000000 ChronoZoom is an educational tool for teachers and students who want to put historical events in perspective. A great many resources have been created already in ChronoZoom
May 6, 2015
Stripgenerator is a cool online tool for building comic strips. This is a great way for students to retell, explain or synthesis learning in a creative way. Simply go to http://stripgenerator.com/ and register - it is free! (*The Activation email might go to your Spam so check there if you don't get it right away) Once your account is setup begin building. There are cool characters, voice bubbles, different layouts and an array of layout tools. When you are done simply print or save to pdf and you have a real comic strip.
Mind mapping is a great way to start thinking about a topic, planning projects or simply brainstorm. MatterMap is the latest technology in this field. This is a very robust site. It provides a place for students to capture quotes, put in citation information and manage findings. Then it allows users to develop their own Mind Map (MatterMap) about the topic. Images, Tech, Quotes can all be built around a single idea. Then this can be printed or shared as needed. It is a great tool for visualizing thinking. https://www.mattermap.nl/ Website Creation: Weebly Websites are a great way for your students to combine creativity with writing, research, and technology. Have them create a website for a historical topic, event, or location, or ask them to create a blog for a famous person. This is also a great way to incorporate primary and secondary sources into instruction.
http://www.weebly.com/
1. Blogging This one is simple. WordPress, Blogger and a variety of education-focused blogging platforms help students establish their own digital space to meet the world. It allows the embedding of images, videos, tweets and of course text. To be successful here, they just need a reason to blog.
2. Storify or Storehouse Storify and Storehouse essentially allow students to collect media bits and pieces from across the web, and to socialize them -- that is, to shape them into a unique form of expression through
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social media. The focus here is less on the student articulation of ideas (in contrast to blogging), and more on what they share and why they share it. In other words, the content itself is the star. To be successful here, students need an eye for compelling content, as well as an understanding of the ways that various digital media can work together to tell a story.
3. Podcasting or VoiceThread While podcasting and VoiceThread have fundamental differences, they boil down to the ability for students to express themselves verbally around an idea important to them. To be successful here, students need to be comfortable talking, and to be able to do so in ways that are interesting to listen to. They also need strong audience awareness -- but then again, when don't they?
4. YouTube Channels YouTube is the ultimate digital distribution channel -- billions and billions and billions of views. It works, and it's staggeringly efficient, with a world of analytics and an instant global audience for any video that can find traction. Students can create review channels, perform music, humorously remix existing content, act, create documentaries, and a million other possibilities. Success here depends on a student's comfort level in front of a camera (if they're somehow performing), and/or an eye for standing out in front of said billions and billions of competing videos (if they're behind the camera or somehow producing). To work with YouTube -- and really with any of the above-mentioned media -- students need to have a strong awareness of both legal copyright issues and notions of digital citizenship. As a teacher encouraging them to find their voice, you are in a unique position to teach or reinforce these concepts.
Technology Upgrades Setting up On-line Study Groups for students http://thinkbinder.com/ Video -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZzzYOQsaUA&feature=colike http://langwitches.org/blog/2012/03/31/ipad-apps-and-blooms-taxonomy/ http://www.curriculum21.com/clearinghouse/ September 9th, 2013 Creating videos for flipped learning By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor @eSN_Meris
Vodcasting, otherwise known as video podcasting (vod stands for Video-On-Demand), has been around for a few years, but it’s thanks to the recent interest in flipped learning that educators are taking a closer look into the low-expense creation of education videos.
What do you need to make a vodcast?
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To begin making your own vodcast, which can be an entire lesson, concept, or explanation of a recent topic, Holden suggests having all software downloaded and beta-tested. This includes screencasting (video screen capture often containing audio narration) software, editing software (optional), and a place to post your vodcasts (or a place to post the video links).
Screencasting software for iPads includes: Replay Note ($4.99), Explain Everything ($2.99), Screenchomp (free), and ShowMe (free). Holden’s personal favorite is Explain Everything.
