Assessments in the Classroom

There are so many ways to assess student learning, it’s impossible to think that traditional paper and pencil tests are the only objective way! Tests, of course, are a valuable assessment tool…don’t get me wrong! But I think it’s easy for traditional teachers, and even school districts for that matter, to fall into the trap of believing the only way to assess learners is through a test. I know it seems like our students are being tested every time I turn my head. ITBS testing, TPRI reading tests, Benchmark assessments, Universal Screening, TAKS tests, you name it. For kids who aren’t great test takers, and I put myself in that category, this isn’t always the best way to get a true picture of what students are capable of.

Informal assessments like discussion, observation and journaling can often be very insightful for keen teachers. Journals can often demonstrate unique insights on the part of the students, while observation gives teachers a prime opportunity to key into if kids are on target or not and redirect immediately. I also think maintaining portfolios can genuinely show growth over a long period of time and be credible assessments of what students are mastering.

For me, this program at GCU has been ideal for this “not a great test taker” student. As a student in my younger days, I always had very good grades, but SAT and ACT test scores didn’t reflect that at all. I always had a deep understanding of what was taught and it was clear in my assignments, projects and daily grades. But. Give me a test? I’d just panic and freeze up!!! Having a portfolio for a long term assessment has been beneficial to me.

I believe the best way to get the best picture of student achievement is through varied assessment methods. Different assessment techniques can provide different information to the educator on how well students are mastering the objective taught.

Technology Infused Classroom

When I take some time to fantasize what an ideal technology infused classroom looks like I get goosebumps!!! I don’t teach in a typical classroom setting, as I’m the technology specialist for our campus. I do, however, lead and coordinate the vision for our building on what this “infused” classroom would look like. Along with the leadership of my school, here is the plan:

The foundations for a technology infused classroom, though, have little to do with technology. I would want a teacher to create a structured environment for learning with students as the focus. A priority for this classroom would be high expectations for the teacher and the learners and an atmosphere of learning and support from all classroom members. I picture a classroom with many resources available at the fingertips of the students and technology is one of those resources. When I walk into this classroom, I would immediately sense activity and a room where learning is the top priority of students and the teacher and all technology is easily accessed by the students. I don’t like being in classrooms where the students aren’t allowed to touch anything in case it breaks! Those are usually the classrooms where it’s not being well utilized, anyway, and is covered in dust!

Now onto the technology infusion aspect of this classroom! For starters, each student would have a laptop with wireless network and internet access. Laptops would be loaded with an Office Suite so word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and database capabilities would be readily available. Students ebooks are also available to them on their computers in the classroom. I dream about when the teacher can say, “Double click on your social studies book and select page 150.” How cool is that?

In addition to their laptops, students have an MP3 player tucked away in their desks to listen to their podcasts. Of course in this perfect technology infused world, none of the students ever dream of using their equipment inappropriately, just to be clear! In this technology infused world, the batteries are always charged and the cords are always in the right places as well.

The teacher has presentation cart available for teaching that would have a laptop (separate from the teacher workstation computer), projector or a ceiling mounted projector, speakers, and a document camera. There is also an interactive white board, digital camera, scanner and printer available for student and teacher use.

I think the best of technology infused classrooms are those that the technology is seamlessly integrated in the midst of good instruction and student centered learning. The focus of the classroom isn’t on the nifty gadgets available, but instead focused on students knowing the right tools to access and when to access them.

Visual Literacy and the Internet

Visual literacy, the internet, teaching and learning are at such a fundamental level. At this point as an educator, if you aren’t utilizing and teaching with these things always on your mind, you are absolutely shortchanging your students. Even if the project the kid is making is a posterboard with macaroni glued on it, visual literacy plays a role. Every part of our oversaturated, over-media exposed lives is loaded with visual literacy. Teaching students how to have the proper filters and aesthetics is critical for them.

I found this article online, http://ccb.lis.illinois.edu/Projects/youth/literacies/cpl.html, and I plan to incorporate this simple approach to visual literacy with at least one grade level when school starts this year, partnering with a 2nd grade classroom teacher. I’ll go into her classroom and use this approach with her students. I love it because it’s literacy based, and will easily integrate into a language arts lesson. They call it a “see-think-wonder” strategy which fits perfectly with our school vision. Our school leadership encourages curiosity and questioning with our students, and students keep a “wonder journal” throughout the year, posing questions and other thoughts of things they wonder about.

