Engaging Our Children in Daily Assignment Assessments

As many students begin their school year in a remote classroom, teachers and parents can help their children understand their learning intentions and identify effective assessment strategies for demonstrating learning. Assessment definitions typically include these key ideas:

Measures the outcomes of teaching and learning
Gathers and uses information about students’ knowledge and skills
Relies on empirical data

A More Comprehensive Definition

An assessment also relies on gathering, analyzing, and using evidence and information from multiple sources about learning outcomes in ways that best support students, inform instruction, make educational decisions, and improve learning outcomes. It is most effective when it benefits both the giver and receiver. What if there was a way to document a “return on assessment?” This chart describes what happens when students are engaged IN the process of assessment as compared to the benefits when they are empowered AS assessors.

Engaging and Empowering Learners

ENGAGING LEARNERS IN ASSESSMENT	EMPOWERING LEARNERS AS ASSESSORS
TEACHERS ROLE Reconsider the use of quizzes, tests, and other traditional “measures” of learning: Alternatively, rely on practices that involve students in the process and practices of assessment. i.e., They write the questions.	STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES Rely on the best practices and research on student-engaged assessments that develop learners’ confidence, readiness to be assessed, and outcomes of learning.
Share explicit learning intentions that students deconstruct into actionable and attainable learning processes and outcomes. i.e., How can you use this?	Explain their goals, their learning intentions, and how they developed a personalized plan and process.
Offer a practical and predictable path for learning. Anticipate the need for flexibility and support. i.e., Incorporate a “Learning Tracker.” (Italics indicate links)	Describe the path they planned and followed, what went as expected, and times that they needed to be flexible, backtrack, or take detours.
Incorporate progress and growth indicators such as checklists and rubrics for students to check as they monitor progress along the path of learning.	Routinely display descriptions and documentation of their progress as well as areas for improvement.
Display exemplars of varying levels of achievement of goals: Have students compare and evaluate the exemplars.	Present explicit evidence of learning and describe how their outcomes aligned or deviated from the learning intentions and plan.
Provide goal-based and actionable feedback that describes ways to resolve misunderstandings as well as close lingering learning gaps.	To improve their learning, students review and explain their use of feedback that is timely, relevant actionable, and user-friendly.
Involve students in assessing their foundational skills and knowledge, how they will monitor progress, and feasibly evaluate the outcomes. i.e. i.e. assess pre/post	Students present and explain where their learning started, the steps they took, and how the quality of their final outcomes.

Much success as you help your children learn how to self-assess their many online assignments.

Laura

Performances Document Student Learning

Measuring Academic Progress series, Part 3 of 3

Welcome to another school year of changed schedules and routines as our students modify their daily lives in response to social distancing and the coronavirus. Most students will be asked to use alternative assessment strategies that include authentic performances in learning.

Alternative Assessment Examples

RUBRICS: Scoring scales for assessing learning using a defined set of criteria ranging from spelling to creativity

CHECKLISTS: A register of essential goals and learning outcomes during learning

LEARNING CONTRACTS: Agreements between students and teachers that describe mutual learning goals, strategies for achieving them, and expected outcomes of learning

SELF ASSESSMENT: Review of learning when considering evidence of learning, progress towards mastery, lingering confusion, and a plan of next steps to improve outcomes

PEER REVIEW: Provides an alternative perspective on learning that relies on rubrics, checklists, or open-ended prompts for feedback and advice

CONCEPT MAP: Graphic models of learning that illuminate the progression of knowledge from essential content, to applications, and creative/constructive processes of learning

PORTFOLIOS: Compilations of learning in an evidence-based system of process, progress, and outcomes

These examples illustrate that there are many ways that students can assess their learning with their teachers.

