FIAE+B1+Chapter+4



Portfolios are a way of capturing a students progress over time in one place. They allow the teacher to take grades from a "right or wrong" to a new level and grade based not only on knowledge but also on improvement. Portfolios also allow several teachers to see the development of a student over time, rather than the teacher having to guess or ask about what level students are coming from. Teachers can also compare several students work in the class to see what the class's readiness is for the new material. Student portfolios can range from simple to complex, and can also have a range of grade levels or be for a sole grade level. These portfolios allow the student to show examples of the ways in which they have met standards and objectives throughout their schooling. It is important to note that portfolios are a great way to differentiate in the classroom because they allow the teacher to see the progress for individual students who may be working on different assignments based on their readiness level. Rubrics are a way of assessing students and being able to determine specific factors you will be observing and the severity of the students completion and understanding of those factors.There are two forms of rubrics, holistic which provide more broad feedback and can be used to grade a product as a whole, and analytic which provide specific feedback. The chapter suggest to take content, clarity, practicality and technical quality/fairness into consideration when creating your rubrics. The chapter gives a great walk through of seven steps to create effective rubrics. Finally the chapter discusses self-assessment for students. Self-assessment allows for students and teachers to create individual goals and allows for self reflection. The chapter provides several examples of different forms of self-assessment such as self-checking rubrics and checklists. Journals and learning logs are a form of self-assessment that allow the teacher and student to see the changes overtime, and can double as portfolios.
 * Brittany Sawyer**
 * Abstract**: Chapter 4 of Fair Isn't Always Equal discusses three different categories of assessment. Portfolios, Rubrics and Self-Assessment.


 * Synthesis**: Overall the class felt as though the most effective forms of assessment are portfolios and self-assessment. When it came down to it a good amount of people felt that having the "photo album" of a students work over time rather than single "snap shots." The idea of combining the portfolios with self-assessment seemed to be a prevalent idea as well among the class. Why have a portfolio if the student can not go back and review their strengths and weaknesses on their own or with the teacher? A few people noted that some of the ideas for self-assessment were new to them, and that they were interested in learning more about them, such as the interactive notebooks. Everyone agreed that each of these assessment types would be useful, and most everyone agreed they would be using them in the future in their classrooms. Rubrics seemed to be the odd man out in the responses, everyone likes them and thinks they are useful, but not everyone thinks they are the best form of assessment because they are usually based on a single product or presentation. The benefit that was found by some people was that rubrics lay every expectation out and give a number/grade based on how complete the student was in a particular section. It seems like the reason the class likes this is because, if created correctly and if they are detailed, rubrics can leave little to no room for confusion as to why or what is missing. The class wholeheartedly agreed that each of these assessment types is of great value if used correctly. As long as the product they are being assessed on is something they had fun creating and learned from then each of these types of assessments will not be to difficult to use and keep track of.

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Jenn
In this fourth chapter of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// three broad categories of assessment are discussed; portfolios, rubrics and self-assessments for the students. I don’t think that there was anything in this chapter that I didn’t agree with because I can easily see how any teacher, but especially I, would use these assessments in their classroom.

I think that portfolios are one of my favorite things to do, especially with English content, because I think with any lesson there is a lot of work involved into reaching the essential understanding. These pieces of work are extremely useful to look back upon when you continue through a unit, and therefore, portfolios seem extremely beneficial to the student and the teacher.

Rubrics seem to be fairly basic to me, but obviously extremely helpful. The only thing I really liked that this chapter mentioned about them was asking the designer questions on whether or not they need adjustments. Realizing that a rubric is either too hard or too soft makes all the difference and I think these questions should be emphasized more.

Finally, self-assessments were also something I felt like I knew pretty well, but when the author mentioned interactive notebooks I was completely blown away. I had never heard this idea, and this it’s probably one of the most useful forms of self-assessment. In this way, the students are able to explain personal insights into their work, and teachers are able to go through those, comment back, and help the student understand any similarities or differences between their ideas. Overall this chapter was really helpful in giving insight into things I thought I understood well, just by giving specific examples.

Abby
This chapter addressed three important types of assessments: Portfolios, Rubrics, and Self-Assessments. Portfolios are a good way to get a broad view of student learning. It helps track progress over time. There are two different types of rubrics. The holistic ones have all expectations weighted equally whereas the analytic ones focus more heavily on certain criteria and allow for more specific feedback. Teachers need to make sure that they are clear and concise however because bad rubrics simply cause frustration. Self-assessments are when you have the students evaluate their own work and reflect on their own growth as a student.

