In High Schools across America, students are being told to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and so on. But do students truly understand what is being asked of them? Has anyone actually taken the time to explain to them what it means to analyze something? A student told to analyze a text may provide a combination of summary and opinion. These two items, while important, do not add up to analysis. Analysis is a more exact process than simply playing critic. In An Introduction to Student Involved Assessment for Learning, Rick Stiggins (2012) walks the reader through a variety of reasoning methods including but not exclusive to analysis, synthesis, and evaluative reasoning. He helps the reader to understand the importance of the cognitive processes behind education and how sometimes the means are more valuable than the ends.
According to Stiggins (2012), analysis involves drawing inferences about a whole based on its parts. Stiggins (2012) illustrates analysis by comparing the analytical scoring of a student’s paper to the holistic scoring of a student’s paper. Scoring a paper holistically involves looking at the paper as a whole. Scoring a paper analytically involves looking at the component parts of that paper (i.e. spelling, grammar, organization) and rating each part separately. Students can apply analysis in several ways. Stiggins (2012) gives a language arts example on page 60 of his textbook. He mentions an assignment in which students describe the process they used while writing a term paper. While this is an excellent example of how analysis can be used in the classroom, it does little to tell us how students can be taught to analyze well. It is not enough to tell students to analyze; one must aid them in understanding how to...
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...the desired mental processes. This is not an easy point to get to. At first it may seem as if students are only scratching the service but, with practice and teacher modeling, students can make great strides in understanding not only what they learn but also how they learn.
References
Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (n.d.). Retrieved from http://teaching.uncc.
edu/resources/best-practice-articles/goals-objectives/blooms-taxonomy
Gabler, Ina & Schroeder, M. (2003). Constructivist Methods for the Secondary
Classroom. Pearson Education Inc.
Patsalides, L. (2011). Putting the New Bloom’s Taxonomy into Practice. Retrieved from
http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/3648.aspx
Stiggins, R. (2012). An Introduction to Student Involved Assessment for Learning (6th ed.)
Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
While assessment can give students, parents, and administrators a view of where a student stands in terms of achievement, one must always remember that the grade is subjective. There is no right or wrong answer in English, as there is in math or other quantitative areas of study. The basis of “a grade” depends upon a student’s ability to choose a course of thought and convey it accurately and convincingly in written form. The subjectivity falls in how the teacher interprets or responds to the ideas and supporting information. For example, during my first venture as a student teacher, I was given the task of grading “free choice” essays. The students were given free range of the subject matter, and were told to write an insightful and poignant essay on the topic of their choice. After grading the papers, my mentor sat with me and we discussed some of the grades I had given for several of the students’ papers. Upon glancing briefly at the comments I had made and the grades I had given, my mentor began asking direct questions as to why I would grade certain papers one way, but would assign a different grade to others that were quite similar. As she went on to read through other papers, she would agree with some of my grades, but strongly disagree with others. I found this interesting because, while we were both reading the same essays, we were focusing on different points or concepts, which shaded our perception of the piece as a whole.
The first writing project I was assigned in this class was an analysis of the film, Gran Torino. During class, I learned there was so much more to the movie than what we see; there was a meaning behind every little thing from the clothes to the hair to even the cars on the side of the street. It all meant something. The key features of an literary analysis include “an arguable thesis, careful attention to the language, attention to patterns or themes, and a clear interpretation (Norton Field Guide 85-86).” Critical thinking is an important skill, not just behind a desk, but also in the real world. The second writing project was a workplace writi...
Referred to as “assessment of learning,” (Chappuis, J., Stiggins, Chappuis, S., & Arter, 2012, pg. 5) components of summative learning include evaluating, measuring, and making judgements about student knowledge, both on individual levels and group levels. Rather than supporting learning by way of formative assessment, summative assessment verifies learning, (Chappuis, J., Stiggins, Chappuis, S., Arter, 2012). Naturally, this is what interests educational stakeholders: administrators, parents, teachers, and those who create educational policies. (Chappuis, J., Stiggins, Chappuis, S., & Arter, 2012, pg. 5). Summative assessment historically and presently presents itself in the form of graded quizzes, tests, graded papers and presentations, district benchmark tests, state standardized tests, and college entrance
I believe that teaching and learning is both a science and an art, which requires the implementation of already determined rules. I see learning as the result of internal forces within the person student. I know that children differ in the way they learn and grow but I also know that all children can learn. Students’ increased understanding of their own experience is a legitimate form of knowledge. I will present my students with opportunities to develop the ability to meet personal knowledge.
