UbDDI+B1+Chapter+5

toc  **Katie Stubbs**

**Abstract** - This chapter focuses around the three different types of assessments and how they can be used in the classroom. It also discusses why it is not logical to only test student’s knowledge over the year based on how well they performed on an end of the year test. Students should be graded on how well they do over the course of the year such as a [|photo album]. The book gives an example of testing students over the course of the class by basing it as if their test was in the form of a photo album versus a snapshot photo. In this analogy, the photo album is the students work throughout the year and how that assess how well the student has done in the class. The snap shot photo gives the idea of an end of the year test and how that would only be one piece of evidence based on how well the student has done throughout an entire year. The six facets are also brought to attention in this chapter because it is the six facets that let the teachers know if the students do have a basic understanding of the material they have been taught. The six facets are explain, interpret, apply, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge which all demonstrate whether or not the student understands the material. The GRASPS frame is also described in this chapter, “as a means of creating more authentic ‘performance of understanding’ ” (70). After every project or assessment, it is important for the teacher to give feedback whether it is good or bad criticism to help the students know what it is they may need to improve on in order for them to truly get a full understanding of the material they were taught.

**Synthesis** – Many of our classmates had their own likes and dislikes throughout this chapter, but many of them focused mainly on the ideas in this chapter that spoke to them. Many of us mentioned the idea of the GRASPS framework and how they would all like to learn more about the idea and how it could benefit them and their students. Our classmates also discussed a lot about the snap shot photos and the photo album analogy and how they felt about the idea of testing students over the material over the course of the year as opposed to over one large assessment at the end of the unit. Many of our classmates agreed that it would only be fair to our students if we were to grade them based upon how well they did over the year. One classmate also discussed how she felt that [|feedback] was a very important factor in grading because students should be able to grow from the feedback we give them whether we give them bad criticism or good. Many of our classmates also mentioned the six facets and how by being given more description of them in this chapter, they now feel they have a full understanding of what they actually are and how they help with knowing if students understand the material they were taught. As a class, we had been taught about the six facets earlier this year, but we did not really understand what they were or how they worked until they were described in this chapter. Overall, our classmates took from this chapter a greater understanding in assessments, GRASPS, the six facets, and how teachers should give feedback to students. toc

Tyler W
Chapter five is about considering evidence of learning in diverse classrooms. The author give three principles of effective assessment. The authors uses a photographic analogy to describe how students should be tested in a variety of ways more than once. The author compares photo albums and snapshots. A photo album acts as a time-line, showing the progression of a student or class over a given amount of time. Whereas a snapshot gives only one example in only one context. A one time event(end of semester test) provides a poor comparison of a classes learning compared to a photo album(multiple assessments given though out the course). Using a copious amount of assessments, such as oral reports, long term projects, research papers, and self-assessments, will more effectively show a students progress.

The second type of assessment is matching the measures with the goals. The author gave three types of goals to aim for: declarative knowledge(what students should know and understand), procedural knowledge(what students should be able to do), and dispositions(what attitudes students should display). Each type of goal can be reached a different way. An example of declarative knowledge would be learning multiplication tables. An effective means of gauging their understanding would be a fill in the blank test or a multiple choice quiz. To look for progress in procedural knowledge, look for ways to test students writing or drawing, like doing a play or writing a story. Dispositions is mostly assessed through observation of students attitudes.

The third principle is form follows function. There are two different forms of assessment, summative and formative. Summative assessments evaluate what has been learned of a period of time. These assessments end up being grades and report cards that symbolized how well a student does or does not understand the material. Formative assessments are on the spot, on going assessments done by the teacher to personally assess the classes understanding. Such as observation, peer response groups, and oral questioning. These forms of teaching each have their own function and coincide nicely.

Jasmine Classroom assessments are the most important part of knowing how a class is performing as a whole. There are multiple types of assessments. Diagnostic (pre assessments), formative (formal and informal ongoing frequent assessments), and summative (final exams). As a teacher, I will certainly incorporate all of the types of assessment in my classroom. I will encourage self-assessment so students can look at what they do in the classroom and know how they are doing. This will benefit them because they can assess themselves during a standardized test as well. It is very important not to focus on snapshot learning. It is more important to take a wider look, through varieties of assessments.

When I teach, I plan on using the GRASPS frame to develop assessment in the classroom. The frame puts everything about assessment into six easily perceived features for determining success and learning. Additionally, I find it equally important to use non-graded diagnostic assessments as part of the learning process, because having an idea of what your students know and understand already allows a teacher to plan and guide instruction for the rest of the lesson, so he or she knows where to start. Students have the right to know and understand exactly what is expected of them and what they are going to be graded on specifically. It is not fair to be blind to the whole situation.