How to Create Portfolios

For added information on how our children can learn by creating portfolios to assess their learning, you can check the resources on these websites:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100046/chapters/Determining-the-Basics-of-Student-Portfolios.aspx
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/grades-6-8-digital-portfolios/
https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-tools-creating-digital-portfolios
https://www.kqed.org/education/528577/free-robust-and-unglitchy-digital-portfolios-with-seesaw https://www.today.com/parents/how-homeschool-during-coronavirus-crisis-t176020

You can also order the newly released Student-Engaged Assessment book by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke with a 20% discount until 12/31/20 by using promo code RLEGEN20 from Roman and Littlefield at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475857825/Student-Engaged-Assessment-Strategies-to-Empower-All-Learners.

Happy learning with your children while helping them compile their portfolios of learning!

Laura

New Ways to Help Our Kids Document Learning

Measuring Academic Progress series, Part 2 of 3

Parents can help children track their progress through alternative assessments. This is an effective way to help our children document their learning during these challenging times as well as when children do not attend a “brick and mortar” school during extended vacations. Alternative or authentic assessments rely on a foundation of learned knowledge and skills that learners integrate in their understanding and evidence of mastery. Alternative assessments ask the student to use what they have learned for a purpose rather than simply reiterating it.

Examples of Authentic Performances and Displays of Learning

PRODUCTS: Puzzles, games, timelines, simulations, primary research, experiments

WRITING/PUBLISHING: Scripts, stories, headlines, catalogs, press releases, marketing plan

ORIGINAL DESIGNS: Artwork, music, cartoons, book covers, illustrations, models, graphic designs

DEMONSTRATIONS/PRESENTATIONS: Show/explain how it works, teach another, simulation, lab experiment

PERSUASIONS: Debate, defense, advocacy, advice, editorial, soapbox, urge to action

MULTIMEDIA: Visual/auditory/digital products such as an infographic, video, storyboard, e-zine, newscast

How to Document Performance

Performances and displays require comparisons and alignment with the purposes of learning. For example, if you were learning to play tennis, the coach would watch your movements and make recommendations for improvement. If you were writing a press release or a summary, it would be fact-checked and assessed for organization and persuasiveness.

For more information, you can also order the newly released Student-Engaged Assessment book by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke with a 20% discount until 12/31/20 by using promo code RLEGEN20 from Roman and Littlefield at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475857825/Student-Engaged-Assessment-Strategies-to-Empower-All-Learners.

May your children’s alternative assessment documentation reflect how they have accomplished progress towards specific goals or by achieving mastery of learning objectives.

Laura

Why It Is Important That Students Measure Their Academic Progresss

Why It Is Important That Students Measure Their Academic Progress

Measuring Academic Progress Series, Part 1 of 3

This past spring, distance learning disrupted classroom learning for millions of students. As we think about how to improve their educational experience, we must consider how students can self-assess. There is a recognition that engaging students in assessment and having them become assessors of their own learning has significant benefits for academic growth. Research supporting this new focus in learning can be found at https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/teaching/evaluating-students/assessing-student-learning/student-self-assessment.

Alternative Assessments

Families who have sheltered in place and have become “COVID homeschool teachers” of their children generally rely on feedback from teachers regarding day to day assessments rather than large-scale tests to monitor progress. These large-scale tests may include performance assessments, authentic assessment, portfolio assessments, and assessments that allow students to display, demonstrate, and explain their learning. Samples of these alternative types of assessments can be reviewed at https://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends/alternative_assessment/.

Student Portfolios

When students gather the evidence of their learning into a portfolio, they can:

document progress
uncover lingering challenges
identify appropriate interventions and remediations

Here’s a resource to help you understand how your children can compile their learning portfolios at https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/4-tips-for-meaningful-student-portfolios.

Distance Learning Assessments

As we enter the new school year, our children will need to consider what they have learned when relying on more distance learning assignments. For more information and guidance, stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of the “Measuring Academic Progress” series.

You can also order the newly released Student-Engaged Assessment book by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke with a 20% discount until 12/31/20 by using promo code RLEGEN20 from Roman and Littlefield at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475857825/Student-Engaged-Assessment-Strategies-to-Empower-All-Learners.

Much success as you support your children’s learning reflections for student portfolios.

Laura