Friday, April 22, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Assessment, Testing, and Rubrics
Traditional vs. Authentic Assessment
If you are a teacher you are definitely familiar with the two terms above. Assessment refers to “any method used to understand the current knowledge a student possesses; it can range from a teacher's subjective judgment based on a single observation of a student's performance to a state-mandated standardized test” (Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter). When most people think of assessment, they automatically think of a test, standardized test, or other form of written testing assessment. This is the more traditional form of assessment. With traditional assessment, the teacher is creating a type of assessment tool that will be given to the students. On the other hand, authentic assessment means the students creates something that the teacher will then use as a tool for evaluation. For example, having students create a final project, a digital story, or science fair project. These type of activities allow students to have more control of what grade they get, show what they can do, and provides for a real-life assessment. Another example is a student created portfolio. In the past, I have used this for student evaluation rather than giving a test. This way, students are allowed to show me what they can do outside of just a written test.
For my curriculum page and final project, I am having my students create a digital story about an influential American. Since this project has several components to it, the best way to evaluate students is through a rubric. What I love about rubrics is that students can essentially choose their grade. It shows students what they must complete in order to get an A, B, C, D, or F. Rubrics also “spell out” for students what they are expected to do. Personally, I think it also makes it clear to students why they received a grade so there are no questions about it. During my internship, I had my students work on a very extensive project that took about a month and a half to complete. At the beginning we not only went over all the directions and expectations, but we went over the rubric I had created. It seemed to clear up a lot of questions the students had. It also worked great because the students used it as a check list.
For my influential American’s project I chose to create a rubric that would assess my students in multiple areas of the assignment. Not only are they going to be assessed on the content of the project, but also the planning and creation of the project. When doing something like a digital story, there is a huge range of things to evaluate your students on. I chose to evaluate my students on grammar, purpose, voice, duration, research/citations, and storyboard. I felt for my class these would be the best areas to assess my 4th grade ESOL students. I used RubiStar to create my rubric. Through RubiStar, you can create your own rubric or you can use the templates that they offer. I used some of the information from one rubric that they had created, but edited it to fit my needs.
If I were to do something different, I would have modified/added a few more areas to the rubric. I found it difficult to make the wording of it easy for my students to understand. Also, on RubiStar, you cannot add information outside of the rubric boxes. When I downloaded it, I was able to add to the bottom a grading scale and the maximum number of points available for the students. For next time, I may try to just make my own on Excel or use another free site.
Here is another link to my rubric: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&module=Rubistar&rubric_id=2042936&
If you are a teacher you are definitely familiar with the two terms above. Assessment refers to “any method used to understand the current knowledge a student possesses; it can range from a teacher's subjective judgment based on a single observation of a student's performance to a state-mandated standardized test” (Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter). When most people think of assessment, they automatically think of a test, standardized test, or other form of written testing assessment. This is the more traditional form of assessment. With traditional assessment, the teacher is creating a type of assessment tool that will be given to the students. On the other hand, authentic assessment means the students creates something that the teacher will then use as a tool for evaluation. For example, having students create a final project, a digital story, or science fair project. These type of activities allow students to have more control of what grade they get, show what they can do, and provides for a real-life assessment. Another example is a student created portfolio. In the past, I have used this for student evaluation rather than giving a test. This way, students are allowed to show me what they can do outside of just a written test.
For my curriculum page and final project, I am having my students create a digital story about an influential American. Since this project has several components to it, the best way to evaluate students is through a rubric. What I love about rubrics is that students can essentially choose their grade. It shows students what they must complete in order to get an A, B, C, D, or F. Rubrics also “spell out” for students what they are expected to do. Personally, I think it also makes it clear to students why they received a grade so there are no questions about it. During my internship, I had my students work on a very extensive project that took about a month and a half to complete. At the beginning we not only went over all the directions and expectations, but we went over the rubric I had created. It seemed to clear up a lot of questions the students had. It also worked great because the students used it as a check list.
For my influential American’s project I chose to create a rubric that would assess my students in multiple areas of the assignment. Not only are they going to be assessed on the content of the project, but also the planning and creation of the project. When doing something like a digital story, there is a huge range of things to evaluate your students on. I chose to evaluate my students on grammar, purpose, voice, duration, research/citations, and storyboard. I felt for my class these would be the best areas to assess my 4th grade ESOL students. I used RubiStar to create my rubric. Through RubiStar, you can create your own rubric or you can use the templates that they offer. I used some of the information from one rubric that they had created, but edited it to fit my needs.
If I were to do something different, I would have modified/added a few more areas to the rubric. I found it difficult to make the wording of it easy for my students to understand. Also, on RubiStar, you cannot add information outside of the rubric boxes. When I downloaded it, I was able to add to the bottom a grading scale and the maximum number of points available for the students. For next time, I may try to just make my own on Excel or use another free site.
