In an interview with Mrs. Peggy Jones we went over assessment, and what that looks like in her classroom. Mrs. Jones is a high school Biology teacher at Sanger High School, Sanger, California. Mrs. Jones has been teaching for over 20 years. When I asked Mrs. Jones about the role assessment has when planning and teaching she says, “It plays a huge role because it is everything to us PLC (Professional Learning Team). It helps us know what the student knows and doesn’t know and how can we support them in the learning process.” The types of assessments Mrs. Jones and the rest of the science faculty use are formative and summative assessments.
The use of weekly quizzes helps to assess students’ knowledge. Mrs. Jones often utilizes peer grading and this method has helped students know what they are up against and has seen an improvement with these weekly quizzes. Data from summative assessments is tracked using Edgesoft and plotted on graphs. From there they can see what the students know, still need to know. Technology plays a big role in assessment and very soon students will be taking all assessments on a computer.
Many times students will have the opportunity to choose a type of formative assessment, different choices that meet the UDL’s. For example they can choose to create a commercial, a video, or a Google slideshow. Mrs. Jones gives them an opportunity to even choose how they would like to show what they know. Formative assessments are flexible but the summative assessments everyone gets the same unless there is an IEP in place in for a student, at that point alternatives will be given.
When assessments are given formative and summative the PLC gets together and we come up with the questions. Mrs. Jones states that they like to give 3 give me questions and then come up with questions that best represent the main points of the unit. When the graded test are given back to the students and they do not receive a grade of their liking the student’s ask if they can retake the test for a better grade. However they may not retake the test but they may take the questions they missed and in a written test explain what it is they missed and what is the right answer and why. Students cannot achieve a test grade better than a “C” by doing this.
In observing Mrs. Jones class, it was nice to see how she started the class with a game plan for the day. When she started the class started it with reflecting on what she covered previously with them and gave them a warm-up exercise per se. This helped the students reflect on what they already know. After that was given she reviewed what they knew and slowly began opening it to class participation. She would review sample questions of what was on the assessment covering every possible question in a review. Mrs. Jones used a teacher directive approach at first. Then with a handout or quick study guide of possible questions, she encourages a class lead review. After the review was given with a variety of UDL’s. An assessment was given and then peer grading was done while Mrs. Jones went over the quiz. After class Mrs. Jones took a quick look at scores and after reflecting, the class is responsive to this type of learning. If there are any questions a majority of the class missed Mrs. Jones would go over them the next time the class meets.
In using Blooms Taxonomy I feel that Mrs. Jones really utilizes all the aspects of thinking in order to get her student achieve her learning objectives. She incorporated the 6 levels to get the students make sense of the content and learn. Mrs. Jones clear objective helped her students demonstrate mastery of the content and demonstrated the desired performance and evaluation.
When I think about the next steps for how I will plan instruction with assessment I want to use assessment as a tool to help my students achieve a greater understanding of content. It will help me plan and in reflecting what the students know it will help me plan on what I can do to better adapt the lessons to their needs.
References