Friday, February 26, 2010
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--
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There are two assessments that may work. One is an essay test that will contain five short pieces of writing which students will analyze using five literary theories (reader response, new historicism, social class, and gender. This assessment evaluates the first objective for students interpreting and analyzing literature from different literary perspectives. The other is a portfolio students will complete before, during, and after the writing workshop. The portfolio will contain the pre-assessment on what students believe is involved in writing workshops, worksheets they will complete while reading and critiquing their peers' writing, and the final piece of writing (one-page letter). This assessment addresses the second objective, that students will be able to facilitate a writing workshop.
ReplyDeleteLaura-Fantastic models to get us started! Thank you for your excellent ideas. One caution: Be careful of your use of the term "worksheet" as it translates, in the professional world of teaching, as a not-so-good thing (as a sort of fill-in-the-blank, mindless busywork type of vehicle). You might instead refer to handouts, feedback forms, response sheets, or something that sounds more true to what you are asking of students.
ReplyDeleteOne assessment that I think will be fun and effective is a project in which students will apply postcolonialism to a song or movie clip. Students will learn about postcolonial theory and how to apply it to class and I’m also planning on having them apply it to a provided song in a group. I think that those activities will provide enough scaffolding for students to feel confident enough to use postcolonial theory on their own. I contemplated having students write a postcolonial paper on a text but I think the learning will be much more relevant and meaningful to them if they can apply the theory to something that actually exists in their lives. Depending on the level of class and what I think they can handle, I would either provide students with a pre-approved list of films or songs to use or let them choose their own. The students would then have to present their postcolonial readings of their “texts” to the class while showing/playing them. This would probably be very time-consuming but I think it would be worth it because I think everyone would benefit from their classmates’ presentations. This activity would involve student comprehension, application, analysis, and evaluation. I’m weary of giving grades based on the quality of the reading and presentation and am leading more toward checking that they actually put effort into it. However, this project does include a lot of work and I think students would see it as “pointless” if there were no grades attached to it. So, I am still trying to figure out exactly how the grading of this project would work.
ReplyDeleteKathryn--Great. I love the idea of applying the theory to a non-print text. Be sure that you plan to model this in class several times before assigning it to students. Also, your idea reminds me of an article I read recently about the British press' negative coverage of the winter olympics in Canada, which, in this particular author's mind, was skewed and unwarranted. The author brought up the affect of the "colonial attitude" of the Brits toward the Canadians, and at that moment, I remembered that Canada, our closest neighbor, is part of the British Empire. I always forget that! Anyway, I support your mulling over of how to grade these projects, You might simply define what an A, B, and C looks like and declare that student will receive one of those grades based on a FEW key criteria. What do you really want them to be able to demonstrate through this project? (Try to limit it to 2-4 key criteria).
ReplyDeleteMy first assessment idea is an informal one using music to stimulate student response. We, as a class, will go over reader response theory and do some exercises to demonstrate and model the theory. I will then ask the students to select a piece of appropriate music that moves them. They will then rewrite the song applying reader response theory. I will ask them to perform their songs in front of the class or they can hand them in to me privately,(I will be the first to perform my song so that the students feel safe to perform theirs). I will grade this assignment with a check system. The students will receive a check for satisfactory work, a check plus for going above and beyond satisfactory, and a check minus for unsatisfactory work or no work at all. The grading systems that I use will be familiar and clear to my students from the beginning of the school year.
ReplyDeleteI have the students doing a culminating project that assesses two of my three objectives. The end project asks students to use Tim O’Brien’s stories as a model for writing their own experimental vignettes (based on an experience from their real lives) that experiment with literary devices such as point of view (1st, 2nd, and/or 3rd), tense, tone, listing, repetition, word choice,and/or sentence structure. Like O’Brien’s stories, the students’ vignettes will experiment with ways of telling and retelling the story in order to capture the “truth” of the writer’s experience. The students will also incorporate elements of Metafiction into their vignettes by including them directly in their stories or by writing a metafictional “story” that reflects on their other stories. The students will also write a brief explaination of which devices and techniques they focused on and why. The students will be graded on several criteria, including: completion of the assignment, creativity, clear demonstration of the devices and techniques in the stories, inclusion of several versions of the “story” addressed in the vignettes, and inclusion of their “expaination” of their project. I feel that it is important to grade a big culminating project and I am not opposed to letter grades for big projects if it seems appropriate. However, because of the experimental and creative nature of this assignment, I will be grading on the inclusion of the elements of the assignment and effort rather than on how spectacular or publishable my students’ work is. Not all students will be “mini O’Briens” as all students have different “strong points” as writers. I will give opportunity to rewrite for any student who needs to. I will also encourage students who did a really incredible job to consider putting the piece aside in their “revise” pile for end of the semester/year portfolios (which will allow them to get more credit for their exemplary work.)
ReplyDeleteSo, one of my assessment ideas is to give the students a series of pictures that depict a number of Native American/Pilgrim scenes. Students must write a short story about the pictures (students may choose one picture, or incorporate several pictures) using several literary elements--p.o.v., tone, figurative language, etc. Students be assessed on a "check" system, with a check for satisfactory work or a check minus for unsatisfactory work or no work submitted (I'm thinking I will have a rubric or at least a set of criteria for them to meet, I just haven't fleshed this out yet.) After their work is handed back to them, students will then pair up and exchange stories. At this point they will apply a critical lens (Marxist, Feminist or Postcolonialism) to each other's stories and write a 2-paragraph response to the text. These responses will be graded on a check system as well, and will be assessed for comprehension and application of the critical lens.
ReplyDeleteAs an assessment for my visual media lesson, I wanted the assignment to incorporate song lyrics. The students will have watched a variety of clips form Disney films in relation to the gender and feminist theory we have been studying. As many of us know, Disney songs within the films are what capture young children’s attention and add a variety of entertainment. Although fun on the surface, these songs bring about much controversy when analyzed and interpreting the underlining messages. Therefore I would like the students to do so with different Disney songs found throughout the film. I would like them to create a soundtrack using only Disney songs to describe one of the characters that has a controversial gender role in the film. Once they have selected theses song I will as them to choose at least three of them to analyze and write about, showing specific examples of gender/feminist theory and how these songs shape innocent Disney characters. I will use some type of rubric for students to follow as they create their CDs and will also incorporate some point value system on the rubric so the requirements are clear. I think it would be fun for students to share these soundtracks with the class and listen to the ideas each developed as they studied the songs.
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