Good Assessment

What makes a good formative assessment?

Three elements of good assessmentCognitionObservationInterpretation

Cognition

What do we know about how students learn? Dimensions of learning

Dimension 1: Attitudes and Perceptions Dimension 2: Acquire and Integrate Knowledge Dimension 3: Extend and Refine Knowledge Dimension 4: Use Knowledge Meaningfully Dimension 5: Productive Habits of Mind

Critical and creative thinking

Blooms Taxonomy Evaluation, synthesis, Analysis, Application

Observation

How do we create situations that allow us to observe student performance?

These opportunities for students should not be limited to tests or quizzes but should also include assignments, classroom activities, and projects.

Involves understanding content and have a clear idea of proficient work.

Remember you can not assess achievement that has not been defined.

For example if your objective ask for evaluation and you ask the students to describe you assessment is not in alignment.

In Black and Wiliam describe a number of ways this can happen or can be inhibited in their article, "Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment."

"Discussions in which pupils are led to talk about their understanding in their own ways are important aids to increasing knowledge and improving understanding. Dialogue with the teacher provides the opportunity for the teacher to respond to and reorient a pupil's thinking. However, there are clearly recorded examples of such discussions in which teachers have, quite unconsciously, responded in ways that would inhibit the future learning of a pupil. What the examples have in common is that the teacher is looking for a particular response and lacks the flexibility or the confidence to deal with the unexpected. So the teacher tries to direct the pupil toward giving the expected answer. In manipulating the dialogue in this way, the teacher seals off any unusual, often thoughtful but unorthodox, attempts by pupils to work out their own answers. Over time the pupils get the message: they are not required to think out their own answers. The object of the exercise is to work out—or guess—what answer the teacher expects to see or hear."

Interpretation

How do we draw inferences from the performance? What do we need to see and hear to determine understanding?

How will what we see shape our continued teaching?

Assessment is a diagnostic tool. We need to look at all the parts and pieces to be sure its working.

Which takes us to backwards designｷｷ Good assessment begins with the end in mind.ｷｷ Good assessment is student centered ｷｷ Start by determining objectives - students will be able

to…ｷｷ Next determine what must students say, do, create in

order to demonstrate understandingｷｷ Remember holistic assessments rarely provide the whole

answerｷｷ We should provide multiple opportunities for students to

demonstrate understandingｷｷ Finally, good assessment is linked directly to good

teaching because if students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate an understanding they have also had multiple opportunities to gain the understanding.