FIAE+B2+Chapter+4

toc
 * 1) Click on edit this page.
 * 2) Use the down arrow on your keyboard to get the cursor underneath the horizontal bar.
 * 3) Type your name, highlight your name and then select Heading 3 at the top.
 * 4) Copy and paste your reflection underneath your name.
 * 5) Insert a horizontal bar under your reflection.
 * 6) Click save.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

This chapter was pretty straightforward, in that it clearly addressed three methods of assessment: portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessments. The section on portfolios made plenty of sense to me, for I had to create a very elaborate portfolio for my education class last year. I put a lot of work and dedication into it, and it was time-consuming but in the end rewarding. I fully understand the importance of developing a portfolio and how essential it is to a student’s education and growth. We have had some extensive experience with rubrics in Dr. Theresa’s class as well. Recently, she had us research various WebQuests and critique them. Almost every WebQuest featured a rubric that assessed the students’ work. Some rubrics were very straightforward and discernable, while others were either too muddied up with details or did not have enough details. I can understand how difficult it can be to construct a rubric that is “perfect” for a particular project, in that there are so many things to consider. The //How to Design a Rubric// checklist was pretty ornate – perhaps I should review and look back at those sights to see if my perception of the evaluations has changed! Speaking of which, I wholeheartedly agree that some students do strive for the “meets standards” criterion rather than “exceeds standards” (myself excluded), and I hope that none of my students try to cheat themselves out of a fantastic grade. Student self-assessment is always a good idea, for it helps the students realize where in the lesson they are struggling and where they are excelling. Of course, this is even more helpful to the teacher, for it gives the teacher the ability to help the student or make a few changes to the lesson plan.

Alicia Kenison
The three types of assessment that Wormeli introduces is (1) portfolios, (2) Rubrics, and (3) Student Self-assessments. Each types of assessing are great tools and techniques to bring fourth in the classroom because every child learns in a different way. I would most likely bring something like a portfolio into my classroom because I’m more hands-on and that could be an interactive task for an English class. They are meant to mirror growth, so we could view how writing progressed from the beginning of the year until current time. Rubrics are more popular because you only have to make one and then photocopy and every student will perform pretty much the same thing. There are two main rubrics used the holistic and the analytical. Wormeli let us know how crucial it is to mix up way of assessing, so our students learn different aspects of each task. I like the concept of not having a 5-tier rubric because of the mind automatically looking at (A, B, C, D, and F) grading. In my classroom, I will try to make a rubric with 3 or 4 tiers and always get my students opinions at the end of an assignment. This is where self-assessment comes into place, it initiates where help is needed and what goals the students want to accomplish throughout the year. Because, I’m sure I will have a differentiated classroom at some point, I must learn how to accommodate for all; Wormeli turned my light-bulb on and helped the thinking process be on its way.

Scott Bowden
I liked the first chapter on rubrics. I have seen examples of good rubrics and examples of good enough rubrics. I think it's important for students to understand the expectations of the teacher or professor. Even if the rubric isn't laid out to be incredibly specific, just knowing where the teacher is drawing the score from and where they put emphasis on a piece (e.g. for an essay, 70 percent on content, 30 percent on mechanics) can help a student achieve the teacher's expectations. In classes where there were no rubrics and the assignment was to "write a paper," with no clear rubric, it's like playing pin the tail on the donkey blindfolded. There was no explanation of what was emphasized or rationale for the scoring methods. I intend to bring rubrics into my class that give my students an idea as to what I expect of them and how they can meet my standards. I feel that that is an important aspect of assessment, that the students can match their work to the teacher's expectations.

