A common misconception among educators is that the role of providing feedback belongs exclusively to teachers. A simple shift in perspective which provides students with opportunities to monitor their own progress and reflect on their own learning empowers students and motivates them to learn. Marzano (2006) posits that there are three assessment techniques that encourage learning: 1) students tracking their own progress, 2) encouraging self-reflection and 3) focusing on learning at the end of the grading period.  

The first two assessment techniques allow students to engage in self-assessment. In the first instance, the author suggests the use of an individual line graph (for each student) which provides students with a visual representation of their progress during the grading period. It also provides them with a means to create their own learning goals and to determine their own meaning of success in terms of their own learning versus their rank in comparison to other members of the class.

In the second instance, a teacher can provide students with a simplified scoring scale whereby they score themselves on a scale of 0 to 4 (4 being he highest and 0 being the lowest) on each topic taken up during the grading period. Other means to encourage self-reflection is through the use of the "minute paper" and the "diagnostic learning log" introduced by K. Patricia Cross (1988). The minute paper requires students to answer the following questions briefly towards the end of class:

     1)    "What is the most important thing you learned in class today?" and

     2)  "What is the main unanswered question you leave class with today?" 
(p. 6) 

In the diagnostic learning log, students are asked to respond to the following questions:

      "1. Briefly describe the assignment you just completed. What do you think was the purpose of this assignment?

        2.  Give an example of one or two of your most successful responses. Explain what you did that made them successful.

        3.  Provide an example of where you made an error or where your responses were less complete? Why were these items incorrect or less successful?

         4.  What can you do different when preparing next week’s assignment?" (p. 9)

 After finishing this module, I realized that at our school, students are provided with many opportunities to practice self-assessment inside the classroom and outside the classroom on their own. With the introduction of Learning Management systems such as Schoology and Edmodo by our Computer Department, students can log-on in class or at home to see their grades online in real-time. They can leave notes and comments on each topic which they can come back to later to remind them of areas or topics where they need to improve or to do further research or study. Because feedback is instantaneous, they can set their own learning goals and define their own success without the pressure of comparing their progress to that of their classmates.   

References: 

Marzano, R. (2006) Classroom assessment & grading that work. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Cross, K. P. (1998) Classroom research: Implementing the scholarship of teaching. In T. Angelo (Ed.), Classroom assessment and research: An update on uses, approaches and research findings (pp. 5-12). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

 

After reading the assigned materials, I realized that ideally, traditional and authentic assessment must be used together "synergistically" (to quote one of my classmates, Amric Mendoza) and the challenge for us educators is how to balance their use for classroom assessment purposes. In her book "Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximise Student Learning,(2003), Dr. Lorna Earl posits a revolutionary idea that assessment and learning are "intimately and inextricably intertwined." By discussing the three approaches to classroom assessment, namely Assessment of Learning, Assessment for Learning and Assessment as Learning, the importance of each, their purposes, contrasts and proper use, she was able to shed light on the different roles of the teacher and the student in the teaching-learning process. 

The following table shows the various features of each:
__________________________________________________________________
Approach              Purpose                    Reference Points          Key Assessor
__________________________________________________________________

Assessment of     Judgments about          Other students             Teacher
Learning               placement, promotion,
                           credentials, etc.

Assessment for    Information for              External standards        Teacher
Learning               teachers' instruc-          or expectations
                           tional decisions

Assessment as    Self-monitoring             Personal goals and         Student
Learning              and self-correction        external standards
                          or adjustments
__________________________________________________________________

Given the predominance of Assessment of Learning in most schools, she suggests that there must be a "reconfiguration" of the traditional assessment pyramid which looks like this:

Instead of emphasizing the use of Assessment of Learning, the emphasis now shifts to Assessment for and as Learning. Of course there will still be instances that call for the use of Assessment of Learning to measure students' performance at the end of a unit, grading period or in comparison with other students. The issue that Dr. Earl asks us is whether schools are over-utilizing Assessment of Learning leaving no room for Assessment for and as Learning. It will be an uphill battle but if teachers and administrators work together, they can convince  parents and students themselves that implementing this reconfiguration will contribute greatly towards optimizing the learning opportunities and success of the students. This is the challenge that I wish to bring to the table at our school. I will start by contributing articles such as those of Dr. Katz and Dr. Earl on Rethinking Classroom Assessment and Purposes of Assessment to our faculty resources and use our school website and online school newspaper to highlight students' authentic assessment such as their art work, portfolios, journals, literary pieces, etc. to make the whole school community aware of the need to revolutionize the assessment culture at our school.

