Taking the "Ass" out of Assessment

Your weekend homework seems easy at the outset (perhaps!), but upon closer inspection, you will find that assessment is hard. Or, at least, getting it right is hard. Assessment isn't just about aligning to your objectives. It is also about the kinds of assessments you plan on giving. One of the most important rules of classroom-based assessment is diversification--that is, diversifying the kinds of assessments you give your students. I like to imagine the assessment continuum in English as a broad spectrum of assessment tools, ranging from a focused freewrite to a musical soundtrack to an essay exam to a vocabulary quiz to a powerpoint presentation. Be sure you are mindful of multiple ways of knowing and multiple ways your students can demonstrate knowing. Also be cognizant of Bloom's taxonomy and the levels of cognitive work that you are asking of your students. On the blog this week, tell us about one assessment from your unit plan that you feel good about, one that you feel represents your best assessment work so far. What does it consist of? What do students produce or do? How are you going to score this assessment?What else should we know about this assessment? Looking forward to reading about it--

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Sorry for not having posted a new thread for the weekend. I know you'll either be posting late Sunday night or sometime on Monday or Tuesday--and that is fine with me. My mistake!

Remember, this week I would like you to write to us about an idea from Christensen's text that you are thinking about adopting and adapting for your critical unit of study. Remember that Christensen and Appleman share an appreciation for teaching critical perspectives--teaching students how to "de-code" the word and the world.

I look forward to reading about how you plan to incorporate concepts of social justice and critical lenses into your teaching idea. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Unit Plan Think Tank

So, what are your ideas for teaching a unit with "The Things They Carried" and/or "The Red Convertible" at the center? What themes, concepts, questions or "big ideas" might be the driving force of this unit? What other kinds of texts might you ask students to read to help them access and understand the central concept, theme, question, or big idea of the unit?

Sorry it took me so long to post this thread. I was at a Writing Project retreat this weekend with 7 content area teachers--chemistry, art, social studies, and ESL--to talk about content literacy. It was great but I am so exhausted! Looking forward to reading your ideas here today...

Valentine for Ernest Mann

You can't order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, "I'll take two"
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.

Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here's my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.
So I'll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.

Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn't understand why she was crying.
"I thought they had such beautiful eyes."
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he reinvented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of the skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.

Maybe if we reinvent whatever our lives give us
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite.
And let me know.

- Naomi Shihab Nye
in The Red Suitcase, Brockport, NY: BOA Editions, 1994.

The Snow Man

by Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Take-Away Wisdom from Linda Christensen

I'm eager to hear from you all about the nuggets of teacherly wisdom you took away from Christensen's Chapter 4: Literature in Context. Ever-conscious of being a good teacher model, I'll post my five nuggets first, and then I invite you to follow suit. Feel free to break out of whatever mold I appear to set here. And, in case you haven't figured this out, the woman pictured here is one of my all-time Yoda figures. I was lucky enough to spend 2 days with her when she visited the Rhode Island Writing Project two years ago. She is an amazing teacher and human being. What an inspiration.

1. "I consider teaching a craft" (p162). This statement is simple and yet serves as fuel for me. Teaching is complex work, a blend of artistry, compassion, and intellect. Not everyone can be a good teacher. This simple phrase is my armor against all the naysayers who believe that studying teaching and education is "mickey mouse."

2. "Stories can shape students' beliefs about how we treat each other, how we work together, how we live on our land, what's important and what's worth working for" (p163). This statement is more of a credo for me, reminding me and my students of the importance of literature--our cultural memory--in helping us decide who we want to be as individuals and as communities and societies. Stories that are written down and that survive generations have something to teach us. We need to be open to listening to what they have to say.

3. "I pore over student papers; I observe students as they write, read, talk, and listen. I ask questions as I watch them in class..." (p164). Here, Linda reminds us that in order to be effective teachers, we have to be careful and informed observers of youth. We have to listen intently more than we talk. We have to watch with eyes that care, that seek out small truths in our students, that look for signs of life and signs of sadness. I love this stance; I love the idea that I am a student of my students, that I learn from my students as I listen to them and observe them. It is so freeing to think of teaching as a responsive craft--before we can respond to our students, though, we need to watch, and listen.

4. "I don't give reading quizzes or tests" (p175). Linda goes on to explain that over her years in the classroom, she has designed ways to "immerse students more thoroughly in our readings." Tests and quizzes serve a purpose--to see if kids can remember stuff. Given the prevalence of attention disorders and the high levels of distraction our students' live with each day, memory is not something we should be testing for in schools anymore. We don't need to remember the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird when we can look it up on Wikipedia in two seconds on our phones. So, what DOES matter, then? What SHOULD students be holding onto when they read a text? I think we know this answer...the efferent reader versus the aesthetic reader. Right?

5. Character Silhouettes!!!!! (p177). This activity is SO awesome. After reading The Things They Carried, I want us to do character silhouettes of the soldiers. I'll even let Jill be Jimmy Cross.

What Did you Take Away from Class on Monday?

Okay, folks. Here's the spot for you to tell us what nuggets of pedagogy and practice you took away from our talk, our activities, and our readings from Monday's practicum class.