Notes from TechEd 2008: iRubric Published 2008-04-16 under assessment, conferences, project+based+learning

"iRubric - Click, Click, Done!" presented by Ramesh Sabetiashraf of Santa Ana College (and rCampus)

iRubric is a free online tool for creating grading rubrics. This powerful tool is very flexible and has a fairly easy to learn interface. It also has an tool for creating a class and roster. Then you can assess and record student work. Students can login and see the results of the assessment. You can even allow them to resubmit their work based on your comments and then you can re-grade the assignment. Currently, each re-grading overwrites the previous grade, but in the future, the application will keep track of all past versions (grades) of an assignment.

Other features include the ability to export grades and produce aggregate reports. But the feature that makes us rethink what we do is collaborative assessment. In this scenario, you can create a rubric and then have your students grade work that you have either created or acquired. This work could be a poem written by Poe, a lab writeup done by a past student (name removed of course), or a web-app that teaches a specific US History topic. By having students assess (using a rubric), they really get to know the concepts.

This really is a great application and it is FREE!

Tech Tags: teched2008 rubric assessment iRubric rCampus

Notes from TechEd 2008: ePortfolios Published 4/16/2008 09:34:00 AM under assessment, conferences

Live Blogging from "Web 2.0 Tools for Classroom-Based Assessment and Interactive Student ePortfolios" presented by Dr. Helen Barrett

The goal is to provide a richer picture of students' learning. ePortfolios offer an solution.

Two levels of ePortfolio:

1. Working Portfolio (portfolio as process) - evolving over time
2. Presentation Portfolio (portfolio as product) - snapshot of work at a specific time

Multiple purposes of ePortfolios: these are not mutually exclusive

1. Learning/Process/Planning
2. Marketing/Showcase
3. Assessment/Accountability

Looking at ePortfolio for ASSESSMENT

What we know...
Summative (assessment OF learning)
Formative (assessment FOR learning)
Assessment for Learning diagram

So the question: How can we make ePortfolio development (use) a natural process integrate into everyday life? Lifelong and Life Wide learning

It needs to easy to use but sophisticated enough to allow individual customization so students can see their ePortfolios as an extension of themselves (see mySpace, Facebook). The best ePortfolio toolset is a "mashup" where students store artifacts in a variety of places (e.g. blogs, wiki, bookmarks, images, podcast) and link to each from a central location (URL). The trick is to create a wrapping application that will facilitate grouping, searching, and assessing ePortfolios.

What happens when a learner leaves or graduates? Their ePortfolio should go with them. If the tools are open, the learner has control of their artifacts and they take their artifacts (ePortfolio) with them.

Summary: ePortfolios are powerful concept and can be used to address a variety of goals and implemented using a variety of tools. Higher education is leading the path in use of ePortfolios which may affect what ePortfolios will look like in the K12 space. There are issues specific to each education level and even to individual schools. The key is to stay with flexible solutions.

Tech Tags: teched2008 eportfolio assessment Helen+Barrett

Defining Success Published 2008-03-14 under assessment, creativity, curious, project+based+learning

After finding a nice place to gather the kids, teacher Monica explains that today's art project will be to create a cow from coffee filters, yarn, and surrounding grass. She holds up an example, passes out the supplies and gives each child a cup to collect their grass.

The kids get to work and with the direction of their parents, some good looking cows emerge. Ruby, on the other hand, pours mounds of glue, slaps a filter down and pours more glue. Her father looks on observantly but offers no guidance. The result is very much unlike the initial example, receiving comments like "it's certainly abstract."

Reflecting on this class, I realized just how much we as teachers, parents, and adults define success for our children instead of letting them define their own success. For Ruby, success was pouring the glue and sticking different types of materials together. Success was defined in the process, not in the end product. I will admit that I wanted her to make a cool looking cow and it was difficult to restrain myself from making casual comments like "shouldn't the head be attached to the body?" But, this was not about me. This was not about teacher Monica. It was about Ruby. And we adults needed to get over our personal definitions of success and let the kids explore, learn, and define their own goals.

Later, Ruby and I were throwing a ball to each other. I found myself saying "good throw" when the ball came to me and "good try" when it didn't. It never occurred to me that for her, success might have been seeing how far the ball would roll after throwing it. In this scenario, throwing it to me would be a failure as the ball would not go as far.

In the classroom, we define all student success. Everything is held to a standard set by us (or perhaps the state). Are there opportunities for students to define their own success? What would an assignment look like that provided for student defined success? Could students handle such an assignment? What would they define as a success - would it be so simple as to not provide for any learning or so complex as to be impossible to obtain?

This idea of empowering students has great appeal to me but the pragmatist side of me recognizes the challenges. What are your thoughts?

By the way, I love Ruby's cow.

Tech Tags: assessment, success, creativity, child+development

Process as a Best Practice Published 2007-08-28 under assessment, projects

Years ago, I was involved in a project that included the compilation of "best practices" by high school U.S. History teachers. The intention was for each teacher to "publish" the best practice and then have other teachers offer comments. Teachers in this project were asked to review other best practices and write (as a comment) how they might adapt the practice to their classroom and the potentially unique needs of their students.

I was involved in the project as a consultant and focused my attention on the information architecture of the best practices and their associated comments. I could not see beyond the capturing, organizing and disseminating of this content. This was before the proliferation of blogging tools and content management systems that would make this task trivial. Regardless whether it was the technical complexities that blinded me, I did a disservice to the project by focusing on the end product.

