Assessment and Improving Student Achievement with Technology - eend-679z
Artifact #1
Assessment Tool Infographic
One artifact from this course that truly impacted my learning in a variety of ways was the creation of the formative assessment tool infographic. In creating this tool, I researched two formative assessment tools, Formative and Socrative, to compare and contrast their overall effectiveness. I compared the tools in the areas that I determined critical for a formative assessment tool, particularly for the young age group that I teach. A successful tool was determined by having a simple login process, a user-friendly student interface, a variety of question types (including an option to draw), easy data collection, and ability to provide feedback. After analyzing and testing both tools, I concluded that Formative was a more effective and efficient tool to use given it's strengths in all areas, aside from data collection. In teaching young learners, however, I value question types and having the ability to draw over any of the other indicators of success because, developmentally, this is how many students in first grade display their knowledge. This was evidently a major reason why I prefer Formative to Socrative.
Additionally, this assignment impacted my learning in creating the actual infographic itself. As indicated by the pictures above, my infographic went through a phase of development. I had never created an infographic prior to this assignment, which is why the first version was extremely text-heavy, not many graphics were included, and it was overall not visually pleasing. When I received feedback on the "before" version of the infographic, I created the "after" version. This included more visuals and less text. The purpose of an infographic is to provide information in a simple, clean, and visually appealing way. As the creator and viewer of both infographics, I can easily determine which one is more effective, as it catches my eye with the graphics and clean format. Overall, I found this assignment to be particularly impactful in learning about assessment tools, as well as the creation of infographics.
Additionally, this assignment impacted my learning in creating the actual infographic itself. As indicated by the pictures above, my infographic went through a phase of development. I had never created an infographic prior to this assignment, which is why the first version was extremely text-heavy, not many graphics were included, and it was overall not visually pleasing. When I received feedback on the "before" version of the infographic, I created the "after" version. This included more visuals and less text. The purpose of an infographic is to provide information in a simple, clean, and visually appealing way. As the creator and viewer of both infographics, I can easily determine which one is more effective, as it catches my eye with the graphics and clean format. Overall, I found this assignment to be particularly impactful in learning about assessment tools, as well as the creation of infographics.
Artifact #2
Self-Assessment, Goal Setting, Reflection Forms
I genuinely enjoyed creating these three artifacts because they were very practical in my current classroom; it also allowed me to see my young learners in a new light. In this task, we were to create some form of self-assessment, goal setting, and reflection items. In first grade, students have many opportunities for reflecting on their work in writing. At the beginning of the school year, I created a check-list for students' personal narratives. It began as a simple checklist with only written expectations and a space for a checkmark. In developing the checklist for this assignment, I added many images for the students, as a visual reminder to include those expectations into their stories. I wanted to create something that would visually excite students and encourage them to truly reflect on their own work in a practical way. I decided to use the same visuals to create an extension of the checklist, which was the inspiration for the goal setting form. I used the same visuals to keep the tasks familiar, though this form allows students to circle one of the expectations to work on. I envisioned students then expanding on their goal area to provide specific information. For example, if a student circles that his goal is to improve on his "hook," then he may write that he'd like to start his story with a question to connect with his readers. Lastly, the reflection form that I created is intended to be done with a partner. Given the age group I work with, I decided to leave the reflection form ("bookmark") as a verbal conversation.
Not only was this assignment very practical and meaningful in my current classroom, I was able to truly reflect on the abilities of my young learners. In creating these reflection forms, I determined the amount of metacognition that a student of any age would need to apply in order to truly benefit from self-reflection. I have been able to implement these tools into my current classroom of first graders who completely embraced the higher-order thinking of self-reflection. I am now able to see how much these young learners can accomplish, and how genuine their writing experience has become now that they are able to reflect and analyze their own work. I now see the benefit of self-reflection and goal setting; it has changed the mindset of our daily writing time, and students are achieving much more than the writing standards.
