UbDDI+Chapter+5+Block+1



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Abstract:
The main topics in this chapter were assessments and grading. The chapter discussed the importance of administering multiple styles of assessments, as well as the importance of giving more than one assessment. Students should not have their learning rated by a single test. Students should have multiple chances to perform well. By giving multiple tests in multiple styles, students will most likely have a chance to take a test that is suitable for them. Like students, tests should all be approached in different ways. The chapter also stresses the importance of [|pre-assessments]. Pre-assessments are important because they keep teachers from re-teaching material that students already know. Another main idea was the idea of grading. Grading should be reflective of the subject and theme. For example, a painting in art class should be graded on quality, while a painting in an English class should be graded on content and interpretation. Another important factor in grading is the overall grade. The overall grade of a project should be a sum of multiple grades. Giving just a single grade for an entire project is not helpful to the student because it does not explain what needed work. [|Rubrics]are very helpful for this because students are graded on multiple levels in multiple sections. It is important for future teachers to fully understand these concepts and to practice them so we can be fair and equal teachers when we get into the classroom.

Synthesis:
Most of my colleges agreed on everything. We all believed that assessments are important. A common suggestion was that assessments should be abundant and diverse. Students will have a positive outlook on assessments if they are simple, fun, and relative. If a student can make a connection with the assessment they will have more fun with it and assessments will become less of a “scary” thing. Some examples that my colleges and I gave were portfolios or “photo album” assessments, and pre-assessments. If you give many tests and create a photo album rather than giving one test to create a snapshot, you can get a better idea of how your students learn. It can also give you a good idea of your students’ level of understanding. The idea of pre-assessments was brought up multiple times. For example, Emily’s teachers never gave her a pre-assessment, so she was faced with the same history class for multiple years. I think we can glean a lot of information from this chapter that will be substantially helpful in our future teaching endeavors.


 * Synthesized by Karina Sprague**

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Understanding by Design: Chapter 5

Chapter 5 deals with the essential question of how we assess ourselves as teachers and our students. The first principle of assessment is that as many different //kinds// of assessments as possible should be used, not the same one over and over again. Snapshots are deceptive, whereas portfolios or great collections of past work can be compared to each other in an analytical way, span across time and are thus less vulnerable to a students’ up and down moods.

Principle 2 centers around making sure that what you ask kids to do ultimately matches what you are grading them for. Is being nit-picky about spelling in a history project worth the effort and the discouragement is can cause in the student? Probably not, especially in the earlier stages of unit.

Another point made by the book is the importance of pre-assessment. Without pre-assessment, we might very well sending the kids through lessons based on essential concepts they already fully understand, which will no doubt lead to boredom and acting up in the classroom. And considering as time is at a premium for teachers, one can’t afford to waste it.

And of course feedback. Feedback needs to be specific, relating to the essential understandings. A “B” grade does not really explain what they student did or did display understanding of in their work.

Alex Randall
UbD/DI Chapter 5 Reading chapter 5 was about reliable sources of assessing students' knowledge on what they have learned. One of the first sentences that stuck out to me was "reliable assessment demands multiple sources of evidence." This leads into the idea of a "photo album" approach to assessment, rather than a "snapshot." That is to say that one test isn't nearly as accurate or as helpful as multiple tests (or other forms of observation.) Different students will obviously display their knowledge and skills in different ways. Therefore, there should be different forms of assessment. The chapter continues to discuss "declarative knowledge" (what kids should know and understand), "procedural knowledge" (what kids should be able to do) and "dispositions" (what attitudes or habits of mind students should display). The chapter to goes on about the Six Facets of Learning and why they are important. I obviously find this all very interesting because it is all stuff that I have to know and be able to address to do my job well. As long as I keep the Six Facets of Learning in mind and I make sure to use many different forms of assessments, I will be able to accomodate for my students and their needs in as many ways as possible.

**Sam Leal**
From reading Chapter 5 in the book UbD/DI, it forced me to further think about the importance of assessment and how to properly assess students. It’s one of the most difficult things for a teacher. How do you make something a standard, without it being a standard? Sounds funny, but it’s true and every student is going to learn and understand things differently. Where do you separate wrong and right? These were just a few of many questions that came to my head as I read this chapter. One thing I learned in this chapter is about assessing for understanding. It’s one thing to know something, but to be able to understand it and apply it is a goal to strive for. To have a student show understanding it means that they can: explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, show empathy, and have self-knowledge. These are the six-facets of understanding that teachers look for. From what I learned about assessment in this chapter there is a lot I can bring into my classroom. Being able to not let assessment get in the way of the students learning. Make assessment a positive thing for the students learning experience will be a goal for me. For example I want students to gain confidence in themselves and that they can do well, and I believe assessing students the right way can really help with that. In math especially you never want to put your students up against something that seems impossible for them, they will give up to quick, problems need to progress in difficulty.

