Group items tagged

Standardized test only give a certain amount of information for teachers to see.  Often times, it's a guessing game for kids.  In the classroom, students can be creative and add their style to the assessment with different opportunities to present the information.  

I like seeing teachers use a combination of testing approaches. I think kids get burned out filling in ovals, students like to be creative and can show that better through other means beside multiple choice or darkening ovals.

This entire realm is both challenging and time-consuming. In order to have a high level of confidence, assessments usually need to be used many times and checked for validity and reliability…especially if they are being used as a summative assessment.This entire realm is both challenging and time-consuming.

As obvious as this statement is, and even though "doing science" has been an expectation in the Iowa Core (and now the NGSS), there is a general lack of 'performance assessments' in science - especially at the elementary level.

I'm not typically in the classroom, so I'm asking... why is that? Is it because performance assessments aren't readily available, not easy to score, not easy to administer, messy to set up, time consuming? If these are true, I see lots of barriers in the way of performance testing. Even though they may be more authentic and reliable.

I have found many districts concentrate on reading and math at the elementary level...as a result, science is on the back "burner".

Mary, I absolutely agree! The publishers of the elementary reading series' are caught up in trying to include the required amount of non-fiction reading material for the students and so they have focused on material that is also grade level appropriate to what should be studied in the science and social studies curriculum at each grade level. Teachers are beginning to use the reading series' material as a substitute for real science and social studies lessons as a way to "save time" in their day and still cover all the required material. This does not bode well for the science and social studies learning of our younger students.

Figure 1& 2: can be seen in this version of this article: ( http://goo.gl/9S26Q )

Thanks Clair!

Strange that only "Number Sense" has 4 items worth 10 points! Could one question be weighted or did they really assign each correct answer 2.5 points?

This is my contention with MAP testing. As an AEA consultant, I think it's wonderful for tracking student progress, and making instructional decisions for students, but I have found in more than one school I work with that the teachers receive this data from the testing and then have no idea what it means or what to do with it. It is so sad! They have received training on how to use the results, but by the time the test takes place and they receive the data, they have forgotten how to access it and what to do with it, so in essence the test was a waste of time because it's not going to bring about instructional change for the students in the classroom

I once read a study where students with behavior disabilities saw an improvement in their behavior when they began to track and chart their actions in a spreadsheet. When they could see the change in a chart it became a positive goal to make improvements and watch the trendline go up. Monitoring and taking responsibility.

It is difficult to think we are betting on these practices.

Great point. I have always said, when we are assessing, we are not instructing. I have found as an educator, it's during the test that students will ask the most questions. I consider it low stakes testing when I can tutor them one on one and as a result, some of the best learning takes place.

I have found it interesting that we give semester tests, yet very few supervisors, parents, administrators, or students want to know the overall level of student performance....they just want to know the "grade". As a result, I see a need for doing summative testing a bit differently.

How would you do summative testing differently? This makes me think about the cumulative projects I have my students complete. Very rarely do students come in to find out how they did. I think I need to move the end date of those projects up a couple of days so I can sit down with the student and go over the project before the last day of class.

As an educator, I have found that having students self-assess is a lesson in itself. So many students think they are excellent, even after seeing many of their peers doing the same task with varying degrees.

I agree that we must teach our students how to self-assess. In some classrooms we have never asked them to do this, so we can't expect them to fully grasp the concept unless we provide ongoing support while they learn to self-assess.

I give a lot of written assessments in science, but have failed to make goal setting explicit. I think this could be really effective at getting students to view the feedback differently, especially if the student had to talk with the teacher about the goal.

How do we get our students to care when taking these tests (i.e. Iowa Assessments) so we can truly monitor their knowledge?

Is it possible to over-assess? If new assessments are being added, will students get burned out from being tested?

Yes! I definitely think students get burned out from testing. My district did away with a few non-required standardized tests and the students did better on what they were required to complete, because they felt it was more necessary and appreciated that they weren't being forced to do all of it.

I think this is key - writing the learning targets in student/parent friendly language. I have started to transition mine into "I can" statements.

I would have liked to see more specific discussion about the creation of selected-response format questions. I know "concept inventory" type questions that were developed using student misconceptions from previous written assessments are extremely valuable at assessing student learning, especially when compared with traditional questions from a textbook publisher.