Sarah Robinson
I have learned from reading this chapter that there are three very important and effective types of assessment for students. I totally agree with the three assessments examples that this book gives, and this chapter gives great ideas of how to use these assessments in your classroom. This first assessment is portfolios, which allows teachers to collect student’s work over time. This ensures that the student’s full potential can be shown because it is work that has been done over time so it can show the real improvement of the student. Also if you as a teacher allow your students to pick what goes into their portfolios they are able to reflect on their own work and set new goals for themselves, and I plan on doing this in my classroom. Portfolios also are a good example of differentiated instruction because you allow every student to pick what shows their strengths and you as a teacher and are able to build on the individual’s strengths. Another good assessment is a rubric this allows students to see exactly what is expected of them and how it should be completed. This allows students to have guidelines to follow so they don’t get lost but it also allows students to use some creativity with their work. Also allowing students to help design the rubric is very beneficial insight as a teacher so you can see what they feel is important to the lesson. The last assessment is self-assessment I have already seen this assessment in the works and it is very beneficial to the learner and the teacher. Allowing students to self-assess themselves is a great way to have differentiation in the classroom and this chapter has taught me that. Self-assessments allow students to see where they need improvement and their strengths. This chapter gives a great example of self-assessment through interactive notebooks that allows teachers to read how students feel they have done which is a great communicate tool for teacher and student, and I plan on using this in my classroom.

Mike Lawson
This chapter talked about the three major ways to assess students. Portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment are all something that I have experienced in high school. I always dreaded having to create a portfolio. However last year when we created a portfolio in EDU 101 I didn’t mind it. I feel like maybe we appreciate it more now. Knowing how to construct a rubric is very powerful. Before reading this chapter I was a little shaky in my skills to create a rubric. Last year we created a rubric for cookies. I think I did fine, but now I feel confident that if I tried to make a rubric for a project or paper I would do alright. I liked the word examples the book gave to me at the bottom of 47. That may have even been the hardest part of making a rubric…in my dreams anyways. Student self assessment is crucial in the development and learner. They must reflect and understand what they are learning. As a teacher I will not only have to use these three assessments, but will enjoy using them. I'm interested to see how my first rubrics work.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
This chapter highlighted some very meaningful ways to allow student to self-assess how they did or are doing in a given unit or lesson. I especially liked how a student portfolio could easily be used to check on how students are progressing, or how they could be progressing (which means that something must be worked on). In my classrooms I would love to implement the portfolio, but perhaps make it a way for students to get really into the work they are doing--I think that if I were to have the notebook be a semester long project that turns out looking like our EDU 101 binders, not only would the students really be able to reflect on how they have been progressing, it would also give me as the teacher feedback on how the overall semester went. (Along with having a professional looking end result.) I also appreciated the section on how to write a good rubric. As a student who has been handed tons of rubrics one never really understands how difficult it is to write one, and this chapter will without a doubt help me when it comes my time to write my own rubric.

Eric Cole
Chapter four deals with three very important types of Assessments: Portfolios, Rubrics, and Student Self-Assessment. While I think that all three of these methods of assessment are important, I am the type of person who looks at the negative of everything so I can avoid having a problem. First with Portfolios, I actually have very little negative comments towards portfolios. Not only do I think they are useful in the classroom but I think they are one of the best ways of assessing a student because you get a full scope of what the student has done, and not just a single sample. The fear I have with rubrics is what if I am expected to create a rubric on something that I don’t know about? How is it fair that I get to judge a student when I don’t know what I am supposed to be judging them on? I know that as a teacher I will probably be expected to do something like this, and so this is a fear that I have to get over. My concern about self-assessments is that students lie. I know this because I am/was a student. I know about the “clicks” and how students do not want to be perceived as stupid by their peers, and so they lie about how well they did on an exam, an essay, etc.... It is up to the teacher to develop a certain amount of trust with the student so that the student is comfortable in performing an honest assessment on themselves. This is one of the greatest challenges of being a teacher. One that I am truly looking forward too.

Diana Quinlan
Chapter four is all about different types of assessments. One type of assessment is a portfolio. Theses would be useful in my class because they would allow my students to reflect on their own work and set goals for the future. They would also be helpful grading tools for me because they would allow me to see how my students are progressing over time. The best thing about portfolios is that they can be as simple or as complex as I want them to be. Rubrics are another great grading tool. Rubrics are what I am most familiar with because they are what my high school teachers used. Rubrics are great for both students and teachers because they clearly state what the expectations for the project are. That way students know exactly what to do and I can give them an accurate grade based on how well they followed the rubric. When I use rubrics in my classroom I want to have my students help me create it so they will feel like the expectations are fair and within reason. The third type of assessment mentioned in this chapter is a self-assessment. Having students do self-assessments is great because it provides the teacher with a lot of feedback about the lesson, but it also allows students to see how far they have come throughout a unit. All three are great assessment tools which I plan to incorporate into my class.

