Formal and Informal Assessment and Feedback Plan

3^rd Grade Students

What?

Tasks, Strategies, Instruments

How?

Processes, How often?

Why?

How do the selected tools support your learning goals and the learning principles guiding your design?

a) to enable continuous/frequent feedback between you and the students

Formal:

  1) music portion

       question &

       answer

 2) measure with

       ruler use

      worksheet

Informal:

  1) music portion

       observation

          by teacher

      discussion 

         w/students

2) measure with

       ruler

      discussion

      w/students

continuous during

song portion

one time – each

   child is able to

   measure

continuous during

   music

after songs,

   discussion of  

   lyric meaning

specific time after

    lesson, use

    ARI ruler (clear

    plastic) on

    overhead and

    call on students

    to identify the

    measurement

this lets us deter-

   mine if students

   understand

   what the song

   lyrics mean

we can see if

   students hold

    rulers correctly

    and can id

    marks on rulers

are students

   able to read the

   words

are students able

   to understand

   meaning of  

   words in lyrics

we can see which 

   students are

   hesitant to  

   answer, indica- 

    ting they need

    more practice

b) to encourage the students to reflect on their learning progress and achievement

Formal:

    journal – self

       assessment

    portfolio (see

    notes)

Informal:

   discussion 

     among team

     members (in

     coop learning

     groups)

two times, once

    after measure

    in inches and

    once after

    measure

    objects longer

    than 1 foot

continuous – add

   worksheets, any

   paper results of

   activities; have

   students cut out

   pictures from

   magazines and

   measure objects

   they like; do

   a digital photo

   of each child

   using ruler; also

   consider using

   video camera

continuous – as allowed in light of class management and classroom rules – specific times set for discussions

when grading the

   journal, we can

   see how well the

   student can

   think about the

   lesson and we

   can simulta-

   neously,

   determine the

   child’s progress

   in language arts

 the desire is to

    determine if

    students are

    moving from

    knowledge to

    more critical

    thinking – as

    they think about

    how to relate

    being able to

    measure ob-

    jects throughout

    their lives

being able to articulate what they are learning and to help each other – peer help is very effective; discussions are in both Spanish and English

c) to determine your students' learning progress and achievement

Formal:

  Music Portion

      oral quiz on

          what songs

           mean

Measure with

   Ruler

       test – hands

          on

       test – use

          CPS

          (students  

          use 

         remotes and

         test is on

         screen,

         teacher

         reads the

         questions)

Informal:

     Discussion

SPECIAL

ED CHILD

    HotDots are

     used for exam

one time, after

     song, grade is

     oral quiz

one time, after

    lesson, test 

    using rulers

one time, after

     lesson, after

     hands-on test,

     will include at

     least one

     question on

     how song lyrics

     related to

     measuring

continuous to keep lesson in mind of students

one time – test is

   prepared using 

   hot and cold  

   dots and HotDot

   reader

we will know if the

   students under-

   stood what the

   words in song

   mean

we can see if the

   students parti-

   cipate and if

   they seem to

   understand how

   the lyrics relate

   to actions of

   measuring

we will determine

   which children

   can measure in

   inches as well

   as in feet

testing is slow so that teacher can repeat the questions as often as necessary for students to understand; also questions are short, multiplic choice with 2 or 3 choices, at least one T-F

it is important to

discuss with each child so that we are sure a child can accomplish measuring before going on to more difficult tasks.

student will measure on the paper and pick out the number that corresponds to the measurement – using Reader, student will place tip on dot that shows correct number

The purpose of education is to train students to think critically and to solve more complex problems than they did previously. Leaders in the field are now adding high stakes assessment as a means of more thoroughly discovering a student’s achievement. These high stakes can include tangible rewards, sanctions, or public comparisons. Preliminary investigations are showing that portfolio assessment programs are showing that a higher level of thinking, including the students’ spending more time discussing the content, explaining solutions, and writing about what they’ve learned. A marked improvement has been that students spend more time thinking about how the knowledge they’ve acquired can be connected to new situations.

One facet extremely important to me is that statistics show that racial and ethnic minorities score lower on traditional assessments than do white students. It is believed this is caused by their being (generally) more socio-economically disadvantaged. Under current systems, students are placed by results on standardized tests and therefore teachers spend more time teaching to the test than they do helping the child developing critical thinking. Of course, if more critical thinking is a goal within the school, materials must be provided to help accomplish this and some schools don’t have the materials.

Another factor is the difficulty in testing students with disabilities. Traditional assessments often fail to determine the acquired knowledge of these children, but more and more schools are attempting to add testing in Braille or by other means.

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/IASA/newsletters/assess/pt4.html