Comments are due no later than Friday, April 7 at noon sharp.
Write a reflective extended response on your experience so far assessing student learning.
Use the following guiding questions to aid you in your response.
How did your choice of assessment method work for the goal you were seeking to evaluate?
What information did you glean, and how was that valuable in analyzing student learning and progress?
How did the assessment aid you in future instructional planning?
What is one glow and one grow that you would assign yourself for this first Key Assessment?
For my key assessment, I sought to assess whether or not my students could tell time to the minute. I chose to assess this by asking students to draw a time that I verbally provided. We also played a version of Bingo called Time-o that had times instead of numbers in the squares. My choice of assessment worked very well for evaluating my goal. The students had to show that they could accurately draw a time and also interpret a time for Time-o. The nature of the assessment meant they couldn't guess and had to do their own work.
ReplyDeleteI learned that one of my students had mastered this learning goal and that the other had mastered putting his hour hand at the right place but not the minute hand yet. This was valuable for me because I knew what I had to work on with that student and knew how to help him see where to put his minute hand. It also told me that both of them had made great progress since the beginning of the unit where they had no idea how to tell or represent time.
The assessment will aid me in future planning because it tells me that pretty much all of my students know where to at least place the hour hand when evaluating time. Where some of them mess up from time to time is where to place the minute hand, so the assessment has helped me narrow down where their area of need is.
One glow that I would assign myself was that teaching the unit felt fun and purposeful for the students and they really enjoyed it. They really bought into the practical benefits of learning time and were serious about it. One grow I would assign myself would be to give more written formative assessments where I could give written feedback so that common errors like where to put the minute hand could be diagnosed and shored up throughout the unit.
All in all, this was a very helpful assignment and provided lots of reflection opportunities for this unit. Thank you for reading!
-Andrew H.
My selected assessment method for this assessment episode was an exit ticket. My SLO for the assessment episode required students to write and interpret two-digit numbers as addition sentences that combine tens and ones. For students to be able to demonstrate their understanding of this SLO, I think an exit ticket worked well. Students could apply what they learned during the lesson directly to the problems on the exit ticket. One downside of the exit ticket, is that it may not demonstrate what a student knows if they are confused about the questions or unclear about the directions. Some students require a little more scaffolding, which an exit ticket does not provide. For example, Student B in my episode struggled with the exit ticket, but during her feedback conference she demonstrated more understanding of the concept than her exit ticket showed.
ReplyDeleteOverall, the exit ticket provided valuable information not only for the two students in my assessment episode, but also whole class understanding. When reviewing the exit tickets, I was able to quickly see which students demonstrated mastery and which students struggled with the skill. This allowed me to consider how I would approach later lessons. What visuals or additional opportunities to check understanding could I incorporate in my lessons? What can I do to support the struggling students? The very next day, I was able to highlight a misconception I saw in the exit tickets as part of the intro to the new lesson. Additionally, I found that I could group students based by misconceptions and provide more structured conferencing support in later lessons. Overall, I saw in the exit tickets that most students did demonstrate an understanding of the concept taught in my assessment episode lesson.
One thing that really stood out in the exit tickets overall, was that students struggled with the self-feedback question. I got several vague answers to this question, which showed me that my students overall do not know how to self-assess. This is not surprising as they are only in the first grade, but this assignment did help identify a glaring area of growth for the whole class. In future planning, I know I need to focus on helping students critically evaluate their own answers and the answers of the peers. Additionally, I want to help them practice justifying their answers. Being able to think critically and justify answers in math are some key practice standards in the CCSS, and I want to begin to build those skills in my students.
One grow I would assign myself, is allowing more space and time for students to construct their responses. In my feedback conferences, I wasn’t always comfortable with giving the students the time and space to really think about the question I had posed. When a student didn’t respond right away, I prompted with another question. I think scaffolding is important, but I also need to improve my comfort with wait time. I think the wait time is important to make sure students have enough time to process the question and think through it before answering. In my next key assessment episode, this is something I want to practice doing more of.