I really like the idea of using portfolios. I feel that they are the best form of assessment in that they give the teacher very specific examples of student growth overtime. It allows students to engage in and help with their own evaluation by picking the pieces that they want to include as part of their learning portfolio. I plan on having each student keep a portfolio of his or her work for my class and reflect on it often. It also helps students look at their accomplishments as well as areas that they need to work on. I do not like the idea of using rubrics at least when it comes to actually handing them out to the student. I think that the example of giving the students the requirements for a top score and then writing the others down for you alone to see is a good idea. Overall, I feel that rubrics are confusing and repetitive and that they are not a good form of assessment. Self-reflection is crucial for student growth and that it helps them recognize what areas need work and on which ones they succeeded. It also helps me to figure out how they look at the assignment in general. I think that these reflections tie in well with the portfolio and I will definitely use them in conjunction.

Ally
Chapter four described three major important types of assessment, they discussed portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment. These all can help students succeed in different ways however they all have to be carefully made in order to fit student needs. For instance, rubrics, they seem very simple when you are a student because it is just the break down of the grading system. This isn’t necessarily the case because teachers need to think about how they categorize what is “average” and what is “above average.” The book breaks down some steps for building a rubric like beginning with objective questions and the goals for the project but it is very trial and error for the teacher and the students. Another project discussed was portfolio, which really helps students show their creativity. This project allows them to submit pieces of work that they consider important enough to create a major binder full of their work whether it is in a unit or the entire year. This portfolio works however you still would need a rubric to grade it and it takes a long time to develop. I would personally use portfolios as a final for a class because it shows the growth of the student over the year. Self-Assessment allows for the students to really assess themselves and see the changes they have made this can be used in multiple forms like a checklist or a journal. I think these ideas will affect me as a teacher because they are different ways I can assess my students instead of giving them just a test. This would be more beneficial to the students and allow for creativity. I think this will affect my classroom because it will allow the students to show their work and how they improved over the course of the year and then be able to reflect on it.

Tyler
The author talks about three types of student assessments: portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessments. Portfolios are very effective, as they are a collection of a student's work over the course of a the class. This allows teachers to constantly see a student's strong and weak points. With the help of these portfolios, teachers can quickly and effectively find where a student is struggling and get him back on track.

Rubrics are explained in greater detail than the rest. A rubric is meant to give the students a guideline for completing an assignment. A rubric has to assess the important material, be clear to the students, practical, and fair. An effective rubric follows all of the fore-mentioned terms. According to the author, there are seven steps to designing a rubric. The first step identify what content and skills students should be able to demonstrate. Second is to clarify what is and is not acceptable evidence. The third step is to create a completed project that would receive full marks. Step four would be to decide if the rubric is to be holistic or analytic. Holistic rubrics make for quick grading for a large amount of projects, where as analytic offers more detailed grading. Deciding the level of grading is the fifth step. Using a scale of three, four, or six is best. Afterwords, step six is to write specific descriptors for each level. Finally, the seventh step is to test the rubric with past student assignments.

Student self-assessments are also effective because students tend to be their own worst critiques. Common self-assessment tactics include journal entries, checklists, reviewing and critiquing their own past work, and surveys. This allows students to reflect on their own learning and the teacher's teachings.

Jasmine Assessment is one of the biggest components of teaching. As a teacher, I need to be aware of how to properly assess students. The best way to be successful is to use a variety of methods of assessment. That is what this chapter aimed at discussing. The different varieties re portfolios, rubrics, and student self assessment. Portfolios are very useful to keep track of progress over a long period of time. These can include documents as well as notes about the students progress. Rubrics are something I will definitely use in my classroom because it is important for a student to understand what is expected of them in order to get a specific grade. It is important to be careful though, to make sure that the student is guaranteed to be successful in mastering the topic if they follow the directions. Student self assessment gives students an opportunity to say how they feel, what could be different, and how they feel they are doing in the class as far as progress.

As teachers, it is really important to know how students best learn and how it is most appropriate to assess them. A student does not deserve to fail if they have a great understanding of the material and is very active in class but doesn’t do the homework because of home situations. It can become a very sticky situation for a teacher to deal with, but a great start is to utilize different methods of assessment.

