Assessment+-+February+1

Watch the 30-minute video

[|Planning for Assessment]

As you watch the video, consider the wordle image. Pick 3 or 4 words that are important from your current perspective. Why are they important? Do you have any questions about any of the words? List your comments below. If you find yourself picking the same words as someone else, try to extend their thinking rather than adding the same comment.

**Kristen Weintraut:**__**Rubric**__ – My students like to know what exactly their goals are. They want to know what is important about what they are doing. A rubric really gives them a clear image of what is expected or how they are being evaluated. Knowing in advance gives them a chance to ask questions and feel prepared to succeed. They can also be flexible which is helpful as the rate of progress can change. So having the ability to update is a good thing depending on the development of each student. __**Success**__ – This is my ultimate goal. I have my idea of success for my students. I am sure they have their own as well. I want them to be successful with the German language and their learning. I want them to leave class and feel that they can communicate effectively and think opening about another culture. My feedback to the students will help with their success and their feedback through class and various tasks will aid in my overall success as well. It is a cycle!

__**Teach**__ – I think this is very important to me right now because I need to be able to give the students the tools in order to succeed in the various forms of assessments. I also need to recognize when students need to be more actively involved and when I should let them take on the various roles of teaching. My approach to teaching is constantly be stimulated through our classes in the T2T program, colleagues at school, research online, and through experiences in the classroom. I need to find out what works for me and my students and move towards those methods.

 How are you all or have you all used Formative and Summative Assessments?  **Andrew:**  I think that the most relevant word from the wordle about the video is **rubrics**. It seemed to me that the video focused as on rubrics as the primary means of assessing the knowledge and skills of students. Not only is it important as a means of assessing, but it also is important as a way to set the expectations, both for the teacher and the students. As teachers, developing the rubric will help us get a clearer idea of what we actually expect from our students and be able to express that specifically to them before they get started with a project or assignment. For the students, they know what is expected of them, the end results, and the skills they will need to have in order to be successful.  That leads me to my next word, which is **success**. I think that successful use of the language is the goal of any foreign language class, and our assessments should serve to foster success, rather than simply put a number and/or letter grade to a students work. Any type of assessment should give the students a clear understanding of what successful use of the language looks like, and if they aren’t able to achieve that, then the assessment should provide them with the steps to help them achieve that in the future.  The next work that I think is important is **feedback**. They talked in the video about how feedback should be immediate and constructive in order for the students to truly learn from the assessment and be able to see the steps that they need to take in order to be more successful the next time or so that they can see why they were successful this time. Without feedback, a student will be left with simply a grade, wondering why they got that grade. If they scored well but without feedback, they won’t necessarily know which skills and characteristics to replicate for future success. If they scored poorly without feedback, they will just become discouraged and think that they are no good at the language, where as with good, quality feedback, the student can see both strengths and weaknesses and learn to enhance their skills for the next set of assignments, tasks, and assessments. There is a good connection between rubrics and feedback.


 * Yao Huang:**

Three words that are important to me from my current perspective are assessment, feedback and rubric. Assessment is one of my growth areas from my growth plan this semester. During my student teaching, I increasingly realize that how important it is. As the book //Teach Like A Champion// mentioned good drivers check their mirrors every five seconds. The same thing, to be a good teacher, I need to use various and appropriate assessments to assess students before, during and after the class. I need to check how much they can master, which levels they are, what questions they have, etc. Based on the results from those assessments, I will be able to design my lessons better to suit my students and help them acquire the language, to build on their language successfully. Feedback is a stepping stone to both my students’ and my success. In order to make teaching and learning successfully in my classroom, I need feedback from my students and I also need to give feedback to my students. I need feedback from my students so that I can readjust and modify my lessons and help them successfully move on to the next level. Without feedback from them, I do not know whether my teaching suits them, whether they can learn from me and so on. I give feedback to my students so that they know which areas they need to improve, which levels they are, how much progress they made, etc. With these information, they can know them better and make more progress in the target language.

