FIAE+Chapter+3+Block+2

[|Synthesis - FIAE C3 B2] I this chapter addresses one of the major issues currently facing education in how do we use assessment? I really like the fact that a strong emphasis in this book is place on assessment as guide to instruction and it is m ore then teaching to the test. I like the use of assessment data as a checkpoint for student progress and as a map to guide our instructional practices. I know in my high school teachers did not use formative assessments and this hurt us in the long run because we never changed course no matter how many students feel behind. I think formative and pre assessments are just as important as summative assessments and they will certainly be a key part of my teaching practice. || I this chapter addresses one of the major issues currently facing education in how do we use assessment? I really like the fact that a strong emphasis in this book is place on assessment as guide to instruction and it is m ore then teaching to the test. I like the use of assessment data as a checkpoint for student progress and as a map to guide our instructional practices. I know in my high school teachers did not use formative assessments and this hurt us in the long run because we never changed course no matter how many students feel behind. I think formative and pre assessments are just as important as summative assessments and they will certainly be a key part of my teaching practice. || Chapter 3 of FIAE is called Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom. It discusses ways to effectively assess students when teaching in a differentiated classroom. Proper assessment makes sure that students understand material and can apply their understanding. Essential and enduring knowledge or “EEK.” EEK focuses on real work application of knowledge. This chapter suggests on many different ways of assessing students in the classroom. Instead of a large exam that crams all of the curriculum into one long test, it is sometimes better to split assessment up. It is better to give smaller assessments throughout the semester. This is not to say that big tests are always a bad idea. End of the quarter, semester, or year exams can be good, because they show that students actually remember everything that they were taught. By doing several different ways of assessing, and assessing often, there is a better chance of getting a good assessment of students in a differentiated classroom. || This chapter gave some great information on how to assess students in a differentiated classroom. I really enjoy the part about testing often. This makes a lot of sense. Testing students often helps keep them on track, letting them know which direction the class is moving. I’ve taken classes where there is only one big test at the end of the semester. I didn’t learn as much as I could have, because I didn’t understand the final goal. I remember taking big end of the semester tests and thinking “Oh, now I see where the teacher was going with this. EEK is very interesting because it focuses on students being able to keep knowledge for a long time. In schools today, there is a lot of knowledge that goes forgotten, because it was learned well in the first place. || In chapter three of FIAE Wormeli discusses the “principles of successful assessment in the differentiated classroom,” (pg. 19). Wormeli suggests beginning with the end. It is easier to develop the essential questions for the unit and instead of starting your plan with the first day of school, start with the last. The final exam should have questions of what you want students to know by the end of the course, and from there you can develop various assessment types to determine students’ growth. Pre-assessments are also important to use. A pre-assessment will allow you to gauge students’ standing, and give you an idea of what needs to be taught. It is also important to avoid “fluff.” Fluff assignments do not call upon a student to use deep thinking and typically end with little learning. It is also important to keep in mind that there are a multitude of factors that may inhibit a student’s ability to perform, and that allowing students to re-do assignments for full credit is not always a bad idea.