Effective assessments serve not only as indicators of the student understanding but as data sources enabling teachers to shape their practice in ways that maximize the growth of the varied learners they teach.

Abby
This idea of looking at assessments as photo albums rather than snapshots and making sure that we do not judge students on just one facet of the students’ learning or test them in the same manner every time is important. I definitely want to make sure that I give my students opportunities to really show their best work and do not limit them by the types of assessments given.

Also, Taba and Elkins’ quotation that, “teaching in the dark is a questionable practice” (72) really captured my attention. How can we teach students if we do not know them? We need to really connect with our students and work with them. This is one of the reasons that feedback is so important. These lines of communication are crucial to true learning. This ties into the idea of teaching understanding and not just knowledge. Students should not be expected to simply recite things back but to be able to apply them to real world situations, explain, interpret and apply these things as well be able to have empathy toward the subject, see it from different perspectives, and have self-knowledge This self-reflection increases a student’s ownership of a piece of work. It makes sense that the more that someone thinks about a piece of work and the more effort he or she puts into it the more it belongs to them. If a teacher simply assigns a topic and a student does the assignment with little thought it does not really belong to the student but rather to the teacher.

I want to make sure that as a teacher I focus on true understanding over simple knowledge and give students plenty of opportunity to show their best work and succeed. My assessments should not be purely to put grades in the grade book, but rather keep track of how each student is doing and help them grow the best that I can.

Jake
This chapter outlines 3 different assessment principles that the authors feel should be used to guide and inform teachers as they plan for assessment. The first of these three assessment principles is “Consider Photo Albums Versus Snapshots” (60). A snapshot is a quick glimpse into a given moment in time, but does not necessarily grab hold of the entire story. Think of a photo album like a picture book, there are different images to identify with different moments throughout the entirety of the story. Tomlinson and McTighe discuss how proper assessment doesn’t simply grab a quick glimpse of a student with one shallow assessment, but with a variety of assessment that gets pictures of where the student is at on a variety of levels.

The second assessment principle this chapter discusses is to “Match the Measure with the Goal” (64). Tomlinson and McTighe describe 3 different areas in which our assessment must seek to assess learning: declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and dispositions. These three pieces address three different aspects of a students learning and the authors state that all three, should not only be incorporated into our goals, but should be properly assessed as well.

The final assessment principle the authors discuss is “Forms Follow Function” (70). This principle is near identical to Wormeli’s discussion in chapter 3 of his book //Fair Isn’t Always Equal//. Tomlinson and McTighe describe how assessment should be done at the beginning of a unit or lesson, pre-assessment or diagnostic assessment; while the lesson is underway, formative assessment; and at the end of the lesson, summative assessment.

The authors perspectives on assessments where greatly insightful and everything that I have summarized is learned material. I thought it was interesting to see the readings line up in their discussions on what Tomlinson and McTighe call “Forms Follow Function”, the varying perspectives on emphasis are certainly something to consider. Obviously, this reading will influence my classroom in the future as it is currently grafting the foundation of my theory and philosophy as a future educator, though it will take more tangible field experience for me to say with certainty the exact role it will play in the future.

Ally
This chapter was about assessment; it was broken up into three different parts. The first part was considering photo albums instead of snapshots; the second was match the measures with goals and the final are for follows function. I learned how to properly assess my future students. I think one of the most important parts of the assessments is the first part because that allows for creativity instead of just giving out a test. “Reliable assessment demands multiple sources of evidence” which means that you have to have multiple ways of assessing whether students actually understand it or not. I think teachers assume once a couple of their students know the material the whole class should know which isn’t always necessarily the case because some kids might not want to admit they don’t know the material. It is important that they all know but it is also important to make sure you aren’t accommodating for the students who have slacked off in class because it is their fault they are behind. The second principle works for teachers because observing your students not only tells you whether the student knows the material but also what kind of learner they are. By observing, you gain so much information about your students that will help you in the classroom. I will benefit as a teacher from this because it helps me assess my students fairly. This will affect my students because it will actually let them learn the material in a way they can understand. In the pass I have had teachers just strictly handing out test and wouldn’t even let students write or have projects because they didn’t feel that that would be sufficient enough. I think it allows students to show their strengths and show how the know material because memorizing facts isn’t beneficial to students’ learning.