Rubric likes a guiding light. It indicates students the correct way to be successful. Rubric is a good way for teachers to set up their expectations to students and a good rubric will be able to clearly tell students what they are supposed and expected to do. Rubric is also an important criterion for assessment. It easily helps teachers to assess and give correct grade to students. Students also will be able to clearly and early set up their goals about which grade they want to get and prepare for their assignments well according to the rubric.

Hui-Ching(Kayla) Hsu:

The three words I would pick are **__Assessment__**, **__Rubrics__** and **__Feedback__**, which are the same with Yao’s choices. The reason for me to pick these three is that they “empower both teachers and students.” However, from my current perspective as a pre-service (new) teacher, it poses a challenge for me to implement these three tools in my classroom. **__ Assessment __**** : ** In today’s multiple-intelligences classroom, assessment is no longer a “one size fits all” deal. Just like one of the teachers stated in the video, the assessment we use should “allow students to demonstrate their ability in different ways.” I understand the concept, but I somehow find myself incapable of it. For example, how do I ensure that I am assessing the same thing among my students while providing them a variety of ways to demonstrate their ability? How many different ways should I provide for students? I believe it requires experience which I do not have at this point. This is a challenge for all teachers, even those with years of experience. **__ Rubric: __** I agree with Yao on that rubric is a good way to let students know about teachers’ expectation. I also think that it can motivate students when it is written in an encouraging way. I want my students to think “it’s not hard to get an A for this project” after they look at the rubric. It can be hard, it's OK for students to be challenged. Rubric writing is definitely not easy. The teachers in the video spend quite some time discussing how to write a rubric. One of the advices is to look at the collection of previous students’ work. I have not accumulated enough students’ work after student-teaching for one semester, so it will be hard for me to decide the criteria for the rubric. I am also wondering where we can find some sample rubric for world language class. There are several online sites, one to look at - http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/PALS/rubrics/

**__ Feedback: __** Feedback is important for anyone who wants to improve. I was kind of surprised when I watched the part of the video where the teacher was having a one-on-one feedback time with her student. When I was a student in Taiwan, the only type of feedback I receive was the one written on the corner of a worksheet, usually in just a few words. It would be nice if I can schedule some time to do one-on-one feedback session with my students and explain to them why they receive a certain grade according to the rubric. However, how am I going to do this if I have a class of 30 students, and especially when class discipline is still an issue? I would really want to try to give my students feedbacks on a daily or weekly basis, because I think a feedback time like the one shown in the video makes students feel that the teacher really cares about their learning. It is also a good way to build a relationship with students. I was rarely able to find time to do one on one. A good rubric is a form of quality feedback.

Hui-Ching(Kayla) Hsu:

Resources for Rubrics Writing Thank you for adding these. They make it easy to populate a rubric, but it's important to take the criteria and descriptors from the field of foreign language. [|Rubistar] Create rubrics of your project based learning activities [|Technology's Rubric Generator]Make grading rubrics by filling out a simple form [|Landmarks Rubric Construction Set]Creates customized web-based rubrics Here are three tools I found for writing rubrics. Although most of them are not designed for language class, I still think they might be helpful in writing rubrics in the future. Among these 3, I think the Rubistar is the best.

Brittney McDuffee

Can: So much of student learning a language is self-motivation and personal confidence. Students need to see success to stay motivated. They need to feel that they can be successful. They must feel like they can speak the language to have the confidence to speak it, and with confidence comes practice and with practice—improvement. Rubrics and assessments students should show students what they can do—not what they cannot do. "Can" was a good way to capture the essence. I hadn't thought of it this way.

Feedback: Constructive feedback is vital for students to improve. It is not likely that someone will improve without feedback. For example, if I am in a Spanish class and I am constantly using a word incorrectly, I am not going to know that I am using the word incorrectly unless someone is there to correct me or to give me a funny look. Feedback needs to happen as often and as quickly as possible. As the video said, students should not be overwhelmed with grades. They should know that their grades are only a reflection of how they did on a single day. It does not define who they are as a learner, and they can still continue to learn.

Teach: My current perspective has a lot to do with the word teach. Through the past few classes, I have learned that just because I am teaching, does not necessary mean that students are learning. The video discussed the importance of feedback, evaluation, etc. and I think that these are all encompassed in good teaching.