My Best Work...

I have done a lot of online assessments before I took this class, so I was not too surprised at many of the assignments and readings in this class.  I have used a CMS before so I did enjoy looking at others and then staying with what I use.  I really liked the Infograph assignment.  This was one tool I have not used before so it was fun to create my “Supporting Formative Assessment” Infograph; however, I did not consider this my best work.  I have to be honest; I was not looking forward to the Minecraft/gaming part of this class.  I don’t really like these types of games and I really didn’t think I could even use this type of assessment in my class.  I was, for a lack of a better cliché, a fish out of water with this assignment.  So, since I had no idea what I was doing…I really had to learn something totally new, and that is why I think my Minecraft assessment was my best work.

For my assessment, I could have made a more detailed looking castle and I was disappointed that had to ask for help to create a mote.  I could have also added more information about the play Macbeth.  But with this assessment, I had to start from scratch with no real direction and a hope to just pass the module.  I got lost in the training part and didn’t really finish the training because I couldn’t find my way back.  I then started to panic about what I was going to do for my assessment.  The whole Minecraft idea is very Medieval to me so what I thought about for my assessment was either Beowulf or Macbeth so I picked Macbeth.  I have always images in my head about what that castle would look like so this started my Minecraft assessment.  This was the strongest part of my video, describing how I would create Macbeth’s castle and how I would hope my students would add to it to make it better. I tried to add some symbolism and fun details and I think they turned out pretty good.

This assessment supports the way I learn best…by doing.  I had no prior knowledge of how to use Minecraft or how to even make my own creation.  Knowing that I HAD to do this assignment, I was forced to learn the basics of Minecraft.  After a lot of trial and error I started to get into the activity.  I knew it wasn’t perfect, but that wasn’t the point.  The point was that I did something until I felt comfortable doing it, and I had a vision of what I could eventually do.  This supports my learning in that I am very hands on and like to practice things until I get them right.  I think what I really took away from this assessment is that I shouldn’t be afraid to learn something that I normally wouldn’t do.  I can use different forms of assessments to get my point across.  All I need to do is leap and go for it.  I need to look at assessments I might not consider, just because I might be hesitant to try them doesn’t mean that my students would be.  I need to learn to keep an open mind about assessments.  My students will appreciate the different ways I can test them because not all of them do well with the usual paper, pencil tests.

Revised Assessment Screencast

Below is my revised assessment screencast!

I believe that Schoology is the best option for this assessment as it is easy to use, the tests can be randomized and differentiated, and teachers and students can get instant feedback.  I love how in Schoology students can take the quizzes at school or at home.  The quizzes are progressive and students must receive a certain score in order to go to the next quiz.  These quizzes will not be graded, but rather they are there to show students where their weaknesses are and what they should be reviewing in order to (hopefully) do better on the next actual test.  Since I can view the data from the scores, I can then reteach certain concepts to individuals or to an entire class.  This is a powerful tool for teachers as we can modify instruction to fit the needs of our students. I know that paper/pencil tests have their place, but for review and relearning these assessments are convenient for both  the teacher and the student.

My Digital Sandbox...

Sandboxes are great places to play and create.  If you don’t like what you have created, then you can destroy the creation and start over...and it is all in great fun.  As we all know, what we create in sandboxes can fall in an instant or survive with some guarded effort.  A sandbox is a great metaphor for what I have learned about digital assessments in this class AND what I will do with digital assessments in my own classes.

As all teachers know, what works in one class might not work in your other classes!  I think this also goes for assessments.  There have been times in my classes that I gave an assessment and it worked really well one year, so I decided to use it the next year and it totally flopped.  Assessments in this case are like building sand castles.  There are so many things that can and will go wrong.  What I have learned is that there isn’t a “one size fits all”  type of assessment.  Like the sand castle once you think you have built a solid one, something or someone comes along and steps on it and you have to start over. For me the initial shock of losing what you thought was the perfect product is discouraging, but then I reflect and realize that no matter what type of assessment I have, there is always room for improvement.  

This class has made me step back and really look at HOW I am using my digital assessments. When I create a “test,” I need to create  for all types of learning and I need to create ways for students to improve.  I think digital assessments are perfect for this. I have to admit the reason I started digital assessments was to cut down my grading time! It is awful to admit, but having a site like Quia or the test part of Schoology do part of my grading has been awesome, but now I need to look at the content.  I realize I need to revamp a lot of my assessments.  So in a sense this is like the rain washing all my “sandcastles” away in my sandbox.  I still have the base (the grains of sand), but now I need to really reflect on how to build my castles back up using my new knowledge on assessments.  I need to take those granules of sand and create assessments that will fit all my learners.  I also have come to a realization that some students need to relearn and practice so building those assessments are just as important as the graded assessments.  Students need to do this on their own time or spare time in class.  This is what I have been doing with my grammar assessments.  I have now created a solid foundation of what I want these non-graded assessments to look like, now I just need to keep it up and create them for all my classes.

Digital Portfolio Reflection

Portfolios as a Reflection

I have always liked the ideal of portfolios as a way to show students their progression in their writing.  At one time I brought up the idea to my department that we should start the portfolio in the 9th grade and continue it to 12th grade.  It started out strong and now we no longer do it.  It makes me sad because it would be such a good idea to show students how far they have come. I think they would put into perspective what students have learned from 9th grade to 12th grade.

