I’m not sure if I interpreted this assignment correctly. I may be making more complicated that it needed to be. Hope it’s complicated enough.
Here goes…
I work for the Rochester City School District. The district uses a scale from 1-4 for report card grades. Each report card has a grading key that explains what each number means. The following break down is taken from the third grade report card.
4- Exceeds NYS and District Standards
The student consistently meets and often exceeds the Standard. The student, with relative ease, understands, applies, and extends the key concepts, processes, and skills for the grade level.
3- Meets NYS and District Standards
The student regularly meets the Standard. The student demonstrates proficiency in the vast majority of the grade-level key indicators. The student, with limited errors, understands and applies the key concepts, processes, and skills, for the grade level.
2- Partially Meets NYS and District Standards
The student is beginning to, and occasionally does meet the Standard. The student is beginning to understand and apply the key concepts, processes, and skills for grade level, but produces work that contains many errors.
1- Far below NYS and District Standards
The student is not meeting the Standard. The student is working on key concepts that are one or more years below grade level.
How does this system affect how I grade individual/ specific assignments?
A lot depends on the subject area.
I create rubrics for any assessment that will be used to generate a grade that I intend to use for summative purposes. In other words, if I am measuring how much of the standard or learning targets a student has achieved or the quality level a student has achieved.
A rubric that I create for a math assessment will usually be less complicated than a rubric I create or use for a writing assignment. On the third grade report card there are three sub categories for math and fourteen for writing. Whenever possible, I use a rubric that correlates strongly/directly with the report card categories.
How does this grading system fulfill the needs of…
(1) Students- Students are pretty aware of what their report card grades mean. I would say that the many sub categories/ standards can be somewhat confusing and are definitely not written in the most student friendly language. This in turn leaves it up to the teacher to make sure that students have an understanding of how they are doing in the classroom. I express this to my students in many ways. I conference with my students to discuss their performances on assessments, as often as possible. We discuss their performance based on standards as well as how their performance compares to what their peers are doing and compared to their past performance. I believe that it is of the utmost importance to look at all three conceptual frameworks.
(2) Parents- See above!
(3) I think that this grading system fulfills some of the needs of the school administrators because it is a criterion-referenced framework. It shows how students are performing in relation to both state and district standards. I think it would also be beneficial for school administrators to have access to more norm-referenced and growth-based grading. This is something that my grade level team has started to incorporate as part of an action plan to improve students reading scores.
My grading system does not meet the needs of everyone. I am always searching for ways to improve communication of students’ performance, to parents, especially. I feel that I have made some progress in this area, this year. I definitely see the benefit of the three conceptual frameworks mentioned in the book.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
"I Personally Believe..."
“I Personally Believe…”
I personally believe that I have a responsibility to use the information that I gather, in my classroom, in a way that is appropriate for the decisions I need to make. All other more specific responsibilities always come back to the idea that educators base many important decisions with serious consequences on the information that they gather from a variety of assessments. I also believe that my undergraduate, as well as current professional development opportunities, have not sufficiently prepared me to fulfill all of these responsibilities. Taking this course and reading this book have opened my eyes to the many ways that I can improve how I fulfill those responsibilities from now on in my classroom.
There are three general responsibilities that I definitely agree with strongly. They are; responsibilities when crafting assessment procedures, responsibilities when choosing assessment procedures, and responsibilities when interpreting and using assessment results. The first two have become an increasingly important part of my overall teaching philosophy. I believe that what I have learned in this class so far, has made me more capable of crafting better assessments. They are better because I have approached creating them in a much more systematic way. I am now better informed when it comes to applying sound principles such as, task development and item writing. Being able to apply these and other principles when creating an assessment also helps to choose assessments for classroom use. Teachers are often presented with assessment procedures developed by others. It is sometimes necessary to modify or change completely these assessments to fit your purpose.