Screencasting software for a laptop or desktop includes: Jing (free), Snagit (free), Screencast-o-matic (free), Camtasia ($199, but reduced for educators), and aTube Catcher (free). aTube Catcher also exists for Mac.
atube Catcher is Holden’s favorite, he said, because it offers different options other than screencasts.
Third- and fourth-grade students at a Massachusetts elementary school are using the free online math program,SumDog.com
Apps to call on students randomly – This Educational Leadership item suggests three apps to cold-call students:
- Pick Me! www.classeapps.com/pick-me generates student names and keeps track of who’s called on.
- Class Cards http://classcardsapp.com lets the teacher quickly rate the quality of a student’s response and can put the student on hold until he or she is ready to respond.
- ClassDojo www.classdojo.com lets the teacher establish several desired behaviors – for example, participating in classroom discussions, working effectively with teams, or persisting with challenging work – and give students instant feedback. Students can create avatars and monitor their progress.
Bloom’s Taxonomy apps
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http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/09/blooms-taxonomy-apps-great- resource.html?goback=.gde_2811_member_271893813#!
6 Free Online Resources for Primary Source Documents SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 This post by MONICA BURNS originally appeared in Edutopia's TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION blog. Christopher Bell’s website – good tech resources here https://sites.google.com/a/isb.ac.th/technology-coaching-through-the-implementation-of- a-learning-management-system/home/technology-tips-tricks
Image credit: life.time.com
The Common Core Learning Standards describe the importance of teaching students how to comprehend informational text. They are asked to read closely, make inferences, cite evidence, analyze arguments and interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text. Primary source documents are artifacts created by individuals during a particular period in history. This could be a letter, speech, photograph or journal entry.
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If you're looking to integrate social studies into your literacy block, try out one of these resources for primary source documents.
1. National Archives The National Archives is a fantastic resource. Their website is easy to navigate and includes lots of teacher resources. They feature a daily historical document relating to an event from that day in history. The online catalog can be searched using keywords, and 100 "milestone" documents are identified as significant to American history.
Library of Congress Historical Thinking: The Library of Congress My favorite thing to do is find some resource on the LOC website, project it, and get students (or teachers) to start discussing the item and asking questions. The LOC has everything from maps and photographs to letters, paintings, and audio files. Let your students explore the resource, and then you can ask inquiry-type questions to foster the discussion.
http://www.loc.gov/index.html
2. DocsTeach Also run by the National Archives, DocsTeach is full of activities for educators. The documents are organized by different periods in American history. If you're teaching "Civil War and Reconstruction" or "Revolution and the New Nation," just click on the topic to find hundreds of primary source documents. DocsTeach provides audio, video, charts, graphs, maps and more.
3. Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a great resource for global history. It contains free encyclopedia entries that directly connect to primary source documents, making it a perfect tool for educators looking to give students a starting point in their research. It can even be used for a historical figure scavenger hunt!
4. Fordham University Fordham University is another good resource for global history. Similar to how DocsTeach organizes primary sources into periods of American history, this site categorizes documents as well. From the "Reformation" to "Post-World War II Religious Thought," teachers can find full texts available from Fordham or similar institutions. These sources are appropriate for the middle school and high school classroom.
5. The Avalon Project
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Broken down by time period then listed in alphabetical order, the Avalon Projectat Yale University also has primary sources for global history teachers. This database starts with ancient and medieval documents and moves into present times. In addition to categories that address specific historical periods, the Avalon Project includes links to human rights documents as part of Project Diana.
6. Life Magazine Photo Archive Google and Life Magazine have a wonderful search engine that lets users search millions of images from the Life Magazine Photo Archive. Not only can you type in key terms to guide your searches, you can also look through images organized by decade (1860s through 1970s) or significant people, places, events or sports topics.
Easy iPad Access Using iPads in your classroom? Check out these free apps for primary source documents:
• National Archives DocsTeach: access to documents and activities available on their website
• Today's Document: quick look and searchable database of documents connected to a specific date in history
• Quotable Americans: important quotes in American history with supporting images
• Manifest Destiny: information on Westward Expansion connected to John Gast's famous painting
• Building Titanic: National Geographic's app includes images and diagrams of this famous ocean liner
Where do you go to find primary source documents to use in your classroom?
