Authentic Assessment: As a special education teacher, I might work on the steps of grocery shopping independently with the students. An authentic assessment might be to take the student to the grocery store and assess how well they remember the steps of creating a shopping list, finding the items needed, and paying the cashier for the groceries. I would choose this assessment because it will show me how well the student has learned this real-life task without having to give them a written test asking him to list in order the steps of grocery shopping. It allows the student to actually practice the real-life skill as if he was doing it on his own.
Teacher-Developed Assessment Instrument: A "test" or assessment that I have produced as a teacher can be made personal and cater to my specific students. For example, if we were to be reading a specific story for a lesson and the students share personal stories to the rest of the class that relate to the story being read, I might create an assessment that includes some content or ideas from our discussion. This type of assessment will benefit the students because they were able to relate to the content and will hopefully remember it for the assessment since it has become personal; and it will provide me with information on how well the students are engaging during class, as well as understanding the story that was being read as a lesson.
Paper-Pencil Assessment: An example of a paper-pencil written assessment might be a "ticket out the door". I would propose a question regarding the lesson of that day and write it on the board. The students would then respond on a piece of paper with their answer. This gives me a quick assessment of the class's understanding of the lesson. I can use their responses to guide my teaching for a next lesson, or to possibly reteach the lesson and clear up some misconceptions. I like this type of assessment because, although it is written, it is not a test and the students do not feel pressure when answering; yet it still gives me information on how well the lesson was understood.
Informal Assessment: As a teacher, we should make the habit of constantly adapting our teaching and lessons to fit the needs of the students and their understanding. With an informal assessment, I might take note that Maggie stares at one page during the whole SSR time; this could tell me that Maggie may have chosen a book that is above her reading level, and that I should suggest a different book for her. I might also take note that Ryan looks around the classroom when I am reviewing the math concept we learned the day before, and I can assume he does not follow and I might need to do a more extensive review for the class, or work with Ryan to reteach that specific concept. Informal assessments allow me to constantly change my pace of teaching to ensure that my students are learning and not falling behind.
Norm-referenced Assessment: As a norm-referenced assessment, I might have each student read a story or paragraph from the specified reading level/grade level these students should be at. Having done this, I can compare the student's reading score to that of the grade level specifications and see if he/she falls below this grade level. Although this assessment might tell me where the child falls within a reading level, it might not tell me where in reading the child is struggling. There are reading running records that I could use that tell me this information, but a norm-referenced assessment would give me information I would need to know to preform further/deeper assessments.
Criterion-referenced Assessment and Norm-referenced Assessment - Advantages and Disadvantages: I believe both have advantages. A criterion-referenced assessment will tell me what the student does and does not know regarding the content of the test/assessment. This information allows me to give specific feedback to the student on how/why he missed that problem, or see that it was just a mistake made when answering/solving the problem. This type of assessment allows me to communicate with the student about what he is learning. A norm-referenced assessment shows me the level to which the student performs compared to that of his peers. This information is valuable when placing a child in special education services, such as a resource classroom for reading because his reading scores are three levels below the grade he is currently in. Both assessments also have disadvantages. Neither assessment really shows me why it is the student is struggling, especially if his errors are due to a learning disability or misconception of a topic.
Firstly, I love all of your assessment ideas and believe that your future special education students will love you! Your idea for an authentic assessment is absolutely wonderful for many reasons. First of all, every student, but especially students with disabilities need experience with the "real world" and real world concepts. Therefore, I believe this type of assessment will benefit your students in the long run and teach them much more about life after grade school than sitting in a classroom and simply telling your students about the real world. Also, as a special education teacher, you will have a lot more freedom (thanks to amazing principles and faculty) to go on field trips and to leave the classroom setting to allow your students to gain experience with the independent living.
ReplyDeleteI also am quite fond of your norm-referenced assessment. In my Elementary Education class last year, we learned about running records and how beneficial they are for the teacher and for the student. It is a necessity to keep different types of data concerning your students and running records are a great way to get to know your students reading level and progress with reading. Therefore, running records are a wonderful idea and should be implemented in every classroom.
Lastly, I actually never thought about the point that you made at the end of your blog concerning the advantages and disadvantages of Criterion-referenced and Norm-referenced assessment. You said that neither assessment shows you why the student is struggling. This is an extremely valid point and is crucial when deciding which type of assessment to use.
Overall, all of your assessments were insightful and can benefit all of your future students in special education.
I really like your authentic assessment example since you introduce the real-life problem to your students and actually make them practice in real-life. I guess you also can find your student to be engage in this type of activity because as you said, it is not a writing activity, but more an acting activity. I have same positive comment with your teacher-developed assessment. My only concern will be the rubric for grade this assessment. I think that if you have a well structured rubric you can have the information you need, otherwise, result could be bias, problem that essay assessment could have.
ReplyDeleteI also found you paper-pencil assessment appropriate since it will give you an idea about the level of your course helping you to decide next day class. However, it is not clear to me what your example of informal assessment is, other than observation, which is also included inside this category. If so, I think it is great, it is another way to gather information about where are our students in class. Finally, as a special education teacher, I think you should be really interested in this type of assessment, because as you said, it gives you what is the level of your students compared with their peers.
I agree with you advantage about criterion-referenced and norm-reference assessments, because it is what I understand, in general. Moreover, and as I said before, special educator you can be the norm-reference assessment very interest for your given reasons. However, I differ from you about the disadvantage of a criterion-reference assessment. I consider that if the assessment is well design, it can give us information about their struggles.
What you explain in your teacher-developed assessment really struck a chord with me. As teachers in TN, we are trained to "hook" the students and to make it important and useable to them. When students are asked to apply what they have learned to their lives, the information suddenly becomes more deep-seeded for them and they cannot as easily discard it. I am constantly challenged by students who believe that they will never use a foreign language no matter how many times we review how beneficial it is. I attempt to use real-life situations and to allow students to share personal stories and experiences and I do believe it makes them realize how to apply their language skills. I think that using more in-depth student discussions, as you suggested, and referring to them during more formal assessments may be a useful way to assess knowledge, but more importantly, application.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree with your "exit ticket" strategy. I try to use these daily and have also found that they are reliable way to assess mastery or a subject without putting too much pressure on the student. They can respond successfully and oftentimes without study time.
I really like your idea for Authentic Assessment of grocery shopping, the steps of the task, the preparation, and then the application of the learned process. Is this specifically for high school special education students? I also really like you example of a Teacher-Developed Assessment. What a great way to get to know your students and various aspects of their personalities, interests, and experiences! This would be a great assessment to use at the beginning of the year, with a new class. This not only allows you as the teacher to get to know your students, but it also allows the students to learn more about one another. Lastly, your example of ongoing informal assessments in the classroom is a great idea. That is a useful tool for all classroom teachers, regardless of the diversity of the student body.
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