Here is another link to my rubric: http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&module=Rubistar&rubric_id=2042936&
Friday, April 8, 2011
SlideShare and Digitial Storytelling
Last week’s task was to create a curriculum page. This week, I was to take the ideas on the curriculum page and create a storyboard/example project for my students. My first step was to think about how my students would be doing this project. I quickly realized I would need to make a few modifications. For example, I have a list of questions I want the students to answer, but when I tried to incorporate that into a digital story, I had a hard time. So, for now the questions are still there but I let my students know they could answer them in any order. This is where creating an example of the project became a key factor. For my students to truly understand this, they would need an example. Even I need examples of projects to totally understand! ESOL students are also better able to learn information through visuals which means creating an example for them is going to be the most helpful. Furthermore, these students are in 4th grade and have limited access to PowerPoint, digital storytelling, and movie creation.
So, I continued on with this example project. First, I created a generic storyboard that could be used for each project. Using this storyboard, I figured out how I wanted to set up the order of my story. I then created a story through PowerPoint. I put the pictures I wanted on each slide and then recorded narration for each slide. Once I had done that, I uploaded it into SlideShare. SlideShare allows you to embed the final project into your webpage. Once movies are able to be embedded into a webpage, you can put all the students’ finalized work on it for viewing. This is great for the kids or their parents if they want to view it at home.
The great thing about making a sample project is that it gave me a lot of perspective as to what my students would be doing. I quickly realized the parts of the project that needed to be changed. I realized also that I need to find a way to make the directions more clear for them. Personally, I learn better with hands-on things, so I don’t think I am the greatest at writing directions! If I were to do things differently, I would change the directions some. Also, I would make sure the students understood that they are telling a story, not just information. There really is an art to telling a story and I think that some of my kids would have a hard time with this. Overall, I feel that the sample project came out the way I wanted it to. I tried to make it fairly simple since my students are only required to make a fairly simple digital story.
Here is my digital story example of an Influential American:
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
So, I continued on with this example project. First, I created a generic storyboard that could be used for each project. Using this storyboard, I figured out how I wanted to set up the order of my story. I then created a story through PowerPoint. I put the pictures I wanted on each slide and then recorded narration for each slide. Once I had done that, I uploaded it into SlideShare. SlideShare allows you to embed the final project into your webpage. Once movies are able to be embedded into a webpage, you can put all the students’ finalized work on it for viewing. This is great for the kids or their parents if they want to view it at home.
The great thing about making a sample project is that it gave me a lot of perspective as to what my students would be doing. I quickly realized the parts of the project that needed to be changed. I realized also that I need to find a way to make the directions more clear for them. Personally, I learn better with hands-on things, so I don’t think I am the greatest at writing directions! If I were to do things differently, I would change the directions some. Also, I would make sure the students understood that they are telling a story, not just information. There really is an art to telling a story and I think that some of my kids would have a hard time with this. Overall, I feel that the sample project came out the way I wanted it to. I tried to make it fairly simple since my students are only required to make a fairly simple digital story.
Here is my digital story example of an Influential American:
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Rosa Parks
View more presentations from cathanne1024.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Wikis and Curriculum Pages (AR#5)
The task: Create a curriculum page using a wiki or a webquest.
Last week my task was to create a wiki. A wiki is a webpage that can be easily edited and accessed by students and teachers alike. It is also (for me) one of the easiest ways to create a webpage for my classroom. You can change information easily and create a lot of interactive tools to go along with any lessons you post on the wiki. So, my next task was to use my newly created wiki to make a curriculum page. A curriculum page helps teachers “by giving their students a simple list of pre-selected, teacher-approved, educationally relevant, "safe" Web sites” (Thompson, 2011). Rather than have your students search all over the internet…which we all know can be a disaster…you can set up a lesson on your wiki.
The basics of a curriculum page should include: an introduction, task, process, and resources for students. Also, there should be some type of evaluation included. Usually I include a rubric because it is easiest for students to follow. In the past I have create a WebQuest based on the Everglades which had the students research by clicking on linked words.
Here is the link to that WebQuest: http://www.zunal.com/webquest.php?w=77287
For my wiki, I created a curriculum page/WebQuest based on influential Americans. One of my former classes was actually assigned this, but at the time I did not create a WebQuest. I set it up so that the first page explained what the project was and how it was to be done. Since a list of influential Americans could be endless, I set it up with the 5 people my students last semester decided on. The great thing about a wiki is that I can change this at any time. I can add/change/delete any information that would change each time I do this project. Furthermore, I linked other pages in the wiki to the first page so that everything was easy to navigate. I learned this recently, because I found it confusing myself when the pages were not all linked together. It is much easier to link them rather than hit the back/forward button on your browser. If I were going to improve upon my wiki, I would want it to be a little more creative. I think that I could make it look more fun and interesting, now that I am looking back on it. Also, I think that I would like to change it so that the instructions, evaluation, etc would each be on their own pages. In my previous WebQuest, this is the way I did it and I think it makes it look a little nicer. Good thing is that since it is a wiki it is very easy to fix!
Below is the link for my wiki:
http://msernstsplace.wikispaces.com/
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