Wiggins+Ch.+7

Chapter 7 The chapter, “Thinking like an assessor”, really got me thinking....like an assessor :-) Clever! But it is true, for me too! One of the first things to recognize is that the point of assessment would be check to see if the outcome the teacher desires for the student, in terms of learning and understanding, is happening. I couldn't have said it better! I think this should be a major point for all educators. It fun to do actives, but if the means don't justify the end, then what is the point? (Chase S) It is not a means of generating grades. Unfortunately, that is what these lower-order thinking assessments have been for a lot of teachers. It shouldn't be, because assessment should align with the curriculum goals. I agree. Several teachers in my building use assessments as a way to give grades. Although assessments are a great way to measure understanding, they shouldn't be the only measure of understanding. Also, assessments should be a guide for teachers. Data tells us what we have taught well, what we need to reteach, and what we need to teach next. Assessments also allow us to group children, use interventions to help our low students, and enrich curriculum for our high students. (ally) I really agree with that last sentence that you wrote! If we as teachers are using assessments correctly then we are grouping, intervening, and essentially checking ourselves to make sure the students are understanding what we teach. If they are not understanding, then we have to find a new approach to make sure they get it and no one is falling through the cracks. Essentially it means to me we are constantly assessing but not in the formal terms that we were all raised on (i.e; end of chapter tests etc.) Now, forgive me if I become too philosophical about all of this, but when I was reading this conversation and the book it began to occur to me. Are we really starting to say "what is the point of grades?" If we are ultimately looking to be great teachers and help our students reach levels of understanding then and if we are doing all of this correctly students will show different levels of understanding and progress which is the final and also continual goal. (That should be enough in my eyes). I know some schools have started to go this way with numbers instead of letter grades but I think too many parents still find a way to attach their old grading ideas to the new numbers. I completely agree with this. At my school the younger grades use plus, check, I, and N on graded work and report cards. Every year I have at least 1 parent ask me "What letter grade is this equivalent to?" As much as I try to discourage that sort of thinking it's how we were all raised and something very difficult to break! I DO THINK THAT PARENT EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL. IF WE ARE EVER GOING TO CHANGE OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, WE ARE GOING TO NEED TO TAKE THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE TO A NEW PARADIGM IN EDUCATION. Maybe we should get rid of the grading system, in a way. We could use the six facets at the means to see if the student is able to move onto the next level (Chase S). In some sense, I don't know what either system really tells you. Assessments that are authentic, planned around big questions, involve the 6 facets of understanding, and are supported by activities that lead to the understandings being assessed should be all that parents need to see the learning and progress that is occuring in their children. However, I still don't know if that is enough. Too many people are stuck on numbers and state testing to measure the value of their children and teachers. To emphasize this point when the text made a comment to the difficulty that teachers have with misconceptions on validity and assessment I wondered, "If teachers who are trained in these things have a problem with it, then how can law makers properly understand these ideas who often create and choose the assessments that will be used?" Gretchen Another thing that the author mentioned, which was thought-provoking, was that instead of focusing on the evidence of transferability (and application), teachers tend to focus on the accuracy of knowledge and skill of the material. This will not give you a desired outcome. In addition If, as a teacher, we think as an activity designer versus an assessor, that is a problem because our design will be less focused on the results we desire and less coherent. In addition, in terms of assessments, we must consider a range of assessment methods. The continuum of assessments in Figure 7.4 is a wonderful tool to use. To me, this chapter served as a way to debunk the myth that assessment as an afterthought is beneficial. I can see why assessment must be done before activities in the lesson is planned. I really like the figure too! (ally) Any visual always helps me! WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEW STANDARDS AND THE PERFORMANCE BASED ASSESSMENTS

