Assessment in the Context
of Universal Design for
Learning:
Opportunities for Students
to Provide Evidence of
Learning
for
Central Memorial High School
UDL Project
March 7, 2006
Ron Windrim
Innovative Learning Services
Assessing Curricular Understanding
GOALS FOR TODAY
1. to distinguish between assessment and
evaluation
2. To consider Some ideas and strategies about
assessment (only some!)
3. to understand how using principles of
universal design for learning influences how
we assess student progress
4. to explore the d2l course – e-valuator to gain
further understanding of assessment in a
digital world.
distinguishing between assessment and evaluation
ASSESSMENT
• Gathering information about student learning that
informs our teaching and helps students to learn
more
• Used when students are acquiring new skills and
knowledge; when they need a chance to practice;
when they require feedback that enable them to
adjust what they are doing in order to get better
EVALUATION
• Deciding whether or not students have learned what
they needed to learn and how well they have learned it
• Tells the learner how she or he has performed
compared to others or to some standard
Anne Davis (2000) Making Classroom Assessment Work
distinguishing between assessment and evaluation
Understanding assessment …
•
Students are involved in planning and assessing their own
learning.
•
Assessment is an integral part of planning for instruction
(that reflects the Alberta Program of Studies).
•
Assessment practices promote student and teacher selfreflection.
•
Parents know and understand classroom assessment and
communication practices that support learning.
From ALBERTA ASSESSMENT CONSORTIUM
distinguishing between assessment and evaluation
TALKING WITH STUDENTS ABOUT LEARNING:
- How would we define learning?
- What does learning look like?
- Why is what we are learning relevant?
- How do we know when we have learned?
- What counts as learning?
- What does learning look like in the 21 st
century?
Connecting prior knowledge and skills with new knowledge and skills;
what we already know and can do with what we need to know and to be
able to do.
distinguishing between assessment and evaluation
Formative assessments – ongoing assessments designed
to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and
students – are essential. They permit the teacher to
grasp the students’ preconceptions, understand where
the students are in the “developmental corridor” from
informal to formal thinking, and design instruction
accordingly. In the assessment-centered classroom
environment, formative assessment help both teachers
and students monitor progress.
From How People Learn: brain, mind, experience and
school
distinguishing between assessment and evaluation
When the learning is captured in print,
digitally, as audio, electronically, it becomes
evidence that can be used later for
conferencing and to report to others
LMS, CMS, Digital portfolios and blogs as tools of assessment
Assessment in the context of universal
design for learning
SOME ASSUMPTIONS
“Giving the same written test to all students is neither fair
nor accurate. When a single, inflexible medium is used for
testing, students' skills with that medium become hopelessly
confused with the skills we intend to measure.”
“Testing separately from teaching and without the supports
that students normally use provides an invalid perspective on
what students know and can do.”
Assessment in the context of universal
design for learning
SOME more ASSUMPTIONS
Digital tools and media make it possible to design ongoing
assessments that support individual differences in
•
•
•
Recognition learning, (how information is received by
students)
Strategic learning (how students demonstrate and
represent their learning)
affective learning ( how students engage with their
learning)
a more accurate measure of students' achievement in relation to
the learning goal in therefore possible
Digital curricula with embedded assessment can track progress
and provide ongoing feedback to help students improve
performance while they are learning
Barriers to accurate assessment
INDIVIDUAL LEARNING DIFFERENCES
Individual differences in content recognition – reading issues,
ESL, physical challenges, attention issues …The natural variety of
recognition strengths and weaknesses within a typical classroom
prevents any single presentational medium form yielding an
unbiased, accurate assessment for the entire class.
Individual differences in ‘strategic’ expression – student’s variable
abilities to plan, execute and monitor actions and skills may
influence performance in ways that are often unrelated to the
skills and knowledge we are trying to assess. Single, standard
modes of expression are not fair to all students
Individual differences in engagement – dangers in high-stakes
testing; test formats – may result in making poor decisions based
upon the results (we re-teach or change instructional methods
when it was our test design that was at fault)
Barriers to accurate assessment
MEDIA CONSTRAINTS
Understood as the interaction between the type of skill
or knowledge being measured and the medium in which it is
being assessed.
