Dr. t. lee
Reflections about Student Assessment
During the Fall Semester 2011, for 45 minutes of their instructional day, students grades 1-6 placed in my charge were expected to adapt to highly structured learning environments. Considering that they were unaccustomed to such activities the students performed amazingly well on the whole. However, because they lacked consistent exposure, students struggled with active listening skills and disciplined work habits; teachers wishing to try implementing the instructional activities contained in this portfolio must understand that any sort of interactive or dialogue-based activity requires continual higher than usual levels of teacher vigilance, redirection of focus, and oversight - student-centered environments don’t run on magic. It is important to understand that it will take time and extensive classroom management training, direct and consistent administrative and peer interventions, and system-wide reform from grades 1-12 to effect meaningful change in the instructional models used.
The student surveys contained in this portfolio marked the first time that students were asked to complete surveys related to their learning. While at first students had many questions about the purpose of the surveys, they started to really look forward to the close of units and providing my co-teachers and I with their feedback. The rubric based assessments contained in this portfolio marked the students’ first exposure to the use of rubrics to evaluate their performance. This is an exciting opportunity for Georgia to revolutionize instructional delivery modes.
The primary form of student assessment used by my co-teachers was traditional tests. As Wiggins (1990) explained:
Traditional tests tend to reveal only whether the student can recognize, recall or "plug in" what was
learned out of context… Authentic assessments attend to whether the student can craft polished, thorough and justifiable answers, performances or products. Conventional tests typically only ask the student to selector write correct responses--irrespective of reasons.
It is interesting to note that the primary method of teacher assessment used by my Georgian co-teachers was in the form of “Result Tests” that they are required to administer four times each semester (see Figure 133 for an example of a results tests); these tests are not used to inform, evaluate, or change instruction – no revision lessons are conducted and individualized tutoring/assistance is not provided to students. The Result Tests administered by Georgian Teachers often have grammatical errors. The concepts and vocabulary are not those introduced in the units or in the instruction. In fact, teachers must sometimes explain unfamiliar vocabulary words or grammatical concepts during the testing session. Results tests are written on the board and the students clearly rely on each other for the answers instead of it being an assessment of individual performance. Often the students and the teachers discuss the test questions and items and the teachers solicit answers from the students which all students record in their test booklets.
Figure 133. Example of a grade 6 Results Test administered by Teacher 3.
I incorporate the use of student surveys to calibrate my instruction and I also enjoy using more authentic forms of assessment that are tied to instruction. I showed my co-teachers how to use rubric based assessments and formal and informal observation as forms of assessment but it remains to be seen whether or to what extent they will implement these forms of assessment.
References
Wiggins, Grant (1990). The case for authentic assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 2(2).
Retrieved November 29, 2011 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=2&n=2