I can relate to the section of this chapter which explains that thinking like an assessor is "an unnatural process." As a person with an elementary background, I'd have to admit that thinking like an activity designer comes more natural to me than thinking like an assessor. Completely agree with this! It's so difficult at our level! Figure 7.3 was helpful to determine some great examples which differentiate between the two. My other big take-away from this chapter was that assessment of understaning should be an on-going process. I've heard of formative assessments before, but again, would have to admit that it isn't as easy to actively practice "fomative" assessments as it is to give diagonistic assessments (for grouping) and/or summative assessments (for grades). According to Wiggins and McTighe, assessments shouldn't just be out-of-context drills, but should be a PERFORMANCE. An example of a basketball game was given here which makes a lot of sense to me now. We should be thinking, for the students to do this, what smaller pieces can we work on that will help them achieve the larger goal.The idea of drills really hit home with me as well (Chase S). Assessments are once again, the "transferable" skills and knowledge we have been talking about each week in class. The 6 facets of understanding became a little more clear to me when an example of an assessment within each facet was given in this chaper. I found it helpful to have many different subject area and grade level examples given. The other thing to remember about assessments is that the performances should require students to adress the Essential Questions. So, we luck out when we frame our Essential Questions just right. Lastly, I agree that assessments are usually used mainy for grading purposes rather than to document learning. My question then for the group is, what is the happy medium then when our school systems place such a major emphasis of grades? What does "documented learning" look like in your classrooms and is it used as an on-going process? I DO THINK THAT I KNOW WHAT PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS WILL LOOK LIKE IN OUR SCHOOLS AFTER THE NEW ASSESSMENTS COME OUT. I WAS TALKING TO A COLLEAGUE WHO WORKED IN KENTUCKY AND THEY USED PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS. SHE SAID THEY TOOK STUDENTS OUT RANDOMLY FROM A CLASS AND HAD THEM BASICALLY WORK ON PROJECT BASED ACTIVITIES. T We use a LOT of assessments at our school, particularly in my department (foreign language), and it/the grades seem to be a good guage of student learning. We do formative assessments all the time on reading, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar (at least 1 a week of each) as well as summative assessments every couple of weeks or at the end of each unit and these are what students' grades are based on. They are not graded on homework, only assessments, because many students' grades would then reflect their "responsibility" rather than their knowledge/skills in the target language. The assessments are anything from projects to journal entries to conversations to a variety of other things. I think the assessments do a good job measuring the students' skills/abilities and I think their grades accurately reflect how proficient they are in the language, aka, our main, overall goal. (Michelle)

This chapter was really interesting. I liked how the chapter compared an assessor to an activity designer. It seems that teachers try to create interesting assessments rather than making sure that they acutally assess the knowledge that students know. (Which was discussed in an earlier chapter.) The three basic questions really spell out the ways that teachers should organize their activites to assess what the students know. I'm also glad that the chapter pointed out that T/F and multiple choice questions can be very misleading as to what students actually knows. Yeah, but it's so easy for teacher to grade these!!!! just kidding. See I feel that a true/false or multiple choice type questions could be a lead to another extended response question to help them transfer the idea of the subject. I'm not so quick to drop the t/f or multiple choice questions because for some students it helps them organize their thoughts. (Julie) I like the idea of allowing students to first start by telling the answer to organize their thoughts and then expand on what they know about hte topic. Although, most teachers would rather just give the T/F because it is much easier to grade and takes less time when making the test. GRASPS is a great criteria to fill out when figuring out assessments. It's easy to go down through the prompt and fill in the sentences to allow the best forms of assessments. I would really like to see more examples for primary grades using the GRASPS. I don't think it resonated as well with me because I couldn't see it as easily working with the primary curriculum.

This chapter really got me thinking about how I use assessment in my classroom. The one thing that stood out to me is the importance of using authentic assessment. So many times I get caught up in “needing grades” that most of my assessment ends up being a worksheet or something torn out of one of our workbooks. While this usually shows me if the students get the concept, it doesn’t show me that they truly understand it. I think I was the same way as a high school student and I'm pretty sure I'm the same way as a graduate student. That is because grades are like the bottom line, it's like all that matters when you go back and look on your experiences or your record of what you accomplished. I need to try to work on this. I understand the "I Need More Grades" justification, even though I could always tell anyone exactly how well each student was doing in each subject. That physical justification is the bottom line for us (unfortunately). On page 156 the authors said that “transferability is understanding revealed” and this made me realize that the assessments I use need to focus more on application. I also realized that even though I feel like I’m truly assessing my students I tend to fall more into the “activity designer” category. Teaching early childhood I always feel like I need to have some sort of fun thing for my students to do so they stay engaged and have fun, when in reality the activity may not really be serving any true purpose. To start assessing more for understanding I liked the GRASPS task design prompts on page 159 and the “A student who really understands…” chart on page 163. I commented on this yesterday, but it's gone so I'll try again :) I really thought the GRASPS task design was great too! I could see that being very beneficial for myself and my students as I try to implement more authentic assessment into my teaching (Nicole). These helped me see what authentic assessment and understanding should look like and how I can begin using it in my classroom.