References

DCSF, National Strategies and QCA, & Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. The Assessment for Learning Strategy. http://www.eriding.net/resources/sec_strat/network_meetings/afl/090115_s griffiths_secstrat_meet_assess_for_learn.pdf

Earl, L. (2003) Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximise Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, Ca. Corwin Press. 

Mueller, J. Authentic Assessment Toolbox. http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Stiggins, R. (2002). Assessment Crisis: The absence of assessment FOR learning. Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 83, no. 10, pp. 758–765, http://electronicportfolios.org/afl/Stiggins-AssessmentCrisis.pdf

Stiggins, R. Assessment For Learning Defined. http://ati.pearson.com/downloads/afldefined.pdf

Stiggins, R. Assessment through the Student's Eyes. Educational Leadership, pp. 22-26. http://coe.winthrop.edu/millerk/ Assessment%20through%20a%20student's%20Eyes.pdf

Stiggins, R. (2005). From Formative Assessment to Assessment FOR Learning: Path to success in standards-based schools. Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 324–328. http://www.artfulassessment.org/wp- content/uploads/2009/02/fromformativeassessment.pdf

Stiggins, R. (2004). New Assessment Beliefs for a New School Mission. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(1), pp. 22-27. http://michigan.gov/documents/mde/ Stiggins_Article_NewBeliefs_189511_7.pdf

Stiggins, R. (2005). Rethinking the Motivational Dynamics of Productive Assessment. Manitoba Association of School Superintendents Journal, pp. 8–12. http://ati.pearson.com/downloads/ massjournal-spring05.pdf

Stiggins, R. & Chappuis, J. (2005). Putting Testing in Perspective: It’s FOR Learning. PL, pp. 20-25. http://ati.pearson.com/downloads/ pl10-05chappuis.pdf

Stiggins, R. & Chappuis, J. (2006). What a difference a word makes. JSD, 27(1), pp. 10-14. http://ati.pearson.com/downloads/What-a-difference-a- word-makes.pd

Purposes of Assessment

As I was answering the guide before watching the webcast by Dr. Lorna Earl, I told myself that I was at the emergent level of the assessment continuum because of the fact that I don’t actually teach. I began to feel once again that I didn’t deserve to be called an educator in every sense of the word because of this. I could barely relate to the questions being asked in the guide, let alone answer them, so I was skeptical about watching the webcast. Thinking it was a required activity for the course, I watched it anyway and I’m glad I did!

I actually felt empowered after hearing Dr. Earl talk about the different purposes of assessment. I don’t actually perform the assessment myself but being on the receiving end of the assessment, knowing what I know now has helped me look at assessment in a whole new light. By knowing the purpose behind the assessments submitted for my consideration, I am better able to interpret, analyze, apply and evaluate them to help me decide whether to accept or reject a prospective student.

Our school’s admissions process involves the submission of many documents – report cards, official transcript of school records, teacher, principal and counselor recommendation and evaluation forms, student portfolios (sometimes), psych reports (sometimes). In addition, we also require students to take entrance exams (standardized tests) and go through three interviews - one with the Guidance Counselor, one with the Principal and the last one with the Director of Admissions. My job as Admissions Director requires me to screen applications, evaluate documents submitted, interpret exam results, consider the counselor and principal’s comments based on their interviews with the applicant, conduct my own interview and finally decide whether to accept or reject the applicant.

After watching the webcast and reading the assigned articles, I now feel that I can actually do a better job of weighing the odds of each and every applicant for admissions. Whereas before I relied mostly on report cards and test results (assessment of learning), I can now better appreciate the other documents submitted to me (other types of assessment) such as teacher, principal and counselor recommendations that not only rank students but also describe what type of learners they are and how they have succeeded or struggled in reaching the goals set out for them by themselves, their teachers and other members of their school community. The challenge for me now is to modify, create, add or delete questions asked in our application forms and admissions interviews to better reflect the different purposes of assessment in order to gain more insight into a student’s learning journey and whether that student will be a good fit for our school’s mission and vision.


References

Viewing and Discussion Guide (VDG) for the webcast on “Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind”. Retrieved from http://resources.curriculum.org/secretariat/files/A pril27Guide.pdf.

