40 Alternative Assessments for Learning When people think of assessment, pencils and bubble sheets may be the first things that come to mind. Assessment does not always have to involve paper and pencil, but can instead be a project, an observation, or a task that shows a student has learned the material. In the end, all we really want to know is that the skill was mastered, right? Why not make it fun and engaging for students as well? Many teachers shy away from alternative assessments because they take extra time and effort to create and to grade. On the other hand, once the assessment guidelines and grading rubric are created, it can be filed away and used year after year. The project card and rubric can be run on card stock (one on each side of the page), laminated, and hole punched with other alternative assessment ideas. Here are 40 alternative assessment ideas to get you started! Alternative Reading Assessments 1. Create a bookmark to match the theme of the last book read. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Alternative Writing Assessments
Arbetsgång för formativt läsförståelsearbete i klassrummet Hur kan jag arbeta med en faktatext i klassrummet så att mina elever verkligen förstår den? Nedan följer ett förslag på hur jag tänker arbeta med faktatexter under kommande läsår. Detta förslag på arbetsgång är ett resultat av min läsning av Barbro Westlunds Att bedöma elevers läsförståelse (2013) och Catharina Tjernbergs Framgångsrik läs- och skrivundervisning (2013) samt ett resultat av min sommarläsning av litteratur som behandlar formativ bedömning. Att tänka på när du genomför läsförståelseundervisning i ditt klassrum: Tänk hela tiden högt med eleverna så att du synliggör sina mentala processer för dem. Samtalsmönstret i ditt klassrum ska präglas av dialog. Genomför arbetsgången nedan i halvklass första gången (om möjligt, dvs). Nedan följer 11 punkter: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Kommentarer till punkterna: Punkt 1 och 2 handlar om att hitta elevernas vardagsföreställningar och vardagsbegrepp för fenomenet/processen som texten berör. Fr. Punkt 11 Varför sluta här? /Hanna
10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds Good assessment is frequent assessment. Any assessment is designed to provide a snapshot of student understand—the more snapshots, the more complete the full picture of knowledge. On its best day, an assessment will be 100% effective, telling you exactly what a student understands. More commonly, the return will be significantly lower as the wording of questions, the student’s sense of self-efficacy, or other factors diminish their assessment performance. It sounds obvious, but a student is a human being with an entire universe of personal problems, distraction, and related challenges in recalling the information in the form the assessment demands. This makes a strong argument for frequent assessment, as it can be too easy to over-react and “remediate” students who may be banging against the limits of the assessment’s design rather than their own understanding. Simple Assessments The word “simple” here is misleading. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Draw what you do understand. 10.
DERN Personalised learning, reflection, collaboration and .critical thinking are highly valued in education, and classroom practices are changing towards learning as a collaborative activity. Exploration is encouraged and fostered; however, assessment is still following a traditional path – heavily dependent on summative assessment. A short paper, by Phillipa Whiteford, titled The times are a-changing: A New Model for Senior Secondary Assessment explores how a more ‘future-focused’ application of an ePortfolio can provide an innovative solution to the challenges facing current assessment practice in senior secondary education. The author builds a strong argument for the need to align assessment to teaching practices, referencing research on new teaching practices and assessment, and pointing out a need for integrative assessment which combines both assessment for and of learning based on continuous feedback, guidance and reflection (p.66). [1] Fullan, M. & Miles, M. (1992). Research Report:
Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think! When I was teaching science one of the best lessons I learned was about formative assessment. In my first year of teaching I taught the way I was told to teach. Deliver content to my students, assess at the end, remediate if necessary. I was talking with a teacher friend the summer after my first year and she suggested something simple. What a difference that made. The following school years that board became an important place for myself and my students. Now, as 1:1 and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) are taking over our schools, its becoming even easier to formatively assess what our students know and for our students to leave feedback as to what they need. Here are a few sites and apps to help with formative assessments... Online Sticky Notes-Just like my physical space in my classroom there are lots of virtual sticky note sites out there. Understood It-A new-to-me service, this one is elegantly simple. Socrative- This one is quickly become a go-to app for formative assessments for me.
