Erin Roland ELEC-316 Dev Formal/Informal Assess

This week we had the great opportunity to hear from Ms. Lauren Wagner. Ms. Wagner is a Ph.D. student and formerly taught in elementary schools for 13 years. She shared many creative ideas of how to use formative and summative assessments. One example Ms. Wagner included for formative assessment is if a student is struggling with a specific blend before you start the week have the student read to aloud a passage. You as the teacher will time and mark their mistakes. This is a quick way to find what percent the student is at. I really liked this example because you have an idea of how the student is doing at the beginning of the week and after instruction, you can read the passage again and see how the student is doing. An example Ms. Wagner gave for a summative assessment is to have students at the end of a poetry unit create a poetry portfolio. As the teacher, you can create a student-focused rubric for them to evaluate their work and evaluate their works as well. I really liked this i

During Week 5 we learned about creating learning objectives. Learning objectives need to be student-centered and measurable. We learned about the ABCD formula in class. A addresses audience which could be learners, students or more specific like second grade students. B stands for behavior which should be measurable and observable, you could include terms from Bloom's taxonomy or Webb's Depth of Knowledge. C is the condition describing the materials, time limits, with whom, etc. D stands for degree that the task should be completed to. Terms to be used are based on speed, accuracy, quality, etc. The degree can also be referenced as a percentage. 

In Week 4, we learned about two assessment tools,  Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge. Bloom's Taxonomy was the assessment that I was able to understand the best and would use while writing objectives in my lesson plans. Using the visual attached with verbs to use in those categories really help me visual and understand what falls into each level. We also discussed rigor. Rigor does not mean making tasks difficult, but just what you want your students to learn.  Webb's Depths of Knowledge (DOK) follows an order of complexity similar to Bloom's Taxonomy. Level one is recalling, level two is about skills and concepts, level three is strategic thinking and level four is extended thinking. When I first learned about DOK, I was confused on how to apply this towards younger students especially with DOK 4, but after further instruction, I could have younger students design a play about a book we read as a class or create a different ending. 

During week three we learned about documentation. We learned why we document and different types of documentation. We document to see children's progress and interactions. My favorite type of document that we learned about this week a portfolio. This is a very interactive tool for students because they can contribute to it as well and be proud of the work they have completed. I learned this week that it is important to involve students with their documentation and I plan on using that in my classroom. By using portfolios and other documentation tools in the classroom, I will be able to monitor progress more effectively and see struggling areas in students that may need help. REGGIO EMILIA vs CONVENTIONAL STYLE OF DOCUMENTATION Reggio Emilia schools are child-based schools. In Reggio Emilia schools, students work in and documented in formative assessments, understanding, with cooperation and groups. Compared to the conventional style of documentation where students are documented th

This week in class our focus was on different types of observation we can use. These include running records, anecdotal records, time sampling, event sampling, checklists, rating scales and rubrics.  For these observations, I learned the importance of using objectivity and not subjectivity. Using objectivity makes sure that emotions and feelings are not apart of the observation. For example:  Notice in the green thought bubble there is an objective statement whereas the blue bubble is a subjective statement that includes "I love". The green bubble is unbiased.  When I do observations in my own classroom I will make sure to use objectivity everyone reading will be able to draw their own conclusions. 

I have learned a lot in the first week of ELEC 316! Previously I had taught of assessment of only standardized tests such as the SAT and state exams. I am beginning to learn the importance of those tests as well as the many other types of assessments. In class we talked about assessment is a great way to document students' learning but it is also a good tool for teachers monitor their teaching.  My favorite type of assessment is formative assessments: One of my favorite types of formative assessments is a pre-test and post-test. I think this is an easy way to monitor comprehension and teaching effectiveness. It is also a good tool to see what students' background knowledge is before teaching the content. For example, for the pre-test the majority of the students are expected to get the questions wrong but after administering the post-test, majority of the students still get the questions wrong as a teacher you should re-teach those areas that students did not understand.