Chapter 10

Assessing Meaningful Learning: Authentic and Performance Assessment
Authentic assessment forces teachers to rethink assessments. It makes teachers align activities and what is being assessed. Performance assessment is when a teacher asks a student to perform a certain skill. I think both of these assessments are used in classrooms today. Many teachers are aware and sometimes not aware that they are using these types of assessment. What’s important about these two types of assessment is that they assess meaningful learning which is what should be happening in the classroom. Both of these types of assessment can be done with paper and pencil or through different types of technologies. This chapter does an excellent job in presenting different technologies that can be used to achieve the purposes of assessments. In the future I will use both of these assessments in the classroom, whether it is through the clicker system, computer tests, or portfolios online.

Technology-Based Assessments
Teachers who combine assessment and technology can make data easier to manage and a little easier to prepare and give. This type of assessment allows teachers to see if students understand the material right away and it also takes a lot of the hard work out of grading students’ tests. The only downfall I see with using only technology-based assessments is that students will not be able to expound on their answers as much. Most of the time these types of assessments will only ask students to choose the right answer instead of asking them to describe how or why they got the answer they did. Teachers need to be aware that in order to fully understand whether students understand what they have learned they must also be assessed by explaining and using their knowledge in other contexts.
Do you think teachers should only use technology-based assessments or something else?

Assessing Growth over Time with Electronic Portfolios
After reading this section I knew that I really wanted to use this in my future classroom. This type of assessment is so creative and something that students would really enjoy working on and seeing over time. E-portfolios are very similar to paper portfolios in that they are some sort of “folder” or “file” that keeps work over a certain period of time for students to see their progress. Instead of paper copies of things, e-portfolios keep electronic artifacts and documents. A huge benefit with using this is that students will be able to see their progress over time and can see how well they have improved on different projects. E-portfolios can be used through websites on the internet. A website that students and teachers could use is Microsoft Front Page. This website is very useful and user-friendly for both the teacher and students. These types of portfolios are called working portfolios, but there are also in standards-based portfolios and external evaluation portfolios. In the future I will definitely use this type of assessment in my classroom. This will help to promote meaningful learning with students. I will use portfolios over a year long period with important projects. I will also use this with different content-based projects that might last a couple of weeks. Not only can the teacher and students benefit from using this type of technology but also this can be used for parents to check on students’ work and see what is happening in the classroom. Teachers can give assess to students parents and guardians to see what is happening in the classroom.
http://www.eportfolio.org/

Assessing Performance with Technology-Based Rubrics
Rubrics are so important for both students and teachers. Teachers need to have guidelines on how to grade and students need guidelines on how to complete the assignment. This section of the reading was a bit new to me. I was aware of using rubrics in the classroom but was not aware of the options that teachers had to choose a rubric to use in the classroom. The first option for teachers to use is using a rubric bank. In this teachers will find a rubric that has already been made and change their activity to fit this rubric. This option is great on teachers because it will save teachers time by finding and using an already used rubric. Another option for using rubric is using a program to make your own rubric to match your activity. This can be a bit more time consuming but can be useful because it was made for the activity. A program or website that can be used to help make a rubric is Rubric Processor. This has a step-by-step process to help teachers through the process of making a rubric. In the future I will use both of these options in my classroom. I know that there will be times when I have projects that are new and creative and won’t have a rubric, so I will have to make one. I will also use rubrics that have been used for projects. The good thing about this is that I will extra time to devote to something else, because we all know that teachers are pressed for time.
http://ide.ed.psu.edu/ITSC/RubrProc/H_rubric.htm
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.shtml

Clicker Assessment Tools
This is not the first time I have heard about clickers. In college I have used these in many of my classes. We used them for quizzes, attendance, and questions during lessons. This concept of using this in the classroom is one that I will definitely consider in the future. By using this I can see if students understand right away and can get students actively involved in learning. Students will love to use these because they are actively participating in the lesson by giving their input. I also like to hear that these devices allow for students to be intrinsically motivated. A main goal of teachers is to encourage and get students to be intrinsically motivated to do something. Sometimes this can be difficult and if a teacher could use something as inexpensive as this they should. In the future I will uses these for pre-tests before I begin a lesson, for attendance at the beginning of the day (like an interesting question at the beginning of the day for the students to think about), or during the lesson for a discussion. By using this during the lesson, I will be able to see if students have comprehended the concepts and also allow for discussion among students.
In what ways could clickers be used in the classroom?

Assessing Learning with Computer-Based Tests and Surveys
This section was a bit unfamiliar for me. I have heard of this but didn’t know to what extend this could be used in the classroom. These types of tests can be useful for the teacher because they can get results faster. The problem that I see with using these with student is that it doesn’t seem motivating or interesting to the student. An application that can help with this is called computerized adaptive testing or CAT. This was interesting to learn about because this application can adapt to the student that is taking it. The level of the questions can change so that the students are challenged but don’t get frustrated when answering. This is very interesting to me and seems to be useful. The only downfall is this is very expensive to use. Other assessments that are computer-based are surveys and polls like survey monkey. This can also be used to assess students understanding while still getting them involved. I will definitely use this assessment survey in my classroom. I would use it during class and after class. I can use this for homework, and students will have to answer the questions after school to see if comprehension and understand took place from the lesson.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
http://www.polleverywhere.com/
http://echo.edres.org:8080/scripts/cat/catdemo.htm