Students Self Assessment through Digital Formative Assessments

ETTC6433

ISTE 2 - Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

TRIGGERING QUESTION:  How can I use technology to help students use assessment data to assess their own learning, determine learning goals and monitor their progress over time?

This past week, I was working on my TPEP self-assessment.  One of the areas I would like to improve in is having my students use assessment data to access their own learning to determine learning goals and monitor their progress over time.  I was also trying to get a formative assessment graded where students were doing a narrative piece of writing where they were  required to take on a character from ancient Roman times and explain through an email how the Christians were being treated in Rome. This week we also did some peer editing to improve their writing.   But I was looking through them I thought there needs to be something out there that can help students assess their own writing and get quicker results than me reading and scoring 90+ assignments and to help them assess their own learning.

EXPLORATION

I looked at some tools through GOOGLE and found some videos that showed how I could use google forms and spreadsheets to create self-assessments for student.  One of these was using Google sheets for reflections  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9z4F5l15MY). I also tried using a spreadsheet with a student’s data and then create a chart using that data.  

I started off by putting in a student’s data.  

Then I clicked “insert” and picking “chart”, I got the following bar graph:

Then I right clicked on the “chart” and was given more options and selected a line chart and got the following:

My thought is that these tools not only introduce how to creating charts digitally to students, but then can help the students reflect in what they need to work on to improve their writing, therefore setting their own learning targets as we go forward.

I also looked at using WriQ which is a add on tool for google docs that is free, but although it would give information on conventions,  it didn’t address the categories I needed to assess which were claim, evidence and reasoning.  Here’s a sample:

Then as I was looking for articles about self-assessment, I came across the article “Classroom Tech for Learning Checks”.  In this article I was hoping to find some ways for my students to self-assess their learning.   It gave me ideas for tools I use in my classroom such as Kahoots and Plicklers to provide opportunities for students to gather data about their learning, but not about taking the next step and setting goals and monitoring their progress over time.  It also reminded me why I want to use technology to do the gathering of the data -- it is faster, therefore it gets the information to both the teacher and students faster so we can adjust.

I also read a blog entry by Vicki Davis entitled “Fantastic, fast formative assessment tools”.  In her blog she include the ones I had seen in the previous article as well as Socrative, Quizzits, SMART Lab, Nearpod, Edpuzzle and Seesaw.

I then read the article, “NEW WAVE in writing”, that Hillary shared.  After reading the article I looked at some of the digital sources that were mentioned such as “Revision Assistant”  and and although I thought some would accomplish what I am looking for, I am not sure how I could convince my district to invest in them.  This ties to one of the articles we were to read this week,  “Deepening Connections - Teachers Increasingly Rely on Media and Technology” .  In this article it addresses this specific barrier on page 6 and discusses how teachers are paying for these services out of their own money as districts are not able to.  If I only had 30 students I might consider doing it, but not with 150 students at anywhere from $30 to $150 per student.

REFLECTION

Even though I ended up looking at tools that could help with formative assessments instead of a tools that would directly make the students reflect and assess their learning, I now think that  by integrating the tools that I have found  my students will have a “sense of accountability and ownership over their learning process”(16) like they found in the Horizon Report, therefore meeting my goal. Also, since these tools are competitive they will keep students engaged and wanting to improve their learning.

I will also continue to look for tools that can students assess their own writing and perhaps I'll be able to persuade my school district to offer these tools to students and teachers.

REFERENCES

Davis, V. (2015, January 15). Fantastic, fast formative assessment tools | Edutopia. Retrieved from
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis

Deepening Connections - Teachers Increasingly Rely on Media and Technology
. (n.d.).file:///E:/CTS-Some/Downloads/Deepening%20Connections%20-%20Teachers%20Increasingly
%20LLC.pdf

Horizon Report (2015 ed., Horizon K-12 Edition, pp. 1-60, Rep.). (n.d.).

doi:https://canvas.spu.edu/courses/24664/files/759106?module_item_id=170163

Fink, J. (2016). New WAVE in writing. District Administration, 52(8), 49-51.

SMITH, K., & FALBE, K. N. (2016). Classroom tech for learning checks. AMLE Magazine, 4(4), 42-43.

Response to Face-To-Face #1

Since, I didn't make it to our first face-to-face meeting on Tuesday I have done a make up assignment. Again, I am sorry that I didn't make it. I didn't realize it was going on and will make sure to check my canvas and email on a more regular email to make sure that I don't miss it in the future. I look forward to meeting and talking in the discussions with all of you.

If I was asked to observe a teacher and give them feedback on the rigor they were expecting of their students I would focus on their questioning strategies.   While observing I would focusing on the questions and responses given by both students and teachers as well as the number and types of questions that both gave.  I would have a chart where I could make tally marks where I could record this information so I could show the teacher in a quick and concise way what I observed.   It could be as simple as that shown below:

Type of Question	Student Questions	Teacher Questions
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesizing
Evaluation

Since  studies have shown that encouraging students to ask questions help us as teachers find out our students level of understanding as well as gives them skills that will help them in the future I would look to see how that teacher encouraged and answered the questions.  One of the things I would be looking for is if the teacher answered the question or responded with another question.  I would do this because by answering with another question is a way for a teacher to get more information on the understanding level of the student as well also to show value to the student’s question.  I would also look for strategies that the teacher is using to gather questions that students have since we don’t have enough time during class to get to all the questions.

On the teacher’s side, I would also be looking for a central question be posed for the lesson through their learning target.  I would expect that questioning by the teacher would be building up to answer this question and aligned with the learning target.  During these time I would listening for students providing accurate text-based evidence.  If it is not being used, I would be looking to see how the teacher re-directs students to provided that text-based evidence.  Lastly, I would looking at the wrap activity to see if students were providing accurate text-based evidence.

When providing the feedback, I would be asking the teacher I was observing the following questions:

• What do you think was the student to teacher ratio of questions for this lesson?
• What strategies did you use to gather unanswered student questions?
• How many of your students are providing text-based evidence when answering the questions you have asked?

I would then share the chart with them and ask them what questions that had.  This way I could evaluate their understanding of using questions to provide a higher level of rigor in their classroom. I would also be modeling for the teacher why it is important to let students be the ones who ask the questions as well as providing text-based evidence.

REFERENCES

Kohn, A. (2015). Who’s Asking?. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 16-22.

Reisman, A. A. (2017). How to facilitate discussions in history. Educational Leadership, 74(5), 30-34.

Tovani, C. C. (2015). Let’s switch questioning around.. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 30-35.

Walsh, J. W., & Sattes, B. B. (2015). A new rhythm for responding. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 46-52.

ETTC6433

ISTE 1 - Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
MODULE 1  -- How can I incorporate technology to improve speech and listening skills of my students?

My trigger question was “How can I incorporate technology to give my students authentic experiences to improve their their speech and listening skills as well as with their non-fictional reading?” I then narrowed it down to just the first part about improving students speech and listening skills.  I choose this topic because we recently looked at our school’s data for SBAC scores and noticed that our students overall have lower scores in the section about speech and listening skills.  Below is a copy of the standards for ELA 6th and 7th grade.



I then read the article “Digital Storytelling:  A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom”.   It discussed how digital stories are easily accessible for use in the classroom on a variety of topics.  Therefore, it is an easy way to introduce technology into the classroom that enhances the learning experience yet doesn’t take a lot time to learn and is inexpensive.  It also can provide an authentic learning opportunity for students to learn more about a subject that we are already studying in class.  This would take care of the listening portion, but I also want to improve my student’s speech skills as well.

s I was listening to the presentation of the  SAMR model this fit in perfectly as it would also move my students from the Substitution and Augmentation phase to the Modification phase.  Other people’s post also gave me some tools and ideas as well.  For instance,  the article posted by David “Check Out These Online Tools to Improve Writing Skills” might be useful to help me guide my students through the writing process in order to create their own digital stories. Also,  Erin’s reply to my post made me I started to think how I have my students create digital stories of their own as an option  when working on projects.  Some tools I thought I could use are Jing, voicethreads.com as well as borrowing ipads that we have for teachers to film with.

Overall, I think that using digital stories in my classroom will increase my students listening and speaking abilities and I look forward to trying this out.

Debroy, A. (2017, July 30). Check Out These Online Tools to Improve Writing Skills. Retrieved October 05, 2017, from http://edtechreview.in/news/2875-online-tools-to-improve-writing-skills

Robin, B.R. (2008)   Digital storytelling:  A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom.  In Theory into practice *(pp. 220-228).  The College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University

Accomplished Teaching: Module One Response

Our district uses the CEL 5D+ framework for our evaluations.  I plan to work on 4.2 - Curriculum and Pedagogy - Curriculum:  Alignment of Instruction Materials and Task.

This is our second year of using our adopted curriculum for Social Studies.  After adopting the curriculum, I and another teacher spent the summer creating the framework and pacing guide for 6th grade Social Studies using the guidelines from the publishers.  As we went through the curriculum last year, we quickly realized that many of the daily learning targets didn’t connect to the unit learning target(s).     As a result we have been working in our department this year to find materials to supplement so we can help our students meet the unit learning target(s.)    We are also working to insure that students also have more  practice opportunities where they can receive feedback on how they are doing in meeting the unit learning targets before taking the summative assessments.

Part of the reason we choose the curriculum we did was because it offered three reading levels on the online book version.  In the past I have not assigned the reading levels to their profile, but plan to do this using SBAC data over the next couple of weeks.   The online book also has the option of having the book read to students. This is great for my students who have difficulty with reading and I have provided this option to my students in the past.   To increase the variety of materials I have continued to add to non-fictional books to support our curriculum which are displayed around the room for students to read when they have some down time.  I would like to continue to find more materials that would address a variety of reading levels and interests this year.

After reading the book “Learning in the Fast Lane”,  I start every unit with a bulletin board in my room that shows how the daily learning targets connect to the unit learning target(s).  I also include the standards and vocabulary that they will be using in the unit on the bulletin board.  Not only does this help the students see where we are going, but it helps me to make sure my daily learning targets are connected to the unit learning target(s).   This year I want to be better about adding artifacts that remind us of what we did to meet our learning targets.

Overall,  I this year I would like to provide more supplemental materials that provide multiple opportunities for students to practice getting to the learning targets, provide more supplemental books that have a variety of reading levels and interests,  use the option of reading levels on the online version of our book, as well as to add artifacts to my learning target wall.