Response to Chapter 10

When I hear the word assessment I usually cringe in my seat. Upon first entering Proteach, I used to only associate the word assessment with tests. However, after my last three semesters I realize that there is so much more to assessment than just paper and pencil tests. Assessment can take on many different forms. My favorite form of assessment is authentic assessment. I really like how this chapter evaluates this kind of assessment as a way to examine authentic learning. I think so often standardized tests are a way to view students understanding out of context. It looks at students’ abilities within a small set of parameters rather than within the context of their actual learning. Curriculum tests can often fall into this trap as well. Normal pen and paper tests are NOT the only way to assess and I really like that this chapter offers various ways to integrate technology into assessment.

When thinking about integrating technology into assessment my mind automatically diverts to computer-based testing. However, there is so much more to it than that. The first idea addressed deals with electronic portfolios. The chapter goes into detail as to why these are so effective and how they can be used. I, however, am more interested in ways that I can integrate them into an early elementary classroom. Looking at how technology of this world is advancing everyday, moving from heavy and thick files in a filing cabinet to e portfolios online just makes sense. Obviously, with early elementary students such as kindergarten to second grade, having them establish their own online portfolio may be too advanced. However, starting in 3rd grade when writing samples need to be kept and progress is more heavily monitored, these e portfolios can start to be heavily utilized. I think that you can start these portfolios out as blogs. Similar to the learning logs we keep in this class, students could post writing samples here, embed links to websites for online homework and so forth. Also, the teacher would be able to create a RSS feed and would be able to closely monitor the submission or omission of work from all of her students without the cost of losing bulky papers. Also, with work displayed on a blog, that is able to be viewed by the public, classmates could go to each other for help with an idea or just be able to share with one another. Commenting is another benefit that would come along with the blogging form of portfolios. Students could comment on one another’s submissions and give constructive criticism or praise to their peers. This would help to create a more effective and cohesive classroom both physically and digitally. In addition to peers being able to view classmate’s blogs, parents would be able to keep tabs on and check their students work. As parents they could also look to other students’ blogs to see how they would better be able to help their own student. I think that there are more advance e portfolios out there but it could become time consuming on the teacher’s behalf if the students are not able to upload or create it on their own. I think that until students are in 5th grade or possibly middle school, creating and maintaining their own digital portfolio may be too much of a daunting task. If it becomes the teachers responsibility to keep up with and maintain 20 students portfolios they will surely become bogged down and overwhelmed with too much administrative work.

http://alicechristie.org/pubs/Moritz-Christie.pdf

This link leads to a PDF file that supports the use of e portfolios in elementary classrooms for the purpose of improving writing skills and abilities. I think it is just another resource that can be used to better ourselves as elementary educators.
I love rubrics! I think that rubrics not only make grading easier on teachers but also make assignments easier on students because they see exactly what the teacher is looking for and how to properly and effectively meet the standards. I like both of the ideas that the book presents dealing with rubrics, both the banks and the generators. I think that rubric banks are hugely beneficial to teachers. I think that so often there are general assignments that teachers assign and they could find a rubric for one from a bank and just adjust it accordingly to fit their needs. However, I agree with the book in that one should definitely use caution when getting a rubric from a bank. It can be risky if not carefully evaluated. Especially since rubrics are not “one size fits all” and every class has different make-up of students. It will be important for the teacher to ensure that the rubric is not only fitting the needs of the assignment but the needs of the student as well. I think that the best idea is to create a rubric using one of the many programs available online. Creating a rubric by hand can be extremely tedious but these online programs allow you to input your data and they will create it for you. I found a few really good sites:

http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/

http://www.rubrics4teachers.com/

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php

All of these sites offer step by step and easy to use rubrics that could be very valuable to educators!!

Clickers are very interesting to me. I have zero experience with them and I do not know how they could be incorporated into an elementary classroom. I think that they are definitely geared more towards huge lecture styled classes in the college arena. I do not understand their usefulness in high schools either. I understand that they help with attendance and group quizzes or assignments but in an elementary school they are probably too costly to be worth it. I just don’t really see the value of these so I will not belabor this point any longer.

Computer-based tests are definitely something that I have had experience with during my time in college. In my experiences I have found that most of these tests are multiple choice and some short essay. I think that they are useful because if they are multiple choice, usually they can be graded very quickly but multiple choice tests do not leave much room for the more effective problem solving approach to teaching. I don’t think mathematics would be effective for computer based testing either, especially when wanting to see the work students produce to get to their answers. Computer based testing can also become very expensive because you need one computer for each students. If there is a school computer lab then a teacher can make an appointment to bring her class but that could become problem some also. I think that this to may be too stressful for a teacher to try to coordinate. Computer-based testing would definitely be useful for diagnostic tests in an elementary classroom, I just don’t know that I would want to coordinate using them for every curriculum test I give.

Surveys I think could be a cool mathematical tool to use with students. They could use the technology to create an online survey and embed it in their learning log or blog and then have their classmates take it and then do the statistical calculations to figure out the mean, median, or mode. There are so many tools available for this including Google and Survey Monkey. I have had experiences with both of these specific tools and they are both easy to use and set up for students. Also, it is really cool when students information becomes a part of the material they are working with. It makes any lesson much more relevant to the student’s lives. Surveys could be used for a variety of things including math lessons, school polls, class votes on a certain them or project, choosing a book to read as a class and so on. I think the use of survey has endless amounts of opportunities in an elementary classroom.

Overall I liked this chapter. I think that it was a really good way to conclude the book. Each of the other 9 chapters have offered us great tools to incorporate into the classroom and lesson ideas that follow accordingly. This chapter provided a tangible means for assessing all that was mentioned earlier on by continuing to integrate technology. I have enjoyed and taken a great deal from this book and am excited to employ some of these new tools in my future classroom!

What was your favorite tool from all of the chapters?