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Chapter 4 went into a basic description of three forms to assess students rubrics, self-assessment, and portfolios. Rubrics are lengthy processes that are created and should be examined by teachers for content, clarity, practicality, and technical quality. These are used as powerful assessment tools. Self-assessments are important in the class to help students better understand as well as give them feedback they may need. The book described many different ways to do self-assessments such as self-checking lists and rubrics, [|videotaping performances], fill in the blank responses, [|interactive notebooks], etc. Wormeli discussed [|portfolios] and how they could be as simple as a folder of collected work to as complex as multi-year selected and analyzed work pieced together to represent a student’s life. Portfolios often act as showcases for ones information. This chapter was a good way to determine the best tools to use for assessing students that you felt would fit best in your classroom. All of us are going to have different classrooms and have different ideas about how to run our classrooms; however, we also shared many similar views to what we thought about these methods for assessing students. Many of us were fond of [|rubrics], stating that they were a good simple way to make objectives clear for our students. Clarity is an important aspect when teaching and these rubrics do a good job of incorporating important information in a clear and precise way. Many of us had a tendency to list off the many steps in a rubric and this made some nervous, but like many things we will get better at it with time. Many agreed that portfolios were a good method to assess students’ mastery of a topic or subject. They show students growth while also keeping every aspect of it organized and orderly. Portfolios seemed to be thought as very flexible being either simplistic or complex at any given time depending on what the teacher wants. Portfolios are a good way to have students and teachers both set goals. It was an anonymous decision that self-assessment is a good way to keep students on task because they use goals and the idea of setting goals. Many self-assessments have the ability of getting students to work harder to reach the goals they set out for themselves. Student self-assessments are a great and simple way to see how much your students have learned as well as get feedback on assignments. Overall all three systems seemed beneficial to us and are certainly forms of assessing students we can see ourselves using in our classrooms.

Lauren Breton
EThis chapter of the text extensively discussed three different types of assessments that can be used in the classroom; portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessments. In this chapter the text was able to describe the benefits and options that each of these different types of assessments provided educators and how to best use them for different assignments in the classroom. I found the section on rubrics incredibly insightful, because I hadn’t realized how many different types of rubrics there were, let alone how to create/format one. I particularly found the rubric on page 50 effective because instead of giving students categories based upon their work, it spelled out all of the objectives and then the teacher is able to grade according to how many of the objectives students mastered. This rubric in particular appealed to me because the text stated that one of the issues with rubrics was that students often only did the work required to fall into the “satisfactory” or “competent” category as opposed to trying to be “exemplary” or “exceptional”. I intend to try to utilize rubrics that do not put students into grades based upon their categories and instead hope to use rubrics similar to the one on page 50. I also hope to incorporate multiple student self-assessments into my curriculum when I am teaching. I particularly hope to employ the use of interactive notebooks with my students because that way we would have a way to communicate with one another in a way that is both ongoing and private. The notebook would allow me to better understand my students and would be a place for both my students and myself to offer appropriate feedback on their work.

Lauren Scheidegger
In chapter four of “Fair Isn’t Always Equal” by Rick Wormeli Student assessment was discussed. The chapter went over portfolios, rubrics, and self-assessment. Portfolios are a very useful tool for all subjects. They allow students to reflect and can reveal their understanding. They are also very versatile. It can be as simple as a folder with all the students works inside or it could be kept online or on a flash drive. A portfolio can hold students’ records and achievements as well as their work and projects. Rubrics are also a very useful tool when talking about assessment. When creating a rubric it needs to be clear, practical and talk about desired level of quality. The chapter went into how to create a fair and successful rubric. A rubric is created by identifying objections and enduring content, and then the teacher must decide what mandates acceptable evidence of the students understanding and skills. A specific descriptor is then written. At this point the teacher must decide if the rubric is going to be holistic or analytical. When this is decided the teacher should then make the labels and be sure that they are consistent. Each level is created and outlined, and finally the rubric is “test driven”. I strongly believe in the use of both portfolios and rubrics. In my classes that had portfolios I felt more organized and also like I had accomplished more because all I had done was neatly arranged and easy to see and find. I also found that during my school career when I am not given a rubric I am often confused and sometimes even frustrated with what I am suppose to be doing. Since I would like to ensure a smooth and clear classroom, I have every intention of utilizing the powerful benefits from both rubrics and portfolios.

