Prof Xavier

Running head: SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 1

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT 7

Summative Assessment

Leslie Bethea

Ashford University

Edu 673

Dr. Susan Adragna

November 23, 2015

Summative Assessment

Introduction

This assessment will be based on the standards expected for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. The Common Core State Standard that will be assessed specifically will be the reading standards for literature K-5 for grade 5 students.

Standards help to focus instruction each year and ensure that students are exposed to the required range of text and tasks. In particular the assessment is aimed at assessing the first four goals of the standard (California Common Core Standards, 2010). These are: the student should accurately quote from a text and when drawing conclusions from the text. The student should be able to determine the theme, of a poem, drama or story including how the characters responded to challenges, the reflections of a speaker in a poem and summarize text.

Compare and contrast character settings in a drama or story by pulling from specific details in the text. The last being to determine the words and meaning of words and phrases as used in a text including similes and metaphors among others.

Unit Goals

The four goals mentioned above will be measured in various ways.

In the first goal, the student should be able to quote from a text and draw conclusions from it. The students therefore should be able to state what a character was saying in a given scene of a drama for example with 80 percent accuracy. This is a call for the development and test of a student to memorize and recall facts as they were stated in the material under study. It is the sort of goal that challenges a teacher to strive at ensuring the students gain the required skill by using teaching methods that cater for all sorts of learning styles in relation to individual students.

The second goal was to ensure that a student can determine the theme of a given text, can tell the challenges faced by a character and summarize the text or the speaker's reflections. To assess this, the student should be able to discuss these aspects of a text given when asked to about 90% of what is expected.

The third goal was that the students should be able to compare and contrast the character settings of a given text by drawing on its specific details. The goal would be for the student to analyze the different character settings come up with a logical conclusion on their distinctions. They should be able to do this with a 70% level of accuracy.

The last goal hopes to drive the teachers to make students learn how to read in between the lines. Understanding of words without prior knowledge of them is possible when you read it within the context that it was used. Students can learn how to do this by being given text with words that can be considered as new vocabulary to the fifth grade age bracket. This would best be done within an exam situation where they do not have the luxury of referring elsewhere.

Since it is best to introduce as few words as possible to the students so as not to frustrate them in learning, individual assessment is not suitable in this situation. A good measure of learning in this situation would be for the teacher to ensure that at least 60% of the students have gained this skill at a level of distinction.

Measurement of Mastery

Either one of the above goals will be measured by the use of a written assignment. To measure if students can compare and contrast between character settings of a given test, a drama to be read will be given as homework. The required reading will have characters who are faced with different situations and who are forced into making different decisions based on these situations.

The students should be able to evaluate these situations and relate to how the characters felt when they were under these circumstances. The deliverable for this assignment would be a written report about the different character settings identified and what the students liked or disliked about the decisions of the characters. The assignment is designed to enable the student learn about the rationale behind decision making and the art of structuring your thoughts into a persuasive argument in support for or against a given decision. It will also measure comprehension skills. The student should have a score of not less than 70%.

Formative Assessments

According to Black and William (2009), the purpose of a formative assessment is not for the instructor to rank the student's performance but to gauge how the method of teaching resulted in the decide grasp of concept. The teacher using this sort of assessment should observe the students, ask questions and if possible get a genuine self assessment from them. He or she should then go forth and use the data obtained from the self assessment to come up with an improved method of instruction for ensuring the concept is well grasped the next time it is taught.

Formative assessments must take into consideration the various ways in which our brains learn. We learn through our senses of smell, touch, sight, taste and hearing. Different individuals respond to the various senses differently and as a result this influences how best we learn. It is from this point of view that the three formative assessments will be structured.

The first assessment would be a classroom discussion involving the whole class. In this lesson the teacher will write on the board a question in relation to the previous lesson. For example, if the previous lesson was on the different features of the poem, an excerpt from a poem will be written on the board and students will be provoked into discussing the poem. This method of assessment will be based mainly on reading and listening.

In the process, the instructor will get to know how much of the previous lesson was understood and by what percentage of the class. The teacher will also be able to assess the confidence the students have in their knowledge from how they argue their points and how they respond to questions from the teacher. Depending on how the students engage in the classroom the instructor will be able to proceed or go back to the previous lesson with a new method of teaching.

The second assessment will involve students listening to an audio of a recorded drama. Care will be taken to use a recording with a good narrator and with the most catching sound effects. The teacher will then ask the students questions about the characters in the drama, the different situations the characters were in, the theme of the drama and the general tone that the author of the among several other things.

The aim of the above assessment would be to find out the effect of the use of audio in instruction. Particular it will be used to assess how students individually respond to this sort of learning style. The teacher will ask the students who do not fair well in reading based assignments most of the questions.

The last would be a classroom presentation in groups after viewing a short animation of a given short story. The students would be divided into groups that answer a specific question I relation to the clip. The whole group would then go to the front of the classroom with charts that show their responses.

Each individual in the group will be required to play their part in the presentation. The aim of this exercise would be two things: to observe the individual students during their group discussion and the eventual presentation and to assess how they respond to visual stimuli as opposed to audio or written material. The data from the observations will be used to modify future instruction in relation to group discussions and visual aid in learning.

All in all, conclusions drawn from the three different lessons will be incorporated into the future lesson plans of the teacher. The different learning orientations tested in this context, that is, reading, listening and visual instruction will then be used occasionally depending on the resources available and the level of difficulty of concepts to be taught. Students can also be given individual attention depending on which method best suits them according to the observations the teacher would have made.

Conclusion

An instructor who is aware that different students have different learning abilities and learning styles should ensure that he or she keeps this in mind when making a lesson plan. Thus, lesson plans are supposed to be guided by the common core state standards for the particular subject, age and grade. Teachers should be observant in each situation where they are instructing students in order to ensure that they get as much data as possible on whether learning is happening or not. They should therefore come up with lesson plans in a thoughtful manner and execute them with an equal level of attention. It is only through such conscious teaching that students will get to university with the desired level of proficiency in the various disciplines of study.

References

Black, P., & William, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability (formerly: Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education), 21(1), 5-31.

California Common Core State Standards (2010). English Language Arts & Literacy in

History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf

Gardner, J. N., & Gardner, J. (Eds.). (2012). Assessment and learning. Sage.