One glow I would assign myself, is that I think I provided thorough next instructional steps for each student in my assessment episode. I thought critically about what both their exit ticket and feedback conferences demonstrated about their understanding, and I considered ways I could best support them individually. Their results in the assessment were very different, so I had to individualize and differentiate what the best next steps would be. I think we don’t often get a chance to focus so critically on only two students, and this practice helped me to consider these two students’ needs. I was very detailed in my descriptions of what I thought they needed to go next and what supports I would provide to each of them.
- Rebecca R.
I have found this class to be invaluable so far; not only has it helped me to feel more comfortable about tackling the EdTPA but it has also helped to think about the importance of assessment from all angles. Before taking this class I had thought that assessment was primarily for the teacher to gauge student understanding but I know see that it is of equal value to the student, provided that the student is given meaningful feedback.
ReplyDeleteI have been working with a small group of students over the semester, giving them verbal and written feedback to their ELA test prep written responses. As such, I decided to conduct student conferences as my chosen method of assessment for the key assessment project. I have found this method of assessment to be the most useful on both ends because the discussion enables me to understand the student’s decision and they in turn can ask any clarifying questions they may have about the feedback I’ve given.
During the key assessment I was able to learn a lot about the students whose work I was assessing. I not only learned more about their educational history but through our conferences I was able to really understand the processes that they used to find the answers to their written responses. Learning more about these students ability to meet the selected learning objectives helped me plan for next lessons and what the focus of our conferences should be.
The students I chose displayed a very clear grasp of the chosen learning objectives and thus my next steps did not include spending more time on the originally chosen SLOs, as they did not need extra time with these. I decided that the next logical step would be to spend time assessing their ability to answer multiple choice questions as this is another essential skill needed for the ELA state tests, and these students have proven their mastery of the writing component.
One glow that I would assign myself is that my project was concise and clearly and logically laid out, with relevant information given for each section. One grow that I would give myself is that I could have explained the DOK levels more extensively for each objective. This is one area that I will seek to improve upon for part II of this assignment.
- Kate O'Brien
ReplyDeleteReflecting on my key assessment, I didn’t find my assessment method super effective. I decided to have individual conferences with two individual students about their work. While going over the incorrect answers and discussing strategies that were effective, both scholars really struggled to self-reflect. I tried very hard to scaffold and prompt their thinking, yet, it was nearly impossible for them to articulate glows and grows on their own. I felt like I had to supply the answers for them. Based on what I have observed in their classroom, there is little opportunity for self-reflection. I don’t believe either scholar had prior experience critically thinking about their work, which resulted in difficult conferences. To ensure that my method was effective, I followed up the conferences with individual letters to the students. The letters clearly articulated the students’ glows/grows and had specific next steps that could be implemented immediately.
The scholars at my school are taught nearly half a dozen strategies for reading comprehension. At some point, the strategies almost seem to take away from their ability to comprehend. I was able to obtain this information through the conferences I had with scholars. For example, neither Malia nor Belinda could really articulate why they were using the strategies. It seemed as if their time is being directed towards using strategies for the sake of using them opposed to doing them to help them find the right answers. That being said, some strategies are more beneficial to some scholars than others. Now that the teachers have given each scholar a toolbox of strategies, they should be able to pick which work best for them.
If Malia and Belinda’s teachers knew they couldn’t articulate the reason for the annotations, they would be horrified. Planning for the future, it is so critical to teach the why. Throughout my teaching at after school, I have received a lot of feedback regarding the “why” component. A lot of times, that part can be lost on scholars.
On this key assessment, I did a strong job with the school context. I set a clear picture for the reader and I included vivid and relevant details of the two students I picked. On the next key assignment, I will select a different method. The conference wasn’t effective in garnering high level self-reflective feedback.