I plan to adapt that lesson for students for a short presentation for our staff at a faculty meeting later in the year when we aren't drowning in all the 'beginning of the year' stuff. I think little sound bytes of awareness and education for my staff will allow them to incorporate just a few questions and observations with their students. Over time, it will seem like a natural integration into all of their subject matter.

The internet already plays a huge role in my computer lab and in the classrooms of the teachers I work with. It is part of daily life, and it’s my job to teach them how to be careful users and consumers of information. A lot of what is available is really just a waste of brain cells, really (and I’m freely admitting an extensive loss of brain cells this summer vacation myself….mostly from FACEBOOK!!!), or invalid resources, or downright wrong information….I’m thinking lots of email forwards here that people believe without checking the facts. I also am focusing this year on cyberbullying, and have been developing presentations that are grade level appropriate for each student in my school, in the hopes that they’ll be better participants and learners when using the internet.

It's a Small World

One of the first songs I learned the lyrics to as a kid was “It’s a Small World” for my second grade program. I don’t think I really understood the underlying message, instead thinking that maybe our planet was smaller than the others. As a teenager, I went to DisneyWorld and rode the “It’s a Small World” ride, and of course got a very different image. At that time it was a boat ride through some air conditioning, which felt pretty great and made it worth its while. I saw people and scenes from all over the world. Intriguing. I’ve always been an avid reader, and along the way somehow the doors of the world opened for me with this passion. I finished college, did a teaching stint in rural Kenya for awhile, taught in an inner city barrio (which definitely felt like a foreign land to this meatloaf and scalloped potatoes Midwestern girl), then traveled south to Belize to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer.

I think these things for me were largely a plan for my life and I frankly just stumbled through the decisions as most young adults do. “Why not!? That’ll get a rise out of my folks.” But in hindsight, they have formed me significantly and opened my mind to the population of the universe that doesn’t call themselves Americans. I’ve loved living and immersing myself in the lives of people from other cultures. It has become part of who I am as much as my American-ness is who I am. Indeed, I discovered a much bigger world than the one I grew up in.

My students live in an even different, much larger world than I did. They are less isolated, less innocent, more dependent upon the news and world events than the generation before. We are all so much more connected now, world wide, because of cable TV, cell phones and the World Wide Web. Because of these connections and the expectation that we will build relationships and partnerships across the globe, my students must be prepared in significantly different ways than I was. There are also new challenges that educators must handle in the classroom because of this.

Honestly, as long as the speaker is pretty interesting, I like lectures! No need for Power Point or video enhancements for me. Just done DRONE!!! If I would try that stunt in my classroom or even with my staff as I’m presenting an inservice, I’d start watching eyes glaze over within minutes. As a learner, I experienced little variety in teaching strategies, so I think I just adapted. Lecture then a workbook? Got it. I am aware, though, that such limited teaching strategies left a lot of kids behind.

As we know more about what makes a successful classroom, we know how critically important it is to rely on an assortment of teaching strategy “tools” in our “toolboxes” The more teaching strategies we can incorporate, the more likely we are to meet the needs of all of our students. Cognitive, Behaviorist, Social-Psychological, Constructivist. If we find and utilize a variety of activiies along these lines, we can truly prepare students for the future, as we have provided differentiated instruction for them and met their learning needs.

Technology Integration works hand in hand with teaching strategies, and shouldn’t be seen as something to teach in isolation. Utilizing websites, drill/skill software, interactive white boards, document cameras, word processing software, online research databases, presentation software, etc. can enhance all of the teaching strategies and provide many things for kids:

1. A high level of interest. There are a lot of kids that will suddenly pay attention just because you’re using something that has to plug in! I have to have headphones to learn? I’m all over it!
2. More easily meet the needs of visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.
3. An introduction to the world!!! Suddenly researching Siberia takes on a whole new level of interest when viewing photographs and video clips while listening to Siberian music on your MP3 player and skyping with some kid in Finland who is also studying Siberia.
4. Instantaneous answers. Or at least 11,300,000 Googled answers about “Siberia” available at their fingertips in .30 seconds!

This is our world now! This is the world of the technology natives that we are teaching in their classroom! It seems there is rarely a kid not connected to the world through some form of technology. I teach economically disadvantaged recent immigrants at a Title I school. They don’t have internet at home, but by the time they are in 5^th or 6^th grade, they’ve got a phone and are facebooking on it! Not only must we, the teachers, keep up with these kids the best we can, we have a responsibility to teach them how to be responsible, knowledgeable digital citizens.