Jenn
In this chapter, Stage 2 is discussed, which is mainly about assessment. In order to understand how to assess students, it's necessary to determine the desired results. There are three principles that help formulate assessment. They include creating a portfolio of assessments to get a well-rounded source of information, matching the appropriate assessment with the correct educational goal, and making sure that the purpose of the assessment is clear.

This chapter was very informative of the many different types of assessments, and the appropriate ways to use them in the classroom. There were several things that I really hadn’t considered before and will, most likely, want to use in my classroom. I like the idea of using a multitude of assessments so that you get a better understanding of the student, and they get more opportunities to show if they know the material, makes a lot of sense. After learning previously what the facets of understanding were, they made much more sense this chapter because there was a clearer definition of the variety of ways the word understand could be interpreted. Taking that into consideration, the facets of understanding are now more available for me to use easily because I understand how they provide clarity to assessments. Along with a better understanding of what understanding is came the GRASPS frame. I thoroughly believe in using assessments, or just classroom time in general, to relate to the world outside of school. I feel like the GRASPS model helps teachers do this, and I’m eager to learn more about how I can use it. I feel like this whole chapter was extremely beneficial in beginning to understand how to make worthwhile assessments for any classroom.

**Katie**
In chapter 5 of the UbD DI book, the author discusses the idea that the students should be tested not solely on how well they do on one test, but how they do throughout the whole year of school. The author also brings about the fact that students must be able to show an understanding of the material that was covered in their class in order for them to be able to pass the class. Before the teacher gets started on the material they want to teach, it is said that the teacher must assess the students beforehand so that they can see where the students are in their learning. These few ideas of the chapter made me wonder about how I would assess my students in the classroom. I would want to right off the bat give my students a worksheet that would help me to figure out where they are when it comes to reading, writing, and comprehension. I’d want to know if they felt comfortable with the unit I was going to teach them because I’d like my students to be confident in their homework as well as their class work. I know that I would not test my students solely on one essay or one important paper because I understand that they should be graded on the work that they do throughout the year, not just what they do in one project. I may decide to close up a unit with one large project whether it be a paper, essay, presentation, or anything else that will be able to cover all of the material that they had learned throughout our time together in the classroom.

Roger
The fifth chapter of UbD/DI deals with interpreting evidence provided by all forms of assessment. The authors explain at length different steps that can be taken to make the best use of assessment. One of these steps is to use multiple assessments instead of one assessment once and a while. Multiple assessments will show a trending pattern in how a student is learning, and it will also weed out temporary biases like sickness or lack of sleep on assessment day. The authors also provide six facets to determine if someone does actually understand. If a person can explain, interpret, apply, show perspective and empathy, and demonstrate self-knowledge, they probably understand the material that was assessed. It is logically a critical point that students understand the material presented to them, and the six facets provide a solid form of assessment in that regard. These forms of assessment can be applied to every classroom lesson. Something as simple as the six facets can be integrated into a quiz, and thus an adequate assessment of understanding. These assessments double to show which students are having a hard time, and it helps to figure out what types of lessons work better than others. This is where the idea of multiple assessments comes into play – each assessment can also analyze the different effects of different teaching methods. After a few weeks, there will be enough data to adjust teaching styles to accommodate the students. This will also reveal any students who may need additional attention, since reaching out through differentiated instruction on the class basis did not do them much good.

Lizz
This chapter was broken up into three parts that all had to do with assessment. Assessment one was, consider photo albums instead of snapshots the second assessment was match the measure with the goals and the third assessment was form follows function. One part in the book that I found very interesting and helpful was under the section provide feedback early and often. It says that there are four qualities that characterize an effective feedback system which are 1) be timely, 2) be specific, 3) be understandable to the receiver, and 4) allow for adjustment. I think feedback is the most important aspect in teaching because students need feedback to do better and actually learn the material. The Author says, “Pinning a letter (B-) or a number (82%) on a student’s work is no more helpful than comments such as way to go or try harder “(78). I agree with this because I know I wanted feedback on my papers and most of the time I would only get a smiley face or a good job on them. The feedback would have helped my writing get stronger and I think I would have more prepared for college writing than I was. I will benefit as a teacher from giving feedback to my students because if I give them feedback I think they will be more likely to give me feedback when needed. Feedback is important for the student s to learn the material sufficiently and it is a teacher’s job to give that feedback.