7 Simple Ways You Can Help Students Pay Attention In A Traditional Classroom - 7 Simple Ways You Can Help Students Pay Attention by TeachThought Staff For many teachers, helping students “pay attention” is probably the wrong way to help improve what you’re probably trying to improve. Listless students. Apathetic responses. Uninspired work. Talking. Texting. Behavior issues. “Off-taskedness.” Daydreaming. These are the hallmarks of a classroom and curriculum in need of some significant rethinking rather than a few “takeaways” to help students “stare longer at work they don’t care about.” That said, for others, the challenge may indeed by one of pure student engagement. Provided in the following infographic from Reading Horizons are some strategies for increasing student engagement. 7 Simple Ways You Can Help Students Pay Attention In A Traditional Classroom 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 7 Simple Ways You Can Help Students Pay Attention In A Traditional Classroom; image attribution readinghorizons.com
Final Exams…a Tradition Worth Exploring I have been having many conversations this year with teachers about our practice of administering final exams for students. Although I cannot confirm with certainty, I recently read that the final exam process has been happening since the 1830s. With all the current research on effective assessment, how students learn and knowing that we are required to make decisions that have a student’s best interest as the primary consideration, I have to question why we are still doing this, this way. I watched a teacher work with a student the other day. At random I chose two well known universities, Harvard and Berkley, and googled their final exam procedures. As for real world application, other than school and my driver license I can’t remember writing a high stakes exam to demonstrate what I know.
Här kommer turen till alla Tommy Lucassi är lärare i matematik, NO och teknik på Rålambshovsskolan i Stockholm. I hans klassrum ska alla elever få tillgång till det bästa lärandet. I stället för handuppräckning drar han därför på måfå en namnlapp, samtidigt som han ställer sina frågor. Det finns gott om forskning som visar hur effektiva klassrumsdiskussioner är för inlärningen – för dem som deltar. – Svarar en elev att den inte vet så drar jag nya lappar och låter andra svara. Hans undervisning fick delvis en ny inriktning när han började arbeta med formativ bedömning och evidensbaserad inlärning. – Forskningen har visat att det är det som sker i klassrummet som har störst effekt på elevers inlärning. För Tommy Lucassi startar denna dag med tre lektioner på rad om matspjälkningen, om hur näringsämnen tas upp under köttbullens väg genom kroppen. – Ni som inte redovisar, glöm inte att anteckna! Föregående lektion har eleverna gjort research. – Får jag använda mobilen? En tjej frågar om hon får göra ett prov.
7 Tools for Creating Mind Maps and Outlines Online One of the presentations that I made this week was about having students create videos to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic. In that presentation one of the points that I stress is the need for students to create outlines of their videos before moving onto the technical aspects of constructing a video. Here are some tools for creating outlines and mind maps to plan video projects, podcasts, or essays. Quicklyst is a nice tool for taking notes and creating outlines. Knowcase is a free tool for recording ideas and creating outlines. Spider Scribe is an online mind map creation service. Folder Boy is a new service for recording, sharing, and organizing ideas with a team. Wise Mapping is a free collaborative mind mapping tool. Exploratree is a free graphic organizer creation tool. Slatebox is a slick tool for collaboratively creating mind maps and organizational charts.
Life After Levels – An Assessment Revolution? Over recent months I’ve been involved in interviews for a number of posts across the Multi Academy Trust. One of our favourite questions has been, “What will assessment look like once levels are dead?” The answers have on the whole been a bit confused. This post is based on a webinar I delivered for Optimus Education in March 2015. A Necessary Confusion Teachers and potential leaders are struggling to imagine life after levels, proposing that we keep with levels or that we produce our own levelling systems for Key Stage 2 or 3. Levels were removed in September 2014, with the introduction of the new National Curriculum, and will be reported for the final time in Summer 2015 for Years 2 & 6. New Horizons As the sun sets on the World of Levels, we need to lift our eyes to the horizon and make sure decisions about our new assessment systems are taking us in the right direction. Principle 1 – Assessment Must Support Learning Summative Assessment: Of Learning or For Grading? References Like this: