FIAE+Chapter+4+Block+1

Abstract and Synthesis
Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

__Abstract__ Chapter 4 is //Fair Isn't Always Equal// focuses on the tools of assessment. [|Portfolios], rubrics, and self-assessment all have their benefits, and will always be more accurate than a standardized test. Portfolios provide the teacher the opportunity of tracking a student's growth over a long period of time, and eliminate the need to make inferences about a student's mastery based on one sample. Additionally, students have the opportunity to reflect on their own progress when they select what work they wish to be placed in their portfolios. Portfolios can be incredibly simple to set up, and easy to maintain whether they are [|digital] or physical. [|Rubrics] are another tool that is incredibly useful to teachers because they clearly state the objective for learning, and dispel any ambiguity over content and mastery. As long as clarity is used when creating the rubric, students and teacher can more accurately assess student learning and meet objectives. The chapter gives a step-by-step guide to creating a rubric, with focus on establishing essential questions, identifying what qualifies as acceptable evidence, whether to use holistic or analytic rubrics, having students aid in rubric creation, and using positive word choice. The final tool discussed is [|self-assessment], which helps students and teachers set individual goals. The chapter recommends using rubrics, checklists, videotaping and analyzing, self-reflection prompts, interactive notebooks, and journals as means of self-assessment.

__Synthesis__ Practically all of my colleagues agreed that using portfolios in the classroom would be an effective method for assessing student growth and mastery. Portfolios allow room for students to focus on their individual goals, and really target specific essential questions while also enabling the teacher to see where a student is proficient, or not, in regards to content mastery. Rubrics are also important in the classroom because they give structure and also point out key concepts. While they allow for creativity, rubrics also help students keep focused and stay on task by breaking down the specific aspects of what is expected of them. Self-assessment is also a good tool to use in the classroom because it allows students to set goals for themselves and have a voice when it comes to grading. However, a good point was brought up concerning student truthfulness and self-assessment. How do we make sure our students aren't going to lie on their self-assessments? This should be one thing that we consider when using self-assessment in our classrooms.

*Synthesized by Cidney

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Alex Randall
FIAE Chapter 4 Right off the bat, the chapter begins with talking about efficient ways to assess students progress through the use of portfolios (which I like the most and find really effective). What makes portfolios really useful is the fact that you can collect student work over time. You can set a specific goal or goals for a student and the portfolio is compiled of works that show the student's progress over time toward that goal or goals. Then it goes into the usefulness of rubrics. Rubrics, like the ones that Beth uses to assess our progress in the field, are good for keeping track of progress, but actually defines what it desired of us so we can read it and think of ways to improve our performances. When designing a rubric today in class, we were asked to think of things that we think are important things to take into consideration when grading or assessing a performance (whether it is on paper or during a presentation of work). Self-Assessments are somewhat useful (in my opinion) because it gives the student the opportunity to not only put in their input, but it makes them think of what they expect from themselves and it can also help put them in the shoes of their teachers to see what their teachers are looking for. If a student thinks they have a strong-suit in one field when the teacher thinks otherwise, self-assessment would bring this to the teacher's attention and they might be able to address it. All in all, portfolios are my favorite, but rubrics are specific and lay everything out. Sometimes they can look a little intimidating, but, in actuality, they make things easier to understand.

Karina Sprague
The main topics in this chapter were portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessments. All of these things can be used as alternatives for written tests. The idea of a portfolio is to compile things over time. This can be useful because teachers can see the student’s growth throughout a few years. It is also helpful because teachers can see how students perform in other classes. If a teacher notices that their student has a bad grade in English, but they have a good grade in math, it might suggest that the student is more of a logical thinker. This knowledge can allow the teacher to teach the student in a productive way.

I think rubrics are important because they give students a sense of structure, and they also point out the key concepts. As a student, I like getting rubrics because they give me ideas. They also help me keep my product focused and on task. By using a rubric, you have a good sense of what your grade will be.

I think self-assessments are good, but I think a lot of students would lie on them. It would be hard to tell is a student was having a problem if they kept saying they were ok on assessments. They might be embarrassed to admit that they have a problem. I think they can be useful for students so they can get a sense of where they are and what they need to do. However, I do not think it is a valid way to assess comprehension.

