Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Chapter 14 Reflection - Haley Holt


Ideas for assessment:
1.  Informal assessment:  While teaching slope and/or transformations of functions I ask my class to move according to the function given.  For example, “show me the slope of this function.”  The entire class holds up their arms according the slope of the provided line equation.  In this way I can see who is not getting negative vs. positive slope, quickly, and I can quickly correct it and/or the students will quickly self-correct.

2.  Norm-referenced assessment:  One example of this is the Algebra 1 End of Course test that all algebra 1 students take in the state of TN.

3.  Teacher developed assessment:  Today in my Pre-calculus class I administered a mid-unit assessment that I created based on the topics covered from the beginning of the year up until this point.  This assessment was my guide for lessons I taught up until this point and has the intention of showing evidence of student learning on the topics.  In addition, it will show me student learning gaps on the topics covered.

4.  Performance-based assessment:  This is something I do very little of within my math classes.  However, I think it would be interesting to have students tell me the steps or processes to solving various problems.  For example, I could give them a topic to teach and they submit their teaching presentations to be evaluated.  However, I am thinking I would have to a strict rubric for grading so as to grade based on content knowledge and understanding versus on their actual teaching ability. 

5.  Authentic assessment:  One example of my use of authentic assessment is when I ask students to analyze a given function or problem using some sort of function, but I do not ask them to simply solve it.  For example, testing their knowledge of quadratic functions based on application – “will the ball reach 10 ft? Explain,.”, rather than asking them to simply tell me the maximum height that the ball would reach.

As far as norm referenced versus criterion reference assessment, to me, criterion referenced is more valuable.  I am always looking for individual progress.  Of course I compare scores across classes and use scores to create heterogeneous groups within my classes, but for improving student learning and learning outcomes I am much more interested in individual student learning rather than how students compare to one another.  Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages of both.  Norm-referenced can give me a picture of a large cohort of students and their knowledge.  Such data is certainly valuable for planning and comparing across school years.  Criterion referenced can help me to focus on specific skills for specific students and improving their knowledge and understanding.

No comments:

Post a Comment