Jake
This chapter discussed three different types of assessments that can be used within the classroom. The first two are remarkably common. The first one addressed is Portfolios, which, as many of us now, are a compilation of work over a period of time often coupled with a series of reflective assignments. In all honesty I have personally never been a big fan of Portfolio assessments; they always come off a bit cheesy, and with the justification it always seems to be a very forced answer that is not necessarily genuine. However, I will not negate their benefit.

The next assessment type discussed is rubrics. Wormeli goes on to say that there are two types of rubrics; there are holistic and analytical rubrics. A holistic rubric is very broad, whereas an analytical rubric is very detailed and concise. Wormeli discusses how an analytical rubric allows more for teacher opinion and is not easily translated from teacher to teacher. However, he also discusses how a holistic rubric does not provide as much feedback to students. Personally, I expect that I will incorporate a bit more of the analytical rubric into my classroom. I think that it’s specificity allows for a clearer set of expectations and though there is a bit more gray area, it will be easier to define exactly what I expect from the tasks.

The final piece of assessment discussed is student self-assessment. This is easily my favorite, though I do strongly believe it would need to be done in conjunction with one of the other two pieces. Student self-assessments can often take a variety of different forms, however the principal is simple, the students assess themselves. I think this provides the most room for reflection and gives the students a bit more ownership of their work. I intend to incorporate many student self-assessments into my classroom, and one piece that I had never considered was the idea of an interactive notebook. This idea is of students logging their progress along the way is fantastic and I intend to use it.

Dan
This chapter describes in great detail three important assessments that could be used and should be. Rubrics were used extensively in my high school, and I believed they were very effective when assessing our abilities. All the guidelines are outlined within the rubric, and it tells students what we are assessing. As long as a student can understand what is being asked of them, can understand the directions, and see the academic fairness, then a successful rubric is made. I always wanted to use rubrics when I became a teacher, but I never knew if I would be able to make an effective one. This section provides an outline on how to create your own, so if I ever need guidance, I will refer to this chapter. Having students create a portfolio is also another great way to assess students. Teachers can gather how a student has grown over the year with all their collected work, and students can reflect on themselves and see how they have grown as well. My goal is to have my students keep portfolios and keep all their written works inside, so I can see how they have grown as a writer over the course. In my opinion, the most important assessment to students is self-assessment. If students keep a journey handy and are made to write what they have learned, what surprised them, what they learned, and so on, they can see for themselves how they have grown. The only concern about this is that students will see this as busy work and not take it seriously but rather just write down ridiculous nonsense.

Katie
In chapter 4 of the book Fair Isn’t Always Equal, Wormeli discusses the use of portfolios, rubrics, and self assessments and how they can be created and how they help both the teacher as well as the students. Portfolios are helpful for when the grading period comes around and parents can look through them and see what their child has done so far thus semester. Portfolios let students show their work throughout the school year and are graded for all of their accomplishments. Rubrics are used so that students know what they are being graded on and how they are being graded. Rubrics must include feedback so that in the future students will know what they should do to help them improve. Self assessments are also discussed in this chapter as they are important for teachers and students in order for them to understand what it is they need to work on individually to help them to learn.

When I am a teacher I will use all of these ideas in my classroom to help assess my students work in multiple different ways. I would want to use portfolios in my upper classes because I feel that students should understand how a portfolio is created nearer to the college level since portfolios are used often in college. I would use rubrics as well as self assessments in any grade level because I think that every student should be able to use and read a rubric to their advantage and that every student should also be able to self assess themselves.

Lizz
As a future teacher I have to be aware, that assessment is one of if not the biggest components of teaching. Chapter 4 discusses three very important types of assessment, which are portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. Portfolios can keep track of grades for students and teachers can collect and examine work over time. Students like portfolios because it gives them the opportunities to pick what they want in them and it gives them a chance to reflect on their own work. Lastly, portfolios allow students to take charge of their own learning, which untimely gives them more freedom and shows them more respect. When it comes to rubrics, they are very popular type of assessment and I will definitely use many rubrics in my classroom. Rubrics can be tricky to do because you want your students to succeed and one thing wrong with the rubric could lead to the students not mastering the material. In my classroom when it comes to rubrics I want to make sure that they touch on all eight multiple intelligences to so that no student feels they just cannot complete the task. The last type of assessment is student self-assessment is provides feedback to help the students and teachers set goals. Chapter 4 says that journals and logs are other great media for students to self-asses. When I was in high school every English class we had a prompt on the board which we had to reflect on and it I think it made me think way more than I ever would’ve have if we just talked out loud. I got to keep all my thoughts on paper and then at the end of the year my teacher had used those responses on a bigger assignment. As a future teacher, I really would like to incorporate all of these assessments into my classroom and I will try my hardest and hope I don’ fail.

