Are tests the only objective assessment of student learning?

Before I started teaching 3 years ago, I might have answered yes to this question. I'm a math person, very logical; therefore, an objective assessment meant a test where the grade is based on the percentage of correct answers. Very simple... divide the number correct by the total number and multiply by 100. But I don't feel that way anymore. What changed?

I started teaching. I started learning.

I learned that some kids don't test well. They know the material. I know they know the material. But when they take a "test", they score much lower than expected. Maybe they have test anxiety, or they can't focus for long periods of time without a break, or they're hungry, or they have poor eyesight and can't see the test, or they're tired... I learned that as a teacher, I need more than one way to objectively assess student learning.

The answer? I needed to work collaboratively with the teaching community to share new strategies and best practices. There are so many teaching and assessing tools available that it can get overwhelming: e-portfolios, reflective blogs, group projects, research papers, essays, performance tasks, webquests, lab experiments, etc. But if I'm to meet the needs of all my learners, then I have to have a variety of ways to both present material and assess understanding.

Being the math person that I am, I had no idea how to assign an objective grade to work products like essays or blogs. Then I discovered the wonderful world of rubrics. What more can I ask for?

A rubric is a grading chart that the teacher creates before handing out the assignment. It breaks down every item the teacher is going to be grading and assigns it a point value. It turns grading into something that is completely objective. I think of it as looking at the assignment through a filter. The first time I go through the paper, I'm only looking for the one specific item I am assessing. Once I assign it the appropriate points, I go through the paper again, looking only for the next item I'm assessing. I continue until I've assessed each item and then I tally the points. I love this system...

Just to satisfy my curiousity, I have graded a batch of papers the "old-fashioned" way (without a rubric), then re-graded them with the rubric. I found that things like poor grammar and sloppy penmanship biased my grading. Some people may argue that even with a rubric, the grading is still slightly subjective. However, after seeing the results for myself, I am confident that a well writtin rubric does a great job to ensure objectivity.



I saw this video on youtube and thought it was funny... I
hope you enjoy it, too!

Youtube (2010). Hilarious Professional Development for Teachers. Retrieved June 23, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tt2DXH2ZSk&feature=related

The Technology-Infused Classroom...

When I think of the ideal technology-infused classroom, I envision a learning environment where technology supports both large group instruction as well as small group, student-centered learning. SMART Boards, tablets, student response systems, and digital document cameras all help engage a large group of students. And don't forget the importance of the software that supports them: presentation software like PowerPoint or SMART Notebook, videos, music, and animation all coordinate together to capture the attention of the student.

But today's 21st century student spends only a small portion of his/her day receiving direct instruction. Instead, they work independently or in small groups and learn in a variety of ways. Assisting them are computers with Internet connections, access to appropriate websites and restrictions from everything else, web quests, virtual field trips, distance learning, cameras and video recorders to create work products, graphing calculators, electronic skill building games, podcasts, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Of course, what I described above is the "ideal" classroom. Not only would it have all the equipment and enough room for all this, but it comes accessorized with bean bag chairs, throw rugs, curtains, lamps, and colorfully painted walls. How can I have a technology-infused classroom? Maybe I can win a show like "Pimp my Classroom" or "Extreme Makeover: School Edition." But short of that, I'll make the most of what I have and apply for grants to get the rest. Just this past May, I asked to take charge of our school's freshman computer lab. It's been under-utilized because of its layout; it's much too easy for students to misuse the equipment. My request was granted and I am in the process of rearranging it and repairing all the equipment. This lab is going to open up a lot of doors for my students, and I will utilize all the resources around me to get it up and running!

This is a video that my team put together for our collaborative group project at Grand Canyon University. You'll see numerous examples of technology infused into the classroom...

Impact of Visual literacy and the Internet

“Visual literacy is the ability to understand and use images. This includes to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images.” (Lamb, 2001) We live in a society where we are surrounded by visual imagery. Whether it is street signs, posters, store displays, billboards, instructions, or even warnings, we are constantly exposed to images and we’re expected to interpret them.

