B2+UbD+Chapter+5

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Abstract
This chapter was all about assessment. This includes how teachers currently assess students and some of the disadvantages that come along with that and how teachers should incorporate multiple forms of assessment into their lessons. The chapter also mentioned pretests, which are designed to attract students’ interest and attention. However, pretests also can be used as a way of see what students already know about the lesson the teacher is going to teach them. By knowing this beforehand, the teacher will be able to plan modifications and adapt their lesson to what the class demonstrates their understanding on the pretest. The main point about this chapter is alternate forms of assessment and how there should be multiple ones of them in order to accurately assess a teacher’s student. The chapter argues that the current standardized way of assessing students is unfair to everyone. It is unfair to the students who possess different MI qualities than those needed to do exams, it’s unfair for those students who don’t do well with written tests, students who don’t speak English well, and especially for the teacher because these tests reflect on their teaching. [|A list of the top 10 ways to assess students] had many of the same options as the chapter listed. Finally, the chapter mentioned GRASPS. GRASPS are ways of constructing a lesson that students will be able to connect their lives to. This is a very effective way of getting the attention and interests of students and still get the content across as well.

Synthesis
This chapter covered a lot of information about alternate ways to assess students besides just giving them standardized tests. Andrew pretty much summed up the chapter perfectly in one sentence by saying, “I know that not all students learn the same and because they learn differently they also test differently.” With this in mind, I researched [|alternate forms of assessing student understanding]. Our class also mentioned about how the chapter described these multiple sources of assessment as being a photo album as opposed to a single photo. Cam said, “ By assessing various times it shows the teachers if a student is struggling over certain content and it allows teachers to see growth.” This is the main idea behind teachers giving their students multiple assessments. Not only that, but also this assessment design gives students who struggle with certain forms of test an alternate option in order to demonstrate their understanding. Lastly, the class also discussed how they liked the idea of pre assessment exams. Ali mentioned, “ When I become a teacher I would like to use pretests in the beginning of each unit so I will be able to see what my students already know.” This is exactly what pretests are designed to do along with grabbing students’ attention and interest.

Tyler R.

Andrew C
Chapter five talks a lot about the different types of assessments there are, and the reason for using different assessments as much as possible. I really like the idea of using multiple assessments and I hope this chapter gives me some new ideas that I will be able to use in my classroom. I know that not all students learn the same and because they learn differently they also test differently. I had several friends in high school who were just as smart and hardworking as I was, but they always got worse test grades. They were just not good test takers. They would do fine during presentations or essays or any other form of assessment but they would always crack under pressure during regular tests. It is not fair to do this to students. Students should not fail because they are not good at one specific skill. The chapter pointed out another very good technique for assessments. He talked about how it is best to assess students by having them __#|apply__ what they have learned to a real world situation to solve a problem or something, and then explain it so that they reflect on the process. I really like this idea; a few of my teachers in high school did projects like these. This is a great way to reach a broad spectrum of students. I plan on using this in my classroom, but I think that I would add even more variation to it. I would allow for my students to draw graphs, pictures, lists, charts, or any other visual piece. This way those who are more visually inclined then verbally will be able to express their learning.

Phillip C.
The most brilliant part of backwards design in my opinion is requiring the creation of assessments before the actual planning of lessons. This makes the lessons much more purposeful and focused. I like backwards design the more I learn about it and am glad I am making my first __#|lesson plans__ using this method rather than planning forwards. This chapter about assessment states that effective assessment of students has to come from multiple sources. I think this is very true in science. Too often there are just two or three big tests to assess student learning. I think in my classroom I will try to find different ways to assess learning while still including a few, less heavily weighted tests. This was one of three assessment principles for effective assessment called “Considering Photo Albums Versus Snapshots.” The second principle is called “Matching the Measures with the Goals.” This makes sense and states that however students are assessed it must match up with the goals they need to meet determined in stage 1. In this section they discuss the six facets of understanding and say that explain and __#|apply__ are the best ways to assess. I agree with this, but I also want to try to work in other facets in my assessments. The final principle was “Form Follows Function.” This talked about using diagnostic assessments to determine prior knowledge of students, formative assessments to determine how students are progressing with the unit as its happening, and summative assessments at the end of units to see summarize what was learned. I am all for this idea because it gives the teacher feedback of what needs to be focused on or taught in a different way.

