COSEE California

Communicating Ocean Sciences

Session 10: Assessment

COSEE California

Session 10 objectives

Have the experience of being assessed as part of your exploration of the topic of assessment

Gain information about testing and assessment and how this arena of education is changing

Learn how you can use some newer principles and practices to support your students’ learning

COSEE California

Quick Write

How ave you been assessed in your college courses?

Do these methods truly tell the instructor what you’ve learned?

COSEE California

What do you think the goals of assessment in college are?

What should they be?

COSEE California

Assessment Carousel

COSEE California

Goals of the Assessment Carousel

to give students an experience with being assessed themselves as part of their exploration of the topic.

to find out what the class has learned about the topics that have been addressed in the course.

to find out what the class knows about the topics that have not yet been addressed in the course.

to provide an opportunity for students to teach each other.

to evaluate and adjust instruction in the course based on this information.

to review the course topics before applying these strategies in designing their own lessons.

COSEE California

Current Practice and Understanding Different kinds of “tests” assess for

different kinds of knowledge. Create a balance of different kinds of

tests so that we can test for a broader range of student knowledge.

All forms of “tests” are currently referred to more generally as “assessment.”

Assessment should occur before, during, and after learning.

COSEE California

Relationship between Assessment/Instruction/Curriculum

Assessment

Instruction Curriculum

COSEE California

Jargon

Instruction: How a teacher teaches

Curriculum: What a teacher teaches

COSEE California

Assessment--> How should I teach?

Assessment--> What should I teach?

COSEE California

Multiple Purposes of Assessment

Assessment Teacher

Assessment Student

Assessment Parent

Assessment School

Assessment Community

Assessment Nation

COSEE California

Sandy Shore Quiz1. Circle all the things that are true about a beach. A beach is _______.

A. A special kind of shorelineB. Shorelines that people can walk onC. Covered in loose materialD. Always by the ocean

2. Circle all of the things that sand can be made ofA. ShellsB. RocksC. Water D. Trash

3. Erosion of rocks on the beach occurs when _________.A. Waves and wind slowly wear them awayB. People make sand castles on the beachC. Rocks get covered with seaweedD. Animals nest on the rocks

COSEE California

Sandy Shore TaskWhat I Learned About the Shoreline Mini-book

1. Introducing the mini-book. Show the students the prepared blank mini-books. Tell them they will each get to write a mini-book about what they have learned about shorelines so far. It must be an informational text, but they can choose what it is about. They could write an encyclopedia about what you find on beaches or maybe what sand is made of and how sand is formed.

1. Components of the mini-book. a. Cover: author and title. Everyone decides on the title for the book &

writes their name on the cover.b. Page 1: Table of Contents.c. Pages 2-4: These pages will include the information they have learned

about shorelines. They should also include a drawing on each page of text.

d. On back cover: Write about the author and illustrator (when they have completed all other parts of the book).

COSEE California

Analyze the Two Kinds of Student Work

Read and discuss the student work in each folder.

What does each assessment tell you about the student’s level of knowledge? What does it not tell you?

COSEE California

Assessment in Context

What were you able to learn from looking at the student work from the “Sandy Shore Quiz?”

From the “Sandy Shore Task?” What were the strengths of each assessment

method? What were the weaknesses of each method?

COSEE California

Sandy Shore Task Scoring GuideLevel Four (highest level of work)Students wrote detailed descriptions about shorelines and included appropriate illustrations on all three pages. They also included at least two key concepts in their mini-book and used evidence to support their claims about shorelines.

Level ThreeStudents wrote detailed descriptions about shorelines and included appropriate illustrations on all three pages. They also included one key concept in their mini-book and used some evidence to support their claims about shorelines.

Level TwoStudents included some details and drawings in their descriptions of shorelines. However, they did not use any evidence to support their claims.

Level OneStudents did not include details in their descriptions or drawings of shorelines. They did not use any evidence to support their claims about shorelines.

COSEE California

Criterion -referenced scoring:

Student work is compared to specific criteria described in a scoring guide

Norm-referenced scoring:

Student work is compared to other students’ work

COSEE California

Full Range of Learning

Facts

Basic Skills

Complex Thinking

COSEE California

Authentic assessment is not new. To get a driver’s license, we are asked to drive a car in the middle of traffic. When students apply to art school, they submit portfolios of their work. To try out for baseball teams, athletes demonstrate their pitching, hitting and fielding skills. Even teachers are evaluated on our performance in the classroom.

So, how do we assess students? We give them tests and worksheets where they regurgitate facts; find the answers to problems but rarely explain them; and explore hypothetical situations that have little connection to what we teachers know is important. Ironically, authentic assessment is used everywhere in the real world, except for the field of education whose goal is to prepare students for tomorrow!

--Elementary School Principal

COSEE California

Examples of Assessment Strategies

Story WritingLetter WritingAdvertisementsReflectionsGame PlayingPre-Post TestingModel Making

ExplorationsExperimentsInvestigationsConventions,

Conferences, Debates

ApplicationsTeacher

Observations