Assessing Student Assessment

Let’s have moment of silence for Term 1 because Term 1 was a train-wreck (complete with derailment and burning wreckage) grading/assessment-wise. In my English III and English IV classes, I had only one test, maybe about two weeks into the beginning of the year. (I don’t like making or grading tests.) We are required to have five major grades per a semester and I’m not sure I could tell you what the other four major grades were at this point. My grading was that unorganized and I actually had to answer for it in a parent conference. Well, not answer for it, but I had to acknowledge that it didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

With the help Liz Towle’s schedule and a decision to provide a weekly participation grade, managing assignment, assessments, and grades has become easier. Between the participation grade, the bell ringers, the weekly reading quiz, and occasional practice assignment, my grading has been reduced, simplified, and streamlined. I have successfully adjusted my English III students to the weekly reading/assessment schedule suggested by Liz and English IV is a work in progress. When I teach Mississippi Writers next semester, I plan to use it then as well.

My weekly formal assessments largely focus on extended written responses that require students to make inferences about the text. We are still in the early stages of re-learning AJIE, so I’m grading more for the structure of the response than the actual response. When they have that part down pat, I’ll let them deviate from the strict structure and focus on building their critical thinking responses. English III, which has been on the weekly assessment schedule since the start of Term 2, is adjusting fairly well. English IV, however, only just recently joined the program. My seniors have been in and out of class due to meetings, field trips, and who knows what else, making my job even more difficult on top of the constant individual absences and resulting make-up work.

 

My formal assessment for English III on 11/05/2015. After spending the first half of the period having a class discussion, my students responded to two of the four questions on this quiz.

With each successive round of the formal assessments, I am seeing overall improvement in my English III students’ writing structure and writing time (improved, but not greatly improved). The format allows them to generate thorough, text-supported answers with relative ease. Some still aren’t getting it because they missed the day I retaught AJIE (paragraph structure) and failed to copy the notes from a friend. I let my students know last week that I’m grading extra hard on structure until I’m confident everyone knows the steps and is meeting my expectations for paragraph structure – hopefully this will push some others to meet my expectations or, at the very least, help them understand the grades they have been receiving on quizzes. To further help their writing, I plan to incorporate further AJIE practice within my weekly lessons and even have them collectively evaluate selected peer responses (anonymously of course) so they know what I am looking for more concretely.

For informal assessments, I have been giving students class time to independently read our stories for the week and have been requiring that they use reciprocal reading steps (Predict, Question, Clarify, & Summarize) to annotate their readings. The kids aren’t overly enthusiastic about the extra written work, but it slows them down and makes them think about the text more (even if shallowly at times). I’m also thinking about making guided reading questions for students who aren’t showing improvement in reading comprehension over time despite completion of the annotations. I have already decided to give my 5^th period guided reading questions because they need the practice with independent reading, but aren’t quite able to handle coming up with their own questions about the text. Plus, I can ask them a combination of low and medium-level DOK questions – both textual details and small inferences about the text – to help them take in more while reading. For my other classes, I grade the annotations for completion and don’t pay too much attention to the questions they ask (just as long as they are related to the story). That’s what I have class discussions for.

Beginning of my guided reading questions for my fifth period class. This worksheet incorporated the Predict, Question, and Summarize steps from reciprocal reading. We had a vocabulary day earlier in the week to partially cover the Clarify step.

I largely base informal assessment on student responses during the lesson (my participation grade) and the weekly discussion. On discussion/quiz day, I have the students generate their own questions about the text, which they share with the class. Other students are allowed to respond and discuss, while I facilitate. I’m working to become a better facilitator by demanding textual support and asking follow-up questions so that they expand their answers. I will occasionally ask questions that might show up on the quiz when students don’t ask those questions themselves. (Although, it’s totally rewarding when they do.) Class discussions really give me a chance to see who understands the material and who does not. When I need to, I am able to interject and help clarify any confusion. Most confusion at this point stems directly from low reading comprehension. Students miss so many details from the text due to lack of interest, lack of understanding of diction and syntax, or a hurry to finish the assignment. Sometimes this means class discussion is focused more on the summary of events than inferences and critical thinking, but basic understanding is crucial to higher level thinking. And more importantly, no matter the DOK level of the questions being asked, I am at least getting my kids to talk about literature in some capacity one day a week.

Other forms of assessment include notebook quizzes (reviewing old information while also checking the completion of their notes) and small assignments to practice new skills, such as identifying theme, using new vocabulary correctly in sentences, and so on. I infrequently grade the practice assignments as they are just practice (and as a teacher, I have a finite amount of time for grading). When we have the time, I try to discuss my students’ responses to their work and make sure they are on the right path.

My first notebook quiz for my English III students. This term, I have been more diligent in reminding students to fill out their table of contents. I also have an example table on contents for each class so students identify if they have missed any notes on day they were absent. The above quiz only asked question about information covered in the second term. Students were allowed to use their notes, but scores indicated many students' notes were incomplete in some form or another.

Is my assessment system sophisticated? Not really. But I feel it has significantly improved since the first term and improvement is all anyone can ask of me.