Earl, L. (2006) Webcast on “Rethinking classroom assessment with purpose in mind.” Curriculum Services Canada. Retrieved from http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/april27.sht ml

Earl, L. & Katz, S. (2006). Rethinking classroom assessment with purpose in mind. Western & Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration on Education. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/search?q=Rethinking+Cl assroom+Assessment+With+Purpose+in+Mind% 2C+Earl&ie=utf-8&oe=utf- 8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en- US:official&client=firefox-a

I enjoyed reading the assigned article "Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind" by Dr. Lorna Earl and Dr. Steven Katz. What grabbed my attention the most was a section in the final chapter that discusses the role of school leaders in implementing policies that encourage rethinking classroom assessment in schools. In discussions on assessment, it is often the teacher's role that is emphasized. Being a school administrator myself, I am glad that I came across an article that also discusses the role of school leaders in classroom assessment.

At our school, we start the week with an administrator's meeting on Mondays. We then send minutes of the meetings vie email to all teachers in preparation for Thursday faculty meetings. We start classes one hour later on Thursday mornings to allow us to hold regular faculty and department meetings. This is an opportunity for us to exchange ideas and opinions about certain departmental policies, work on our rubicon atlas (curriculum mapping) and discuss school issues including students with failing grades, discipline issues, etc. It is in these meetings that we see a lot of collaboration happening among teachers and between teachers and administrators. It is also here where we see different types of assessment being used and presented to the rest of the admin team and faculty. So far we have been doing peer assessments (teachers assess each other's lesson plans), peer editing of report cards and teacher-parent correspondences, exchanging student portfolios among different grade levels and presentation of professional development opportunities such as conferences, workshops, webinars, books and resources. I feel fortunate to work in a school where administrators and teachers collaborate freely so that our students can have the best learning environment possible and that includes providing them with assessment that enhances teaching and student learning. 


Reference

Earl, L. & Katz, S. (2006). Rethinking classroom assessment with purpose in mind. Western & Northern Canadian Protocol for Collaboration on Education. Retrieved from 
http://www.google.com/search?q=Rethinking+Classroom+Assessment+With+Purpose+in+Mind% 2C+Earl&ie=utf-8&oe=utf- 8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en- US:official&client=firefox-a

How to Determine What Type of Traditional Assessment to Use

Earlier readings and discussions in this course have shown me the importance of aligning assessments with objectives and instruction for teachers to gain enough evidence to determine whether students have indeed learned and met the objectives set out for them to learn. A teacher’s intended objectives should direct his or her choice of what type of assessment to use in which case educators suggest the use of a test blueprint. A test blueprint is defined by Suskie as “an outline of the test that lists the learning goals that students are to demonstrate”. (Suskie, L.  2009, p. 167) and according to Walvoord and Anderson, test blueprinting is “the process of linking tests to learning goals.” (Walvoord, B. & Anderson, V. 2010, p. 13)  Also, to accurately represent the degree to which a student has attained an educational objective, the form of the test item/s must be suitable for the objective (Burton, S. et al. 1991); thus, a teacher must also consider the following factors:

1. What is to be measured? Is it factual recall, memorization of names, dates, procedures or steps?
2. Class size – is a teacher giving a test to 20 or 200 students
3. Available time to prepare and score the test – for example, while multiple choice tests are easy to score, they are time-consuming to construct 

Also, one cannot overemphasize the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning as a guide to determine what activities may be used to assess the different types of  learning objectives and the appropriate assessments  that correspond to each objective. (Assessment Basics) 

Further, it is a common misconception that most types of traditional assessment (TA) only test the lower level of Blooms taxonomy of learning. By reading the different examples in the assigned materials and the examples given by other students in this course, I have realized that most TA can test multiple levels of Blooms taxonomy. For example, depending on the question/s asked, a multiple choice test can measure knowledge, comprehension, application and analysis of concepts taught in class. I also realized that by using different types of TA in one test or exam, almost all if not all the levels of Blooms taxonomy may be measured thus maximizing teaching and learning.

Taking all of the above into consideration, i would start by making a test blueprint using the following legend:

Level of Difficulty: E-Easy, M-Medium, D - Difficult                 

Blooms Taxonomy: K-Knowledge, C-Comprehension, App-Application, An-Analysis, S-Synthesis, E-Evaluation

Type of Test Items:  MC-Multiple Choice, M-Matching, T-F-True-False Items, CT-Completion Tests

Number of items: 1-100

Then, I would choose the corresponding type of test depending on the learning goal/s I wish for my students to meet, the level/s of Blooms taxonomy I wish to measure, the level of difficulty and the weight of each test item.