Sarah McGinley
Fair Isn’t Always Equal Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment 2/2/10

One of the ways to assess students is through the use of portfolios. This way the student can also look back on their own work and see how far they have come in their learning. It is an accurate way of finding out exactly how well the student did throughout the school year. Portfolios are good in a way that the student and teaching can see if the student met the goals that were required to accomplish during that school year. I agree with how portfolios help not only the teacher but the student as well. This would be something I would want to use in my classroom as an end product used as an assessment. A portfolio will be able to show the history of lessons they did using the Multiple Intelligences and the teacher can check themselves. It would be easy to tell if the teacher touched upon all of the Multiple Intelligences. These portfolios also help students be organized and see how important it really is to keep track of all the work they did over the course of the year. This assessment strategy allows the student to be creative with their school work. It is also a helpful tool when the student is asked to do a self-assessment because everything is pulled together for them to evaluate. A rubric is a great way to score how well everything turned out in the end. These are all extremely helpful tools that I would utilize in my classroom. This keeps the student’s minds open for more creativity and connects Multiple Intelligences with accurate assessments.

Jared Boghosian
I learned three interesting forms of assessment in this chapter (as suggested by the title). The first of which is portfolios. This form of assessment is perfect for tracking a student's progress over time. A portfolio allows the student an opportunity to reflect on past works and even self assess their own work, speaking of self assessing that is the next form of assessment. Self assessment can be done a number of ways, some of the more popular strategies are in using self checking checklists and the likert scale (checking off anything from strongly disagree, to strongly agree). I really want to implement a reading journal in my classroom, it worked for a lot of my classmmates and I think it might work for my future classroom. Rubrics are the final important component of assessment in this chapter. The key points are that rubrics should be easy to comprehend, all the expectations should be laid out, and avoid using grade letters like A, B, and C in your rubrics.

Susanna Cooper
Chapter 4: I like the concept of portfolios in the class room. They do offer an excellent way for me to see how my students are progressing over time, which gives me a clearer picture of their overall grades. Yet from my own high school experiences I remember that most students hated having to work on their high school portfolios because they were being forced to do them. Perhaps if I was checking them often to see their graded pieces and if I told them that this assignment when completed needs to go into the portfolio, instead of saying, go work on it, here is the list of things, then more students may have a better attitude towards them. The passage about the rubrics was also interesting. I will keep in mind that it is better to have rubrics that are clearly defining the objectives and they are stated in an understandable way. I am not too sure about letting my students create their own rubrics though. I feel that they would set the standards lower and make the assignments easier, so that they could get a better grade when making their own. I found the peer assessment rubric very interesting. I have never had one of these rubrics used on me and I am curious to see how this set up works.

Jason Malbon
This chapter focuses on three important assessment types; portfolios, rubrics and student self assessment. Portfolios are a great way for students to showcase their own learning or give a reflection on what they learned. I like the idea of keeping a portfolio as a journal. I believe I would have benefited from a way to get regular feedback from a teacher or ask questions I was uncomfortable asking in class. The portfolios referred to in the chapter are more of a collection of works over a period of time. This is a very good way to look at a students performance more globally and not at a small snapshot in time. The longitudinal approach seems more meaningful. Rubrics are a way for teachers to focus expectations and measure assessments. They are also a great tool for students to measure their own progress and understand what is expected. Rubrics should be simple to follow and be meaningful to whatever is being assessed. Finally self-assessment gives another means for self reflection. Again, using journals are a powerful tool. Students can answer prompts such as; I learned that, I liked, I can’t understand or I was confused by. Again, I really like the idea of journals for self reflection since it gives the opportunity of a shy student to speak from the heart and not be inhibited.