Cameron B.
This chapter began by explaining the importance of assessing students multiple times instead of one large assessment. The analogy of a photo album compared to a snapshot was used. The snapshot was a single assessment, whereas the photo album is various assessments over time. By assessing various times it shows the teachers if a student is struggling over certain content and it allows teachers to see growth. This is important in science classes since there is a large amount of content the students are required to learn and if teachers are not properly making sure those students understand the content, than the student may not understand future lessons. The second principal goes in hand with the first. The assessment needs to test that the students are meeting goals. And if they are not met the teacher knows they need to adjust their teaching strategies to help the students comprehend the information. Principle three discusses the types of assessments. One is like a test and is graded, another is a pre-assessment which is not graded but lets the teacher know what they need to focus lesson plans on. And the third type is ideas like ungraded quizzes and oral questioning during class. It is important for teachers to use these methods. One important piece out of this chapter which I find to be important is giving feedback to students. The feedback should be very specific and allow the students to know what they can do to improve or just to give them confidence in their work. That was always important to me in school. If I didn’t get a good grade I wanted to know why so I could improve and if I did something well I wanted someone to acknowledge that.

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Tyler R.
This chapter jumped right into teaching me new things about assessments. The beginning focused on how a teacher should plan their assessments and how they should be measured as evidence. One of the first things I learned is that there should be many different kinds of assessments, not just one written test. This makes sense because of the things we have been learning about with Multiple Intelligences and that some students learn and perform differently than others. With this in mind, why would anyone ever just have one high stakes test to determine if a student has grasped the information? I really like the comparison the chapter makes between their argument of multiple assessments and that of a photo album. With multiple assessments, (more photos, creating a photo album), the teacher is able to get a more accurate understanding as to whether the student truly did understand the concept of the lesson or until or if they did not. As a future teacher I believe I would implement this mindset into my classroom with my assessments. Obviously a teacher needs to assess whether their class is understanding and following along or not, so why not do it in the most accurate way with multiple assessments? The chapter also mentioned how the current high stakes assessments are unfair to certain students, especially students who do not speak English very well. As a future teacher, I want to be able to teach and assess my students effectively no matter if they have a hard time with English or not. I believe that oral performances and demonstrations are the way of the future, especially with the ever-increasing amount of non-English speaking people living in America. I believe that teachers should become very familiar with these types of assessments, (which the chapter pointed out), because they will be the way of assessing in the future.

**Ali P**
I felt like this chapter captured a lot of the problems I found with my high school’s curriculum. The chapter stressed the importance of pre assessment. My high school never used pre assessments. I transferred into my high school in 9th grade so I studied different content then the rest of my class did during middle school. Because the rest of the class had all studied the same content, my teachers never used pre tests to figure out what we knew. Because of this, I took American history twice and missed out on European history. When I become a teacher I would like to use pretests in the beginning of each unit so I will be able to see what my students already know.

The chapter also talked about the importance of assessment. Assessment is most effective when it is used in different forms. Every student will excel in a different form, so it is important to provide multiple types to meet each of the students needs. Assessments need to be clear for the students so they can understand what they have mastered, and what they need to work on. I really like the idea of using rubrics for projects. When a student gets a rubric they can see exactly where their grade is coming from. Rubrics also require teachers to grade different parts of assignments instead of giving the project just one big final grade. I hope to be able to use a variety of different assessments in my class so each student will be able to show me what they know in the way that works best for them. I want my students to feel creative with their assessments and in order to do that, they need to have options.

Jackie B.
In this chapter we learned about assessment and how to determine if a student learned and to what extent they learned. The book suggest three different principles: Consider Photo Albums Verses Snapshots, Match the Measures with the Goals, and Understanding.

I thought the comparison of the snapshot to a standardized test seemed accurate. They were talking about a whole album full of pictures and standardized testing just doesn’t give that to you. I know myself personally never did very well on standardized tests just because I wasn’t a great test taker, not because I didn’t know the material. I hope when whoever reads the results of all of the standardized testing they realize there are and will be kids out there like me who just not great test takers. I like the idea though of taking portfolios or writing journals and reflections to asses the growth of a student and to asses how much they’ve learned. In my classroom I hope to be able to have a variety of assessments used in my class. Under the second assessment principle we learn just what kind of assessments can be matched to different things we can learn in the classroom. So for English because I want to be an English teacher, maybe I’d have them write a reflection because that has to do with writing. If we’re reading a book like I’m planning for my unit then I could have them keep a journal on what they read and then at the end of each chapter have them take a multiple choice quiz to see if they remembered the main ideas and important plot points from that chapter.