I believe that the responsibility when interpreting and using assessment results are extremely important. The specific responsibility that I connected with the most was the second one under that heading; to interpret students’ performance on one assessment by considering the results from other assessments. I strongly agree that, “no single assessment procedure is comprehensive enough to cover every important learning target.” I find myself constantly looking for multiple ways to assess whether or not a student has reached the desired learning targets. I refuse to base important decisions such as retaining a student, solely on his or her performance on one assessment.
I am finding it difficult to disagree with any of the responsibilities discussed in this chapter. If I have to disagree with something, I guess it would be the idea that it is the teacher’s responsibility to use the results of standardized tests in an appropriate way. I do believe that the results should be interpreted properly. I do not believe that teachers are given the necessary information to be able to do so. I have personally never seen more than a final score on those tests for my students. Yet I have been told that I am responsible for creating academic interventions for students who have scored below a scaled score of 3. Those scores hold little meaning for me when I am developing these plans. I have looked at chapter 16 and agree with much of what is discussed in the section about the misuses of standardized test results. I feel that, unfortunately, teachers hands are tied in many ways when it comes to standardized test results.
Teachers have many decisions to make. Some have more serious and long lasting consequences. If we as educators do not take our responsibilities concerning assessments seriously we will not make the best decisions we can possibly make and may cause harm to our students.
I personally believe that I have a responsibility to use the information that I gather, in my classroom, in a way that is appropriate for the decisions I need to make. All other more specific responsibilities always come back to the idea that educators base many important decisions with serious consequences on the information that they gather from a variety of assessments. I also believe that my undergraduate, as well as current professional development opportunities, have not sufficiently prepared me to fulfill all of these responsibilities. Taking this course and reading this book have opened my eyes to the many ways that I can improve how I fulfill those responsibilities from now on in my classroom.
There are three general responsibilities that I definitely agree with strongly. They are; responsibilities when crafting assessment procedures, responsibilities when choosing assessment procedures, and responsibilities when interpreting and using assessment results. The first two have become an increasingly important part of my overall teaching philosophy. I believe that what I have learned in this class so far, has made me more capable of crafting better assessments. They are better because I have approached creating them in a much more systematic way. I am now better informed when it comes to applying sound principles such as, task development and item writing. Being able to apply these and other principles when creating an assessment also helps to choose assessments for classroom use. Teachers are often presented with assessment procedures developed by others. It is sometimes necessary to modify or change completely these assessments to fit your purpose.
I believe that the responsibility when interpreting and using assessment results are extremely important. The specific responsibility that I connected with the most was the second one under that heading; to interpret students’ performance on one assessment by considering the results from other assessments. I strongly agree that, “no single assessment procedure is comprehensive enough to cover every important learning target.” I find myself constantly looking for multiple ways to assess whether or not a student has reached the desired learning targets. I refuse to base important decisions such as retaining a student, solely on his or her performance on one assessment.
I am finding it difficult to disagree with any of the responsibilities discussed in this chapter. If I have to disagree with something, I guess it would be the idea that it is the teacher’s responsibility to use the results of standardized tests in an appropriate way. I do believe that the results should be interpreted properly. I do not believe that teachers are given the necessary information to be able to do so. I have personally never seen more than a final score on those tests for my students. Yet I have been told that I am responsible for creating academic interventions for students who have scored below a scaled score of 3. Those scores hold little meaning for me when I am developing these plans. I have looked at chapter 16 and agree with much of what is discussed in the section about the misuses of standardized test results. I feel that, unfortunately, teachers hands are tied in many ways when it comes to standardized test results.
Teachers have many decisions to make. Some have more serious and long lasting consequences. If we as educators do not take our responsibilities concerning assessments seriously we will not make the best decisions we can possibly make and may cause harm to our students.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Pre-test (Draft)
I had some trouble choosing an approach that I thought would best serve my needs for this Social Studies unit. The mastery of specific objectives approach seemed to make the most sense but I'm not sure if it is meant to be used as a pre-test. It seems like it would help me plan the assessment I would give post-instruction and then use that information to help guide any further instruction for those targets.