Roger
In the fourth chapter of FIAE, Wormeli discusses the different types of assessment. He goes into depth in three major categories; portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment. These three types of assessment provides students with the ability to review their work, have clear standards, and determine for themselves what they need to do to correct mistakes. Portfolios are an excellent way for students to be able to review their work. As opposed to a self-assessment, which is a simple reflection on the work, students can look at their portfolio and actually //see// their work. This is very important, especially if the teacher wishes to do a review at the end of the semester. If a student maintains a portfolio, they can look at every test and quiz, and study those for a final exam. Students can also review work from one class and apply it to another. Rubrics are a very effective way of making standards clear. They clearly show what is expected, and let the student know what work will receive what grade. This gives students a clear idea of what their assignment needs to do or function as. Self-assessments, while not on the same level as portfolios, are still a great tool for students to review their work. Self-assessments tend to be closer to when the project was completed, and will actually be a very helpful component in a portfolio. Students will be able to look at their work //and// see what they thought of it after presentation.

Brittany
This chapter discussed portfolios, rubrics and self-assessments. Portfolios are explained as a great way to keep track of students work and look at their growth and development over time. This is my personal favorite way to look at student progress because you are able to keep a well organized collection of student work. This collection not only shows academic development but also personal development and changes in the student's interests. They also allow a student to look back and see what worked for them, and what didn't work for them. When it comes to rubrics I feel as though they are helpful to show students what is expected of them, but not really helpful in any other way. While they allow for feedback, I don't think they help students in their progression to the next level. Self-assessment is very important to me. I think that having student reflect on their work puts them in a position where they are able to look at what they think is not working for them and to elaborate on why they think that way. It gives students the opportunity to truly be "hard" on themselves and for teachers to reflect with students as well and either justify or object to the students thoughts. This also presents an opportunity for students and teachers to connect on a new level and let the teacher bring the student realize when they are being to "hard" on themselves.

Alex Slack
FIAE Chapter 4: Three Important Parts of Assessment: This chapter comes right and tells you that there are three crucial parts of assessment at are in a step method. There is first Portfolios which from my understanding is essentially establishing grades for the students and getting them to achieve those grades this is good is distributed in a good manner but I don’t know if I agree with the method because I feel as if it focuses a little too much on grades. The Second step is Rubrics and in this step it allows the student to see what is required and then manipulate what is taught to them and they present there knowledge in different ways. I agree with this one more than the portfolios but I still feel as if it is focuses a little too much on grades and grades should not be the focus of school that drives me nuts! Grades are inferior to learning. The third step is self assessment this is the most important and crucial issue and is also very effective I feel as if the students self assess they learn to fix their errors and also get a concept of what they need to do and work on. I learned from these sections that self assessment is a good tool for students to use in a classroom, and just reassured how stupid grades are.

Caleb
We have labeled what sort of assessments teachers have to do in their classrooms to check how their students understand the work. Now, let us break down these terms into concrete examples. For instance a portfolio may be used to accurately measure how the students perform. A portfolio will allow the students to see what they’ve done in the past and also a teacher will be able to examine a student’s work over time. This assessment is flexible but a teacher has to make a decision if the student really understands the material being presented. Another assignment to be used is a rubric. A rubric that clearly states goals that a teacher wants accomplished and hopefully these goals will be met through the students understanding. A teacher has to be careful when it come to a rubric to make sure that they don’t place numbers on this rubric. Students tend to shoot for the mediocre scores when they have the ability to go for a full understanding. Finally, a student’s self-assessment is another way to judge understanding. This can be done via survey or interview. It just allows a student to give their input on their project and a conversation occurs that will bring out the best in both parties. Student assessments are grand, I love the idea of being able to sit down with a student and talk about what he thought worked and didn’t. From there I can determine if he or she knows what they are talking about. As a teacher I have to make sure I keep up my balancing act so I don’t incite students to aspire to slightly known the material. I want them to master it. Which is what theses assessment are getting it. Convincing my students that they can master any topic they just need to show me in their own way.