Nicole C.
This chapter focused on assessments: what they are, why they are important, what they tell us, and how they help our students throughout the units we create. Three “assessment principles” were discussed: making sure assessments are more in the form of “photo albums” rather than “snapshots”; keeping in mind that assessments should always be targeted at students understanding the big ideas we want them to take away from the unit as a whole; and knowing that effective assessments not only measure what they know, but how they learn. These three assessment principles taught me multiple ways in which I could assess my students, as well as pointed out the reasons why and in what particular settings those assessments work. The part that impacted me the most was the analogy comparing assessments to photo albums. The book was right: a single “snapshot” of a student’s knowledge cannot tell me whether or not they have fully mastered what I want them to understand. I have to take multiple “pictures” – in other words, have frequent and varied types of assessment – to really see if my students have learned. I will take a lot of the ideas put forth in this chapter into my future classrooms to see how well they work for me/my students, so I can make a “photo album” of my own.

Emily H.
This chapter focuses on the assessment portion of UbD/DI. Assessments allow us to teach a more focused unit because the goal is to have the assessment show exactly what we want our students to learn. Some assessments do not process clear-desired results, making them not an effective way to measure the success of the students. As teachers, we have to make sure that our assessments fit our goals that we set out to achieve. If they do not they why would we want to waste our teaching time on that? Personally, I like the example in this chapter of the assessment photo album. It is a visual way of looking at the content standard that is trying to be met and which activities and assessments meet the standard. Since I am a visual learner I like being able to see everything laid out in a way that I could see the areas that would need to be worked out to fully complete the standard. Items in this photo album would be in a verity of different learning style areas. Responses could range from a simple true/false test given at the beginning of the unit, to a mid-unit assessment short answer prompt, to a final assessment visual project that covers a range of unit topics. As a teacher, I could see myself using this idea in my classroom. It is even an activity that my students could do as a final assessment to look back at all their work. Overall, I find this very helpful to use in my classroom.

Meng H.
Assessments show students’ progress best if the assessments are given throughout time and in several forms. The assessments of students’ explanations and applications of knowledge could be different based on students’ skills, whereas the goal of understanding content knowledge should be the same for all students. Assessments could be framed by using GRASPS. Summative/evaluative, diagnostic, and formative assessments are all important in the course of adjusting teaching and learning. Pre-assessments provide vital data for instruction planning, while formative assessments along the way provide evidence for the teacher to fine tune her or his teaching. Other than using the content goals as grading criteria for varied forms of assessments, the teacher could add on student-specific and/or project-specific criteria too. Feedback after assessments are important communicating tools between the teacher and the students. Specific and timely feedback that are easily understood by the students are an essential way to improve students’ learning. Ultimately, in the process of teaching and learning, the teacher should help the students become more aware of their own learning by teaching the students doing self-assessments.

I would like to utilize all those different forms of assessments that were included in this chapter because each form serves its own purpose in effective teaching and learning.

I imagine that my classroom will become a more differentiated learning environment that supports students’ skills, needs, and capacities as a result of me employing appropriate assessments.

For mathematics, a pre-assessment is very important to determine students’ learning styles, precursor skills and knowledge. Throughout the unit, formative assessment like graded homework, quizzes, and tests could help me adjust my instruction. I would like to use the tic-tac-toe format to offer students choices to show their understanding of the content area. There will also be self-assessments presented as surveys, exit tickets, or rubrics. All the assessment results not only provide me chances to adjust the instruction, they are also valuable data to keep track of students’ growth in the content area.

Jackson F.
Assessing students is an important part of education. It gives teachers information they need to know to see if he/she is teaching effectively. If the assessments of students are poor then perhaps the teaching needs to be improved and be more tailored to the students. Teaching a diverse classroom effectively typically means being able to accommodate to different learning styles; this is no different with assessments. Students who have diverse learning styles may need to have the option of different assessments. The important thing about assessing is that the “big ideas” do not change. It is necessary to assess in multiple ways when possible to allow students the chance to use their strengths and work on their weaknesses; this though cannot always happen because some units may require writing or oral presentations. The chapter also dealt with feedback and how it is so important to give good constructive feedback to encourage learners to grow. The portion of the book that I felt I got the most out of was learning about the different knowledge’s. There is the knowledge that students should know, the knowledge of what students should be able to do, and the attitude or habits they should be able to display. Having the knowledge of these three things would make it easier to assess. Though it first takes the understanding of what knowledge is being presented. From time to time in the classroom it only seemed like test, quizzes and projects were the only means of assessing. Now I realize that assessments come in all types of forms. As a health teacher I feel it will be easy to come up with multiple forms of assessments to use in the classroom. These assessments though will only be useful to me if I understand the type of students I teach.