• MONICA BURNS'S BLOG
14 Science Experiments on YOUTUBE http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1tcdHi
STEM RESOURCES
Elementary school
S The Lawrence Hall of Science: Students play games and have interactive, engaging experiences as they learn about all manner of science topics T EduBlogs: Secure blogging to help young students organize their thoughts and learn how to interact online E eGFI, from the American Society for Engineering Education, offers lesson plans, class activities, and outreach programs for students of all ages, including K-5 students.
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M Developed by a teacher, Math Cats is designed around open-ended and creative math exploration. Middle school S Through a free basic membership, students can use BioDigital Human to learn and virtually explore the human body. T Scratch: This programming resource is designed for children ages 8-16, and is perfect for middle school students who want to learn more about programming E Central Texas Discover Engineering: While this resource is Texas-based, the middle school engineering activities are engaging and encouraging. M Math Central: This safe site is maintained by teachers, faculty, and students at various Canadian universities. Students can ask questions, try out challenging math problems, and more. High school S Coaster Crafter: Building roller coasters is one way to learn about physics, and this resource helps students learn about force and motion while testing their constructions. T Prezi: High school students can learn how to create and give presentations on their own or with peers, learning valuable skills for college and the workforce E Engineer Your Life is an engineering guide for high school girls. M The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a library of interactive web-based virtual manipulatives and concept tutorials. The tools help engage students and prompt them to visualize mathematical relationships in unique ways.
Luhtala reviewed 50 apps that can help teachers and librarians organize materials, locate information and resources, and more. Her entire presentation is available here, and resources found in that presentation are available here (free registration is required in both cases).
Twenty-two apps are included below, and you can locate the rest via the two links above.
Utilities
Airdrop: Users receive a notification that someone wants to share something, they accept, and the resource is shared wirelessly.
Airplay: A neat AirPlay function is mirroring, in which users can take what they do on their phone and display it on a computer. If you add that with a screencasting tool, Luhtala said, you have fabulous tutorials that you’ve made on your phone.
Numbers
Google Sheets (iOS and Android): Create, edit, and collaborate with others on spreadsheets from your device with the free Google Sheets app.
OneReceipt: Store receipts in the cloud, automatically pull in eReceipts, organize spending, and scan receipts to enter electronically. A useful tool for teachers to keep track of school spending, and a nice way for students to learn about budgeting.
Information management
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Feedly (iOS and Android): Feedly is an RSS news reader re-imagined for mobile devices. It makes browsing faster and more fun: the content of your rss feeds, news sites and blogs are transformed into pocket-sized cards which load very fast and are easy to browse.
Flipboard: It’s a single place to discover, collect and share the news you care about. Add your favorite social networks, publications and blogs to stay connected to the topics and people closest to you.
News360: News360 is an app that learns what you enjoy and finds stories you’ll like around the web.
Pocket: This app helps people save interesting articles, videos and more from the web for later enjoyment. Once saved to Pocket, the list of content is visible on any device–phone, tablet or computer. It can be viewed while waiting in line, on the couch, during commutes or travel–even offline.
Pearltrees: Pearltrees is a place for your interests. This free app lets you organize, explore and share everything you like. Add web pages, files, photos or notes and organize them naturally. Explore amazing collections that relate to your interests and subscribe to their updates. Access your account anytime and share anything from your computer, mobile and tablet.
LastPass: LastPass is a password management app that saves your passwords and gives you secure access to them from every computer and mobile device. With LastPass, you only remember one password–your LastPass master password. LastPass will fill your logins for you and sync your passwords everywhere you need them.
Geography
Google Maps (iOS and Android): The Google Maps app for iPhone and iPad makes navigating your world faster and easier. Find the best spots in town and the information you need to get there.
