Weekly Investment: Evaluating Learning (Part One)

Weekly Investment: Evaluating Learning (Part One)

Scenario:

I have one student that I would consider the best in my class. She does great on all assignments and on all tests. She leaves for the summer with an A grade on her report card.  My other student on the other hand is a handful.  He struggles on all assignments, and as a result he walks out with a D grade, which in highschool is still passing so he can continue onto the next grade.

Both of these students preform an SAE which has them working at a local nursery part time over the summer.  During my mid year SAE review I sat down with their supervisors to get an idea of where my students were and what I would need to work on to help develop them as students.  The supervisor was not impressed with my A grade students work ethic and ability to work on a team and recommended that she receive a D letter grade. My student which has always struggled in my classroom though was one of the hardest working part time employees the supervisor has had in the past couple years and had no trouble in expressing a recommendation to give him an A grade. 

When reading this scenario I cannot help but feel I have been an unsuccessful teacher for both of these students.  Yes this a made up scenario, but is is also something I don't want my students to endure as I prepare for my own style of teaching. So how to I prevent this? I need to learn more about testing students.  In this blog post I hope to provide myself resources and feedback for future years including covering the following main points on Evaluating Learning:

1. Reasons for evaluating students.
2. How to effectively evaluate objectives.
3. How to plan a test.
4. Types of assessment.
5. How to better use scales.
6. Grading Procedures.
7. Alternative Teaching Strategies

 

 

Reasons for Evaluating Learning

"Teachers have a responsibility to use evaluation instruments and procedures that are unbiased, justifiable, and realistic." I think that this quote truly expresses the desires behind assessing students.  To me this is divided into a couple of major thoughts: Need, Improvement, Motivation, Self-Appraisal, Instruction, and lastly Grades. 

•  Needs Assessment - Help figure out Where students are? Where students need to go?
• Instructional Improvement - Helps determine if the material on the test matches what was learned in class.  Did I effectively cover all unit and lesson objectives?
• Motivation - This is a prime example of Achievement Goal Theory where students will has mastery approach or mastery avoidance motivation to succeed. I want to learn this material. I don't want to look like an idiot with the material. 
• Self-Appraisal - This helps student gauge where they are at.  This is like giving them a "performance review" (pop quiz) and having them self - grade. Where am I in undertanding the topic?
• Instruction - This is a powerful tool to help students go from one level of blooms to a higher one.  This would require students to synthesize previous material, reemphasize important objectives, and finally provide opportunity for students to relearn materials they didn't fully understand.  
• Grades -  These help communicate to the community, parents, and students this is what I have learned.  

Evaluation Based on Objectives

To me the big part here is this: Are what you are testing on also what your objectives are. 

Take the phrase understand. How do you test that.  Short answer not easily.  But if all I do is write lower blooms objectives then I am also doing a disservice to my students if I always teach the lower levels.  

I think that this is why it is important to look at big picture Unit Objectives and then develop deeply into them.  I think its good to start with I want my students to understand [insert topic] but then when it comes to the final draft of a topic to be able to change that word understand and put in a measurable objective.  

That is why it is important to make sure that your assessments are properly showing the correct performance objectives of a class.  If we develop a test and undershoot our classroom objectives or overshoot our classroom objectives our students will be unsatisfied with the test itself.  Additionally it also comes down to knowledge level taught in the class as well.  I think back to scaffolding and I feel like this hits it with assessment. If in the end of the day I want students to understand a topic enough that they can list differences between breeds then why am I teaching more than just that?

 

 Planning a Test 

No here is the hardest part. Making the test yourself. When making a test I liked the idea of starting it with a Specification Chart.  Take all of the objectives unit, and lesson, along with any concepts that AFNR or your state has as ag standards for the topic and go from there.  Form there you begin to assign weights. After weights you begin to develop a method of testing. Here are questions I'd ask myself when making a specification chart:

Questions Asked:

• What were my unit objectives
• What were my lesson objectives
• Which lesson objectives fall under a unit objective
• What major AFNR Standards did I want to meet?
• What major PA Ag Standards did I want to meet?
• How did I complete each unit objective? 
• How much time did I spend on each unit objective?

These questions would help me organize the chart and in the end assign weights.  This way the assessment of the unit would be easy for me to complete. 

 

Test Types

I am going to have another blog on Test Types specifically with resources available. I am going to do that because I think I am going to need a lot of stuff to pull specifically for that one. Here are the different types of questions I could ask:

1. Multiple Choice - A, B, C, or D. Great for concepts.
2. Short Answer - When you use a sentence or two to describe and answer of some kind. Typically useful for things like definitions. 
3. True-False Test - Either Right or Wrong Statements. (Hint that statement is true)
4. Matching Tests - Help you try to determine differences and similarities in two different lists. A good example would be matching words with definitions.
5. Essay Tests - Usually you get a question or two and have to write a paragraph.

Now that we have made our test we have to organize it in such a way that it makes sense.  For example it makes sense to have multiple choice questions with multiple choice questions and not scattered throughout a series of short answer and essay questions.  Often you can group them into groups so that the test looks structured.

For example a multiple choice and true and false section requiring students to write A/B/C/D or T/F. Another section with Matching. Finally two pages with short answer and an essay. This to me is a prime example of the exams I have taken in college.  No obviously I would never give a student this many questions like I take in my senior level classes, but I would add more to it as a result.   

Testing Scales and Rubrics

Testing scales and rubrics will help make assessments which are not traditional hand written exams. To me scales are perfect for group projects and class participation grades.  Examples include Rating Scales, Assessment Rubrics, Performance Assessments, Procedural Assessments, Product Assessments, Evaluations, Identification Tests are all examples of these types of exams. Often these exams are based upon a scale and from there a grade is identified.  

Its important that with these grading styles we are honest and are ok with "failing" a student some times a student needs that kick in the behind to keep working hard in class.  I think this is a type of assessment I would love to learn more about just because this is one that is super vague.  

Grades

 

These are by far the most harrowing aspect of teaching. How do you create a system which accurately reflects the performance of all students and will give them all a fair grade for the end of the parking period. I think the trick with grades is to approach the marking period as one huge unit and all of the units together.  Then from there look at what a score would mean.  I like the idea of A, B, C, D, and F and would love to learn more about this style of final evaluation.   

Next, I'll touch on things such as Types of Test, Grading non traditional students, and a bit more on evaluating success.

To Be Continued . . .