**Emily Haskell**
Chapter 5

Clearly this chapter is stressing the importance of not only testing, but also all kinds of assessment, formal and informal. One of the things that really stuck out to me and that I thought was really important was the fact the teachers tend to choose the assessments that are easiest to give and to grade as well. This seems counterproductive to me as we are taught the importance of teaching to multiple intelligences. Wouldn’t it only make sense to assess these multiple intelligences as well?

Another thing that really stuck out to me were the different kinds of assessments. After being in the classroom I can see not only how they apply to me as a student, but also how they might apply to my future classroom. I have even begun to use them myself. I have found that both diagnostic and formative assessments are extremely helpful. I am less impressed with the idea of summative assessments simple because all of my teachers up to this point have relied on things like tests to determine what we know.

While in the field I have found that even asking a simple question at the beginning of the class can change everything. For example, in just about every history class I’ve ever taken I’ve studied from the founding of America up until the Civil War. If I had to I could give a full report on anything during that time period. However, none of our teachers in high school never bothered to ask us what we knew so we continued to learn the same thing over and over again.

Elizabeth Sargent
UbD Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

This chapter was very similar to the third chapter of the Multiple Intelligences book. Summative, formative and diagnostic assessments are important to the development of student knowledge, understanding, and mastery. Diagnostic assessments are used to assess student’s knowledge coming into the classroom. Formative assessments are used to guide teaching and learning for improving student achievement. Summative assessments are generally used at the end of the course, to see if students have a standing knowledge of everything that has been taught throughout the course. Summative results are usually what I would call midterms or finals, tests that really count towards a final grade.

As I look back at my education it is easy to see that I have had formative assessments throughout many courses. Diagnostic assessments have been few and far between, and it would be a good asset to have in the classroom. Knowing where a child stands in a subject, and how much they understand and can apply is good for any teacher to know. Summative assessments are the most common of the tests I have taken throughout the years. There have only been a few classes where I haven’t had a test that decided my final grade. In the classroom, it would be good for me to have all these assessments so that I can assess my student’s previous knowledge, see their progression, and their mastery at the end of the course. If a student is lacking in any one of these assessments having these results is helpful to guide planning so that my lesson plans will cover information and instruction I missed before and help more students achieve understanding.

Colby Hill
UbD chap 5

This chapter was a doozy. I’ve heard this many times before, but McTighe and Tomlinson reiterate it here: single high-stake tests are pathetic. I agree completely, as do many people I’ve encountered. The only thing is the tests really do speak for themselves. There is no easier way for an outside source to gain information. In a sense, it’s not really for the student benefit; it’s for the big guys’ benefit instead. And, as described on page 61, the pressures to improve these test scores and make your classroom look good can sacrifice many educational opportunities. The standardized testing works for a select group of students, and it’s too bad because the other students get left in the dust. There are probably plenty of people coming up with alternatives in the educational field, but until I think it will be hard to convince the idea to the guys that matter. And even if they were convinced (are convinced) it would probably be hard to switch because of the world of ease that is an electronic test score over an assessment done by people.

Page 67 introduces yet another six words to remember. Soon after that comes the GRASPS. Sometimes I think and feel like all of these theories are getting too complicated. Every chapter introduces a new acronym or set number of words to remember. These things didn’t exist ten years and there were still students that excelled. On the other hand, the brain really is a complicated matter, as well as teenagers (ha!). Finding ways for more students to succeed is very important, but I still think that too many theories dilute possibilities.

Karina Sprague
Chapter 5:

This chapter discussed the positives and negatives of specific tests. The chapter states that although standardized tests are important for rating knowledge, they only gather a small amount of information instead of gathering multiple sets of information. The chapter suggests using multiple types of assessments to gauge students understanding. One example used role playing to help the students learn math. The students had to use basic math skills while pretending to be a cashier and a shopper. The example also suggested giving multiple quizzes, so you can rate the process along the way.