Brittany R.
This chapter focused on the assessment aspect of presenting material. Assessment is defined as a process by which we make inferences about what students, know, understand, and can do based on information obtained through assessment. It also talks about standardized testing and how it is unrealistic to have a single evaluation be the basis for a students success. I chart of the Facets of Understanding are mapped out on page 67 and demonstrate to teachers how understanding is revealed by their students. The chapter also talks about different type of assessments that should be done throughout the year in order to supply opportunities for students to demonstrate their knew found knowledge. In the future, when I am creating lesson plans for required units, I want to guarantee that students have the supplies needed to learn the material I present to them. I think this chapter had a lot of information in it but the pieces that I felt the most useful was the references to the Facets of Learning. It seemed broad enough that one would be able to apply to any classroom setting. Because people learn differently, it only makes sense for teachers to assess learning in different aspects. As much as my students may not like all the work they are receiving, evaluating students’ mastered skills constantly and differently will help them to retain the information. Anyone can memorize a process in short term memory but it takes a lot for an individual to be able to recall a learned skill from long term memory. I want students to expand their knowledge and remember it for years to come. In order to do so I will continue to assess them on a regular basis.

Clayton P.
This chapter deals with assessment; specifically, judging the effectiveness of assessment and the types of assessment that should be used. It’s one thing to see that someone is doing well in a subject based on his or her grades. It’s a completely different thing to know that they’re actually learning the subject. Therefore, it’s important to have a clearly defined set of goals that the assessment is going to be based around. Assessment should be more than just, “Did he/she get the questions right?” It should be, “Did he/she meet the goals established at the beginning of the class to achieve this?” The author(s) then provide(s) three key principles for assessment. Principle 1 is entitled, “Consider Photo Albums Versus Snapshots.” This is basically stating that a student’s progress should be assessed throughout a long period of time, rather than at the beginning and end of the class. Doing periodic assessments ensures that the student is headed in the right direction in terms of learning the content. The second principle is entitled, “Match the Measures with the Goals.” This is to ensure that the goals for the students established in Stage 1 are the basis for assessment in Stage 2. The author(s) also mention(s) assessing the students’ understanding in reference to Principle 2, stating that the word “understanding” takes on several implications, and that teachers should be aware of them all before assessment of students. Principle 3 is entitled “Form Follows Function.” This is to make sure that assessments answer four distinct questions: “What are we assessing?” “Why are we assessing?” “For whom are the results intended?” “How will the results be used?” This chapter was very informative in reference to how grading and other forms of assessment should be established. It illustrates how I should properly assess my students.

Joe S.
This chapter discusses the methods of assessment and feedback when it comes to determining what evidence qualifies as sufficient in a classroom. One of the main focuses of the chapter is to create “photo albums” instead of “snapshots.” This means that instead of having students create snippets of knowledge and memorize certain facts for one single test, teachers should strive to create understandings and by assessing through a number of different measurements. When it comes to assessments, responsive teachers “assess //before// teaching,” finding a common base of knowledge between their students and finding gaps in their understanding of content material. This allows the teacher to work backwards, form instructional groups, and refine their understanding of their students’ needs. Following the introduction to a unit, the author suggests using inauthentic and authentic work to ensure full understanding, using an analogy to athletics, which compares these methods to practice and “playing the game.” The inauthentic “drills” break down content material for students to understand as separate pieces, while the authentic work applies each of the individual fragments into something to be explained. Finally, after instructing and assessing students, it is recommended to provide feedback to students in a timely, specific, and mostly positive manner. Students should know which parts of their assessments need improvement, but should similarly hear the praises of what they did well. Also, after feedback is given, there should be an opportunity to act upon the feedback and revise the work. Varying styles of assessment and providing specific feedback for each student sounds like a daunting task, and a lot of work, but the author makes an important point about the differences between memorizing and understanding.