 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Barnes Mckell || Chapter 3 in Fair Isn’t Always Equal ties into chapter 5 of UbD. Its’ primarily focus is of assessment. This chapter breaks down assessment into three different assessment styles, similar to UbD. First is pre-assessment, this is assessing the students on his/hers knowledge in a subject prior to the class. This gives the teachers a better understanding of where students are in terms of learning and also where they have to go. The second assessment is summative assessment; this is gathering all of the evidence and assessing what students of contained and learned after the course is over, these generally will go on report cards or transcripts. And lastly, formative assessment, this is the best way for teachers to improve their teaching skills. These assessments allow teachers an opportunity to see things more clearer which will help them formulate lesson plans that will increase the knowledge of their students. || I really thought this chapter did a great job of summarizing the three different ways of assessment. I also liked the idea of calling the first assessment pre-assessment opposed to diagnostic assessment which UbD referred it to. This chapter has really opened my eyes to the importance of authentic assessment. It has also helped me understand how it can make you a better teacher. I will definitely incorporate these assessment styles into my classroom. ||
 * Brennick Christopher || The third chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal talks about the principals of successful assessment in the differentiated classroom. The first principal discussed is beginning with the end in mind. This section asks of us that we always new where we are going to take the class and what objectives do we have. Also not only those teachers have the end in mind but also the students know what they will be assessed on so they know the important information and concepts to look at. The second principal laid out for us is KUD or Know, understand, able to do. Know talks the information a students retains as a result of the unit, understand is the concepts relationships and connections students understand as a result of the unit, and able to do is what specific skills students can demonstrate as a result of a unit. The next section of our chapter is all about how we must be able to determining student’s readiness by giving them a pre-assessment showing us where we are starting from with each student. The book says to hold off on doing much planning until after we see where are student are starting from. The next part of our chapter focus in on how to design the assessments we give our students. Three types of assessments are addressed in this chapter: Pre-assessments or assessments to see where we are starting from with students, formative assessment, which are assessments given during a unit to guide instruction and check up on student progress, and summative assessments given at the end of the unit to check if the students took the essential and enduring knowledge out of the unit. Formative assessments and taking actions on results are talked about next and the real wisdom of these formative assessments is that it gives us important data that we use to plan and focuses our instruction. Good assessment drive instruction in education and it our guide for the needs of students and allows us to make a change in our course of action if we see our students are not having their needs met. The next important principal we must hold dear is that we need to not just take a snapshot as assessment, but we must vary how we assess kid and do it over a long time because not everyone is at his or her peak everyday we need a true sample from over time. Authentic assessments are important because it puts things in context for kid and gives them a real world sense of how to use and apply the skill. The next part of being authentic is having students assessed in the ways in which they learned the material. The type of assessments we have should also be substantive not fluff because fluff assessment is not really guiding any students to intended outcomes of our unit and do not show true learning. The next section gives us an overview of twelve steps we can take to planning assessment guide differentiated lesson planning.
 * Columbia Laura || In the third chapter of Fair Isn't Always Equal, the main focus is assessing in a classroom that uses differentiated instruction. An example was given in the beginning of the chapter that reflects on how many students have been conditioned to seeing only one perspective, such as how to view different subjects. As teachers it is our goal to teach the material so students will learn. It is important to focus on the essential and enduring themes of a subject. As we go through our lessons, it is important to remember the steps of pre-assess, plan for, and teach. As we are teaching, some things may not work out as well as others that is where the importance of being flexible comes into play. If the lesson is not working, we need to adapt it to the students needs. Lastly, a large section of the chapter discusses various methods of assessing. Overall, it is important to be clear and assess often, not for grades, but to see where the student is in the learning process. || As a student I can remember many times when I was frustrated by a teacher. This chapter brought back many feelings of frustration. I absolutely hated it when teachers were not specific about the test. When teachers would say everything is fair game, or everything in the chapter could be on the test, it would just frustrate me and I would not even try to study because I felt like it was hopeless. As a teacher I want to have a classroom that is clear. I want my goals to be clear, what we will cover and how it will be assessed. A lot of stress from my schooling came from the fear of not knowing what was going to happen next or not knowing what was going to be on the test. I do not want to test my students study skills, I want to test them on what they know and understand. ||
