Readings for June 23rd

Getting Started With Open-Ended Assessment (broken calculator)
     This article talks about different ways you can begin to implement open-ended assessment into your classroom. It also talks about the positives and negatives. It is important to create an environment conducive to sharing, make sure students understand your expectations, give examples of what you expect, be patient, keep trying, and there is an online database available with open-ended questions you can use until you become more comfortable writing your own. Your students will become more confident in themselves and their ability to learn and you will be able to better understand what they understand. These are difficult to implement because they take more time to create, administer, and grade. Responses vary greatly and this can make consistent grading difficult. If you don't ask the question correctly it may be difficult to get what you want out of the answer.

A Smorgasbord of Assessment Options
     This article talks about how in order for assessment to be effective you need to know exactly what you are assessing, who it's for, and why you need it. It should guide instruction. Teachers should use a variety of assessment types and have a good idea of what students are thinking. (Van Heile model of geometric thought: visualization, analysis, informal deduction, deduction, rigor). Assessment should be integrated into each unit. Before. During. After. It should allow for students to deepen their understanding of the concepts they are working with.

Understanding Student to Open-Ended Tasks
     This article describes an open-ended geometry question asked to a class of sixth graders.  They had to find the area of an irregular object. I feel like the teacher had a hard time being able to describe what she actually expected from her students. She wanted everything to be super specific. Students should be able to explain themselves, but I don't think all of them had a clear idea of her expectations. Students should be able to show detail in their understanding when explaining their work, but they can't be expected to do so in the very first open-ended problem you give them.

Assessing Students' Understanding Through Conversations
     This article talks about how it can be an effective assessment tool to simply have a conversation with your students. You can talk to them and have them explain things to you. You can have them talk to each other or share with the class. By simply listening to their responses and explanations you can spot areas of difficulty or areas they may struggle with. You can also see what they understand very well because they will tell you exactly what how and why they did something. It is important to establish an open environment in your classroom that allows students to feel as if they can share their ideas and speak openly and honestly without fear of ridicule.

An Experiment In Using Portfolios in Middle School
     This article talks about a math teacher who began using portfolios as a type of assessment in her class. Students were required to include things like work they had corrected to show their growth. They included work that they enjoyed doing and understood really well to show their strengths. Many of the assignments were accompanied by introductions and reflections. All of these pieces help a teacher to get a much fuller understanding of what a student is grasping and where they need extra assistance. The teacher in this article used the creating of the portfolios not only as assessment for her students, but as assessment for herself as well. She adapted her teaching to benefit her students.