Grappling with Grading Assessment & Rubrics SCRIPT before beginning: The Teaching and Learning Center invites you to live-tweet this session as a means of enhanced learning and connection with the TLC and fellow participants.

Introductions Introduce yourself Please share Who you are The department you are in The courses you teach, have taught, or are planning to teach Your goals for students 5-minutes

Workshop Goals Review best practices in integrating learning goals with assessments Review different forms of assessment Reflect on your teaching and assessment experiences Apply assessment practices in your courses

Assessment How much freedom do you have in designing your assessments? Are there benefits to using an assessment someone else designed? How well do the assessments you use fit with the learning goals for the course? Discuss these with a partner for 5 minutes, then share with the class. 5-7 minutes

Fink’s Integrated Course Design 5 minutes (including next slide)

Fink’s Course Design Model Fink asks: What are the important situational factors in a particular course and learning situation? What should our full set of learning goals be? What kinds of feedback and assessment should we provide? Are all the components connected and integrated? Are they consistent with and supportive of each other?

Assessment The first step in designing assessments is …. Identify the learning goals. What do you expect students to learn by completing this assignment? What kinds of intellectual skills do you expect them to practice or acquire by completing this assignment? Are your goals for students, in terms of their learning, explicit? 7-10 minutes (including next slide)

Fink Audit-ive vs. Educative Assessment Fink cites Grant Wiggins as a proponent of educative assessment. That is, we traditionally think of assessment as testing. Although testing is important and provides some degree of what students have learned, it only serves one purpose– to audit the knowledge that students have remembered/learned. This type of assessment, according to Fink and Wiggins, only focuses on backward-looking assessment, or reviewing what has been covered over the last few weeks. On the other hand, reviewing the educative aspects of assessment helps students master the learning process and focuses on the components of learning. According to Fink, educative assessment has 4 components which include focusing on what students should be able to do, enabling them to assess themselves, developing standards and criteria for the assessment, and providing feedback that is Frequent, immediate, discriminating, and delivered lovingly. We will focus more on feedback later on.

Principles for Assessment (Steen, 1999) Not a single event, but a continuous cycle. An open process. Promotes valid inferences. Employs multiple measures of performance. Measures what is worth learning, not just what is easy to measure. Supports every student’s opportunity to learn important _______ (fill in the blank) 5 minutes (give students hand-out)

Fair Assessment Practices (Suskie, 2000) Clearly stated learning outcomes; share them with students. Match assessment to what you teach and vice versa. Use multiple measures and different kinds of measures. Teach students how to do the assessment task. Engage and encourage your students. Interpret assessment results appropriately. Evaluate the outcomes of your assessments.

Assessment Practices Knowing the principles and practices, do assessments you use fit these criteria? Work with a partner and discuss how an assessment in your class either meets the criteria, or how it could be improved. 10-15 minutes

Authentic Assessment Examine the two different assessments. Which assessment do you think your students would prefer? Why? Which assessment do you think you would prefer your students to complete? Which assessment would give you a better indication of students’ mastery of learning goals? Why?

Authentic Assessment Describes the multiple forms of assessment that reflect student learning achievement motivation and attitudes on instructionally relevant classroom activities O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996

Authentic Assessment If you want to teach students how to swim, how would you evaluate their abilities and skills? Likewise, if you want to teach students listening, speaking, reading or writing skills, how would you evaluate their performance? What types of assessment would you use?