Being able to decode imagery is an essential skill for today’s learners; and, they need to be able to evaluate what they see with a critical eye. Some images are designed to deceive, especially in advertising (and finance, apparently). Equally important, the ability to encode imagery is an essential skill for today’s workers. So, how are our children expected to learn these skills?

We have the opportunity every day to teach visual literacy to our students in elementary through high school. Students love visual stimulation. Videos, clip arts, graphs, illustrations, and pictures – we already use these because they are engaging to our students and can help deepen understanding of the content. We can take our teaching to the next level by letting the students discover key ideas through analysis of a visual. For example, instead of a teacher lecturing on the events leading to the Boston Tea Party, the students can be given a set of pictures (newspaper headlines, artist renderings, etc) and try to figure out what happened. After they’ve analyzed the images, they can compare their conjectures to the historical facts. This lends itself to higher order thinking skills and it creates a natural curiosity – Why did the colonials dump the tea into the harbor? What were they so angry about? ...

I intend to implement a variety of visual-thinking strategies in my classroom. I want my students to discover mathematical concepts for themselves. Not only will we use the internet for research, web quests and virtual field trips, but we will also visit websites such as www.explorelearning.com where students can see and discover math using Gizmos, or www.creately.com where students can collaboratively create graphic organizers. To top it all off, we will use programs like Windows Movie Maker or Photoshop to create presentations that synthesizes everything we’ve learned.

Sources:

Cinergix Pty. Ltd. (2008-2009) Creately: Online Diagramming and Design. Retrieved May 24, 2010 from http://www.creately.com/

ExploreLearning (2010). Experience Math and Science With Gizmos. Retrieved May 24, 2010 from http://www.explorelearning.com/

Lamb, Annette (2001). Visual Literacy. Retrieved May 23, 2010 from http://eduscapes.com/sessions/digital/digital1.htm

I found this video on youtube. It's a perfect example of today's

visual learner.

YouTube (2009). Gizmo Factor Trees by Cole. Retrieve May 25, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vN_GLy9tFA

Instructional Stategies

Marc Pensky wrote in his article, Digital Natives, Digital Imigrants, "Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." Because this generation has been submerged in technology, their brains have formed differently, they have a different structure than older generations, and they have different thinking patterns. We need to apply a variety of instructional strategies in order to effectively teach them.

As educators, we have had to redesign our approach to teaching. Smaldino describes the new direction in education to be "away from the 'old' pedagogy of teachers 'telling'... to the 'new' pedagogy of kids teaching themselves with teacher’s guidance." In order to accomplish this, we need highly engaging activities that guide the students to discovery of concepts. We need a way to scaffold and differentiate these activities. We need lessons that appeal to our visual, tactile and auditory learners. We need to consider both our left-brain and right-brain learners. We need to consider our students with disabilities; are we meeting their IEP's? And on top of all of this, we need to remember that Lucy and Ricky need to be kept separated because they just broke up and they're emotional wrecks. Wheew...

So, what's the answer? How can I accomplish all this? TECHNOLOGY. I just don't see a better way. My idea of the ideal classroom is where the students work in learning centers, geared to their individual needs. If they need remediation and skill building, they get it. If they are ready to be challenged, they get it. Whether they are playing educational computer games, webquests, online tutorials,or SMARTBoard activites,computer software is an efficient, low-prep way to provide an individualized education experience.

Sources:
Pensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Retrieved May 11, 2010 from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Smaldino,S.E.(2008). Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Ninth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

This video shows the planning that goes into a lesson and how different strategies are required to reach all learners:

I teach turkeys : )

I teach 9th grade math and my students are contstantly up to something. So I call them turkeys; but don't get me wrong - it really is a term of endearment, sort of a pet name. And, it helps me de-esculate small conflicts - "John - stop being a turkey and give him back his pencil" somehow works every time!