CLASSROOM
ASSESSMENT
TECHNIQUES
Departmental Workshop
Wayne State University English Department
January 11, 2012
Presenters
• Shenika Hankerson
• Whitney Hardin
• Thomas Trimble
Overview
• Assessing our teaching is critical to improving our
teaching.
• Assessing our teaching also makes teaching
easier and can improve job satisfaction.
• Today’s workshop is intended to provide:
•introduction to key concepts
•examples of specific classroom assessment strategies
•an opportunity to practice in a small group setting
7 Assumptions of Classroom Assessment
Angelo, Thomas A., and K. Patricia Cross. Classroom Assessment
Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. San Francisco:
Josey-Bass, 1993. Print.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The quality of student learning is directly, although not exclusively,
related to the quality of teaching.
To improve their effectiveness, teachers need first to make their
goals and objective explicit and specific.
To improve their learning, students need to receive appropriate and
focused feedback early and often.
The type of assessment most likely to improve teaching and
learning is that conducted by faculty to answer questions they
themselves have formulated in response to issues or problems in
their own teaching.
Systematic inquiry and intellectual challenge are powerful sources
of motivation, growth, and renewal for teachers.
Classroom assessment does not require specialized training.
Collaborating with colleagues and actively involving students,
faculty enhance learning and personal satisfaction.
Key Concepts
• Assessment of Learning Outcomes vs.
Assessment of Teaching Outcomes
• Formative vs. Summative Assessment
Learning Outcomes vs. Teaching
Outcomes
• Learning outcomes focus on student behaviors and
competencies rather than teacher behaviors-what will
students be able to do?
I will teach the concept of rhetorical situation
vs.
Students will analyze the rhetorical situation for writing
assignments, including audience, purpose, and context
• Assessing learning outcomes seeks to discern how
students are doing
Formative vs. Summative Assessment
• Formative assessments are low stakes measures
of student learning during instruction
• Quizzes, blog posts, class discussion, journal entries,
small assignments, first drafts, etc.
• Results are used to modify instruction as it happens
• Summative assessments are high stakes
measures of student achievement at the end of
instruction
• Final drafts, exams, presentations
• Results are used to evaluate student work (assign
grades) and to modify the next iteration of instruction
Teaching Outcomes
• Teaching outcomes focus on instructor behaviors
and their relationship to student learning
• Assessing teaching outcomes seeks to discern
how instructors are doing
• Is instruction clear?
• Is it appropriately sequenced and paced?
• Is the level and amount of feedback appropriate?
Sample Strategies
Strategies (Shenika)
Unit Assessment
1. Evaluative Response- Mid-Unit
2. Evaluative Response- Unit Conclusion
Each Unit
Sequence Assignments
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reading Response: Discussion Board (Blackboard)
Homework
Peer Workshop: First Draft Essay
Evaluative Response
Final Draft Essay
Evaluative Response
Reading Response: Discussion Board
Reading Response: Discussion Board
The SQ3R Reading Method
http://www.studygs.net/texred2.htm
Student
Instructor
Peers
• What content is unclear?
• What questions do you have in relation to the chapters and the
assigned essay?
• What information did you find useful? How do you plan to utilize this
information?
• What advice or helpful information would you like to share?
Peer Workshop: First Draft Essay
Conclusion of the Peer Workshop:
Respond in paragraph form:
1. What is the strongest aspect of your essay?
2. What is the weakest aspect? Why?
3. What do you still need to complete? Are you having
difficulty composing the incomplete content? If so, why?
Final Draft Essay
Written Reflection
Essay
Provide a Personal
Perspective Regarding:
The
Composing
Process
•The Unit
•The Composing Process
(Essay)
•The Readings (Helpful,
Ineffective)
•Classroom Activities (Helpful,
Ineffective)
•Overall Suggestions for
Future Purposes
Strategies (Whitney)
• Low Stakes
• End-of-class responses
• Not for credit, anonymous
• Example: What helped? What hindered?
• Example: How do you feel about this way of conducting peer
review? Have you experienced other methods you liked better?
Should we stick with this or try something new next time?
• Reflecting on individual assignments
• For credit (same as a response), semi-anonymous
• Example: Collaborative writing
• Example: New assignments
• High(er) stakes
• Asking students to construct rubric for project
• Group work, for credit, presented to class
• Objectives
• How well have they understood what’s important to the project? How
well have I communicated primary/secondary/tertiary concerns?
• The “Jim Brown”
• Asks students to revise another paper as their own.
• For credit –usually 5% of final grade
• Objectives
• Like rubric –how well has assignment been understood?
• How well have I been modeling useful feedback?
• How comfortable are students with substantial changes/working with
someone else’s writing?
Strategies (Thomas)
1. 5-Minute Check-In
2. Blog
3. End-of-Unit Survey
5-Minute Check-In
1. Hand-out 3x5 cards near end of class session.
2. Present students with 2-3 questions (written on the
board or screen) that can be answered anonymously
in 5 minutes.
3. Ask students to leave the cards on a desk as they
leave.
• Sample questions:
• What went right today?
• What could have been better today?
• What concept from today’s class still needs
explanation?
Blog
For your blog, answer both of the following two questions. Please use
complete sentences and paragraphs.
1) What is the most difficult part of this week’s reading?
2) What is the most interesting part of the reading?
Rubric
3 points=both questions answered and "most difficult" response is specific
and actionable (i.e., we can talk about it and figure it out)
2 points="most difficult" part is not specific/actionable and/or only one of
the two questions have been completed
1 point=blog post does not demonstrate the reading has been completed
0 points=blog post has not been completed on time
Higdon, Jude and Chad Topaz. “Blogs and Wikis as Instructional Tools: A Social
Software Adaptation of Just-in-Time Teaching.” College Teaching. (Spring
2009) 57:2: 105-109.
End-of-Unit Survey
• Use Survey Monkey or Blackboard survey tool
• Anonymously administer at end of unit/project
• Sample Questions:
• Did our progress through this project move along too fast, too slow,
or was it just about right?
• As an instructor, am I talking too fast, too slow, or just about right?
• On a scale of 1 to 5, how helpful were the assignments that led up
to the project draft?
• What part of the project needed better explanation or practice?
Activity
Discussion