Not only was this assignment very practical and meaningful in my current classroom, I was able to truly reflect on the abilities of my young learners. In creating these reflection forms, I determined the amount of metacognition that a student of any age would need to apply in order to truly benefit from self-reflection. I have been able to implement these tools into my current classroom of first graders who completely embraced the higher-order thinking of self-reflection. I am now able to see how much these young learners can accomplish, and how genuine their writing experience has become now that they are able to reflect and analyze their own work. I now see the benefit of self-reflection and goal setting; it has changed the mindset of our daily writing time, and students are achieving much more than the writing standards.
Discussion 5 - "Deeper Dive"
I was immediately very intrigued by the Grid Method because that was one topic that I had no prior knowledge. According to TeachBetter.com, the Grid Method is a, “...student paced, mastery learning system that takes the learning opportunities you already provide your students and makes them more targeted, effective and successful…” (TeachBetter.com, 2017). This sounds absolutely ideal, so I decided to dig deeper into the concept. From what I can gather, it seems as though the Grid Method is a teaching style that allows teachers to give students access to materials, activities, assignments, and assessments through a website or other means, such as Google Docs. According to the video published by Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies on Youtube titled, How to Use the Grid Method in Your Classroom, students can work at their own pace to complete tasks, while the teacher is able to provide various ways to differentiate (Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies, 2018). This automatically caught my attention, as I am always looking for ways to differentiate for my class of very diverse first grade learners. Given the age of my students, I would simplify the grid, and focus on one content area. Our math curriculum provides such rich content for student learning; however, there is not much room for differentiation. Using a grid would give me an opportunity to hit the standards in our daily math lessons, but also provide additional resources for students who need more reinforcement, or those who have already mastered the skill. To do this, I would transfer student workbook pages and exit slips (formative assessments) onto a website such as Formative so students are able to write and draw to show their work as they would on a sheet of paper. I would then be able to link these activities to a grid which students can access and complete at their own pace. I would still provide whole-group and small-group instruction because I see the value of hands-on learning at this age; however, I see the grid being more of an alternative to worksheets. Once students have completed the daily tasks, I could provide links to other resources to supplement the knowledge of that day. Additionally, if students seem to struggle with the daily tasks, I could provide links to videos or other resources to provide more information. For example, if the objective of the day was using a ruler to measure objects, I could find a video on non-standard units of measurement that students could access to explore the topic on a different level. Instead of traditional grading, I can use the formative assessments embedded in the grid to understand what areas students need continued practice. These areas can then be incorporated into the next lesson’s grid.
Sources:
TeachBetter.com, 2017. FAQs - The Grid Method. Progressive Mastery Learning, LLC. https://teachbetter.com/about/frequently-asked-questions/
Mr and Mrs Social Studies. “How to Use the Grid Method in Your Classroom | Mastery Learning.” YouTube, 11 Nov. 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=842&v=p4kTquq9g5k.
I was immediately very intrigued by the Grid Method because that was one topic that I had no prior knowledge. According to TeachBetter.com, the Grid Method is a, “...student paced, mastery learning system that takes the learning opportunities you already provide your students and makes them more targeted, effective and successful…” (TeachBetter.com, 2017). This sounds absolutely ideal, so I decided to dig deeper into the concept. From what I can gather, it seems as though the Grid Method is a teaching style that allows teachers to give students access to materials, activities, assignments, and assessments through a website or other means, such as Google Docs. According to the video published by Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies on Youtube titled, How to Use the Grid Method in Your Classroom, students can work at their own pace to complete tasks, while the teacher is able to provide various ways to differentiate (Mr. and Mrs. Social Studies, 2018). This automatically caught my attention, as I am always looking for ways to differentiate for my class of very diverse first grade learners. Given the age of my students, I would simplify the grid, and focus on one content area. Our math curriculum provides such rich content for student learning; however, there is not much room for differentiation. Using a grid would give me an opportunity to hit the standards in our daily math lessons, but also provide additional resources for students who need more reinforcement, or those who have already mastered the skill. To do this, I would transfer student workbook pages and exit slips (formative assessments) onto a website such as Formative so students are able to write and draw to show their work as they would on a sheet of paper. I would then be able to link these activities to a grid which students can access and complete at their own pace. I would still provide whole-group and small-group instruction because I see the value of hands-on learning at this age; however, I see the grid being more of an alternative to worksheets. Once students have completed the daily tasks, I could provide links to other resources to supplement the knowledge of that day. Additionally, if students seem to struggle with the daily tasks, I could provide links to videos or other resources to provide more information. For example, if the objective of the day was using a ruler to measure objects, I could find a video on non-standard units of measurement that students could access to explore the topic on a different level. Instead of traditional grading, I can use the formative assessments embedded in the grid to understand what areas students need continued practice. These areas can then be incorporated into the next lesson’s grid.