- Ashley
As I considered the lessons to observe for my assessment episode, I knew I would have to find targeted lessons amongst a sea of test prep. I tried to look for a lesson that was more meaningful to my students, rather than a litany of multiple choice questions or extended responses to a banal passage. Luckily, we were in the process of finishing up Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Patillo Beals, so I got that opportunity. By looking at students’ final essays for this book, I was able to see how they gathered meaningful themes from a text and applied them to their essay writing. While this would of course help them on the ELA exam, it felt more meaningful than the normal test prep.
ReplyDeleteOne of my grows was in my preparation for the lesson observation and my chosen students. I chose two students with very different needs, but who both have IEPs. I thought it was very interesting personally to look at how different each student was, even though they both required services. It shows the wide range of SPED students and allowed me to focus on different levels that are present in the classroom. This created a really interesting episode that I really enjoyed completing.
Additionally, I think both students responded really well at the beginning of the feedback conference. I did a good job of asking them initially what they thought about their own writing, and was able to really start with the positive and celebrate those successes before moving on to constructive feedback. Therefore, they were very receptive to constructive feedback and how they could improve moving forward.
I think there are two areas where I can really grow. The first is in my preparation for the specific conferences. Looking back at the transcriptions, I talked way too much, especially after the first few minutes. I need to focus on improving my questioning techniques so that my students thoughts can be more the focus of my feedback sessions. I hope to guide the conversation, but I want the session to much more reflective on their end, which means I need to talk less. Better advanced planning will help me achieve this goal.
Additionally, I want to follow up with my students somehow. I like Ashley’s idea to give them a short letter summarizing what they discussed. This allowed them to see the feedback visually, as well as hear it. While it is impossible to do this every time I give a student feedback, I think it can make important feedback more memorable. Students receive feedback a million times a day, so this will help them better retain what we talked about and use it moving forward.
These two changes will allow my students to better understand the exact steps they need to take moving forward, and then will give them a reference to look back at in order to remember this feedback. I look forward to implementing these new strategies in my second assessment,
-Daniel Hurwitz
For the key assessment I was working with a third grade class. At the time the third grades were preparing for the state test, so they had been working with different short readings and answering multiple choice and short answer questions. This was happening for the past few months, so the students were really familiar with the material and what was expected of them. I used the state test practice questions, particularly the short response, as an assessment and I then had a conference with the students about their work. Once again, this was something that the students were familiar with and understood how the conference would be structured. The conference was a good way to evaluate the assessment because it allowed the students to share their thinking and made it easier for me to provide feedback on their work. This was direct feedback and I was able to work one on one with student to help improve their writing. I enjoyed having the conference for writing and I would be curious to see if I had the same opinion with other subjects and assessments.
ReplyDeleteWhat information did you glean, and how was that valuable in analyzing student learning an progress?
Since I did individual conferences with students, after they completed the assessment, I was able to spend one on one time with each student to figure out where they were at after writing their short response. These students had a “formula” as to how these questions needed to be answered, and since it was 2 months of preparing for state test, the students only knew how to answer short answers one way. While this set up was good for organizing their work, I sometimes worried that they didn’t really understand why they picked the sentences they wrote. By having these conferences I was able to work to take the time to go through their thought process and help them decide whether or not the sentence was strong or weak. Instead of me saying an answer was right or wrong, we were able to sit together and go through each line.
I know that assessments are important in order to figure out where the students and teachers are with the lesson or unit, but one thing that I never really considered was how important feedback is for the student. Feedback is a chance for the student to learn and grow, and can be just as valuable as the beginning lesson. One thing that I have started to do with my student’s assessments, especially in math and writing, is to take the time to call each student over and have a small chat about how the assessment, no matter the kind, is going. The student may not be done, but I will work with them through one question or one sentence and see what we can do to help support the student’s learning. I have really started to value that time and enjoy seeing what is and what is not working for each student.