The following are common examples of objective assessment, their uses, advantages and disadvantages:

(1) MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS – are used when the objective is to have students choose a response to a statement or question from a given list of several alternative responses. They are considered the most versatile in measuring almost all levels of cognitive skills, can be machine-scored quickly and accurately, reduced guessing compared to True or False tests. However, they are difficult and time-consuming to construct, they may lead teachers to focus only on measuring low-level thinking skills, and they may still encourage guessing though to a lesser degree.

 Example: 

Learning objective: KNOWLEDGE- memorization of Vocabulary words and their meanings

Test Directions: In questions 1-15 each sentence has a word or phrase underlined. Below each sentence there are four other words or phrases, marked (A), (B), (C), and (D). You are to choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the original sentence if it is substituted for the underlined word or phrase. (Davy, E. & Davy, K. 2006)

 13. A familiar adage says that the early bird gets the worm.

(A)   proverb

(B)    lady

(C)    gentleman

(D)  book

(2) TRUE-FALSE ITEMS – are used to measure the recall of factual knowledge such as names, events, definitions, dates, etc.  They are easy to write and provide a wide sampling of content at a time. However, they are prone to guessing and test items are often vague due to the difficulty of writing statements which are absolutely true or false.

Example:

Learning objective:  KNOWLEDGE, COMPREHENSION– measure recall of facts about food safety and understand meaning of facts learned

Test Directions:  Read the following statements. Decide whether a statement is True or False. Write T for statements which are True and F for statements which are False. (http://www.thebody.com/content/art13863.html) If FALSE, rewrite the sentence to make it TRUE 

1.  Perishable foods should not be left at room temperature longer than

              six hours. __________   (http://www.thebody.com/content/art13863.html)

Rewrite: __________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________.

 (3) MATCHING TESTS – are used when there are a series of homogeneous items and a teacher wishes to combine them into a single matching item to make efficient use of testing time. They are easy to write but do not require more than simple recall of factual knowledge.

Example:

Learning objective:  KNOWLEDGE, COMPREHENSION - know the definitions of words and their synonyms

Test Directions: Put the number of the definition or synonym in Column B beside the appropriate word in Column A.

                                         A                             B

 __________ a.     stereotype                     1. Elementary, iniital

 __________ b.     meander                        2. Fixed pattern representing a type of person

___________c.     augment                        3. Natural locality of plant or animal

___________d.    habitat                            4. Make complete

___________e.    rudimentary                     5.  Move slowly and aimlessly

(4)  COMPLETION TESTS – requires students to answer a question or complete a sentence or paragraph by filling in a blank/s with the correct word/s or phrase/s. They provide a wide sampling of content and minimize guessing compared to multiple-choice and true-false tests. However, they are difficult to write and more time- consuming to prepare and score. They can hardly be used to measure more than simple recall of information.

Example: 

Learning Objective: KNOWLEDGE, COMPREHENSION – know vocabulary words and their meaning, know how to use the vocabulary words above in a sentence.

Test Directions:  Choose the appropriate word from the words above to complete the following sentences.

1.  On Sundays, I love to ___________________ through the woods and bird watch.

2.  Comprehending calculus is impossible if you have only a ___________________

knowledge of mathematics.

3.  Wildlife sanctuaries protect the _______________________of birds and the plants on which they feed.

4.  Absent-minded and thoughtful, Dr. James is the ________________________of a college professor.

5.  He will have to find a second job to ____________________his income.

My ideal test would include a combination of at least two to three types of TA mentioned above. By doing this, I can align my student's learning objectives, , my classroom instruction and assessment to offer the best teaching-learning experience possible for my students and I.


References

Cohen & Wollack. Handbook on Test Development: Helpful Tips for Creating Reliable and Valid Classroom Tests retrieved January 28, 2013 from http://testing.wisc.edu/Handbook%20on%20Test% 20Construction.pdf

IS THIS A TRICK QUESTION? A Short Guide to Writing Effective Test Questions  retrieved Januray 28, 2013 fromhttp://www.ksde.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=6P mcGOcdLB8%3D&t.. 

Burton, S. et al., How to Prepare Better Multiple-Choice Test Items: Guidelines for University Faculty (Utah: Brigham Young University Testing Services Utah)

Linda Suskie, Assessing Student Learning: A Common Sense Guide, 2nd  ed (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009), 167. 

Barbara E. Walvoord and Virginia Johnson Anderson, Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College, 2nd ed (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 13.

Assessment Basics retrieved  January 28, 2013 from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/alignment.html

 Davy, E. & Davy, K., Master TOEFL Vocabulary (New Jersey: Peterson’s A Nelnet Company, 2006)

 The Body http://www.thebody.com/content/art13863.html