Ethan Guthrie Herrell
Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Chapter 4

This chapter of FIAE focuses on tools of assessment. It focuses on how we can, in a sense, make our assessments more scientific. Perhaps against the intuition of a layman, this means going beyond tests.
 * 1) Portfolios are useful because they allow a teacher to see a student reacting to different ideas in different ways and under different formats, much in the same way it is useful to test a car on a variety of road surfaces. It also lets them focus their ideas on how they are answering the essential questions. They are also useful in the sense that they allow a teacher to give more precise feedback for a final grade. If we emphasis core understandings as being true learning, then grades like “A’s” and “B’s” no longer apply. If you get a B, does that mean you have 90% of the understanding? Can numbers so straightforwardly apply to concepts?
 * 2) And of course to judge our portfolio we have a rubric. Rubrics can make specific comments on which ideas and areas the student showed clear mastery of, and which they did not. You can also bring the students into making the rubric, so that they develop an even clearer picture of what’s expected of them.
 * 3) Students can also self-assess and assess each other (with guidelines provided on what sort of feedback to give).

Sam Leal
Chapter 4: Three Important Type of Assessment

Chapter 4 in FIAE introduces 3 major types of assessment that teacher’s use, portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. All three are powerful technique’s to assess material and take time for a teacher to get good at using, especially rubrics. Rubrics are one that I have the most experience with seeing and as a student you don’t think about the time the teacher takes to put into them. This chapter descirbes ways to make rubrics and how it is something teachers need to practice. Making a rubric won’t work perfectly the first time. One tip they identify that I believe is most important is to have a focus. A rubric has a very powerful presence in what the students work is going to be like, so it needs to be focused to what the teacher is looking for the student to learn. Another assessment strategy teachers’ use is a student self-assessment. This is a powerful way of assessing because it allows the student to set goals for themselves. For example the students can check off if a rubric was covered well in their project and write what they believe the strengths and weaknesses of the project were on it. This will give the teacher an idea of what the student wants the teacher to notice about the project that really good or its an opportunity point out areas where more work needs to be done. Portfolios were the third assessment type and one I haven’t seen too much, but was able to learn a couple things and I really like it as an organizational tool.

Colby Hill
FIAE – Chapt 4 The very beginning of this chapter begins with the portfolio assessment. I do like this assessment, but I am somewhat skeptical. This does easily allow the teacher to easily see a student’s mastery in a subject, but what the students see is a bit different. The chapter says that “students can use their thinking about their portfolio work to set goals” (42) which is very true, but it’s only for the students that want it. Otherwise this whole idea could turn into a major headache. I definitely feel like this could be a strategy in my classroom, but it would have to be maintained by both myself and the student, and even then I’m sure many problems will occur.

The whole idea on rubrics I hate. I don’t care for rubrics, and I don’t think they help the student to well. In her class, Dr. Overstreet went over alternatives, and one of them was in place of a rubric, and I think it was a much better solution. Rubrics talk a long time to fill out for the teacher, and I would dare say a student barely ever looks over the whole thing. Then it comes to 3.4’s or 2.2’s, and it can become a headache easily. Even the clearest rubric will certainly be unclear to someone.

Finally student self-assessment is a great tool. I have a hard time coming up with a grade for myself, but the answers that a teacher gets would certainly shed light on the student. Maybe the student really is trying and believes he or she deserves a better grade then what they are having. Or maybe the opposite, a great student gives themselves a lousy grade because they weren’t pushing themselves as hard as they could. I believe many benefits can come from student self-assessment.

Cidney
Three types of assessment discussed in Chapter 4 are portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. There are benefits to each, and all are much more accurate than the results of a standardized assessment. Portfolios provide an opportunity to glean work from students over a period of time, painting a big picture of the student’s growth and learning over time. Students also get the opportunity to reflect on their learning when they have to choose samples to place in their portfolios. Rubrics are another form of assessment that lets the student know how they are doing, and what they need to do to achieve and attain mastery. Rubrics are focused around what the task requires, what is necessary for a student to be proficient, what steps or ideas are more important than others, and what constitutes for mastery. By focusing on content, clarity, practicality, and technical quality and fairness, a rubric can be very effective in assessing student work and letting them know directly what they can do to improve and where their strong areas are. The last form of assessment discussed is student self-assessment. When students assess themselves, there is more opportunity for the student and teacher to set goals individually. This can be done in the form of checklists, rubrics, journals, ect.

In my classroom, I plan on using all three methods of assessment. These methods not only provide important feedback to the student, but also help me focus on what is really important in the curriculum, what constitutes as mastery or proficiency in a certain area or skill, and what areas need to be improved upon in instruction. I really like the idea of the interactive journal, and will use it in my class. However, it may not be in the form of a physical journal, it may be in the form of online blog or wiki posts. However, the concept of the student reflecting and receiving constructive feedback from the teacher will be used.