 * Coombs Kayla || Chapter three, entitled “Principles of Successful Assessment in the Differentiated Classroom,” discussed how assessment guides practice in differentiated classrooms, and suggested giving students the end-of-the-unit test on the first day that one teaches the unit. Then, when one is teaching the material the students will pay special attention when the teacher is discussing a question that was addressed on the test. Students achieve more when they have a clear idea of what the expectations are. Good assessments in a differentiated classroom focus on essential (vital for success and growth) and enduring knowledge, concepts and skills. This has also been labeled as: Know, (what students have held on to from the learning), Understand, (the ideas that students understand as a result of the unit) and Able to Do, (the skills the students are able to demonstrate.) Teachers should also do pre-assessments to determine the readiness of their students regarding the topics the teachers will teach. Before designing pre-assessments, one should actually do the summative assessments, which are given to the students at the end of the unit, and they match objectives and experiences. These should reflect most of the essential and enduring knowledge that they have retained from the unit. After designing the summative assessments and pre-assessments, teachers should design the frequently used formative assessments, which provide constant feedback. Teachers should make sure they are using authentic assessments, which refer to the assessment being close to how the students would be applying their learning in real-world situations, and to the assessment being authentic in how the students are learning the content. || This chapter was very informative about the various aspects of successful assessment in the differentiated classroom. From this reading I gather that I will want to use various forms of assessment and then reflect on how the assessments worked or did not work for the learners in my classroom. I will want to make sure that my assessments are focusing on the important knowledge and skills, and that the students are understanding what they should be from the content I am teaching, and that they will be able to apply it outside the classroom. I remember some of my teachers giving us pre-assessments and then summative assessments, and I liked this because I was able to reflect on my learning and how I have grown as a learner from my time in those classrooms. ||
 * Cummons Michael ||
 * Kelley Kathleen || Chapter three in //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// focused on the different strategies of how to assess your students in a way that encourages rather than frustrates. The chapter began with a section called “Begin with the End in Mind.” This section focused around using the materials that would be used to assess the students at the end of the semester as a diagnostic exam to test where the students are currently. They are also given the copies to keep and encouraged to ask questions about it. Doing so would engage them and they would make it a point to become proficient in the most important material because they know it would be covered on the exam. When clear expectations and guidelines are given, then the students are more likely to thrive. Essential understandings and questions were also discussed in the text as a part of EEK (essential and enduring knowledge) and KUD. These are other assessment techniques used in differentiated classrooms. The book also touched upon how to determine whether or not your students are ready for assessments through using summative and formative assessments. Practicality also came into play when designing assessments was being referenced. It is important to try to make assessments relate to the real world and to avoid pointless tasks. Assessments need to be meaningful and purposeful to the student . In the classroom, you also want to make sure that the students are getting everything that they can out of their learning experiences. || Chapter three had a few interesting points but mainly focused on a lot of areas that we have been discussing in class and have been reading about in books. The most interesting part for me was when the author mentioned that, similar to all of the students that had been studying the woman painting, all students come into schools biased in one way or another. In Child and Adolescent Psych, the same question about seasons was given to MIT and Harvard alum on graduation day. It was interesting that the biochemists and engineering majors answered the question incorrectly. It doesn’t apply to just older adults, it also applies to students my age and younger, and it is a teachers job to fix that. I think that should begin happening in the younger grades. The book made it seem like it was the sole responsibility of a high school teacher to correct these mistakes. ||
 * Damboise Kelley || Chapter three focuses on the three main types of assessments: pre-assessment, formative, and summative, and breaks them down further into two subtypes: varied and “over time”, and authentic assessments. Pre-assessments are used to determine if the student is ready to learn and understand the material. Formative assessments are probably the most important form of assessments because they evaluate or check to see if a student is learning and understanding the material that has been presented. Summative assessments are used to determine what the students learned, retained, and understood about the topic presented. Varied and “over time” assessments fall under the category of formative assessments because these assessments are giving over a long stretch of time, therefore, if a child did extremely awful on an assessment, because of external factors, his or her outcome wouldn’t be based on that one assessment. Varied assessments are a must as well because it doesn’t allow for students to be able to memorize the answers on a multiple choice or true false evaluation. Authentic assessments break into two aspects. The “first, the assessments is close to how students will apply their learning in real-words applications” (Wormeli, p. 32) and “the second aspect of authenticity refers to the assessment being authentic to how students are learning”. (Wormeli, p. 33) || Before I read this chapter I never really saw assessments, especially varied and “over time” assessments, as an extremely crucial part of teaching. It was only after the example of the teacher, who was being observed by the supervisor, taught a lesson that went awful. Despite the fact that this teacher usually taught great, interactive lessons, all the observer saw that day was an out of control classroom. This made me realize that if we teachers rely solely on summative assessments we may not be correctly evaluation our student’s ability levels. ||