A glow I would give myself during the first assessment was preparing and thinking about the assessment I would use and how it would most benefit my students. I knew the students in my class were worried about state test and since I would be evaluating their writing, I knew that I would be able to provide the most feedback through this assessment. I have really learned about important feedback is for students, so I wanted to make sure that whatever assessment I picked, it would be one where I was comfortable and confident in giving feedback. As for a grow I would assign myself for the first key assessment is to think for carefully about what students I would be assessing. I think I wanted to find strong students because I wanted them to do well, but I think I would have been able to provide more information in my key assessment if I had picked students that were struggling with the topic. This would have also forced me to provide more feedback and think about other ways in which I could better support my students.
Assessing student learning has been a new but exciting process for me. Assessing student learning has helped me to closely monitor students’ progress and to be able to note their strengths and weaknesses. My choice of assessment method worked well for the goal that I was seeking to evaluate because I was able to see the students thought process written on paper step by step. I was also able to clearly see what steps the students were struggling and having a hard time with. My assessment method was a math quiz. The students were simply given pencil and the paper with questions on it to answer. If I was doing an ELA assessment with the students, I believe that a structured observation or individual student conferences may have been better. For my episode II, I plan on doing a method like this which may be more interactive. The paper and pencil method was more efficient and was able to be done in short length of time.
ReplyDeleteThe information that I gathered and took in was information from their IEP, in-class observation and one-on-one conversations with students. This information was valuable in analyzing student learning and progress because I had a greater and clearer profile of where they were at as a learner.
The assessment will aid me in future instructional planning because I realized that I need to do more guided reading and conferences. I would like to do more guided math and math conferences with my students because I believe this method is also effective. This assessment also helped me to see if my students are learning and what my students are learning. It better helps me to see what type of differentiation is needed. Doing the assessments also helped me to see that regular assessments are crucial. Assessments also help to form planning and intervention, which are especially important when students are not progressing.
One glow that I would assign myself for this first Key Assessment is the feedback that I provided the students that I assessed. I feel that I should have presented an equal number of good things and incorrect things that they did.One grow that I would assign myself for this first Key Assessment is to find more differentiated ways to support a next cycle of steps for my students.
-Sherelyn Damour
The assessment method I chose was a structured observation with a debrief. I chose this assessment method in order to assess if my students reached my specific learning objective: identify and interpret the features of procedural texts by listing and defining them in their own words. I chose structured observation because I knew this would give me the most accurate results. I knew this because my two target students do not produce their best possible work when they are aware that they are being observed (during a one on one or small group for example). I actually considered my student’s personalities when choosing this rationale much more than choosing it in order to “best” assess the goal. I believe it was still a great choice but I now know that for the second episode, I will focus more on which method is particularly best suited for my specific learning objective.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I am interested in changing how I view my method rationale for the next episode, it was ultimately a successful method. Usually I only collect exit slips and judge whether or not my scholars understand concepts on paper but for this episode, things changed. Being able to walk around with clipboard and observe my two target students in a very structured manner really gave me some insight as to how they think.
The way that the two students interacted with their groupmates and even responded to questions verbally at their tables showed me that they knew more than what was on their exit slips. This was information that I ultimately did attain gradually and although in an ideal world it would have been nice to get it immediately on paper, I was able to learn more than I thought I would about my two students. This was very helpful in planning my conference and so I find that this method was successful in not only assessing my specific learning objective but also in allowing me to attain information on my students which did in fact help me analyze their learning progress. Had I not learned about their learning styles and the verbal answers they shared at their tables I would not have been able to understand their successes in mastering this goal as well as I did.
This assessment helped me much more than I expected it would in regard to my future instructional planning. I honestly was not providing my students with enough or almost any written feedback and now I feel confident in doing so. I am at the end of my unit learning progression (extended from this episode) and almost daily, I find myself either writing my scholars notes on their slips and verbally speaking with them about their work and progress. I will also be working on the edTPA next week and I feel comfortable with the required feedback I must submit proof of. Had I not done this assignment, my feedback may not have been or may not be as effective in the future.