I next looked at the profiling content strengths and weaknesses. I'm not sure if this pre-test exactly represents this approach, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Item 1
What might you see if you were to visit a rural community?
Item 2
What might you see if you were to visit a suburban community?
Item 3
What might you see if you were to visit an urban community?
Item 4
How are rural and suburban communities different? How are they alike?
Item 5
How are rural and urban communities different? How are they alike?
Item 6
How are suburban and urban communites different? How are they alike?
I next looked at the profiling content strengths and weaknesses. I'm not sure if this pre-test exactly represents this approach, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Item 1
What might you see if you were to visit a rural community?
Item 2
What might you see if you were to visit a suburban community?
Item 3
What might you see if you were to visit an urban community?
Item 4
How are rural and suburban communities different? How are they alike?
Item 5
How are rural and urban communities different? How are they alike?
Item 6
How are suburban and urban communites different? How are they alike?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Here is my revised blueprint.
I've left the application part of the blueprint blank because the knowledge that I would want them to use in an application situation is already assessed in the analysis, comprehension, and knowledge items. I felt it would be redundant to create items that would overlap that much. Let me know what you think!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14056337/Book-1
I've left the application part of the blueprint blank because the knowledge that I would want them to use in an application situation is already assessed in the analysis, comprehension, and knowledge items. I felt it would be redundant to create items that would overlap that much. Let me know what you think!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14056337/Book-1
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Final Project Proposal
For my final assessment project I will use the learning targets that I developed for my Social Studies unit and create several assessments for that unit. I will create a pre-assessment to get an understanding of what my students already know about the content I will be covering. I will also create quizzes to be used as formative assessments. These quizzes will be given to students throughout the unit. Their purpose will be to inform my instruction. Finally, I will create a paper and pencil test that will be used as a summative assessment. All assessment will be aligned with my learning targets.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Learning Targets Final
These learning targets are for a third grade unit on kinds of communities. I started by looking at the objectives listed for each lesson in the teacher's guide. I then looked at the taxonomies of learning targets. I am interested in getting feedback on the verbs associated with the learning targets.
(1) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term rural community.
- Mastery
- Verbs: define, describe, identify, give examples, match
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4
(2) The student will be able to describe the geography of different kinds of communities.
-Mastery
-distinguish, compare, compile, identify, generalize
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4, PI 1
(3) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term suburban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, identify, give examples, match
Standrad 3: Geography- same as LT 1
(4) Students will describe how rural communities can change to suburban communities.
-Mastery
- explain, give examples, identify, summarize, relate
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 1 and 4
(5) Students will be able to identify reasons people form communities.
-Developmental
- list, explain, give examples, tell, state
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 1 and 4; KI 2, PI1
(6) Students will explain what is meant by the term urban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, give examples, match, identify
Standard 3: Geography- same as LT 1
(7) Students will be able to compare and contrast rural, suburban, and urban communities.
- Mastery
- diagram, differentiate, point out, relate, distinguish
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4 and 5; KI 2, PI 1
(1) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term rural community.
- Mastery
- Verbs: define, describe, identify, give examples, match
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4
(2) The student will be able to describe the geography of different kinds of communities.
-Mastery
-distinguish, compare, compile, identify, generalize
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4, PI 1
(3) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term suburban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, identify, give examples, match
Standrad 3: Geography- same as LT 1
(4) Students will describe how rural communities can change to suburban communities.
-Mastery
- explain, give examples, identify, summarize, relate
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 1 and 4
(5) Students will be able to identify reasons people form communities.
-Developmental
- list, explain, give examples, tell, state
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 1 and 4; KI 2, PI1
(6) Students will explain what is meant by the term urban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, give examples, match, identify
Standard 3: Geography- same as LT 1
(7) Students will be able to compare and contrast rural, suburban, and urban communities.
