Week Eleven: Assessment, Feedback, and Progress Monitoring

The end is in sight and I am wrapping up with the last few formalities before my student teaching internship is complete. This week I had my final formal observation with Dr. Ewing and I have started to give back classes to my cooperating teacher. 

For me, the end of week eleven could not have come fast enough. Since my school was able to utilize remote learning days we had ZERO snow days, which means I have had ZERO days off since we started in January. Needless to say, I was very much looking forward to spring break (the Friday before Easter and the Monday following). 

When I return after spring break I will have three preps: Introduction to Agriculture, Environmental Science, and Food Science. 

This week in my blog post, I am going to be discussing assessment in terms of what has gone well for me, what could have gone better, and some changes or strategies I hope to be able to implement in the future. 

First, I think it is important to define the different types of assessment. On a daily basis, I use formative assessment. Formative assessment is conducted by the teacher during a learning episode and it helps determine if students are retaining the information or it can give cues to the instructor on how to modify the lesson in the moment to increase student understanding. On the other hand, a summative assessment, just like the name implies, is a type of assessment that comes at the conclusion of an instructional unit. As a student teacher, I have less experience using summative assessment simply because it occurs less often than formative assessment. 

How has assessment changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

At my cooperating center, we utilize a hybrid schedule in which we only see students face-to-face one day a week. Since class time is so valuable, we are not allowed to use class time for summative assessments, like tests. This has caused a lot of my assessments to move to a virtual format which 8 times of 10 looks like a self-graded, multiple-choice Schoology quiz. Additionally, if I choose to assign a project as a summative assessment, I have to ensure it is something everyone can do at home, or arrange to mail or have students pick up supplies at the high school. 

In the end, I am concerned for students as they continue onto college or the next grade because for about a year and a half now, students have not had to truly study for an exam. Sure they have had to take them, but they are online, essentially open-note, and do not have a time limit. What will this mean for this year's freshmen class when it comes time to take the SATs or other high stakes tests?

What are some ways assessment has been effective in my classroom?

In my classroom, I have found that projects with clear instructions and rubrics are most effective. For example, my Plant Science class recently finished their floriculture unit. We discussed the elements and principles of design and as the summative assessment students created a spring floral arrangement showcasing the unit concepts. I broke this assessment, for a total of 100 points, down into four sections: a bill of materials, a sketch, the floral arrangement, and the write-up. For the write-up, students simply had to explain to me in essay format how their floral design used the concepts from class. I think it's important for hands-on projects like this one that students can not just do the thing, but synthesize WHY they did the thing - thus the write-up component of this assessment.  

To save me some time as a teacher, I was able to use the project rubric from National FFA's Floriculture Challenge. In the future, I want to continue to use CDE and LDE rubrics to evaluate student work. Not only was it a time savings for me, but my students also now have a better idea of how they would score in an FFA contest - which may spark an interest for them to compete in the future. 

Students making spring floral arrangements 

With regard to formative assessment, my students have enjoyed check for understandings that involve movement. Sometimes I will give the students sticky notes and they have to label a diagram on the board. Other times I have asked students to use their sticky note as a ticket out the door. Either way, my goal is to get students up, out of their seats, and moving. 

What are some ways assessment could have gone better in my classroom?

As a student teacher, who is always pressed for time, I feel my greatest area for improvement comes after the assessment is given...the feedback. I am constantly in a rush to get assignments graded and returned to students and what I don't pay as much attention to is giving students comments they can use to show growth on their next assignment. I often leave Schoology comments on assignments for a job well done or detailing how points were deducted; however, I wish I had developed a better system for giving constructive feedback. #PSUAgEd2021, any suggestions? 

What are some strategies related to assessment I hope to try in the future?

In the future, one assessment strategy I hope to utilize is choice boards. I had planned to use two choice boards during student teaching but plans shifted and the choice board no longer seemed like the appropriate form of assessment given content, time constraints, and resources. National FFA has a few pre-made choice boards for educators linked on their website. I think choice boards are a good way to incorporate autonomy into a classroom. A choice board lets students pick the assignment they want to do and can appeal to all modalities of learning. 

In a nutshell, there are a lot of great technology tools that can be utilized to create and give assessments. Whether it's programs like Actively Learn, Kahoot, Mentimeter, or self-grading assessments in Schoology, in some ways technology has made it easier for teachers to give assessments. However, I think the technology also makes it easy to forget about. I'll be the first to admit that because a quiz was self-graded, I did not go back and review the results or which questions were the most missed and reflect on how my teaching may have caused that outcome. It takes extra effort to remember to back and look and then take time to thoughtfully reflect. Now, I am writing myself notes in my planner so that I don't forget this important step of the assessment process!

#PSUAgEd2021 - What are your thoughts on assessment? What challenges or triumphs have you had?