Week 9 Blog

Week 9 Blog

Essential question: What assessments will I use in my UBD Unit, and what is the purpose of these assessments?

            I am using the UbD unit in my Pre-Algebra class. This class is freshman aged and they are still learning the expectations of being in high school versus middle school. One large difference between the two schools is that the students need to pass a class and get credit to be able to graduate from school. Another aspect of the classroom that I need to help the students understand that assessments are important in the classroom to help the teacher know what the students are learning and what concepts need to be (re)taught next. Solomondiou found in his studies that students understood that assessments are necessary to track the progress of students but the students are not sure if teachers are using this information to plan what will happen next in class to improve student learning (2017, p.40). Keeping this in mind, I want my students to realize that their learning is what guides the classroom learning by having transparent assessments that are directly correlated to learning.

            I will start out with a pre-assessment that I can always reassess my students with over time. Our school, recently, has the access to using STAR Math as a way to get data on what our students know and what they need to still learn. I plan to have my students to take this assessment a little bit before the unit so that I can use it for the moments I have set aside for RTI during class. The purpose of STAR Math is to have students in Tier 2 and 3 take it about every three weeks so that as teachers, we can focus our instruction and student learning on where the students are. This test is a low stakes test of which Simzar et al have found to be less motivational for students who are taking high stakes tests but they have found that “these studies suggest that one way to increase scores on low-stakes standardized tests is to increase students' math-course-specific mastery goals and self-efficacy.” (2015) After the students take the STAR Math assessment, I will be able to see specific content learning needs and I will make a list of five-ten similar goals that the students will need to try to master before they take the assessment again.

            To aim for transparency of learning in my UbD unit, I will have frequent and very applicable assessment that the students can see growth in it on their own. Shores and Chester make a point that “daily informal and formal assessments provide a guide for targeted instruction throughout the week.” (2009, p.40) These frequent forms of assessments include a peer exit ticket that has three parts to the exit ticket. Students will solve a problem that is focused on the skill learned that day for example graphing a line from a given equation. Students then will randomly pair up and look at each other’s answer and talk about each part of the question either correct or incorrect.  Lastly, to check if students took the feedback from their peers, they will complete a very similar problem on their own to turn in to me. Shores and Chester find that peer assessments are valuable because learning is happening within the assessment (2009). Another idea that I got from reading their book is using checklists to self-assess. I am going to have a checklist of five to seven skills that the students will learn or practice in the week and after each day, students will check to see whether or not they feel like they have mastered these skills.

            I plan on giving a few high-stakes assessments in quiz and test form. About every week, students in my Pre-Algebra class take an assessment that is connected to their grade. Kohn points out that students begin cheating on assessments that are competitive and not well prepared (2008). I bring this up because often my students will want to cheat on tests and quizzes. To help students feel more prepared, I will give an example quiz and walk through it with them. I am always constantly working on the competitive aspect of my classroom by trying to make it a positive environment.

1. Many of assessments both document and contribute to the classroom learning. The assessments contribute in the peer exit ticket and document in the checklist and quizzes. All assessments will be transparent to students and used to guide learning in the classroom.

2. Most of my assessments are closed response because of the level of my Pre-Algebra students. The focus for this class is learning basic math skills, which can be thought of remote skills.

3. The performance assessment will have the students produce an experiment and graph the linear progression of this experiment.

4. On the assessments that are graded, students will know the point values of each question and what is expected to answer the questions correctly.

5. My assessments are both high- and low-stake assessments. It is necessary for students to experience both and there are good outcomes from both of them of which I talked about earlier in the blog.

Burns, V. (2015). 53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students. [N.p.]: Frontinus Ltd. Retrieved from http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1017975&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_Cover on March 11, 2017 

Kohn, A. (2008). Who’s Cheating Whom? Phi Delta Kappan. Retrieved from: http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/whos-cheating/ 13 April 2015.

Shores, C., & Chester, K. (2009). Using RTI for School Improvement : Raising Every Student’s Achievement Scores. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Corwin. Retrieved from: http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2051/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=473693&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_34

Simzar, R. M., Martinez, M., Rutherford, T., Domina, T., & Conley, A. M. (2015). Raising the stakes: How students’ motivation for mathematics associates with high- and low-stakes test achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, Vol 39: 49-63. Retrieved from http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2066/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.03.002

Solomonidou, G. & Michaelides, M. (2017). Students’ conceptions of assessment purposes in a low stakes secondary-school context: A mixed methodology approach. Studies in Educational Evaluation, Vol 52: 35-41. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/stueduc