Week 4 Reflection

My assessments meet the criteria for effective assessments because they are student-centered. Each assessment focuses on skills that will be valuable for the individual students’ lifetime. The assessments build upon one another to create a well-rounded learning environment. All of the formative assessments hold within them a skill or strategy that students must learn to implement in order to perform well on the summative assessments. For example, if students want to find meaningful research that comes from accurate and credible sources then Boolean searching will prove to be a powerful tool. If students can effectively navigate the use of Boolean searching their search results will improve leading to more credible research and a more trustworthy final presentation. Likewise, the the Of Mice and Men Supplemental Text Analysis forces students to analyze various texts by evaluating the effects of specific word choice, type of evidence selected, and the tone to which the author uses. This assignment requires that students make meaningful connections in order to synthesize information and show complete understanding. This skill must be used in the Selling the American Dream Project as students will be pushed to showcase their abilities not only to synthesize and evaluate information, but to create new ideas with the information gathered. Each assessment provides students with an opportunity to improve upon a given learning objective that will be assessed in the summative assessment.

Additionally, many of these assignments require that students either work in pairs or in groups. As a result, this leaves a lot of room for students to evaluate one another and provide constructive feedback that they might grow as critical thinkers. Students are exposed to a variety of evaluators (teacher, peer, self, outside persons). This means there will be diversity in the criticism provided which will present students will yet another opportunity for self-evaluation. With multiple exposures to concepts and ideas students are mastering skills through the process of revision. Consider the rough draft research paper. Students will use the rubric of the teacher to annotate and then provide suggestions in regards to another classmates research paper. In this process students will need to demonstrate understanding of how to facilitate the rubric. Each formative assessment contributes to the level of expectation and rigor that the summative assessments maintain.

While I am confident in my assessments I do see room for improvement. In fact, in looking at the “Key Principles of Assessment” if was clear that I needed to provide students with more opportunity for reflection. I actually went into my PBL site and added the double-entry journal assignment. I see the value in allowing students to reflect on their learning so that they might grasp the depth of their learning. Moreover, I didn’t include in the formative assessments section the fact that I intend to have frequent, informal class discussions to allow students a chance to process and verbally work through their thoughts. Lastly, I was pushed by the question “How will you adjust your teaching during this project to allow more student input in the evaluation process?” I realized that one thing I need to do is model and take on the role of the student. I need to participate in these assignments with students to show the level of expectation and rigor. In my modeling students will have the responsibility of acting as the evaluator. Students will use the various rubrics I intend to use to then assess what I model. In this students will be need to demonstrate what they comprehend in regards to expectations for each assignment. They will also be required to apply concept, critique, and make connections.Ultimately, this is providing students with practice for the summative assessments that will be used.