Museum Finder: This app quickly identifies your location and lets you choose the nearest museum. When you select a listing, you can see the museum’s location on the map, the address, telephone number, and the distance from where you are. You can also call the museum directly by tapping on the phone icon on your iPhone.
World Explorer Gold: With more than 350,000 locations, it’s like having a professional tour guide always by your side. Using the speaker or headphones, listen to explanations about locations and resources. The app also has augmented reality features.
LibAnywhere: The library catalog is now available for your mobile phone! Search, discover, and interact with participating libraries–anywhere you are, right away.
History Pin: The Historypin app reveals photos near your current location and allows you to view them layered over the modern scene in front of you. You can also explore Collections of some of the best old photos from around the world, wherever you are.
What Was There: This app will detect where you are and show you any historic photographs that were captured nearby, plotted on a map. Switch into Camera view for an augmented reality experience of the history that surrounds you. If you’re at a location where a historic photo was taken, enlarge the photo to full screen mode to use your camera and the on screen fader to transition between past and present.
FieldTrip (iOS and Android): Field Trip can help you learn about everything from local history to the latest and best places to shop, eat, and have fun. You select the local feeds you like and the information pops up on your phone automatically, as you walk next to those places. Field Trip runs in the background on your
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phone. When you get close to something interesting, it will notify you and if you have a headset or Bluetooth connected, it can even read the info to you.
Images
iStopMotion Remote Camera: iStopMotion Remote Camera allows the use of the camera as a remote camera for iStopMotion running on an iPad (2 or newer, incl. iPad mini) or iStopMotion 3 on a Mac. The remote camera is connected via a WiFi connection.
iTimeLapse Pro: Create stunning time lapse and stop motion videos straight from any iphone, iPod, or iPad 2.
Strip Designer: Use this app to create your own personal comic strips, created on your iPad, iPhone or iPod, using photos from your photo album or iPhone camera.
Fuse: Get photos and videos from your mobile device to your favorite TechSmith desktop products. Import an existing photo or video, or capture something new using the app’s built-in camera. Then, send your video to TechSmith Relay, or use the editing power in Snagit and Camtasia to create custom, shareable content.
Twister: Take photographs, enhanced videos and panoramas in a snap. Watch your iPhone rotate automatically when you put it on a flat surface.
ED WEBS APP SITE http://www.pearltrees.com/mluhtala/edwebet49-apps-b-side/id11726005
As the new school year gets underway, NPR checked in with school technologists and teachers to see what digital tools they're using.
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i
The Remind app enables teachers to send notes to a class en masse. Here, Michael Buist, a fifth-grade teacher in Chandler, Ariz., notifies parents and students about a reading assignment via a voice message.
Elissa Nadworny/NPR
Remind
One of the most popular mobile apps we heard about was Remind. Think of it as a combo of sticky note and class newsletter for the digital age: Remind allows teachers to send messages — via email, cellphone, iPad or Android device — to an entire class with the push of a button.
Teachers are using it to notify parents and students about homework, highlight upcoming school events or let parents know what's going on in class.
An estimated 18 million people have downloaded Remind, the company says, with 200,000 to 300,000 new users coming on board per day. In states like Texas and Mississippi, the company says, 1 out of 4 teachers uses Remind.
Remind has recently added a voice messaging function, which Michael Buist, a fifth-grade teacher at Knox Gifted Academy in Chandler, Ariz., loves. His class is currently reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. To tell the class and their parents about the next reading assignment, Buist recorded one student, 10-year-old Robert Turner, reading a paragraph.
"We're so happy with all this technology," says Sarah Turner, Robert's mother. "Robert has dysgraphia, a handwriting disability, so doing things with technology has really helped him."
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i
ClassDojo lets teachers note students' positive and negative behaviors during class — with a point system as well as nice and not-so-nice sounds.
Elissa Nadworny/NPR
ClassDojo
ClassDojo might be described as a way to help students find their classroom mojo. The app lets teachers recognize both positive and negative behavior in real time during class.