I wish this were the case. So often I work with schools that are giving multiple forms of assessments in an attempt to insure that students are learning the core material and will do well on the Iowa Assessment only to find that the teachers have no idea how to interpret the scores and data they receive from the tests. This leads to no instructional decisions being made for the student after taking the tests and the testing being nothing but a waste of time.

This is so true!! Unless a teacher provides feedback in some way - whether in a conference style or a written style - the student will have no idea how to improve. Too often high school students receive a composition paper back with a letter grade and no comments or only spelling corrections underlined. This does not help the student to know what it is that was done poorly - other than the spelling - or how to improve on the next paper. I firmly believe that even papers that are considered to be "A" papers need to have feedback given - what was done well, what areas might the student extend themselves in next time, what areas could be better even though they were sufficient for this assignment.

Better - ask the student, "How could this statement be more complete? Are you missing something in this component of the rubric?

Resource: "The Power of Feedback" by John Hattie & Helen Timperley (2007) in Review of Educational Research.

This seems necessary if we are to achieve the highest level of assessment making sure we are actually assessing the learning targets appropriately, but I struggle with the fact that teachers have the time in their busy schedules or will take the time to create a test plan for every assessment they give.

Sadly, I feel assessment literacy is lacking in education. We not only need to focus on the assessments we give our students but also on training our educators and classroom teachers on assessment creation and effective use of assessment results.

It's too bad that these tests are being used to make so many decisions in the education system when they are not fully assessing the students learning and mastery of skills.

This is important. I can see myself creating a screencastomatic video as an intro to each of my classes in order to meet this criteria.

Moodle_iowa This is a good one. I have always known the "course syllabus" in my head, but especially next year, it would be super helpful to give a course syllabus to families. In the case that we do have to move online for a period of time, families could see where we are going like a roadmap to help their children achieve success.

moodle_iowa I agree, Jill! It gives families a roadmap, and if we have to suddenly switch modes, it is already in place. It will take some time, but the preloading should help in the long run.

This is something that I need to do a better job with in all my classes. This summer I have been working on updating and improving my class syllabus to be a much better overview of the class and showing what is expected of them throughout the course.

I need to be better about posting and discussing learning outcomes before every lesson I teach.

Identifying the objectives can be easy for a teacher to do but the communication piece is more difficult. Students need to see what does that objective mean and what should it look like.

This is where teaching online can sometimes be beneficial as long as you provide various ways to learn--videos, text, using text speak, etc.

Agreed! This is super important to meet the needs of all of our students!

moodle_iowa Yes! I think it calls for collaboration with specialist teachers to be sure we are providing the accommodations needed.

Visual graphics and videos for visual and auditory learners. Checking in with and offering office hours and extra support for students who may need this. Accommodations for students with disabilities or other needs.

I think this is very important in the classroom and online. When students collaborate they can share knowledge and learn from one another.

Allowing students to do their own PowerPoint presentations of lesson material. Always letting students ask questions which are answered during Zoom meetings.

I feel this is the part that can be missing in online learning. How do you get collaboration and provide a safe environment. As the instructor, do you need to be involved in every interaction between students? Yes when you are dealing with younger students. I am still looking for tools that allow collaboration with adult supervision.

In order to make an attempt to combat "cheating" in an online course, developing authentic assessments is crucial.

Just as in a F2F classroom, a variety of assessments should drive instruction. Assessment is important for both teacher and students.

The OLLIE courses are perfect for this!!!

Exactly what I was thinking!

I feel that all four of these sub-standards are critical to the professional growth of any teacher who is teaching an online course. Teachers need to stay current with technology, network with peers, and apply learned knowledge and skills to improve best practices.

This is essential!!!! I wanted my students to still know and feel like I was their teacher and I think it is important for any teacher to do this. Students still need to know we care and want to help them become better learners. I believe keeping in touch with my students daily/weekly was vital in their success this spring.

In our Zoom classrooms I always try to greet each student as they enter, to check in how they are doing and whether or not I can hear them and they can hear me.

Students need interact with their peers as well as their teachers. Teachers should provide opportunities for students to interact, as is appropriate. Weekly class meetings give the students a chance to see each other and to catch up.. This was very important--especially to our littlest learners during the spring 2020 shut down.

Teachers must be able to set up a course online successfully using the necessary tools. It seems that some think you can just a F2F class and put it online. There is a lot of prep work that goes into doing this successfully and knowing what resources/tools are out there is vital for success.

Definitely. I am feeling more and more unprepared as I learn what is needed to make online course work and all the resources available.

