The first idea I contemplated when I was brainstorming for my conceptual unit and concept map was how to assess my students. Sure, it is a lot easier to make a test that asks the facts and details from a student but I knew that was not my goal for either of these assignments. For example, with the conceptual unit I decided that I was going to give my students choices that mirrored multiple learning styles. One of these projects consisted of a radio broadcast for those who wanted to be creative, and were in to using different types of technology such as vlogs and other audio tools online. Another assessment was a CD case and analysis for those who associate themselves with music or learn better with a musical learning style. On the other hand, I offered a very conventional assigment they could choose from which was a compare and contrast paper. I was pretty happy with the way these assessments turned out and it took me awhile to figure out why. Then it became apparant that it was not neccessarily the assessments I offered but that I simply allowed them have a choice.
With assessments I think it is very important to allow more than one way to answer the unit essential question. Not only does it allow the students some freedom but it also allows them to do something they actually want to do. What is the point in forcing all of your students to have their understanding measured the same way? To me it makes more sense to have students pick assessments that interest them. People tend to try harder at things that enjoy because it becomes less of a task and more of an enjoyable experience. For example, in high school we all had to create a pop-up book of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and present them to the class. This was a terrible assessment for me because I can't draw, I'm not crafty, and to me it wasn't proving anything. Other students felt the same way and resorted to not doing it at all because some students didn't want to speak in front of the class or be teased because of their drawing skills. I think the teacher had good intentions; it was creative, it appealed to those who liked to be crafty, but it did not allow everyone a fair chance to show that they knew the material.
Another thing about assessments that I learned was that they have to serve a pupose and make that students feel like it is not simply busy work. I know that it sounds pretty obvious; however, it took me some time to realize that. These assessments need to link back to the unit question and the lesson questions. After all, the point of these questions is to make sure that the students can answer these after each lesson and the end of the unit. If these assessments are not geared to that then how can we make sure that the students CAN answer those questions? I think that is one of the reasons that multiple choice tests fail. One cannot possibly see if a student learned material by asking them to remember details of a story. Naturally, that can show that they read it; however, just because they read it does not mean they understand it or are making connections. The more a student can construct on ther own the better. Clearly multiple choice tests do not allow that to happen.
As for making my own multiple choice test for the concept map, I feel like it was a blessing and a curse. It made me realize how ineffective they are, but it made the assignment take a lot longer and made it more challenging. It took me probably three hours collectively to come up with questions for this test. As I look back, I still feel that my questions were not that great because it left me with two battles:
1) First one being making questions that ask details from the story. As we have previously talked about, is it that important if a student can recall what color something was? Not really.
2) Another breing the questions that were multiple choice but could be interpreted different ways. You can't ask open-ended mutliple choice questions that are effective. Not all students may have read the story the way that you the teacher have. Therefore, how can you mark an answer wrong just because a student may not have drawn the same conclusions as you?
I feel like both of these types of questions ended up in my objective test one way or another. I tried to create good questions but it was very difficult to do. I ended up re-wording my questions, taking out questions, figuring out ways to combine questions, etc. It became frustrating and very time consuming. Overall, I think it was a good idea that we had to do this objective test because it made me realize that these types of tests are not always beneficial. It also made me realize how hard it can be to even create one. Gallagher makes a valid point when he writes, "A curriculum steeped in multiple-choice test preparation drives shallow teaching and learning" (Gallagher 8). I completely agree this, particularly as I was in the middle of creating my objective test. I kept thinking to myself that this quiz was very easy and that anyone could pass this test because a multiple choice test allows for students to guess and get credit by picking a random letter if they don't know the answer. Students are not forced to think critically but remember facts. These tests are manageable at a very superficial level. The students read, memorize, and prove that they memorized. To me, that is not what tests are about and Gallagher proves that point.
On a happier note, I feel as though my alternative assessment was good and a breath of fresh air after creating the objective test. The first thing that I did was ask myself what my goal was. Naturally, I looked back at the unit essential question and went from there and worked backwards. I decided to do a writing assignment with different choices to choose from. All of them included a rewrite of "Tell-Tale Heart", but each prompt allowed students to do different things with the story. The most important thing, however, was that the end product of each prompt was relatively the same. Not only did I enjoy creating this assessment but also creating the rubric. The rubric made me feel at ease and made me feel very comfortable with the assessment itself. Students need to know what is expected of them and why they are receiving the grade they did. I remember getting papers back in high school with simply a letter grade. There was no red pen slashing through sentences or words. There was no rubric with a score out of one hundred. All that stood in that corner was a B+ in red ink. It always bothered me that I didn't know why I received what I got. I wanted to know what I needed to improve on and what separated me from an A- or just a B. Honestly, it was really discouraging and made me feel like they just picked a grade out of thin air.
Therefore, rubrics are SO SO SO SO important. They help students understand why they received that grade and gets rid of confusion. Students can't argue that their C paper is an A paper if you have a rubric with scoring on it. It solidifies your grading and tells the students what you expect as well as what you saw or didn't see in their paper.
On the other hand, I believe that even alternative assessments can be just an ineffective as the traditional multiple choice objective tests. In Readicide, Gallagher makes a valid point on assessments when he writes, "In teaching academic texts, students are drowning in a sea of sticky notes, worksheets, and quizzes" (Gallagher 76). Naturally, assessments are neccessary to measure progress and to check understanding; however, sometimes it is nice to just have students read for pleasure. I believe that Readicide stems from assessments just as much as stems from other factors. Students feel the pressure of tests and they tend to focus on that rather than what they are actually reading. If a teacher can take away that pressue then students are likely to enjoy reading. Personally, I think students enjoy and learn more from having literature circles to discuss a book then to formally assess them on a it. Overall, I think we need to keep assessments but limit the amount of assessments given. Perhaps even make assessments that are geared toward discussion and opinions rather then on paper.
All in all, I have a learned a lot about assessments within the past two weeks. I find that I like being creative with my assessments by having choices and by constructing different projects for them to do. I particularly like assessments where students can write and explore different aspects of literature. Also, I think the two biggest things I learned was that objective tests tend to be pretty terrible and that your assessments should connect back to your unit and essential questions. I think it is also safe to say that creating assessments can be very difficult and can be very time consuming.
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