Reflective Journal Entry #8

Description

            This weeks reading discussed assessment in the classroom.   

Analysis

             Instructional objectives are the backbone of what a teacher presents in the classroom.  In creating objectives, the teacher must decide what information they think the students need to know and how they will evaluate student mastery of the topic.  Slavin (2015) notes that there are three parts to creating an instructional objective.  The first requires the teacher to “state the conditions under which learning will be assessed” (Slavin, 2015, p. 341).  A teacher should determine what the students will be given and what tools they will be using.  An objective’s verb “is usually an action verb that indicates what students will be able to do” (Slavin, 2015, p. 341).  For example, will the students solve, write, match, identify, etc.?  The last part of the objective is that it “states a criterion for success” (Slavin, 2015, p. 341), meaning that students have a particular goal to reach for their work to be qualified as successful.  Objectives should also be clear and specific Slavin (2015) notes.  In creating objectives like this, a teacher is able to break down what the students will be doing in the classroom and how they should be able to present the material.  The teacher can then actually develop the activities to correspond with the objectives.
            These activities are intended to evaluate or assess the objectives.  Evaluation of objectives is extremely important, particularly for feedback, information, and incentive purposes.  Feedback can be just as vital to teacher as it is for students.  If a teacher returns a test with just a number or letter grade on it but no feedback, the student will not be able to focus on what they missed and practice it more for improvement.  For this reason, Slavin (2015) notes that teacher feedback to students should be specific (p. 349).  Teachers also use evaluations as a tool to guide instruction in the classroom, using student results to guide the learning process.  In terms of information provided by assessments, results from student evaluation can be used for parents, for selection, and for accountability.  If parents know where a student stands in a class and where they may be struggling, they can help their student out.  Also, many parents reward and reinforce students bringing home “good grades” (this incentive process can also be utilized by the school).  Assessment feedback also provides information regarding selection, as it helps sort students according to their strengths and weaknesses, providing them specialized classes or groups to take advantage of or improve on their skills.  For example, student results may help in placing them in an honors or advanced placement class (Slavin, 2015, p. 349).  It may also inform the school that the student may need to be in a lower class.  Lastly, information from assessments can be used for accountability.  Teachers are assessed based on their students’ success rate in the classroom, and schools are also judged more and more by their test scores and compared to other schools in the county and state (Slavin, 2015).  
            There are so many different ways to evaluate students in the classroom.  Formative evaluation is used throughout lessons to show the teacher which students need more work and with what concepts.  Teachers are able to guide their plans off the information that they gain from formative assessments.  Summative evaluation is used at the end of a unit to see what students have learned (Slavin, 2015).  Other examples of evaluations include norm-referenced interpretations and criterion-referenced interpretations.  Norm-referenced interpretations compare student scores with other student scores while criterion-referenced interpretations assess the students’ scores based on the specific skill.

            When constructing tests that will assess the students’ knowledge on the topic, there are a few things for a teacher to remember.  The first is that “achievement tests should measure clearly defined learning objectives that are in harmony with instructional objectives” (Slavin, 2015, p. 353).  This means that the questions on a test should line up with the information taught in class.  The second is that “achievement tests should measure a representative sample of the learning task included in the instruction” (Slavin, 2015, p. 353).  If a teacher spent more time on one topic than another, then the test should contain more questions on the first topic.  Next, “achievement tests should include the types of test items that are most appropriate for measuring the desired learning outcomes” (Slavin, 2015, p. 354).  For example, a multiple-choice question may not always be appropriate when asking students to solve a math problem.  A teacher would not be able to see if they truly know how to solve the problem.  The fourth point is that “achievement tests should fit the particular uses that will be made of the results” (Slavin, 2015, p. 354).  Basically, formative tests should be specifically tied to a particular skill while summative tests should be broader (Slavin, 2015).  The fifth rule is that “achievement tests should be as reliable as possible but nevertheless interpreted with caution” (Slavin, 2015, p. 354).  Essentially, no one test should be used to evaluate a student’s comprehension of information.  Lastly, “achievement tests should improve learning” (Slavin, 2015, p. 354); in this manner, testing should not simply function to get a grade out of a student.  The results should help guide instruction.

           

Reflection

            Part of lesson planning for most schools and teachers involves setting clear objectives.  Some schools refer to these objectives as “learning targets,” and some teachers may call them “I Can” statements.  Objectives are beneficial for planning a lesson because they allow a teacher to create a kind of road map that points to where the destination of a lesson will be.  In my classroom, I state the objectives for my students so that they know what they are doing for the day.  Many times, my students come into the class and immediately ask what we are doing, so I know that they have a genuine interest in the activities.  I try to make my objectives as specific and clear as possible, but sometimes, I may rush a lesson plan and keep it vague.  Other times, this strategic vagueness allows me more leeway to improvise parts of a lesson as I go, depending on how my students seem to process the information as we go along.  In the end, regardless of what goal we may have for a particular class period, we never truly know how class will flow and what needs may arise to interrupt our plan.

I evaluate objectives based on the state-mandated math standards, so I tie my activities and tests to the standards and objectives.  Evaluation is therefore very important in my classroom because student responses show me whether they understand what they need to know.  As a math teacher, I ask the students to show their work daily.  I like to be able to walk around and see where they are with a concept.  Maybe someone is stuck at the middle of the problem.  On an assessment, they may get the answer wrong, but perhaps they knew how to solve the first part of the problem.  That point is where they should start practicing the next day.  Being able to assess the students’ knowledge and plan accordingly has helped me out tremendously in the long run, most importantly with formative assessments.  Summative assessments are still important in my class, too.  When I grade these tests, as long as the students show work, I try to give partial credit.  I leave notes where they went wrong and ask them to go back and review my notes.  I usually even let students retest.  In the end, the fact that they know the material is more important to me than the letter or number grade that they receive.

Slavin (2015) ends his chapter by talking about developing different types of test items.  Of course, standardized tests rely primarily on selected-response test items such as multiple-choice questions.  However, I try not to use too many multiple-choice questions because I feel that they are not the most truly representative of student knowledge.  For example, a student who is feeling frustrated may make lucky guesses on several questions and score well while another student may make the same guesses and do poorly.  Additionally, a student may make one careless mistake at the very end of solving a problem and get the answer wrong; for a multiple-choice question, that item is full credit.  However, working with constructed-response items allows for a bit more freedom for me to grade with partial credit.  I can more easily track where a student makes a mistake, and I can grant them a certain percentage of points that they have earned, depending on how much they did right.  Regardless of the question type, though, I try to incorporate student interests into my questions.  Something as simple as using a student’s name or referring to a play in last week’s football game can bring a quick smile to a student’s face, and perhaps they will subconsciously focus more on getting the problem right. 

References

Slavin, R. E. (2015). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (11th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.