Rachel Joiner
This chapter has provided me with some great information into various kinds of assessments to use in a classroom. I found a lot of this information to be helpful for me as a teacher. I learned about portfolios and their use as assessment tools from this chapter. I would have never thought of using a portfolio as a grading system in a differentiated classroom. These chapters also explained by using portfolios teachers do not have to make inferences about the students mastery based on a single sample such as a test or quiz. Portfolios provide better insight into the student as a person, as well as their mastery of the content. Portfolios would work well in a classroom because it can show the students growth over the year. I think that as a teacher this would be a helpful tool to use in my classroom. Another helpful tool discussed in this chapter was the use of rubrics. I learned several things about rubrics from this chapter such as, how teachers need to examine their rubrics in several areas like content, clarity, practicality, and technical quality. This was important information to know, because now as a teacher when I am creating a rubric, I can special attention to these things. Another important tool I learned from this chapter was student self-assessment. One thing this chapter pointed out was that by doing student self-assessment it allows teachers and students to set individual goals. I think this is important as a teacher, because it can allow for some differentiation by having students set their own goals. I also think this is important, because it can allow students to self-reflect and get a better understanding of the content. By doing student self-assessments teachers can also gain a better look into the students thought process. I found this chapter to be very helpful for various types of assessments.

Kevin Lind
This chapter is mainly focused on the three types of assessment: portfolios, rubrics and student self-assessment. I don’t really think portfolios are a very effective form of assessment. A portfolio can be helpful if you are looking for the student’s development over the semester, but I don’t think it would be terribly effective as a means of looking at a student’s mastery. Just because a student is better than he was, doesn’t mean he has mastered the material. There are a few classes, such as art or creative writing, that could use these well, but I don’t think I will need them. Rubrics, on the other hand, seem like they would match up rather well with a government class. Rubrics are effective because they allow students to look at the work they have done and make sure it fits the correct criteria. Rubric style assignments can be anything from an essay to a poster to an imovie. Even though it does seem like I’m limiting my students by saying I won’t be using portfolios, I’m actually giving them a lot more opportunities. Student self-assessment could also be used well in social studies classes. A student self-assessment is essentially the same as a rubric, since both allow students to see exactly what they should be doing. Self-assessments can help a lot by making students look for their own mistakes and errors. By forcing students to revise their own work, teachers can teach students the importance of this step. Student self-assessments can also be effectively used by teachers to see what parts of an assignment students found difficult.

Samy Tracy
This chapter explains the three important assessments: portfolios, student self-assessment, and rubrics. The section that was really insightful for me was the rubrics section. I did not realize how much work really goes in to making rubrics and how there were different kinds. The two types of rubrics are holistic and analytic. I prefer the holistic myself because it does not leave much room for subjectivity and it would help make sure that students are graded fairly from day to day. With analytic, it is more gray as to how the students should be graded and might even depend on the teacher and the mood that particular teacher is in. That is why I do not think analytic would be as useful or fair for students. Teachers need to label their rubrics appropriately and within those labels need to define what it is they are exactly looking for to come out of this project. Rubrics are definitely something I am going to need to learn how to make in my classroom if I plan on doing projects (which I am). One thing that worries me that the chapter pointed out was that a lot of students do not believe that they can actually master the project and so they just go for the bare minimum so that they can get a good grade. I knew many classmates who would do that and I never understood why, but the chapter explains that many think they are not capable of it. This is where student self-assessment comes in because they can grade themselves on how well they did and that might give them more incentive to try harder.

Alyssa Amari
Chapter four of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// discusses three important and essential ways to assess students in your classroom. The first type of assessment was previously discussed in chapter ten of //Multiple Intelligences//; the idea of creating student portfolios. Portfolios can be student, teach, or student and teacher kept. They can be as simple as a folder that collects works for a one or multi year period. Portfolios are a way to promote differentiated classes; they are a way to collect a variety of works in different settings, as well as helping teachers better assess their students through an array of works throughout the year rather than from one test or quiz. The second type is to use a rubric, designing rubrics is a complex process because it requires teachers to consider many questions about the work that they are assessing. Designing a rubric has many steps and contains many factors; what the task requires, what constitutes proficiency in the task, whether some steps are more important than others, whether our criteria are clear to the performer of the task. The many steps entailed in creating a rubric, are listed in chapter four. The third type is student self-assessment; this is a way to provide a type of feedback that helps students and their teachers set individual goals. This is a way to look at previous work or current work and reflect upon it by assessing how well or what they did in an assignment. The part that I am most worried about is designing my own rubric; I think that it well be difficult to encapsulate everything I am assessing in one rubric as well as giving appropriate feedback. However, I think using each of these assessment types in my classroom will help to differentiate the assessment processes for ll of my student. It will allow for self-reflecting, feedback, and a way to set future goals. I think that implementing these types of assessment into my units will help to give equal opportunity for success.