- Mastery
- diagram, differentiate, point out, relate, distinguish
Standard 3: Geography- KI 1, PI 4 and 5; KI 2, PI 1
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My Favorite Alternative Assessment
The first thing that came to mind when I was reading about performance assessments was a learning activity that I had to complete my sophomore year of high school in an Advanced Algebra class. I had to collect information about different ways to finance college. We had to compare interest rates of different types of loans and determine our eligibility for those loans. We also had to look into different repayment options. We had to apply knowledge from that math class as well as from other subjects to complete our final task. It definitely connected "schoolhouse" learning and real-world activities. I had to contact different banks and the financial offices of different colleges. My teacher also shared the scoring rubric that he used to focus our efforts.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Linking Standards to Learning Targets
All of my targets are linked to Social Studies Standard 3-Geography (Elementary)
Learning Target1- Key Idea 1, PI 4
LT2- KI 1, PI 4; KI 2, PI 1
LT3-same as LT1
LT4- KI 1, PI 4 and 5
LT5- KI 1, PI 1and 4; KI 2, PI 1
LT6-same as LT1
LT7- KI 1, PI 4 and 5; KI 2, PI 1
Link to standards:
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sslearn.pdf
Learning Target1- Key Idea 1, PI 4
LT2- KI 1, PI 4; KI 2, PI 1
LT3-same as LT1
LT4- KI 1, PI 4 and 5
LT5- KI 1, PI 1and 4; KI 2, PI 1
LT6-same as LT1
LT7- KI 1, PI 4 and 5; KI 2, PI 1
Link to standards:
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sslearn.pdf
Learning Targets Draft
These learning targets are for a third grade unit on kinds of communities. I started by looking at the objectives listed for each lesson in the teacher's guide. I then looked at the taxonomies of learning targets. I am interested in getting feedback on the verbs associated with the learning targets. Of course any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.
(1) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term rural community.
- Mastery
- Verbs: define, describe, identify, give examples, match
(2) The student will be able to describe the geography of different kinds of communities.
-Mastery
-distinguish, compare, compile, identify, generalize
(3) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term suburban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, identify, give examples, match
(4) Students will describe how rural communities can change to suburban communities.
-Mastery
- explain, give examples, identify, summarize, relate
(5) Students will be able to identify reasons people form communities.
-Developmental
- list, explain, give examples, tell, state
(6) Students will explain what is meant by the term urban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, give examples, match, identify
(7) Students will be able to compare and contrast rural, suburban, and urban communities.
- Mastery
- diagram, differentiate, point out, relate, distinguish
(1) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term rural community.
- Mastery
- Verbs: define, describe, identify, give examples, match
(2) The student will be able to describe the geography of different kinds of communities.
-Mastery
-distinguish, compare, compile, identify, generalize
(3) Students will be able to explain what is meant by the term suburban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, identify, give examples, match
(4) Students will describe how rural communities can change to suburban communities.
-Mastery
- explain, give examples, identify, summarize, relate
(5) Students will be able to identify reasons people form communities.
-Developmental
- list, explain, give examples, tell, state
(6) Students will explain what is meant by the term urban community.
-Mastery
-define, describe, give examples, match, identify
(7) Students will be able to compare and contrast rural, suburban, and urban communities.
- Mastery
- diagram, differentiate, point out, relate, distinguish
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Who I Am
My name is Angelica Matias. I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. I attended Canisius College for my undergrad in Childhood Education with a concentration in Social Studies. I worked as a substitute teacher for a while after that. I then got a full time teaching position in Rochester. This is my third year teaching third grade at School#12 in the RCSD and I love it!
This is my first semester taking courses for the Curriculum Specialist Program. I am taking one other course this semester.
In my free time I like to read, run, eat (lots of junk food), hang out with friends, watch movies, and visit family in Buffalo.
This is my first semester taking courses for the Curriculum Specialist Program. I am taking one other course this semester.
In my free time I like to read, run, eat (lots of junk food), hang out with friends, watch movies, and visit family in Buffalo.
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