In hindsight, this project was not about creating an inventory of best practices, but the process of describing your own best practice(s) and reflecting on how to adapt others' practices to meet your needs. The true value of the exercise comes from identifying a practice that you consider good enough to be called a best practice. It requires you to reflect on what you do, what constitutes a best practice and how to best articulate what you do to form a best practice that others can adapt. It also requires you to evaluate a practice that has been labeled as best in relation to how you teach and your classroom needs.

In summary, I got caught up in the "deliverable" and did not see the importance of the process. As teachers, we often fall victim to the lure of the final product. In some cases, it is easier to evaluate the final product than it is to evaluate (or even monitor) the process. If you have ever given a multiple-choice test, you know that grading is a breeze where as gaining insight into how the students obtained their answers is next to impossible.

In other cases, the excitement of seeing the final product overshadows the process that was involved in creating it. I remember a group of students who gave an outstanding presentation on their roller coaster they created for our AP Calculus class. I was so impressed with the presentation and their multi-media materials, that I was blinded to the fact that the group took shortcuts in putting together the project and there was a clear lack of equity in individual contribution resulting in some students getting very little from the project.

I mention all of this as it exposes some thoughts I have for educators.

• Value the process as much as the result
• Identify ways that expose the process
• Get your students to realize the importance of the process

Education Reform "Success" Published 8/28/2007 09:09:00 AM under assessment, culture

I am a big fan of the Charlie Rose Show. Perhaps I have been naive in the past, but I have always felt that Mr. Rose had the ability to ask the important questions. But my bubble was broken after watching his interview with Joel Klein, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. The piece was essentially a big slap on the Chancellor's back celebrating his "successes". Throughout the interview, I was waiting for Charlie to ask the big question: "How do you measure success?"

At one point Klein touts the 10% increase in students graduating and the increase in math and language scores. These are laudable stats, but I wanted Charlie to press him on these metrics as a measure of success. If I am to understand the Chancellor, he is interested in those teachers that can successfully teach to the test (improve test scores) and ensure that their kids pass so they can graduate. Never does he list as his targeted outcome the ability of these kids to think for themselves, formulate innovative solutions to problems, communicate ideas with others, work in an collaborative environment, or have a life-long interest in learning. I realize that I am an idealist but shouldn't NYC teachers be given credit if they form these skills and values in their kids?

Now while I did find myself yelling at the TV (to no avail, I might add), I did enjoy listening to much of Mr. Klein's message. He stresses the teacher as the critical component in a child's education. To this end, I congratulate him. I am in favor of his outcome based pay and the notion that salaries should be based on ability. But the problem returns to how do you measure these outcomes and a teacher's ability? Graduation rates and test scores are easy outcomes to tabulate and on which to perform analysis. The more complex metric would involve measuring a host of less quantifiable outcomes.

Isn't this the problem that we as teachers face everyday? Aren't we constantly challenged to find assessment models that value not just memorization, but truly understanding concepts?

Another point Mr. Klein made that is worth noting was his characteristics that make a good teacher. He listed a teacher's ability to engage, capacity to empathize, and knowledge in his/her subject as the three essential components to successful teacher. I really like this list and would suggest that a teacher's interest in professional improvement is an even better indicator that pure knowledge of subject. A thirst for learning and excitement of subject translates better into success in the classroom than does expert knowledge and boredom with the mundane aspects of a subject.

I would really like to hear your reactions to the Joel Klein interview. What are your thoughts on "merit" pay or salary commensurate on a teacher's ability? How do you measure success?

Joel Klein
Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
on Charlie Rose - 22-Aug-2007

Link

Rethinking Assessment Published 2007-08-23 under assessment, collaboration

As a blog reader, you don't need to be told that some of the best information comes from the discussions (comments) that follow a blog post. I read with interest Anne Davis' post on her new blogging project. But it was a particular comment (by Dean Shareski) that really caught my eye. It describe how a science class adapted a Darren Kuropatwa type class blog (link to blog). The comment also provided a link to a video where students discuss how this alternative form of assessment has impressed them.

The video frames the conversation about "Assessment for Learning" with comments by students on how they were affected by this form of assessment. Coincidently (or not), the video's focus on students and their opinions mirrors objectives embraced by "Assessment for Learning" models. Students reflect on their next steps to be successful and gather evidence to show their learning. The role of the teacher is to provide clear expected outcomes and offer ideas on how students can demonstrate their success.

High stakes summative assessment (assessment of learning) is getting a great deal of attention in schools (and the press). We are consumed with the need to enable our students to be successful on these (standardized) exams. As an AP teacher, I spent all of April reviewing past tests, drilling my students on a daily basis. This practice had positive results and I would not argue that we don't owe our students the tools to do well on these tests.

My argument is that we need to form a balance between assessment of learning and assessment for learning giving more emphasis (time) to the latter. A friend of mine's sister is charged with "coaching" students who fall below a certain grade. Certainly, this program is a positive step toward the true nature of "no child left behind". But the school tabulates summative assessment scores on a weekly basis begging the question "with all of this assessment of learning, where is the time for assessment for learning?"

As we progress as educators, rethinking assessment will be of paramount importance with traditional models being replaced by models that put the student in charge of demonstrating or providing evidence of his/her learning. Certainly, ePortfolios will play a important role in assessment.

As a side note, does anyone know the difference between Assessment for Learning and formative learning?

Resources

• 10 Principles: Assessment for Learning
• Description and resources for AfL
• Article describing importance of Assessment FOR Learning (pdf)

Tech Tags: assessment alternative+assessment assessment+for+learning