Another common theme in this chapter was the idea of backwards design. This design creates the assessment, or goals, first and then creates the lesson second. This seems easier and more effective than designing a lesson and finding standards to match. I think it is pretty common sense to decide what you want to teach, and then how you want to teach it. This way, you are sure to teach everything you want to, and you probably won’t leave anything out.

Overall, I really agree with this chapter, and a lot of it seems to be common sense. I don’t think that students should be categorized based on one test (SAT’s, MEA’s, etc.) and I also think that students should be given multiple opportunities to display their knowledge. I also strongly believe that you should assess the students’ knowledge before each unit or lesson because it would be very boring and not engaging if you are repeating something that every student already knows. Almost all of my teachers in school gave pre-assessments so they could teach us better. Very rarely was I bored in class because of repetition.

Jordan Hale
There are three types of assessments: Summative, diagnostic and formative. Summative is the type of assessment that is given at the end of a six-week lesson. It comes in the form of tests and is usually graded. Diagnostic assessments are used to check the student’s prior knowledge of a subject to help the teacher adjust their lesson based on what the students already know. Finally, a formative assessment is one given everyday. Formative assessment includes ungraded quizzes and oral questioning. In other words, when a teacher is instructing, they are also assessing their students by asking them questions and having benchmarks to make sure the students are learning what the teacher wants them to learn.

One thing that stood out to me was a line on page 78 that says, “…sometimes the language in a rubric can be lost on a student.” This really hit home because as a student, I was always questioning what I had to give the teachers to get a good grade. The wording on a rubric should speak to the students, not the teacher. I also believe that Dr. Michael Kean, the vice president of CTB/McGraw –Hill publishing, said it best when he said, “no test, no matter how good it is, should be the sole criterion for any decision.” (60). This put it in perspective that no one test can fit all, but rather do your best as a teacher to cover all you can using all facets of differentiated instruction to help aid your assessments.

Cidney Mayes
Chapter five moves into Stage 2 of the UbD model, and explores the concept of assessment and how to collect appropriate assessment evidence to prove that students are learning. There are three principles to assessment that guide and educator in choosing the best way to gauge student learning. In the first principle, the book gives the analogy of using a photo album, rather than a snapshot, to “create a more accurate and revealing ‘portrait‘ of an individual” (Tomlinson, 60). A wide variety of assessment in different contexts will provide a more accurate picture of a learner, as opposed to one “snapshot” test. The second assessment principle focuses on making sure that the method of assessment in appropriate to the content being assessed. Knowledge is divided into three categories; declarative, procedural, and dispositional; and an assessment needs to fit the type knowledge. The book also describes the concept behind the acronym GRASPS (goal, role, audience, situation, product, and standard), and how it should be used as the framework for assessments. The third and final principle for assessment explores why educators assess their students. It is important to get continual feedback from students to gauge their learning process. Along with assessment, feedback is also necessary to let students know, specifically, where they can improve and what skills they need to target and work on.

In my classroom, I plan on using a variety of assessments to gauge my students‘ learning. Pre-assessments will begin the start of every unit, and informal assessments, including self-assessments, will be used throughout the course of the unit. The words “test” and/or “quiz” will not be used in my classroom. Instead, I will use the word “assessment” when talking about collecting student information on learning progress. I would definitely use the idea of the tic-tac-toe organizer for products and performances to structure a diverse array of assessment while giving students choices.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter five discusses assessments and how certain assessments are good for certain things. One of the chapter’s main points was the fact that only one assessment of a student cannot accurately represent who they are and how they learn. There are many ways to gauge understanding. The best way is to create a "photo album" throughout the unit, so at the end of the unit you have a variety of materials to analyze in order to gauge a student's understanding of the content knowledge. Too commonly too many teachers look at one test. They don’t often take into consideration whether or not this behavior is a pattern, of if they were just having a bad day. The book also talks about how standardized tests are important, however they should never be treated as the main focus in education. It is completely unfair to make important decisions based off of one test because it favors children that can easily recall information, children that speak English at home, and children that do not have any disabilities. The problem would become teaching for the test, and not for the important content.

This will impact me in the classroom because I will have to think of creative ways to test student's with every different learning style. Although the projects and assignments can be changed to suit the student's particular needs, the goals need to remain the same in order to ensure everyone is learning the same content. This is a very useful way to become a responsive teacher. Formative assessments are //for//learners, and the teachers; they can help teachers understand what they need to do to better the classroom. Formative assessments can be formal or informal. For me, I will most likely use informal assessments in my classroom.