 * Knowles Christina || Chapter three is totally about how to assess in the classroom. The chapter says to do an assessment in the beginning of the unit to see where each student is starting out. This quiz will not only give an idea where each student is starting from, but it will also the students to realize what facts they need to retain throughout the course. We also learn that we should not try to mix up the patterns in which the questions are between the first assessment test and the final test because it makes it harder for students to retain the facts. We learn that teachers should asses their students I a variety of different ways because each student responds to assessments differently. || I want to have a variety of assessments in my classroom. I think this way my class will be more exciting. I also hate standardized testing. I want my students to do a variety of projects and papers because I feel that it is more likely for my students to learn and retain the units I teach them. ||
 * Mourkas Margaret || Chapter 3 was a deeper explanation of the mastery of a subject or unit. Its main focus though was having a clear understanding of what is expected at the end of the unit before it begins. “Students achieve more when they have a clear picture of the expectations” (21). Showing students what you are going to want at the end helps students pick out the “useful” information when you are lecturing or showing a movie on the subject. This chapter went into assessments and which type fits where in the lesson. There are three main types of assessments and they are, pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments. Fluff versus substantial information in class or in the form of an assessment was discussed as well. Trying to get an assessment or homework assignment to get the student to show that they have mastered or are close to mastering the subject is goal. || “We are teaching adults-in-the-making, not adults” (31). I think this is a fact that a lot of teachers forget. Our students are still trying to form their own identity and find their place in the world. While they may seem mature on the outside, they are still growing on the inside and changes physically are going on within them. “We can also allow students to redo work for full credit,” (31). It makes me furious when teachers do not give a second chance to a student who just could not physically, mentally, or emotionally do an assignment. If it happens a lot the issue should be addressed but if it is a one-time occurrence then some push room should be provided. I agree with the book when it says that throughout the entirety of the unit smaller assessments should be given to make sure that the students really are getting the information you are teaching them. I enjoyed reading all the things that make a good assessment and most of the time I would chuckle to myself and think of different teachers or professors I have had that I wish had seen this list. ||
 * O'Neil Christopher || Chapter three discusses how teachers need to be clear on the information they are giving. It is essential for teachers to be very clear on their instructions and the information they give. If students find that some projects are unclear and they actually did the whole project wrong, it could lead to a whole mess of trouble for the teacher. Also, teachers need to make sure they are teaching the essential and enduring knowledge (EEK) to their students. A good way to make sure that this is done is to prepare essential understands as well as essential questions for each lesson and unit. This provides the teacher with the information they need to teach the students. Also, teachers can use pre-assessments to see where the students stand before the lesson is started, formative assessments to see how the students are doing throughout the lesson, and summative assessments to see what the students got out of the lesson. This will make sure that the students understand the essential information for that lesson. Teachers need to avoid putting "fluff" into their lesson plans. They need to add more substance than fluff. || I feel that this chapter repeated itself quite a bit. It provided valuable information about the essential information that teachers need to teach, but it repeated a lot of that information many times throughout the chapter. The idea of having essential understands and essential questions remind me a lot of the Maine Learning Result model taht we just recently finished stage one of. By using the model that we are using in class, it ensures that we are using these essential understandings and questions that are talked about in this chapter. I do feel that it is important to only teach the essential information and not add any extra fluff into the lesson. By adding extra fluff, it could cause for some confusion with the students on what they need to know. ||
 * Richardson Cassandra || The beginning of this chapter was an experiment, with an image whose shapes could be interpreted in more than one way. This eventually develops into the example of a student; students come into certain classrooms in a set mindset, the teacher’s job to break said mindset with differentiated learning and interesting teaching. The essential steps to planning (pre-assess, plan, teach), are just those; steps. It’s not realistic to believe that a classroom won’t change your plans. Having a plan, however, is essential to having the peace of mind to focus on teaching to each learner style. Flexibility is incredibly important. The last section of the chapter discussed aspects of good evaluations, and what to count on for said aspects. || I think that having and stating clear goals as soon as information is introduced in a classroom is essential when teaching, because without clear criteria, the particular mindset that ‘this is hopeless’ develops without even trying. It’s also important to extend the proper help to students who, despite the clear criteria, still have not met what you would like. Second chances tend to keep mindsets at bay, because they usually develop when students are frustrated and don’t understand what is expected of them. Making sure that ‘fluff’ assignments don’t clutter up an otherwise meaningful lesson is something my teachers had trouble with, and that is something that I will definitely be on the lookout for, because to me when I was in school, fluff assignments meant that the teacher didn’t care enough. This is where student reflections on lessons would come in handy. ||
 * Trundy Monique ||  ||

“Students are likely to do the homework assignment if they have a clear picture of the finished product. I the assignment is fuzzy, they won’t; it takes too much effort to distill coherence,” (pg. 22).