Jordan Hale
Portfolios are a way to track student’s educational growth over a long period of time. They can be kept for just a year for one class, or they can be kept through the student’s academic career. Students are reflecting on their growth when they select pieces for the portfolio. Portfolios are simple to create and easy to maintain. Rubrics are a great way to focus learning and make sure the rubric is asking the students for the right information and the right steps. Rubrics help breakdown tasks for students and guide them through their learning, while also letting the students learn. There are seven steps broken down by author Thomas Armstrong. Student self-assessment gives a chance for the students to give feedback that the teacher might not think of. Student self-assessment gives teachers and students a chance to develop individual goals for the task and student. One thing I read that clicked with me and I want to make sure I do is assure that my students don’t focus solely at what needs to be done for one level of the rubric. Students who focus on fulfilling the rubric at one level could miss out on the overall experience and learning process.
 * 1) Identify The Essential and enduring content.
 * 2) Identify what qualifies as acceptable evidence for student mastery.
 * 3) Write a descriptor for the highest performance possible.
 * 4) Decide between holistic of analytic.
 * 5) Analytic: Larger topic skills addressed and break tasks and concepts down.
 * 6) Holistic: Project as a whole rather than in parts, not as specific feedback to students.
 * 7) Determine your label for each level of the rubric.
 * 8) Write descriptors in each level.
 * 9) Test drive with an actual piece of student work.

Elizabeth Sargent
Chapter 4 from the textbook //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// talks about portfolios, rubrics and student self-assessment. Portfolios are important in differentiated classrooms because they can determine grades over time. I have always found portfolios tedious, but I knew I was accomplishing a goal and I would strive to fulfill the requirements. In my high school, there were standardized rubrics for each individual assignment given out and if you didn’t score a three or higher than you had the do the portfolio task over again until you got at least all three’s. While this was productive and did show student learning, most of the portfolio tasks we did only lasted a couple of days at most. They weren’t a really lesson, which makes me wonder if I even learned anything.

I also found in the chapter that rubrics can help teachers organize the steps by making sure they have “what the task requires, what constitutes proficiency in the task… and whether [the] criteria [is] clear to the performer of the task”(45). Rubrics are not easy to get a handle of though. As a teacher, practice makes perfect when making rubrics. While rubrics are powerful assessment tools, especially for projects, I learned it is important to have a good design.

Student self-assessment is also important. Making sure students like what you are doing as a teacher, and giving feedback to help you improve as a teacher is important in any class. While I don’t believe that just having prompts that include “I learned that…” and “I wonder why” are all that helpful in piquing student interest, it seems like it would be a good discussion starter (52).

Emily Haskell
Chapter 4: Three Important Types of Assessment

I really like the idea of a journal or portfolio. I think it is important to track a child’s performance, but it is also important for the student to see and track their own performance so that they will be able to better their work in the future. In high school I know that we kept an English portfolio for each of the years we were in school. We started the portfolio at the beginning of our freshman year and built them up over our four years. At the end of our senior year we had to write a thesis and it was very helpful and really interesting to see how we had changed over the years and to take inspiration from some of our previous work. One of the things that I did happen to disagree with was that they suggested the portfolios be sent home monthly or quarterly to be seen by a parent or guardian. I know how difficult it is to get a parent to look at a report card that is supposed to be returned with a signature, let alone a cumulative collection of writing.

On page 45 the author talks about the importance of a rubric and the usefulness of such a tool. The one thing that I did happen to have an issue with is the idea that kids might make their own rubric. This will work for some kids, but others will want to make it extremely easy to get an A on the paper or project rather than set realistic goals.

Spencer Hodge
Chapter four discussed the importance of Portfolios, Rubrics and Self-Assessments. Portfolios are an awesome way to get a big picture view of student learning, and it helps track progress over time. There are two different types of rubrics. The holistic ones have all expectations weighted equally whereas the analytic ones focus more heavily on certain criteria and allow for more specific feedback. Teachers need to make sure that they are clear and concise because bad rubrics simply cause frustration for both the student and teacher. Self-assessments are when you have the students evaluate their own work and reflect on their own growth as a student.

These tools will obviously be useful to me in my classroom, but of all three I love the idea of portfolios because they can really show the student that they have learned something by comparing works from earlier in the year to ones they did at the end. As teachers, it is really important to know how student’s best learn and how it is most appropriate to assess them. I feel that a student does not deserve to fail if they have a great understanding of the material and is very active in class but doesn’t do the homework because of home situations, or fails standardized styled tests do to anxiety.