If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting.

It is so important to be knowledgeable and have the ability to use computer programs required in online learning! This is exactly why I am taking this course! I need to be more knowledgeable.

If you have ever had a face-to-face course or online course that the instructor was struggling to show, share or run something you know that impacts the effectiveness of the learning. I have had that experience and tend to focus on the problems instead of the content. I understand that technology doesn't always work but not knowing how to use it can be very distracting. on 2020-06-19

Hopefully this takes on the same importance as it does in a F2F classroom. Our assessments should align with the content we are teaching and finding ways to best assess this is critical.

This is so important in the online world. We want our students to know that we are "with them" and paying attention to them, just as we would be in a F2F class. This can actually be more time consuming as we may need to address each student individually to motivate, prompt, encourage, guide, etc and it will take longer than it would in a F2F setting. Feedback is so important in all settings!

This is something I need to improve on

This is something that assessments, quick checks and tickets out the door will allow us to check what the students know and what I need to do to make sure they will understand later.

This is an effective strategy for any teaching style. Sometimes when students are not understanding the content, the teacher needs to look back at how the content was taught and make a change. Also, if an instructional strategy is not effective there should be reteaching as well.

This is essential to online and classroom instruction. It is always important to use data to drive instruction. By looking at data one can see if the students are understanding what is being taught.

I think this is important and something I do

I think a teacher should always want to learn and become better.

This is what I've been saying all along. Teachers need to continue to learn in order to continue to provide the best practices for students

Learning is social. Collaboration and interaction help examine own understanding including misconceptions and deepen the knowledge and skill.

moodle_iowa This is definitely an area that we use in face-to-face teaching, so I would expect that it would be included and important to online teaching. It is good for students, and teachers, to know the expectations that are needed for an assignment, assessment or project. It is a guideline to follow until you reach the desired product or learning objective.

Communication within online courses is more difficult. It can be difficult to share in detail the expectations and answer many questions as you can in a face-to-face classroom. Clearly stating assessment criteria and providing some kind of framework. like a rubric, is important to a successful learning experience.

It is equally important whether we are teaching F2F or online. A teacher is a lead learner. We set the example, we learn, we reflect, we improve our practice. The key here is to incorporate the new learning. We simply cannot afford to attend PD sessions and never put new learning into practice. That would be malpractice!

I believe teachers are lifelong learners. This standard is something that teachers will continue to do when their online/blended courses develop.

I stated this above that data from formative assessments need to drive instruction. Then you adjust to enhance student learning.

This should be a given with online teaching and is exactly why I am taking this class, to grow my tech skills and knowledge. This field changes so quickly , one must always be growing and adding skills to stay effective.

This is interesting because in our brick and mortar classrooms we can often have other teachers that work with some of our students due to special education needs, physical needs, or language needs, but in an online classroom you are the only teacher. Makes me wonder if online teachers ever have these types of people as resources.

I know that networking with others involved in online education is vital for me because I am so new to online learning.

It is important for a teacher to use data to drive their instruction. This way the teacher can pin point where the student needs help.

Throughout the courses I thought this was something that only face to face courses need to provide, but that is not true. It's crazy how much being personable and providing that safe environment on and offline.

Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?

Is there a list of resources/instruments for formative and summative assessments available? How many types should be used in a class? Are there some assessments that are better suited for high school students in the online environment?

Standards set up ahead of time are very important. This gives students upfront knowledge of what is expected.

She is exactly right. Teachers have been taught to lead their students through lessons. This process is very uncomfortable for many of us as we have not been taught how to "teach" or "facilitate" this way.

I think about this when we're always asked to post our learning targets for students. It seems counter productive to tell kids we're going to learn a certain skill when we want our students to discover the skill through the lesson we created... I have found that instead of telling kids fingerings on their instruments for new notes, if I lead them to the fingering chart, they get so excited about using their fingering chart to learn more than that one new note.

Many of us are not used to a lot of noise in the classroom either. Some students may struggle with a classroom that is overly loud. How do we ensure the noise level is comfortable for all to learn?

The noise level during this phase should be stated in the rubric during discussion. I agree not everyone is immune to loud voices.

