Unit 6.6 Final Reflection

Which kind of assessment was most difficult to create? Why? 

I think creating Written assessments are the most difficult to create for me because they are longer assessments that take more skill to complete usually. This means they take more skill to create because you have to make sure they are worth the time and aren't just a a waste of time. This is especially hard to use in P.E. because a lot of our standards are performance-based. This doesn't mean we can't use them at all, just not as often!

 Which one was most easy?  Why? 

The easiest assessment to create to me was Performance assessments. It helps that in P.E. this is our thing, but also that in my head, making performance assessments just clicks. It is like tying your shoe, it comes second nature! I know that from my learning target, I have to see certain key points to make sure the students have the required knowledge to move on. When testing with performance assessments, you have to observe the performance to see the key parts you are testing on, and I just feel like that is a lot easier!

What was something that surprised you about creating assessments?

Something that surprised me about assessments was that in the attributes to a good test, it said to distinguish words like Not and except. This makes sense in my head but I feel like I have seen this test on almost every test I have taken! Especially in math, I feel like the teachers are trying to trick you with their questions but that should not be the case. The point isn't to trick your students, it is to see how much information they have actually learned. I also thought it was cool that it said to work the word "Please" into your tests so that it is more invitational and less foreboding. 

Unit 5.3

Planning

What part of planning comes easy to me?

For me, the syntax I will use for different lessons is easy to plan for as well as making the assessments that we use to make sure the students are meeting the learning target. For syntax, we have been told to always use posters and visual aids so that students always have something to refer to. These work great in P.E. classes because there are usually a list of steps you need to follow when completing a certain move so if a student forgets a certain step in a process, they can look back at the poster for reference. 

I find assessments fairly easy as well because we really just have to base them off of the learning targets and make sure they show competence of whatever the target is! I also like to add student voice at the end of every lesson I teach so I can see how the students thought the lesson went, what I can do better, and I can see what they learned about themselves from the lesson.

What part is not as intuitive?

The part of planning that is more difficult for me is figuring out my differentiated instruction and Culturally Responsive Practices. I fell like the biggest reason for this is I have not had a ton of experience in the actual classroom and don't have real students to base my lessons off of. We have learned a lot about these two parts so its not that I don't know what I should do when I have specific children in my classes but more so that I am not great at using my imagination to base my lessons off of students that I don't have. 

Assessments

Assessments

1. Selected response and short answer 

Pros

-Great for assessing mastery of discrete elements of knowledge, such as important history facts, spelling words, and foreign language vocabulary.

-Can administer large numbers of questions per unit of testing time

-Can cover a lot of material relatively quickly.

-Easy to obtain a good sample of student knowledge 

Cons

-Limits to this format when assessing reasoning

-Cannot be used to assess the quality of products

2. Extended written response

Pros

-Assessing reasoning targets

-Assesses blocks of knowledge rather than pieces of information detached from one another. 

-Can get at a deeper level of knowledge than selected response assessments

Cons 

-Not as efficient as selected response assessments because responding to each of them takes long.

-The question has to be a novel

3. Performance assessment

Pros

-Can assess the attributes of the product itself

-Can observe and evaluate skills as they are being performed

Cons 

-Not a good choice for assessing knowledge targets

-Inefficient to assess all content knowledge 

-Can be thought of as impractical 

4. Personal communication

Pros

-Real-time sampling of students understanding during instruction

-Effective for students with special needs, ELL, or younger students, to gather accurate information.

-Strong match to reasoning targets

Cons

-Inefficient if a lot of knowledge is to be assessed

-The amount of time it takes and the record-keeping challenges it poses when assessing reasoning proficiency

-No precise reasoning behind why a program something or someone doesn't perform successfully

What role will assessment play in my lesson plan?

Assessment will play a large role in my lesson plans. I plan on using personal communication and performance assessments the most in my lesson plan because I feel like they fit the best in a P.E. classroom. I plan on using performance assessment to assess the skills and reasoning proficiency of my students when they are participating in my activities and lessons. I plan on using personal communication to connect with my students on a more personal level and also to help me become the best teacher I can be. My exit slips could having each students answer a question I ask them so that they can go or I can use it throughout the whole class period to ask specific questions. These will help me understand the thought process of my students because they can explain to me why they answered the way they did.

Reference: Stiggins, Rihard J. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right -- Using It Well. Assessment Training Institute, 2005.