Brittany
This chapter made a great point, teachers should look at student progress over time and not in "snap shots". Through assessing over time teachers can see the progress as it happens, and notice when students have bad days and good days. This chapter gave examples of good and bad assessment. Assessments such as tests should only be used to test for recognition of things such as element symbols on the Periodic Table of Elements and content like that. Otherwise teachers should use a system that allows them to look at a student's progress from the beginning of the year to the end. The chapter explains the GRASPS model, which gives a good sense to what needs to be in place to accurately assess a student's understanding and progress. After reading this chapter I think I will not only consciously but conscientiously incorporate the GRASPS model into future assessments. This chapter also goes into detail about making sure the measurements match the goals of what you want students to know. By allowing students to work at their own level of understanding it is best to connect the content to a real life example in which there are still the standards and measurements you want to see, but students are able to produce a product that will allow you to see their understanding. Overall I found this chapter to be really informative in the fact that it provided examples in the subject of health. I feel as though those ideas can be modified to fit any subject and it will be an idea that sticks in the back of my mind personally.

Alex
After reading this chapter as well as just returning from my first real experience in the field I learned that assessment is an important aspect of the classroom and that is what this chapter is all about. The first priority of assessment is being able to come up with effective and engaging lessons and ways for the kids to prove to me that they are learning. This chapter has many great visual ways of displaying the assessment goals that you would need to give effective assessment, and this is important to someone who struggles with visual learning, so having something like this allows some one like me to have a ground zero with something to build on. As well as material given to me by my mentor teacher. The next important this about this chapter is being able to effective grade and give feedback to the kids after the learn from the material and prove it to you in the effective ways that you distributed to them. This chapter taught me that you need to not only give effective assessments but to also be able to learn from you mistakes and to take feedback from the kids. Especially at the high school level kids are smart they have seen work before asking them what they think allows you an inside opinion on how to better diversify you assessments or to just make them all around better. This chapter proves yet again that they students have a crucial and important opinion in what they are learning.

Dan
As a secondary education major, I have always thought of becoming and teacher and teaching my selected area of content. But I never considered how to assess my students to see if they retained what they learned. This chapter has given me valuable insight on how to properly assess students thoroughly. It is important that a formal pre-assessment is given to students before actual ones are given, because we need to see the prior knowledge of our students. We must assess students with multiple sources of evidence and test, because a single test gives a very myopic outlook of a student. With several assessments of different dimensions, a collection of works that shows the learning of a student overtime is created. It is also very important that the assessment matches the desire, especially in a differentiated classroom, and an offering of choices is also needed. This relates back to the MI theory, reinforcing the statement that all students learn differently. A strategy to compensate their needs is the tic-tac-toe method: giving students many options but keeping the structure of the goal intact. The six facets of understanding are very helpful when determining if a student truly understands what he/she has learned. When I teach in my classroom, I will make sure that my students can demonstrate each facet in my assessments, utilizing each one appropriately while making sure the assessment is not inauthentic. In order to secure it isn’t, I will also follow the GRASPS frame whenever I see necessary. It is also very important to have purpose in each assessment, whether it is to see what students know before, during, and after a class. It is important not to neglect diagnostic and formative assessments, because it gives the teacher feedback on their learning. Ongoing assessment is important.

Caleb
Assessments are a crucial part of the education program. They allow teachers to see how the students understand the material. Now for quite sometime teachers have been use to giving test or quizzes in order to do find that information out. However, these exercises were merely testing a student’s knowledge and comprehension. Some would say that these two aspects are all one needs to test understanding, but thanks to Wiggins and McTighe we understand that there are six levels of learning, actually they are called the six facets of understanding. These six facets say that a student should be able to explain, interpret, apply, compare, feel, and reflect on the information given. Thanks to these facets we must figure out a way to assess them in order to see how students can fully understand the material given. First off, a teacher must look at how a student learns across a broad spectrum of topics. Since we have different learners we must develop different ways to grade them. Secondly, as a teacher we have to make sure that whatever we are teacher goes with the assessments we are making. The GRASPS model is handy to show how students use what they learn and extrapolate a project on it that covers all the areas of understanding. Thirdly, constant feedback has to be a big part of how a student learns. The teacher needs to constantly be checking on them to see if what is being taught When my feet are running the teaching course of life, I feel like I’m going to be excited to start making assessments that revolve around these facets. After reading this chapter I was a bit perplexed because an assessment for me was considered a test or an exam. If there was a self-reflection aspect to the lessons my teacher gave me I believe that a level of stress would go down and more learning would occur. When I am running a classroom giving constant feedback, I hope math will become engaging so those facets will be answered. Trying to find more then a percentage is what I long for.