I remember a teacher I had my freshmen year of high school that could have not only benefited from this sentence, but this entire chapter. His class was completely disorganized, no assignment had a clear format or deadline, every assignment seemed like a “fluff” assignment and every class we were given the option to “work in the hallway.” Nothing was ever assessed; we simply handed in our work at the end of the semester in a large binder. Being able to reflect on that class makes this chapter all the more important to me. Structure and clear goals are extremely important. I am glad that I can look back to that class and see the holes in my teacher’s instruction. Assessment is one of my favorite parts of teaching, and I’m actually excited to get into a classroom where I can use pre-assessments to judge where my students are when they come to me and then use formative assessments to see how they are growing. I can’t imagine that there is anything quite as rewarding as being able to see people grow as a direct result of your teaching.

This chapter is based on the importance of assessment and clear objectives in a learning environment. The chapter states that students always achieve more when they have a clear idea of what is expected of them. One of the great analogies the chapter uses is the mechanic situation. If you have a specific problem, such as your brakes do not work, you bring your car to the auto shop and say that you need your brakes fixed. You do not bring your car to the shop and say, there is something wrong with my car, find it and fix it. This example goes to say that students should never be forced to ask “what is on the test”, students should have that information readily available to them. The chapter then goes on to explain the difference between //essential//, //highly desirable//, and //desirable// information. The difference between these types of information is whether the information is vital to the curriculum or just interesting information to know. One of the major ideas posed in the chapter is that pre-assessment is very important. An example of this being, if there is a lesson unit about to begin, go ahead and tests students on the unit before it is begun, this will give the educator a solid idea of where the students’ baseline knowledge is on the subject. Not only does it show baseline knowledge, but it will help to provide the very vital evidence of learning. Another important idea in the chapter is feedback, a revisited idea from previous chapters. The chapter states that students who receive appropriate and timely feedback are on average much more successful than students who do not. Along with the idea of assessment the chapter stresses that fluke grades, such as a 30% in the middle of several 87%-95% is not an accurate addition to the student’s records, there are too many variables in a teenager’s life to allow a fluke grade to have an impact on their overall performance. The chapter specifically says that educators need an accurate portrayal of mastery, not something clouded by distorted snapshots that do not represent their true proficiency. One of the last major points were the two factors that make assessment viable. One, the assessment must align with how they will use their skill in the real world. The chapter’s example was the ludicrous design of the five-paragraph essay. Second, the assessment must be authentic to what the students have been studying. The chapter’s example was if a student has been learning how to do specific math problems, do not assess those problems in a word problem format because the demand for language skills may cloud the evidence of their math skills. This chapter has definitely helped to solidify my belief in frequent assessment, but more importantly it has taught me some of the correct procedures in assessing that will make mine, and my students’ time well spent. I was struck by the chapter’s example of giving students’ a test on a unit that hasn’t been started yet not because I’d never seen this before, but because I did not understand what it was for. When taking such pre-assessment tests in school I knew that these helped my teacher get an idea of what his/her students already knew, but I did not know that it was the basis for which they would construct their other assessments and evidence of learning. One of the most valid ideas I will take away from this chapter is that assessment should never be left for the end of a unit. Assessment and feedback should always be an ongoing process helping students to succeed through every step of every unit the educator intends to teach.
 * Webb Christopher || The 3rd chapter of FIAE talks about assessing students work and how to determine they have mastered the material we want them to. It talks about the 3 main types of assessments; pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. It says a good idea is to give the students a test the first day on all the material they will need to know by the end of the unit that way while you are teaching them students will know what material you want them to retain and as they are learning the key points of your lessons will jump out at them. It explains each type of assessment individually and even says in which order they should be created. The summative assessment should be constructed first because that is where we want our students to end up. Next is the pre-assessment which it explains is basically smaller pieces of the summative assessment. Finally the formative assessment simply provides ongoing feedback as to how the students are progressing towards the summative assessment. || I liked the setup and structure and how one principle it explained built upon another one we have learned. It makes it easy to understand some of the concepts we have talked about. I also liked how it went step by step about how to create each type of assessment and explained what each is used for and how they build off of each other. I liked the idea about giving the students the test on the first day covering what you want them to know by the end. It seemed like a good idea because once you start hitting the important topics you will know students are paying attention since they know what to look for and will have to pay attention to listen for those prompts. ||
 * West Simon ||  ||
 * West Simon ||  ||