I think this chapter was a really beneficial chapter for teachers to read. I think it is true that a lot of teachers play the role of activity designer more often than that of an assessor. I can say that I was guilty of this as well when I was in the classroom. I used to teach and teach and then at the end of the unit I would test the students. I never really thought about how I was going to assess the students for understanding before I implemented the lesson, I just went about the lessons and thought about the assessment when the time came. I do this too! Sometimes we get so caught up in the day to day teaching, that we forger the big ideas! (ally) I'll admit that I am guilty of this at times as well! I don't always think about how I'm going to assess my students before I start a unit or lesson. Sometimes its not unit the end, when I think back to what we all covered in the unit, that I create an assessment to see what the students learned. It obviously goes against backwards design to do this but sometimes it's just easier.(Jason) I am also guilty of this! I try to do assessment during the course of a unit but it's usually a last minute thing taken from the workbook. I don't know why I did that though, because in football we always have a plan of action. Whenever we set goals or start a season, we never just set them and start playing. Whenever we ask our players to set goals the next question we ask is how they plan to accomplish those goals. It seems to be the same in education. We set our goals for our students, or what we want them to understand. The next step shouldn't be to start teaching them, but it should be to ask ourselves how we are going to accomplish these goals, and how will we assess if we are reaching these goals. I also agreed with the book on page 152 when they discussed how assessment is more than a single test at the end of a unit, but rather a collection of evidence along the way, using a variety of methods and formats. The next paragraph then went into all the different ways you can assess for understanding along the way. I think it is very important for teachers to have a gameplan at the start of a unit about how they are going to accomplish the goals for the unit and how they are going to assess along the way. I think thats why this chapter was important and so beneficial for teachers to read (Dan). Teachers need to have a plan how to assess students everyday. Starting with a question of the day in order to review what they learned the day before and ending with an exit ticket to check their understanding for the lesson of they day (Silvia).

I think this chapter really put the concept of assessing students into perspective for me. One thing I’ve struggled with this year is trying to create authentic assessments. I’ve talked with my intervention specialist about how we can create more “applicable” assessment methods for students, rather than just using paper/pencil. Thus far, my summative assessments have been paper/pencil, but I try to create an “apply it” section on each test, where students are using their knowledge to solve real world problems. I think this deepens understanding, but I haven’t been completely satisfied with it. One thing that has always frustrated me as a sub is that math teachers constantly have the kids skip the "apply it/explain it" questions following drill ws. There was a time as a student when I believed that those questions were too hard to be answered. As a teacher I now realize that those are the tough questions, but they are the most important ones because they require you to express your **understanding.** So bully for you, adding that apply it section! The chart on page 170, the circular priorities really made me think about my assessments. Yes, it’s ok to have traditional tests, but when it comes to assessing the bigger picture, it’s better to use performance task assessments. I felt page 154 gave a good list of characteristics of authentic assessments. I could really see myself using the GRASPS task design prompts on page 159 to design authentic assessments as well. Two things that I’ve seen as recurring themes in this book are the idea of transferability and the six facets. I think seeing real examples of authentic assessments as they relate to each of the facets makes it more clear for me. (Nicole) I can imagine your dilemma. I stated in my response that I think the GRASP and real-situations are ideal, but in the current educational setting seems almost impossible at times. But I like the idea of of your real-life section on your tests...you are trying and that is all you can do. (KAREN) I just feel that with my area that it could be hard to fill in all the areas required by the GRASPS, I did like it too but I'm also unsure as to how much time there would be to really apply it. (Julie)

//** When I first started this book I was intrigued to think of teachers as designers, and now I am an assessor, as a opposed to thinking like an activity designer! WOW that really makes me want to replan all the lessons I have ever created. I just get so intimidated by how much time it might take and do I have TIME? Probablly not, but as we learn more about being an assessor, maybe I will learn the tricks of the trade that will eleviate my fears somewhat? I too feel anxious at a thought like this, but I believe that once you have the correct mindset you do not have to redo all of you lesson planse just redirect or reign them in a little more. I hope that we are all on the right path but maybe we just need some help to continue to refine our craft. (Gretchen) I like the chart on page 151 that describes the approach to being an activity designer and an assessor. When assessing verbs sound something like an actor or scientist would "do", PERFORM a task, types of EVIDENCE, what is sufficient as oppossed to fun! That is what I have seen in my experiences is that students just want to have fun and play and not think and when asked to do so they shut down and resist. I wonder how much computers and social networks and things of that nature play a role in that mentality. I think our society says if it is not fun, fast and easy to obtain, FORGET IT! Am I wrong? Performing and showing evidence is a deeper meaning, application and transfer of knowledge. then on the activity it used words like is it fun, what projects (just recalling facts usually), what tests should I use instead of what criteria well we consider work...AS THE WHOLE IDEA OF UBD says get to the real meaning and understanding by using making the students have to show evidence, justify their answer. This leads me to the idea that teachers should use the JUDICIAL ANALOGY! This means to think of my students the same way that juries think of the accused. I had always felt like I have to prove what my students are learning or that they are making process and the Judicial analogy I thought was perfect. It put a name to my game. (Gretchen) The accused are innocent (no knowledge or understanding) until guilty and evidence that is more than circumstantial. NEED HARD CORE EVIDECE. To me this means that quizzes and tests are just circumstancial and they crammed the night before, but no real evidence so they really are not learning. **// //** On page 174 it talks about different assessments and i really like the analogy that assessment should be more like a scrapbook and not just a single snapshot or pictures. This means that I need more EVIDENCE of learning along the way and not just a final test or assessment and to keep track of the learning or in some cases, not learning. I also need to use a variety of assessments, which I think we all know is important. I like the line in the second paragraphy on page 174 that says that understanding develops as a result of on-going inquiry. I think we would all agree with this ,so how have we not done this before, or lost sight of this. I do not want to blame everything on NCLB, but we need to change the system where learning is the focus and not the test. Acountability is nice and all, but I think that is all the powers that be focus on and the learning has been pushed aside. I think one of the mjor ideas of assessment using UBD is that idea of trying to create tasks that emulate real-life situations and having the students be able to experience and investigate possible solutions to the problem. I beleive this will all of my heart, but in the four walls of a classroom and the limitations, is the realistic to replicate in the classroom? Thus try and use GRASP for tasks! **// //** GRASP-Goal, Audience, Situation, Product, Standars....On pages 158-160 there are examples of tasks using GRASP....Since I love history theres is senario where the studetns have to use at the college level. What really happened to the Cheyenne Indians and they have to research a possible indian massacre and look at congressinal transcripts and create your own narritive for a book. **// //** Goal: what really happened to the Cheyenne Indians? **// //** Audience: professors and peers **// //** Situation:1. research a possible massacre and the evidence of it and how true is it by reading congressinal material 2. compile and present in formal manner that could be included in a text book. At this point if going to be published, the student could actually work with a publisher? **// //** Product: A written piece (article, essay, chapter what even may be appropriate for the assignement or text book) that can be published in a text book **// //** Standards: Use factual and ligitamate sources for your research that your narritve will be based (in essence it is historical fiction) and must be written like and author so that it could possibly be published. (KAREN) **// //** Teachers think as assessors at all times. We are assessing our students throughout the learning process by using formative and summative assessments. I like the Misconception Alert in page 169 that says that teachers need to gather evidence of understanding throughout the lesson or unit and not at the end of it. I agree with the misconception, what is the point of teaching an entire unit if the students students were lost on day one? We should be gathering evidence throughout the lesson or unit to see if we need to change what we are doing by either spending more or less time on a concept based on where our students are. (Jason) **// //** Therefore, Wiggins is trying to tells us that we should use more formative and less summative assessments. Formative assessments will give us the evidence that we need to know to realize if students understand or not the lesson or unit. At the same time, summative assessment is not 100% reliable; the results will depend on different factors. **// //** Teachers often use assessments to inform students about their expectations, to let students know what kind of performance is required to be successful. For example, in my classrooms assessments such as quizzes, tests, etc. count as a 40% of their grades. So, my students know that almost half of their effort in a test or quiz goes into their final grade; therfore, they try their best. I think it's a good to have some things worth more to show their importance, but it all comes back to what/how your assessing. For this I really like the continuem of assessments. It gives a variety of assessments that can show what the studentes know. I also worry about making tests and quizzes a high percentage of the students overall grade because of the students that have test anxiety. They may know the information, but the student may end up with mad marks if their main form of showing what they know is on a test that they end up failing because they don't test well. **//**After reading this chapter and the posts, I've tried to incorporate much more formative assessment in my classes and I've had some really great results. One of the things I consider when designing formative assessments is the concern that many of you have expressed about students having test anxiety; our students' grades are strictly assessment grades so I try to make the formative assessment very similar to what the summative assessment will be. I wasn't sure how much they would try knowing that the "quizzes" aren't graded but they actually seem to appreciate the chance to practice. (Michelle)** ** Theachers also use them as behavior control and classroom managment tools. I don't use them as behavior control, but I know some teachers do. I have a friend that she uses quizzes all the time for behavior purposes and she gets good results (Silvia). How does she use them for behavior? Does she use them as threats? (Michelle) **

//** The authors seem to be in favor of real-world applications being used for assessment. On the surface, I agree with this thought process. Not only does it more effectively assess student understanding, but real-world applications tend to give students a purpose to learn the material, which leads to better understanding. Chase, I agree with you in the fact that students gain a better understanding when they are able to relate to the materials. Real-world application questions during assessment is a great way to not only check for understanding but to also show students why we are teaching them certain concepts. (Jason) **// //**I also like the analogy made about "drilling" out of context and "performing" with knowledge and skill. This reminds me of coaching my football players. It doesn't benefit them to drill a specific skill with no context of when it will be used. I have to try to make it as authentic as possible so they fully understand when and how that skill will be used.**// //**I often wonder why more teachers don't make an attempt to assess students in this manner. Is it that it is more work for them that they don't want to do? Or do our teachers need to be educated on how to assess students more authentically? (Chase)**// //**In this chapter it really makes you think twice about how you create your tests. I really liked the three questions it poses: What kinds of evidence do we need? What specific characteristics in student responses, products, or performances should we examine? Does the proposed evidence enable us to infer a students' knowledge, skill, or understanding? I just feel that most teachers should really consider even one of these questions to create tests or assessments that will benefit their students more, not so the teacher can get a quick grade. ( Which is something that teachers are thinking about as budgets get cut and class sizes are at 30. That's a lot of tests to grade)  They hit it head on with "Teacher tests tend to focus on the accuracy of knowledge and skill rather than on evidence of transferability, based on big ideas in how to use knowledge and skills effectively." I totally agree with them saying effective teachers gather evidence over time to evaluate their students instead of one single event (test). A teacher should always be assessing their students in a variety of ways, we learn early on in undergrad how students learn in different ways, which is why it bothers me so much when some teachers constantly stick to their method of teaching and refuse to change things up. I have never been a good test taker and it really bothers me when I see teachers refuse to take grades any other way but with tests. They drove the point home with "Authenticity", trying to challenge the teacher to assess them with authentic tasks/problems/projects. They even put in there the ultimate question of when will I ever use this information again? I actually started to laugh! I could hear some of my students voices with that statement. **// //**I liked the "GRASPS" but my question is how can you fill in all the prompts? I was thinking of some lessons I've done before and I struggled with filling in all the questions. The six facets give you a good guideline to follow when creating tests/projects/quizzes. It really makes you explore as the teacher how to get the students to look hard at the topic and to go deeper with the information, instead of just skimming the surface. (Julie) **// **I agree with everyone that the GRASPS figure is a good way of making sure our assessments are including everything they need to include. I also agree that designing our lessons around our assessments is critical because the goals/essential questions/desired skills & understandings/etc. will be more clear and meaningful for our students - everything will stick better. But I also noticed a lot of people saying (and maybe this is just the impression I got and I'm putting words into everyone's mouths) that traditional quizzes are something of the past and that they aren't useful anymore because they don't "dig deep enough" into content. When I think about those types of quizzes that everyone seems to be condemning, I automatically think of things like vocabulary and multiplication quizzes that are short and sweet and to the point - do you know what this word means. I think the authors are saying that these types of assessments are okay to use, still, but that we need a variety of other, authentic types so that students don't ALWAYS just skim the surface. I think exit tickets often fall into the same category of assessment as vocabulary quizzes do and that both are very useful, depending on the stage in learning that the students are at.**

I thought this was one of the better chapters I have read so far. I thought it had a great way of setting up how we should structure our lessons to fit the ubd model. The chart on page 151 (Figure 7.3) really help me clear my thoughts after I finished the reading. The five points help me understand what we are asking for compared to what 'normally' a teacher would, that is based on activity centered. For example, the 2nd to last bullet in the activity centered one was: How well did the activities work? What does this have to do with teaching? If we looked at this in a 'deconstructionist' way, as long as they did well we did fine. But what if we had the students throw rocks at buildings. If they did this well then we were successful! Yippee ki yay! But if we could have questions that showed us some central understand of the topic or if they could enlighten another on the topic, I see some potential for growth. I liked that bullet point too. It has been a while since I have planned anything for myself (as a sub you get what is given); however I find myself constantly asking that question at the end of an activity or even at the end of the day "How well did this work?". Granted some days I respond with, "well, they all made it onto the correct bus and no one died today." However, I always appreciate when I have an opportunity to look back and ask "did the kids get what they needed to out of that?" or the other assessor questions "did it reveal those who really understood from those who only seemed to? Am I clear on the reasons behind learner mistakes?" That's when I feel that I can leave a true picture of the day for the teacher, rather than just behavior notes.