Sources:
TeachBetter.com, 2017. FAQs - The Grid Method. Progressive Mastery Learning, LLC. https://teachbetter.com/about/frequently-asked-questions/
Mr and Mrs Social Studies. “How to Use the Grid Method in Your Classroom | Mastery Learning.” YouTube, 11 Nov. 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=842&v=p4kTquq9g5k.
Course Reflection
In my opinion, the most impactful articles and resources in this course were ones regarding digital badges. I found these resources, particularly is the ISTE article, to be very enlightening and applicable to the grade level I teach. I had never heard of digital badges to portray accomplished skills until reading the resources from this week. It seems a much more appropriate way to track progress, rather than comparing learners with grades. The most remarkable aspect of digital badges is the power to assess a broad range of skills. According to the impactful ISTE article author Kristin Fontichiaro, "...they can recognize the soft skills not captured by standardized tests, such as critical or innovative thinking, teamwork or effective communication" (Fontichiaro, 2019). Having the ability to provide badges as opposed to grades creates a whole new positive system of assessment. I really enjoyed creating my own badge for this course as well!
There were many meaningful discussions throughout the course as well. I found the discussions on formative vs. summative assessments to be very beneficial. These discussions at the beginning of the course allowed me to reflect on the assessment types I typically use in my classroom. The discussion on formative assessments has encouraged me to assess students more frequently as a check-in. I am still trying to find a way to systematically formatively assess students through a digital medium. I learned more about tools, such as Formative; now I just need to find a way to successfully implement this regularly. The systematic approach to formative assessments is critical because the intention is to monitor student progress consistently. My goal is to implement Formative three days per week in math throughout fourth quarter this school year.
Overall, the most beneficial aspect of this course was creating resources to implement in my current classroom. I created digital badges, writing self-assessments, ideas for digital portfolios, tech-based project rubrics, and many more practical tools. I will continue my learning of authentic assessments through continuing research and consistent implementation of concepts learned through this course.
Sources:
Fontichiaro, Kristin & Elkordy, Angela. “Chart students’ growth with digital badges” ISTE.org. 26 February 2015. https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=320
There were many meaningful discussions throughout the course as well. I found the discussions on formative vs. summative assessments to be very beneficial. These discussions at the beginning of the course allowed me to reflect on the assessment types I typically use in my classroom. The discussion on formative assessments has encouraged me to assess students more frequently as a check-in. I am still trying to find a way to systematically formatively assess students through a digital medium. I learned more about tools, such as Formative; now I just need to find a way to successfully implement this regularly. The systematic approach to formative assessments is critical because the intention is to monitor student progress consistently. My goal is to implement Formative three days per week in math throughout fourth quarter this school year.
Overall, the most beneficial aspect of this course was creating resources to implement in my current classroom. I created digital badges, writing self-assessments, ideas for digital portfolios, tech-based project rubrics, and many more practical tools. I will continue my learning of authentic assessments through continuing research and consistent implementation of concepts learned through this course.
Sources:
Fontichiaro, Kristin & Elkordy, Angela. “Chart students’ growth with digital badges” ISTE.org. 26 February 2015. https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=320