Good behavior — like working hard, helping others, asking a good question — earns points and a high- pitched game-show chime for all to hear. Poor behavior — like disrupting class, being off task or wasting time — results in a loss of points and a sad, out-of-tune bass sound. The kids choose fun avatars — a purple bear with yellow lips and horn, a one-eyed furry gray creature — and parents who sign up for notifications receive updates on how their children are doing.
ClassDojo works on cellphones and tablets, as well as outdated Web browsers like Internet Explorer 8. And that's by design.
"We want teachers to be able to use ClassDojo regardless of how much money their school or district has," says Manoj Lamba, ClassDojo's marketing lead. The company estimates that at least one teacher at one- third of all U.S. schools uses the app.
Libby Gronquist credits ClassDojo for getting her through her first years of teaching eighth-grade social studies at KIPP Liberation College Prep in Houston.
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She connected ClassDojo to the class speakers so everyone could hear the app's sounds — good and bad.
"It made all my students hyperaware of their behavior," says Gronquist. "They all wanted that positive sound to be theirs."
Since the app debuted three years ago, it's developed new features that enable messaging and photo-sharing between parents and teachers.
Brenda Johnson was introduced to ClassDojo last year when her son Austin, 10, was a third-grader at Penngrove Elementary School in Rohnert Park, Calif. She says the app gave her a better understanding of what was happening in the classroom and helped spark conversation at home.
"Austin needed it. He'd come home from school and want to know how he did," says Johnson. "If he hadn't done well we could talk about it, so it became a conversation about his behavior."
i
Teachers are using QR scanners like i-nigma in a variety of ways, including showcasing students' work online.
Elissa Nadworny/NPR
QR Code Readers
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Teachers are also trying to break the QR code — that's "quick response" code, a kind of digital bar code.
Among them is Ed Campos, a math and tech teacher at Visalia Charter Independent Study high school in Visalia, Calif. He recently emailed parents requesting they download QR code readers in preparation for the school's upcoming open house.
To show off his students' digital work, Campos plans to leave QR codes throughout the classroom so parents can scan them with their smartphones to access online portfolios.
Campos, a self-declared tech fanatic, incorporates technology into the majority of his assignments. Student work includes Google presentations and video testimonials; they will also use a website — QRStuff — to create QR codes that lead their parents to their online work.
"We're using QR codes to link the physical to the digital," Campos says. He recommends i-nigma as his QR code scanner of choice.
i
Students tweet about historical events they've learned in teacher Nicholas Ferroni's Union High School history class in New Jersey. Twitter handles have been blurred to protect students' privacy.
Elissa Nadworny/NPR
Other teachers are employing the mobile apps their students are already using to reinforce classroom lessons and encourage kids to continue their discussions online.
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Students of Nicholas Ferroni, a history teacher at Union High School in Union, N.J., send tweets sprinkled with emoji that describe historical events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911 or the British Stamp Act of 1765.
He's also embracing his students' digital lives in other ways, such as asking them to create memes using photos related to what they're studying in class. For example, a student paired a picture of a typewriter with the line: "Macintosh ... I am your father!" The students can then share the images on their own social media platforms.
Ferroni also uses everyday apps such as Vine, Facebook and Instagram, and recommends Poptok, a game structured like Candy Crush that teaches 1 of 11 languages.
i
Teachers are using Socrative, a polling app, not only to quiz their students about what they're learning, but also to learn more about the students themselves.
Elissa Nadworny/NPR
Socrative
As its name suggests, Socrative relies on questions: In its simplest form, Socrative is a polling app. Teachers set up questions — multiple choice, short answer or true/false. Students use their version of the app to receive questions and submit answers.
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"Socrative is a very easy, simple way to get a feel for your classroom," says Chris McEnroe, an English teacher at Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass.
McEnroe uses the app — which is also free and multiplatform — to find out everything from what students' favorite flavor of ice cream is, to their thoughts on a character in an assigned reading.
The app tracks and records the answers, and can generate reports based on the results. When shared, McEnroe says, the results connect students with similar views.