Just as students have varying capacities for using different
media, media have different capacities for representing
different kinds of ideas. How do we understand the
appropriateness of the media for the task?
The reliance on singular media prevents teachers from fully
evaluating different kinds of knowing.
http://edutopia.org
Barriers to accurate assessment
LACK OF APPROPRIATE SUPPORTS
Huge issue here with our thoughts about cheating.
If kids use ‘supports’ they are cheating (calculators,
word processors, online dictionaries and thesaurus
When the supports do not undermine the central goal of
the assessment, it is perfectly reasonable and, in fact
more accurate to include them.
Barriers to accurate assessment
LACK OF INTEGRATION WITH CURRICULUM
Often, traditional assessments are detached from
instruction and practice - we test after the unit is
‘taught’ and the tests often have little to do with the
learning process and the value of different teaching
approaches
They avoid the multiple, flexible, ongoing assessments
more like those used by doctors. – think of portfolios
and journals as part of on-going assessment
Assessing Curricular Understanding
Ongoing assessment allows us to measure not
only a students performance at one point in
time, but also the evolution of that learning and
the contributing factors.
“…the assessment of understanding should be
thought of in terms of a collection of
evidence over time”
(Wiggins & McTighe, 1998)
Assessing Curricular Understanding
through udl
Flexibility in presentation
-
-
Providing multiple representations of content in the
context of assessment
-
Text-to-speech;
-
links to important background information;
-
vocabulary supports (linked glossaries);
-
graphic organizers and concept maps;
-
diagrams;
Using “dynamic assessment” – which representations
‘work’? Which do not?
For example http://www.cape.k12.mo.us/blanchard/hicks/Teacher%20Pages/In
spiration.htm
Assessing Curricular Understanding
through udl
Flexibility in expression and supports
Providing student with multiple means for expressing what they
know
-
writing
-
speaking
-
drawing
-
creating animation
-
video
-
multimedia presentations
LEARNING IN THE
MEDIUM(S) OF THEIR
GENERATION
When students are using tools that are familiar and appropriate
for their own styles, needs and are preferences, they are not
hindered by the medium or\f expression and are more likely to be
able to demonstrate what they know and know how to do.
Assessing Curricular Understanding
through udl
Flexibility in engagement
Embedding assessment into ongoing work removes some of
the emotional impact of testing and highlights its more
positive aspects. For students who fear academic
assessment, freestanding tests loom as an obstacle, a
hurdle, a "failure detector." But when assessment is
removed from its isolated stature and made a normal,
constant part of learning, the feedback for both student
and teacher is informative and helpful rather than
intimidating.
Assessing Curricular Understanding
through udl
Flexibility in engagement
In a digital environment, embedded assessment can offer
additional flexibility to further accommodate students' affect.
First, most students find the options available within a multimedia
environment—images, sounds, animations, and simulation—fun and
appealing.
Second, teachers' ability to level and scaffold embedded
assessments can ensure that every student is working at a
comfortable and appropriate stage of difficulty. .
A third way to increase student engagement with assessment is to
vary the content within a particular assessment tool.
Standardized tests rarely do this. A test of reading
comprehension, for example, is likely to present the same set of
text passages for everyone, not taking into account whether each
student will find the passages interesting or worth reading
Using rubrics in assessment
• Why use rubrics in evaluation?
– A rubric is a scale used to evaluate a students
demonstration and performance of certain skills and
knowledge. Using a rubric offers a consistent
method in grading.
– Can be built with students
• What is a rubric?
– a checklist of characteristics that facilitates
assessment of a student's ability to meet the
learning objectives.
– a set of assessment criteria that specifies the
required characteristics for each level of quality,
usually identified by a letter or number grade
• Example – English 30-1
• See Regina Public Schools Rubrics
Provide Assessment before
Evaluation
• Feeding back information to learners to improve
learning
• Learner self-assessment to improve learning
What am I
expected to
learn?
Where am I
in my
learning?
What do I need
to do to get
there?
assessment is at the heart of effective
teaching and cannot be separated from
instruction
Formative Assessment
Dropbox tool in D2L
Provide Meaningful Feedback