One glow from this first key assessment is how structured I kept everything. My structured observation was not the only part of the assignment where I pre-planned and structured everything with purpose (the entire assignment was). I think I did a very good job of organizing and presenting the episode in a clear and logical manner. A grow I definitely have is moving forward with next steps even if they are not directly attached to the goal. I found that I didn’t include next steps clearly because I felt that my students mastered the learning objective but, I could have still provided them with a grow and steps on how to address it. There is always room for growth and I could have shown my scholars this during our debrief conference. I will make sure to incorporate this in my second key assessment episode.
My choice of assessment was a combination of methods. Students were completing a worksheet provided by the teachers. In addition to that I interviewed my three students to hear more about their thinking and processes. I enjoyed doing the conferences. It was a great way to know more about the students' knowledge and abilities then just reading the worksheet. I was able to ask more probing questions and find out not just what they know, but how they know it.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore the method aligned with my goals. I was able to ask targeted questions about captions and their purpose. Also the worksheet provided had a second purpose of testing reading comprehension. This was something that I decided not to include in my analysis as it was not related to the SLOs I choose.
The information I gleaned was student thinking. I was able to hear more about the students process and how they got particular answers. I also learned how important it is to plan questions. I tried to be consistent when speaking with each student, but feel that I unintentionally may have provided one student with more scaffolding. The conference method really helped me understand the student learning. By analyzing their written word, as well as our conversations, I could really see their progress. The conference gave me more information and confirmed that my subset of student had accorded proficiency or mastery of that particular SLO.
The assessment helped me identify the individual students strengths and weaknesses. Feedback is also crucial in the context of planning, however I feel I did not best utilize this part of the assessment episode. Typically assessment helps me decide if students need additional time on a skill or if they are ready to move on. During this assessment I found that students used the skill correctly and could progress to the next objective in that unit. Following the unit plan I suggested students begin to incorporate captions in their own writing. This objective also moves to the next DOK level, thus pushing students critical thinking. Another way I have used assessments in the past is to pre-assess. This helps me refine the unit I am teaching. It also prepares me to differentiate for students and lets me know who will be in my small group or needs extra conferencing.
One glow I would give myself is the unit progression and student context. I took a lot of time to get the relevant information from my teachers and students. I did my best to include pertinent information, such as F&P levels. A grow for me on the assessment episode and beyond is giving feedback. I feel that I only gave student surface information rather then pushing their thinking. In the future I would also want to give students an opportunity to self-assess do that I can better understand their rationale. I also gave students limited time to implement my feedback. In the future I need to give students more input and more time to try it out.
-Maria Kakurina
ReplyDeleteWhen I was assessing my students learning, I knew that it was only through their writing that I would be able to pinpoint whether or not they were correctly using text evidence to support their answers. After reading a 4th grade level text, students were given the writing objective which required them to refer to their reading to answer. Successful completion of the objection would yield a restate of the question, an sufficient answer, and two pieces of text evidence to support their answer. It is much clearer to see how students are thinking through and organizing their answers to text questions through their writing rather than through their speaking.
In this case, in order for me to understand and analyze how the students were producing their answers was by looking at their reading passages first. They have been taught from the beginning of the year to annotate and underline key information in the passage. They also were taught to write one sentence summaries. It is through their summaries that I was also able to see if they comprehended what they just read or not. This would also be a good indicator if their written responses would have been sufficient. Also, seeing them going back to the text to directly look for answers to the written questions and annotating their answers was also a way for me to analyze student learning and progress.
In future instructional planning I believe I would have used the students annotations and one sentence summaries as a checkpoint and a formative assessment. At this part of the lesson, if students did not understand the text, then they would worked with either one on one or in a small group setting to master comprehension of the text. It is only through comprehension of the text that they will be able to successfully master the objective.
One glow that I could assign myself for this first key assessment is my feedback to the students. I believe I did a great job pinpointing what it is I believe they could improve and relaying that information to them. A grow that I believe I had was choosing an objective that was not so closely linked and contingent upon another. It became messy for one of my students who had not mastered the prior reading objective and my focus objective was not feasible for her.
-Lexi Kalaitzidis