Megan Millette
This chapter introduced three types of assessment that can be used in the classroom rubrics, self-assessment, and portfolios. It also went into a discussion about interactive notebooks, which was interesting. I really enjoyed the interactive notebooks because it is a resource students have to information they learned for when the teacher isn’t there to help them with a question. It also can be used to help me as the educator know what my students have learned. Portfolios can also be helpful to students and get them involved in the learning process. When they have the opportunity to present their work in a portfolio they become in charge of their learning and are in charge of organizing and collecting their work. Rubrics seem demanding, which surprised me. In my past classes I never would have thought teachers would put so much work in their rubrics; however, as I look from the other perspective, I see how much work goes into it, as well as the steps that need to be done in order to have a finished product. When making rubrics it is better for me as the educator to involve my students in the process because it keeps them engaged, they will understand the rubrics, and it is a more powerful experience. The student self-assessment part seemed to be important and stood out to me personally. In high school I had many teachers who did this and I loved the feedback that was given, and seeing me as well as my fellow classmates set goals for ourselves we all strived to accomplish them. I want to incorporate this in my class because it had a positive outcome for me. I believe all these tools are great for the classroom and very beneficial to students.

Morgan Ware
This chapter talks about the three important types of student assessment. The three assessments are portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. Portfolios are used to collect and examine student work. They can be a simple folder of collected works or works can be collected over several years. Students can also use their thinking about their portfolios to set goals. Portfolios are very flexible. Rubrics can be used for focusing learning and for assessment. Also reporting student achievement. Teachers need to examine the content, clarity, practicality, and the technical quality/fairness of their rubrics. Later teachers will add sampling to that list. Self-assessment is a why for students to assess their own work. Some of the ways that students can self-assess is to make an assignment the same for the beginning and the end of the unit that way the students can track their progress. Also students can fill out self-reflections worksheets or write self-reflections. This will help both my students and me because students will be able to track their own progress through self-assessment. This chapter gave me the tools to help my students grow with assessment tools. I want to include these tools in my curriculum.

T.J. Hebert
There are three important types of assessment, portfolios, rubrics and student self-assessment. A portfolio is a collection of work and grades of students in your classes. They can be a collection of one year or over the course of several years. It is designed to help the teacher determine learning styles, strong or weak points, or interests. They can help the teacher differentiate in order to maximize learning. A rubric is designed for students to be aware of what the teacher will be assessing for in their work. It is a breakdown of the skills and understandings that the teacher will be looking for from the students and can show what level the students learned the material. Student self-assessment is basically how the students felt about the unit and how they feel they performed and learned the material. Some ways for self-assessing are likert scales, journals, or videotaping themselves. Out of the three assessment types mentioned in the chapter, the one that I feel I will utilize the most are student self-assessments. I like the KWL charts where the students fill out three columns: what they know, what they want to know and what they learned. It is also a form of pre-assessment. Another strategy that I will utilize is journals, both my own and student journals. My journal will track student progress and observations of learning styles and the student journals will be how they feel about the unit and how they think they are doing. I will definitely use rubrics on certain assignments but I do not see myself making individual portfolios containing students work. I feel that my journal of observations will be more effective then a portfolio.

Patrick Hurley
Using a portfolio is a good way to figure out what kind of grade a student should get in a differentiated classroom. These can just be a folder of the students work over the course of the class, this way you can see the progress they have made. Another option to assess your students is to use a rubric. This is a good way to focus learning and assess student achievements. For a good rubric you need to make sure you literally list out everything you want to do, but try not to explain everything too much otherwise your rubric will be way too long. Student self-assessments are a valuable way to see what you students learned. I think self-assessments are really important in the classroom. It lets you see what the students are learning and it gives you more ideas on how to better the assignment. Rubrics are also a helpful tool. They let the students know exactly what they have to do to acquire the highest grades. The one thing I am nervous about with rubrics is the middle parts of the rubric, I am afraid that I will make all the middle parts look the same and confuse my students. Portfolios are an excellent way to track progress. You can see where each student start and you can watch their projects, essays, homework, etc. get better as the class goes on

Matt Roy
Chapter 4 focused heavily on the three main types of differentiated assessment that can be utilized in the classroom. Portfolios, rubrics and student self assessment were the assessments chosen to best identify whether or not learning/understanding has actually occurred. Portfolios seemed to be the most comprehensive of the assessment types, it can be either physical or digital but it contains examples of work throughout the unit. This way, the teacher has the luxury of seeing understanding develop over an extended time period as opposed to a quick snapshot like a test or quiz. Rubrics also seemed like a great option for assessment of understanding, they can be either analytical (full bodied, self explanatory and comprehensive) or they can be holistic (more of a guideline to tell your students where you want the assignment to go). I typically prefer analytical rubrics because they leave less grey area and provide a clearer direction. Finally, Student Self Assessment gets the students involved in the assessment right off the bat (the others can get students involved but not in the same way), this is where you can ask the student to seriously evaluate whether or not they feel like they learned. I think, as a science concentration, I will most likely utilize rubrics more than any other assessment form. It’s not that I’m not open to any other form of assessment, I just feel that it is the most pertinent to my content area and makes the most sense on my end.

