Portfolio Self Assessment

Core Beliefs about Assessment:

1)      Assessments should take place in the middle of the teaching/learning process instead of only at the end of a unit. There are two main reasons for this:

a.       Data from assessments should be used by the teacher to gain insight on students’ progress towards learning objectives, and to inform and adapt instruction accordingly.

b.      Assessments should allow students to identify which concepts they are able to demonstrate understanding of, and where misconceptions exist.

2)      Feedback is an important aspect of an assessment. This course has taught me to think about feedback as exchanges between a teacher and students.

a.       Teachers can receive feedback from their students to share how they learn best, what is going well and suggestions for improvement.

b.      Students can receive feedback from teachers on specific learning goals to aid in misconceptions gaps being closed.

c.       Feedback can and should be given to students in different ways. Students can receive annotated comments on their work, video feedback and text feedback to name a few of the different methods for communicating feedback.

3)      Assessments should allow students the opportunity for self-assessment. This engages students in analyzing their work and building ownership of their learning.

4)      Assessments should occur in different ways and take different forms. Along with typical quizzes and tests, students can be assessed through portfolios, discussions and even by having students play or create their own games. Assessments can be something physical students can touch, like a test on a piece of paper they will write on, or assessments can be electronic as well. There are many affordances (and constraints) of digital assessments, and it is important for teachers to utilize available avenues to effectively assess students.

5)      Content Management Systems can be utilized to offer a variety of tools for assessing students, along with monitoring students’ progress. CMS’s are useful for students and teachers to stay organized with assignments all being stored in one place, along with all grades being updated and contained within the CMS.

Original Three Beliefs about Assessment:

Below are the three things I believe about assessment that I wrote in my very first blog post for this course:

1)      I believe that dialoguing and interacting with students is a great way to asses them.

2)      I believe that it is important to use a combination of different types of assessment in order to evaluate student learning.

3)      I believe that assessment should be done frequently.

My first two original beliefs fall into point #4 mentioned in my core beliefs above, and my third original belief falls under point #1 mentioned above. While I do agree with these beliefs still and I think that they coincide well with my core beliefs about assessment developed throughout CEP 813, I have learned from this course that there is more to assessment than just these original ideas.

The learning and readings in the first three modules really opened my eyes to assessment being more than just gaining insight on where my students are at in their understanding and progress towards learning goals. Effective assessments should be used to inform and adapt instruction. It is important to see what students understand and where misconceptions exist, however this information must be used by a teacher to make changes to the instruction process to help students grow and make progress. At the end of module 2, I shared the following on Twitter about how my beliefs have expanded.

I have also learned that assessments are not just meant to inform the teacher, they are meant to inform students. An effective assessment will allow students to gain insight on their progress towards learning goals and misconceptions that exist in their learning. Students should receive some sort of feedback or interaction with their teacher or peers in order to grow after an assessment. At the end of module 3 I shared the following on Twitter regarding the development of this belief.

CEP 813 Application of Beliefs:

My creations throughout this course have allowed me to apply these beliefs. First, I would like to share about my CMS Assessment. For this assignment I created a portfolio assessment that requires students to schedule a 30-minute check-in session with me. Students will first send me a webmail to schedule an appointment. Then, at our scheduled time they will meet in my LiveLesson room. During the meeting we will discuss the students’ progress in the course, strategies for success and we will practice problems together as well. After our meeting, students will submit a one page reflection about our time together and changes that can be implemented if necessary in order to be more successful.

This assessment requires students to use various tools within our CMS such as webmail, LiveLesson and uploading a document into the drop box. During our time together I will be able to gain a great deal insight on my students’ progress and what I can do specifically for each of my students to support them. It will be helpful to discuss with my students their daily process for working through their lessons in order to give suggestions, and I will be able to watch students solve problems and see their thought process to close misconception gaps. Students will receive synchronous feedback from me during our meeting together to help them with the content and also strategies for success. Students will be given the opportunity to ask any questions that they may have as well. Lastly, students are encouraged to spend time reflecting after our meeting as they work on their one page reflection. Students will be inspired to consider what is going well and any changes that can be implemented.

My Assessment Design Checklist 3.0 also demonstrates my ability to apply my beliefs. Although this creation is not an assessment for students, this checklist was created from the beliefs that I developed in this course. I used this checklist as a guideline when creating my assessments in CEP 813, and I will continue to use it in the future. I will ask myself the following questions each time I create an assessment:

-Does my assessment provide me with insight regarding student progress towards learning objectives?

-Does my assessment allow for exchanges between the teacher and student for learning opportunities?

-Does my assessment reveal information regarding how future instruction should be adapted to advance my students’ understanding?

-Does my assessment provide students the opportunity for self-assessment?

-Does my assessment align with objectives and learning goals?

Lastly, I would like to mention my Game-Based Assessment. This assessment utilizes technology to assist students in playing a game to check their understanding of adding and subtracting integers. Students will receive feedback not only from myself to gain insight on their progress towards and understanding of learning goals, but they will also receive feedback from their classmates during a discussion they will have after playing the game. I will gain insight on student misconceptions from the game specifically and also from their work that is submitted after the game in order to inform my instruction on this topic going forward. Like my CMS assessment, students will answer a couple of questions after playing the game to encourage self-assessment.

Coming into this course I had beliefs about assessment that, while they were valid, they were incomplete. This course really helped me to grow and develop my full beliefs of assessment that I will use as a teacher going forward. Thank you for this opportunity!