Assessments are an important part of teaching. Assessments are a good way for teachers to monitor students’ learning and understanding. Knowing students’ level of understanding can help teachers improve students’ learning and guide their instructions. In the future, I plan to continue assessing students in multiple ways such as, asking questions, illustrations and writing to adjust my instruction. I also plan to encourage students to assess their own work so they are involved in their own learning as well as look for ways to “employ technology to support assessment
Assessments have always been a tool for teachers to assess mastery and for a long time it was just to provide a grade and enter it into the grade book or report card. Through resources in and out of the course, there has been a breath of new life into the research on how to use assessments. They take many forms and fall within the summative or formative assessment category. Sloan (2016) addresses how formative assessments has traditionally been used by teachers to modify instruction, but when we focus on a classroom that is learner-centered “it becomes assessment for learning as opposed to assessment of learning” (slide 4). The fact is, the students are the ones that should be and are the ones using the data we collect through assessments, since it is our way of providing feedback in order
In order to be an effective teacher there needs to be an understanding that we all learn differently, this means that no single teaching strategy is effective for all students/learners all the time. This makes teaching a complex process because you need to understand and meet the requirements of all of your learners. Students learn best when they aren’t asked to simply memorise information but when they form their own understandings of what is being taught. When a student has successfully learnt a new idea they are able to then intergrate this information with their previously learnt information and make sense of it. To be an effective teacher you need to work jointly with students to asses where they are at, be able to give feedback on how the student is going and ensure that they are understanding the lesson (Killen, 2013) According to Lovat and Smith (2003) students learning must result in a change in a student’s understanding of the information being taught. In order to show understanding they must be able to share this information with others and want to learn more (Killen, 2013). In order to have a deeper understanding of what is being taught they need to be aware of the relationship that exists between what they knew previously and the new information that is being learned (Killen, 2013).. Students need to be given goals that they can achieve in order to feel a sense of mastery over their own learning, this gives students motivation that they are able to complete tasks and to keep going.
Regular use of formative assessment improves student learning as instruction can be adjusted based on students’ progress and teachers are able to modify instructions to cater to students’ individual needs (Black & Wiliam, 2010; Taylor-Cox, & Oberdorf, 2013). Various forms of informal and formal formative assessment methods are conducted as learning takes place, continuously through teacher observations, questioning through individual interactions, group discussions and open-ended tasks (McMillan, 2011). tests can tell us a lot about students and be used to inform and guide teaching, rather than simply to determine grades. Teachers can learn a lot from test results if they analyse the data generated to inform their teaching and learning programs (Perso, 2009). However, high stakes tests may result in students becoming stressed, leading to misreading questions, careless working and incomplete answers (Booker et al., 2010).
Breaking down tasks into smaller, easier steps can be an effective way to teach a classroom of students with a variety of skills and needs. In breaking down the learning process, it allows students to learn at equal pace. This technique can also act as a helpful method for the teacher to analyze and understand the varying needs of the students in the classroom. When teaching or introducing a new math lesson, a teacher might first use the most basic aspects of the lesson to begin the teaching process (i.e. teach stu...
Just as vital to learning is the differentiation that the teacher applies to every lesson in order to cater for a variety of learners. This is achieved throughout the learning sequence by guiding the teacher to the specific theories that are appropriate for different parts of the lesson, by catering learning activities that scaffold, support and extend students learning and by changing instruction styles to allow the students control over their learning where appropriate.
...emotional response. Once an emotional response is stirred up students should want to take matter into their own hands, demanding change. Skills should be taught through assessments and projects; such as communication skills, and developing their own voice. Once students take matter into their own hands change will come about.
“Teachers help students use assessment as a window into their own growth and identify as learners so, they develop the power and agency necessary to take charge of their learning (Tomlinson, 2010). Summative assessments are a mirror to student thinking. Summative assessments help teachers and students see a trajectory of their learning. Teachers can use them to identify which students are ready for other tasks; and which students need more time to develop specific concepts. The assessment that we administered asked students to answer a series of questions using information from a graph. It also prompted them to create a graph using the results of survey for our field trip. This assessment combined constructed response questions with a meaningful task. “The paper and pencil multiple choice test is not the only way to assess learning. It is a limited way to gain insight into what some students know and are able to do”(Berliner, 2010, p.113).
In spite of the importance of assessment in education, few teachers receive proper training on how to design or analyze assessments. Due to this, when teachers are not provided with suitable assessments from their textbooks or instructional resources, teachers construct their own in an unsystematic manner. They create questions and essay prompts comparable to the ones that their teachers used, and they treat them as evaluations to administer when instructional activities are completed predominantly for allocating students' grades. In order to use assessments to improve instruction and student learning, teachers need to change their approach to assessments by making sure that they create sound assessments. To ensure that their assessments are sound they need include five basic indicators that can be used as steps to follow when creating assessments. The first of these indicators and the first step a teacher must take when creating a sound assessme...
Through assessment students and teachers are able to determine the level of mastery a student has achieved with standards taught. Both formative and summative assessment should be purposeful and targeted to gain the most accurate data to drive further instruction (Ainsworth, 2010). While this syllabus does a good job of identifying the need for both formal and informal assessments, the way in which this is communicated does not provide enough detail for understanding. Simply listing assessment types does not give any insight into how these assessments fit in the learning process of this course. While some of the assessments mentioned could be common assessments chosen by the school or district to gain insight into the effectiveness of instruction, the inclusion of authentic assessments is most beneficial to students and demonstrates learning in a context closer to that of a work environment (Rovai, 2004). Unfortunately, this particular course, according to this syllabus, relies heavily on quizzes and traditional tests and essays to form the bulk of assessment opportunities. While other activities, such as formative assessments, journaling and discussions are mentioned as possible avenues for scoring, they are given a very low percentage of the overall grade. This shows that they are not valued for their ability to show progression and mastery. If this is indeed the case, this puts the students as a
Simple approaches and flexible means are the key to effective learning. Monotony and regimentalized fashion of learning is usually not recommended for the growing minds to ensure that the minds remain open and accept more stimuli from the surroundings.