1. ES Parent Coffee
Tuesday 13 September 2011

2. Assessment in the Elementary School at ISM

3. ‘You don’t fatten a cow by weighing it’ Anonymous

5. Essential Questions
Why do we assess?
How do we know our students understand something?
What are the different types of assessment we use at ISM?
What is criterion based assessment?

6. Why do we assess our students?
On a piece of paper write down why you think we assess our students at ISM?
Discuss as a group.
Share

7. Why do we assess? The prime objective is to provide feedback on the learning process. Why do we report? To give information to parents about where their child is in particular areas at particular times.

8. Understanding Think of something that you truly understand.
Share this with a partner.
How do we know if we truly understand something?

9. Assessment identifies what students know, understand, can do and feel at the different stages
How do we know a child understands?
The 6 facets of understanding are:
Can explain
Interpret
Apply
Perspective
Empathizes
Self reflect

10. ‘Understanding’
Teachers need to make the assessment varied to see what the students can do in a wide range of circumstances.
Students need to transfer their learning to new situations.
Unfamiliar situations are important to truly assess ability and understanding.

11. What are the different types of assessment?
Pre-assessment
Formative:
Assessing FOR learning
Summative:
Assessment OF the learning
Self-assessment
Peer assessment

12. Pre -Assessment Importance of prior knowledge.
Enables us to know where each individual student is at in relation to this unit / concept.
Feeds into differentiation.

13. Formative Assessment
Formative assessment is interwoven with the daily learning and helps teachers and students find out what the students already know in order to plan the next stage in learning.
Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked: neither can function effectively or purposefully without the other.

14. Summative assessment
Aims to give teachers and students a clear insight into students understanding. Summative assessment is the culmination of the teaching and learning process, and gives students opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned.

15. The soup metaphor…
If you are tasting the soup along the way to see what needs adding… then it’s formative. Tasting will feedback into your planning and guide your next steps.
If you are serving the soup to your guests … then it’s summative. Now we’ll get feedback on whether the soup matches the desired results.

16. Self – assessment and Peer assessment
Self-assessment is the ability of a student to judge his/her performance, that is, to make decisions about one’s self and one’s abilities.
Peer-assessment involves one student's assessment of the performance or success of another student (usually using some pre-determined criteria)
Peer and self-assessment are grounded on constructivist philosophies that “whatever a person discovers himself is what they really know”

17. Why do we do it?
Teachers use peer and self-assessment to enhance learning:
to increase student involvement in the learning process (e.g. students assume teaching responsibilities)
to increase social interactions and trust in others
to facilitate individual feedback
to focus students on the process rather than the product.

18. Examples of assessment strategies
Observations – frequently
Performance assessment – authentic and significant challenges and problems
Process – focused assessments – how kids perform on a regular basis on skills
Selected responses – tests and quizzes
Open ended tasks – written response, drawing, diagram or solution

19. Criteria based assessment
We need three volunteers.

20. Criteria To be outstanding you have to show: Clap for 30 seconds
Show creativity in the clapping
Show facial expression
Varied beat- fast slow
Audience participation
Movement around the room

21. Success Criteria Established criteria
It is not a summary of the lesson – it is what the students are going to be judged on
Main format - ‘rubrics’
These can be teacher generated or class generated

22. What is a rubric? Sharing assessment expectations with students
A rubric is a tool that:
Lists criteria explaining the desired outcome for student learning.
Removes the mystery for the student.
Can be developed to assess any task including performance tasks.
Why do teachers use rubrics?
To clarify the performance expectations for students, teachers and parents.
To serve as a reference during assessment.
To focus instruction of learning. We plan with assessment driving the learning!

23. Endangered Animals -Rubric Name : ________________
Name :  ________________
Emerging
Developing
Proficient
Exemplary
What are the characteristics/ descriptions of the endangered animal
Needed help by the teacher to locate and copy information
Needed some help to locate information about the animal
Needed very little help to locate information about the animal
Located all information about the animal on their own
Why are they endangered
Had difficulty explaining the concept
Stated some reasons why animals are endangered with prompting
Stated the reasons why animals are endangered with practice and help
Stated why animals are endangered and had an in-depth knowledge of the reasons for endangerment without help
What action can we take to save the animals
Demonstrated no understanding that we need to take action
Demonstrated some understanding that we need to take action
Demonstrated the understanding that we need to take action without explaining why we need to do so
Demonstrated understanding of the reasons why animals are endangered and knows how to take action

26. Thank you. Questions?

27. Other Business - Supervision - AFAC – After School Activities ATAC – Athletics Activities - MAP – Grades 3 & 4 – September – 730 – 830 – Rm. 2123