Simone Thiry
In assessing students’ understanding, it is important to determine which type of assessment is best suited for the subject, unit and teaching style. The chapter covers three important types of assessment: portfolios, rubrics and student self-assessment. Portfolios are collections of student work that can take place over a unit, grading period, academic year, or several years. By having multiple components, often from different types of activities, portfolios give a broader and more thorough assessment of mastery. Students can participate in the creation of their portfolio by choosing which items will be included, and portfolios also provide a good opportunity for student self-assessment. Although math is not a traditionally portfolio-friendly subject, I can imagine using portfolios in my classroom to help students create a long-term catalog of their success, perhaps by choosing one artifact (even a small one, such as a warm-up or homework assignment) for each unit that they are proud of. Rubrics have always been helpful to me as a student, because they provide a clear picture of what the teacher is looking for in a finished product. One thing I learned in the chapter is that, rather than providing detailed descriptions for each level of the rubric, teachers should provide detailed descriptions only for the highest level. By doing this, we can eliminate the tendency of some students to decide that a mid-level, or barely passing, grade is good enough, and help them focus on full mastery. Student self-assessment is imperative because it helps students think critically about their comprehension, and be more aware of their learning and reactions to material. I plan to use rubrics to show students what my expectations are for the majority of projects in my future classroom, and to utilize self-assessment in every unit.

Emily McGee
Wormeli describes some important forms assessment can take in the differentiated classroom and why they are so effective. He introduces the use of portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment. He explains that portfolios are a longitudinal record of the students abilities and growth and is thus a good tool for teachers to use in interpreting students content mastery. Students may choose which of their works are added to reflect them overall, and should include a rational for why they included it and how it came to be for self-assessment and reflection purposes. Wormeli describes rubrics as helpful tools for focusing student learning and assessment of work. He explains the components of rubrics and how to make one. Last, he considers the importance of student self-assessment for recognition of growth and meaning.

In preparing for my differentiated classroom I feel that having a deep understanding for how to prepare and use portfolios, rubrics, and student self-assessment is extremely important. These are methods that have been tried and shown effective in many classrooms and for good reasons. Portfolios allow reflection to be made on work by being able to look back and see growth, reasoning for doing the assignment that way, and why the assignment is important, for both students and teachers. It also gives kids ownership of their own education by allowing them to prepare their own final assessment piece and show their knowledge and understanding in their own way. I think rubrics are important in clarifying objectives, component pieces, and grades. It allows students to recognize why they received a high or low mark because they can look to the rubric and compare what essential pieces were missing. Lastly, I believe student self-assessment is important because it forces students to recognize how they think and how much they have learned. It also causes them to recognize what they are doing well and what can be improved. I believe it promotes ownership for their work, which I believe is an important motivator for improvement.

Mike Kahler
Chapter 4 describes three types of assessment that can be very useful tools to teachers. These assessments are portfolios, rubrics, and student self assessments. These three tools are very effective tools that can be used to promote reflection by the students, and formative assessment. Portfolios are very effective because of the length of time that it takes to put them together. By doing portfolio checks frequently throughout a unit a teacher can gather useful information on how the students are progressing, and adapt future lessons to help them catch up in areas that they are the weakest. Students also have a chance to look back at older work and reflect on their own progress. Rubrics are great tools for assessment that outline for the students exactly what it is that they are supposed to be doing on their projects. This helps a teacher to focus learning by keeping their students on track with what skills are being assessed and developed by their project. Student self assessment also promotes reflection as students have to look back at a project after completion and see the areas that were weaker, and the areas that were strong. By looking back at their work in this fashion they can reflect and recognize areas that need growth. Teachers can also use these to see the progress of their students and modify lessons to help them grow in those areas. These are all tools that I plan to utilize in my classroom because they offer so much opportunity for student growth. I will also be able to keep tabs on my students progress and ensure that I am keeping them focused on the goals of the unit that we are working on at that time.