This is something that I know I would/will struggle with when implementing personalized learning. I completely agree and believe that students should be conversing with one another...however, I struggle with all of them doing this at the same time. 25 voices going all at once is sometimes a lot to handle!..and something that I would learn to get used to :)

This really hits home for me as I have a daughter who was in PRE K (transitional kindergarten) last year and the preschool teachers are now required to implement so many minutes of reading/guided reading into their curriculum. Are these preschool aged children getting enough play/social time?

It is scary that we are asking you're asking if preschool is getting enough time.. I hope so!!! They aren't even to elementary school yet. I am told time and time again that kindergarten is the new 1st grade. It seems that the more demands that are put on us as educators, the more play time we have to cut. I am lucky in a way that I have a team of teachers who refuses to give up that free time play at the end of the day. We believe it is so important. I am not sure how many more years we will get away with it but for now, we will let our students be little so that they can play and explore like they should!

I always laugh when I share with parents that I learn so much from observing their kiddos playing games (either at recess or indoors). It is truly where they have more authentic experiences learning how to communicate and solve differences.

What about developing the small muscles thru play-dough? In the last few years I have noticed that 3rd graders can barely hold a scissor properly and much less cut a simple figure.

What about developing small motor skills thru play-dough? I have 3rd graders who can barely hold a scissor properly much less cut a simple figure.

I firmly believe that students learn by playing!! There are ways to set-up classroom situations where students are playing but also digging into concepts as well!!

As a kindergarten teacher, I believe that that play is key to learning! This past year I was amazed at what my students were able to connect through play to what we were learning in the classroom. In my classroom, it is key to provide students with those opportunities to play and explore.

Play IS key to learning! Especially when we can't assume our students are given opportunity to play and create and imagine with other kids outside of the school day.

As good educators, we want to make sure that each of our students needs are met. The daunting question that we all ask is HOW?! How do we make each of our student feel cared for, important, and set them up for success? I continue to find it interesting how students have so many things that are similar and different about them. I think this article does a nice job of laying it out and showing what we can do between five minutes and five years!

Yes!! I must remember this always! It's so easy to answer questions for students. However, if I keep questioning them, it will allow them to learn on their own.

This is something that I am continually trying to work on. It is so easy to help a struggling student but your really are doing them a disservice.

I'm a visual person and I know I like to "see" things for myself. Allowing our students to discover conclusions will be something that they will remember longer than if a teacher "told" them what happens.

Yes! I agree! As I read this I remember learning about gravity as Billy Nye threw objects off the top of a building... watching this video was better than listening to the fact ... but participating in the activity would be even better than the video.

For the early childhood ages, this is key and missing in elementary schools. I'm saddened by how academic our kindergarten programs have become over the years.

I loved receiving a parent survey from our child's teacher at the beginning of the year. It was a great way to introduce our child with details he may have never shared with his teacher. What a great way to set up some personalization at the start of the year.

I have been doing this since my first year and I love it! It gives me so much valuable information before I start to learn about them but I also feel like if gives the parent a space to let me know things they may not feel comfortable sharing in front of other people or their child.

I do a parent survey at the beginning of band, and it really helps me get a feel for a family's background experience with band, and also what they're hoping for their kids for the year.

I need to remember, this is a process! This statement validates that.

This reminds me to only pick one thing to focus on at a time...which is so hard!

I remember in junior high being required to answer the essay/critical thinking questions of our science tests through the use of thinking maps. I didn't realize at the time how much it helped me organize my thoughts. I wonder how I can be begin applying them in my reading and math courses at the elementary level. Graphic organizers are so important to consolidate and organize information.

I have never heard about Thinking Maps before. I explored the website and definitely see how this can be beneficial for children of all ages.

Thinking maps! Kids love them and they're great tools for brainstorming and digging in to new learning

This is so important! I love planning with gen. ed. teachers because often there are more students than just my IEP students that need the lower level differentiation in the gen. ed. setting. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, but work together to create shared resources. Our problem is, how do we create time to plan together on a weekly basis?

We run into these same issues! We are five gen. ed. teachers but one of us coteaches with sped. and one of us with ELP. We also cluster group our students...and this is where we hit the wall. Our classroom make-ups are so different and our kids move at different paces. How do we work divide up the work and still respect the pacing in each others' rooms?

What a fun conclusion to the unit!! I wonder how the teacher completes her summative assessment for the unit? The students have their journals but what does she use to prove that students have retained the information and met the state standards?

As a 4th grade teacher, we work with rocks and minerals as well. It would be fun to create videos of their learning as a summative assessment. Students could also share the videos with their parents when they are finished!