His biggest teaching challenge, he says, is trying to get an emotional reaction from his students. He finds he gets those introspective answers when students can respond to questions through their smartphones.
"Reaching students on their phones, a space where they are alone and it's personal, is a way to do it that the students don't find threatening," he says.
The answers also help inform how McEnroe interacts with students and designs future class discussions.
"In addition to opening communication, digital tools create data for teachers to make teaching decisions that suit the individuals in front of them," McEnroe says.
The information is particularly helpful for students who seem reserved or disinterested. These types of digital tools, McEnroe says, "have completely changed my approach to students."
summative notes/Utilizing Rubrics (1).pdf
Utilizing Rubrics as Assessment Tools
What is a rubric? A rubric is a scoring and instructional tool used to assess student performance using a task-specific range or set of criteria. To measure student performance against this pre- determined set of criteria, a rubric contains the essential criteria for the task and levels of performance (i.e., from poor to excellent) for each criterion. Most rubrics are designed as a one- or two-page document formatted with a table or grid that outlines the learning criteria for a specific lesson, assignment or project. Rubrics can be created in a variety of forms and levels of complexity, but they all: • focus on measuring a stated objective (performance, behavior, or quality) • use a range to rate performance • contain specific performance characteristics arranged in levels indicating the degree
to which a standard has been met Two major types of rubrics:
A holistic rubric involves one global, holistic rating with a single score for an entire product or performance based on an overall impression. These are useful for summative assessment where an overall performance rating is needed, for example, portfolios.
An analytical rubric divides a product or performance into essential traits that are judged separately. Analytical rubrics are usually more useful for day-to-day classroom use since they provide more detailed and precise feedback to the student. Assessing student learning Rubrics provide instructors with an effective means of learning-centered feedback and evaluation of student work. As instructional tools, rubrics enable students to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of their work and learning. As assessment tools, rubrics enable faculty to provide detailed and informative evaluations of students’ work. Advantages of using rubrics: • They allow assessment to be more objective and consistent. • They clarify the instructor’s criteria in specific terms. • They clearly show students how their work will be evaluated and what is expected. • They promote awareness of the criteria to use when students assess peer performance. • They provide benchmarks against which to measure progress. • They reduce the amount of time teachers spend evaluating student work by allowing
them to simply circle an item in the rubric. • They increase students' sense of responsibility for their own work. Rubrics are powerful tools for both teaching and assessment. They can improve student performance, as well as monitor it, by making teachers' expectations clear and showing students how to meet those expectations. Students become increasingly able to spot and solve problems in their own and others’ work, resulting in improvement in its quality. Cited from: http://www.thinkinggear.com/tools/rubrics_about.cfm
Steps for creating a rubric
1. Define your assignment or project This is the task you are asking your students to perform. 2. Decide on a scale of performance These can be a level for each grade (A-F) or three levels (outstanding, acceptable, not acceptable; Great job, Okay, What happened?). These are listed at the top of the grid. 3. Identify the criteria of the task These are the observable and measurable characteristics of the task. They are listed in the left-hand column. They can be weighted to convey the relative importance of each. 4. Describe the performance of each criterion These descriptors indicate what performance looks like at each level. They offer specific feedback. Use samples of student work to help you determine quality work. Suggestions for use:
• Hand out the rubric with the assignment. Return the rubric with the performance descriptors circled.
• Have students develop their own rubrics for a project. • Have students use the rubric for self-assessment or peer assessment.
See rubric template. Free online rubric builders (just log in) iRubric: http://rcampus.com RubiStar: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php RubricBuilder: http://www.thinkinggear.com/tools/rubrics.cfm Websites with basic rubric information: http://jonathan.mueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox http://www.instruction.greenriver.edu/facultyteachingresources/Rubric Design/Rubric Homepage.htm http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/rubrics/weblessons.htm Subject-specific rubric examples: http://www.calstate.edu/AcadAff/SLOA/links/rubrics.shtml Writing http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/distance_learning/writing_rubric.shtml