Authentic Assessment Examples Oral Interviews Story or Test Retelling Writing Samples Projects/Exhibitions Experiments/Demonstrations Portfolios Any others? Oral Interviews Ask students questions about personal background, activities, readings, and interests Story or Test Retelling Retell main ideas or selected details of text experienced through listening or reading Writing Samples Generate narrative, expository, persuasive, or reference paper Projects/Exhibitions Project in content area Experiments/Demonstrations Experiment or demonstration of use of materials Portfolios Focused collection of student work to show progress over time

Authentic Assessment Advantages Emphasizes what students know Requires students to develop responses Uses samples of student work collected over an extended period of time Stems from clear criteria Elicits higher-order thinking Allows for the possibility of multiple judgments Relates more closely to classroom learning Teaches students to evaluate their own work Considers differences in learning styles, language proficiencies, cultural and educational backgrounds, and grade levels From O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996 Emphasizes what students know, rather than what they do not know Requires students to develop responses instead of selecting them from predetermined options Uses samples of student work collected over an extended period of time Stems from clear criteria made known to students and parents Elicits higher-order thinking Allows for the possibility of multiple human judgments Relates more closely to classroom learning Teaches students to evaluate their own work Considers differences in learning styles, language proficiencies, cultural and educational backgrounds, and grade levels From O’Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996

Assessment Focused on achievement Provides grades High stakes Formative Summative Provides timely feedback about performance or attainment of goals Interactive Low stakes Administered continuously Fosters life-long learning It is empirically argued that it has the greatest impact on learning and achievement Focused on achievement Provides grades High stakes Administered at intervals Standardized or formalized Huba & Freed, 2000 5-7 minutes (with next slide)

Assessment Examples a midterm exam a final project a paper a recital Formative Summative Project (including group projects, collaborative learning) Experiment Development of a product Performance Community-based experience (service learning) Exhibition Case study / Critical incident Clinical evaluation Oral exam or presentation Interview Comprehensive exam Portfolio a midterm exam a final project a paper a recital

Assessment What is the value of summative assessments? What can they tell us? What is the value of formative assessments? How do you incorporate both types of assessments in your class? Discuss these with a small group, and then share with the class. 10-15 minutes

Assessment As a result, consider the following when planning assessment Differentiate feedback from assessment Make the focus on learning, not just summative assessment Encourage students to reflect on their learning and experiences in class

Prior Knowledge Consider assessing your students’ prior knowledge before giving out assessments. Students come to class with a variety of learning experiences and different backgrounds. These all should be considered before you plan your assessments. 5-7 minutes

Prior Knowledge Questions to consider: What facts and concepts should students know? What procedures and steps should students be familiar with? What metacognitive practices should students be aware of? How is knowledge and skills applied in real world contexts and problems in my discipline? Do my assessments reflect the complexities of the field, or are students assessed out-of-context?

Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) CATs are quick assessments that enable both you and students to check their comprehension of important information, concepts and details for your course. CATs are easy to administer and relatively easy to grade. Angelo & Cross, 1993 5-7 minutes (with next slide)

Examples of CATs Knowledge & Skills Reflection & Self-Assessment The Muddiest Point The One-Minute Paper Chain Notes Student Generated Test Questions Focused Listing One Sentence Summary Reflection & Self-Assessment Journals Blogs Reactions to Instructional Methods Exam Evaluations Suggestion Box Personal Course Feedback Forms (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Examples of CATs Reflection & Self-Assessment Journals Blogs Reactions to Instructional Methods Exam Evaluations Suggestion Box Personal Course Feedback Forms (Angelo & Cross, 1993; Haugen, 1999)

Assessment What types of assessment do you use in your classes? What types of assessment that you are not using do you envision yourself using? Discussion/reflection to end

References Angelo, T. A. & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Assess teaching & learning. Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation. Carnegie Mellon. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/index.html Fink, L. D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to designing college courses. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gross-Davis, B. (2009). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Huba, M. E. & Freed, J. E. (2000). Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses - Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Steen, L. A. (1999). Assessing assessment. St.Olaf College. Retrieved from http://www.stolaf.edu/people/steen/Papers/assessment.html Suskie, L. (2000). Fair assessment practices: Giving students equitable opportunities to demonstrate learning. The American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, May. Retrieved from http://uncw.edu/cas/documents/FairAssessmentPractices_Sus kie.pdf

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