Time for Learning Evaluation!

When students think of evaluation, they think of test and exam time, usually negatively. Why do we have evaluations? 

2 Main Reasons

1.) To assess student learning

2.) To assist teachers in self-evaluation

To break this down farther, assessments help motivate students to learn the content, so the students can self-appraise their progress, so students synthesize all the unit information, and finally to develop class grades.

There are all kinds of questions to include on tests. Depending on the content and the situation, different types will be used over others. They include multiple-choice, short answer, true-false, matching, and essay questions. As a student, I get very frustrated with true-false questions. After reading the chapter from Newcomb, et al., I read that true-false questions are very difficult to write and often test a low cognitive area. As a teacher, I plan to stay away from these types of questions for the most part.

Tips for Grading

• Grade one question at a time
• Grade anonymously
• Use a consistent scoring system- a rubric is great for this!

Example of a concept map

The reading by Stoughton discussed the use of rubrics for consistent grading. Depending on the situation, a generic or task specific rubric may be used. These two types of rubrics are either analytic (details of the performance) or holistic (yes or no about a specific task). 

The reading by Warner discussed the evaluation of labs, which can sometimes be difficult to do. Techniques such as concept maps, Vee maps, or portfolios can be used. 

Finally, using the ASCD website, I read an article titled, "Chapter 1. The Lay of the Land: Essential Elements of the Formative Assessment Process." While I am familiar with summative assessments, I was not as familiar with formative assessments. Unlike summative assessments, formative assessments focus on the learning progress of students toward the end learning goals. This type of assessment is given during a unit to improve learning and achieve. It is is an "assessment FOR learning."