I do think I will implement a digital portfolio in my classes.  I like the idea that students can use the technology to keep projects, papers, and other class assignments.  Like we have done in this class I would have students either  embed or add the assignment to a blog and then reflect on that assignment. I would also add a part where other students would be required to comment on other student’s blog posts.  I think it would be a good final assessment for students to create a screencast of the blog posts as an overall reflection of the work they have done in the class.  This way they can verbalize their strengths and weaknesses on the assignments they have completed over the semester. I have read so much during this class about self-reflection and teacher comments that this would be a good way to do both.  For students, “...[self-assessment] is in fact an essential component of formative assessment” (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p. 143). I think it is important for them to step back from just recieving the “grade” to reflect on what they have LEARNED! Students could record their self-reflections about the assignments and then I could give them comments on their progress during the semester. For Teachers giving feedback can, “... [maintain] student motivation and self-confidence while not ignoring student errors” (Shepard, 2000, p. 11). Students, although they don’t always say it, appreciate feedback on what they have done.  They want to improve and know HOW to improve so it is important for teachers to do this for their students.

My CMS is Schoology and I did see this summer where Schoology was offering a digital portfolio option.  I was so excited, until I investigated further and found that you have to have the paid version of Schoology to get the portfolio.  I did Tweet my frustrations to Schoology when I found out! So, I will have my students use some type of a blog for their digital portfolios as a way of keeping what they have turned in during the semester.  But more importantly I want students to have a positive digital image and a school portfolio is a perfect way to do that.  At the beginning of the year I always give a lecture about having a positive digital image as they head to college.

Bibliography

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2010). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(1), 81–90.

Shepard, L. A. (2000). The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher, I 29(7), 4–14.

Assessment Screencast

Schoology for Assessments...

I have been using Schoology (my CMS)  for about four years now.  I have been impressed with the different improvements that they have made over the years.  Everything from rubrics, discussions, and the ease with which students can submit assignments. 

 I really like the testing part of Schoology.  I believe that this part of Schoology will enhance my student's learning because my assessment is for review and relearning.  I have created questions that are from our daily grammar lessons.  I have created a sentence that it similar and covers the same concepts in the grammar lessons.  What I really like about the testing part of Schoology is that I can require students to earn a certain score.  That way if they do not get a certain score they can retake the test until they do so.  I can pull from my questions in the question bank thus student's will not be taking the same test.  There is also a feedback part for each question...meaning, I can explain WHY the answer is incorrect.  That way students will have a better understanding of why they missed the questions they did. 

After a student takes the series of tests, I can then go back to the tests to find problem areas.  With this knowledge I can then reteach difficult concepts either to the entire class or to specific students.  Another reasons I think Schoology and the testing section of Schoology can enhance student learning is that I can create differentiated tests for special education students or ESL students...and no one knows that they are taking a different test.  So...students can take the different tests until they reach a certain score, no two tests are the same, and the ability to differentiate are all reasons this is a good way to review and relearn certain grammatical concepts.

This link might work better than the video below: https://youtu.be/U4DksW2y2kI

CMS comparison

The three CMS's that I looked at were: Hiku, Edmodo, and Schoology. Here is my comparison link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kx-yQPvxbhzIP1j8wwIv3BpUwaLaXoip_Tl4TMO1-48/edit?usp=sharing  

The CMS that I chose to use is Schoology.  I liked Schoology the best because of how easy it is to use.  It has a "Facebook" like structure so it is very familiar to work with.  I think students would find this easy to use as well. I use Schoology for my CMS in my current classes, BUT I tried to be very open minded with the other two CMS's when doing this assignment.  I am not opposed to jumping ship if something is easier to use.  In the end I still liked Schoology better than the other two.  I liked how easy it was to add an assignment, create a rubric (that can show the curriculum standards), and grade.  It is also very easy to add video and audio as forms of assessment.  If I have a podcast assignment students can just upload it to Schoology and I can have the rubric right there to grade it. The same goes for videos as well. I can also put students into "grading groups" to differentiate assignment and tests.  This is important to me because students don't like to be singled out when they have different assessment standards.  This way other students in the class have no idea that someone else is getting a modified assignment.  One of the better features that Schoology offers is a "must complete first" option.  So in order for a student to go to the next step they have to complete the first one.  This comes in handy when you want students to complete an series of assignments but in a particular order.

I like the way I can put students into discussion groups or have just one discussion.  One of the features of the discussion part is that students need to post first in order to read other's posts.  That way students have no idea what others have written until they post. There is also a grading option with the discussion so I can apply points and students will then see their grade. With the discussion groups I can put students from other classes into the different groups.  This is a nice feature so students have a wider audience for their discussions. I can add a URL link or I can upload a video for students to watch and then comment on...these are all great option for discussion groups.

 I also like the quiz feature in Schoology better than the others.  I can import quizzes that I have used before.  I can create a quiz question bank that I can pull questions from for a final exam.  I also like the fact that there is a scramble option so questions are randomly picked so not everyone gets the same questions in the same order.  It is also very easy to add video, audio, and pictures to quizzes.  Again I can differentiate student quizzes as well...and no one in the class knows that someone else is getting a modified quiz. On the quiz part I can see how much time a student has spent on a particular test.  I can see how many students got a particular correct or incorrect. I also like the fact if I want students to take practice quizzes I can put that the student needs a certain score to go to the next quiz.

Schoology works well with Google docs (unfortunately not Google calendar) so for writing assignments I can click on a student's Google Doc link and grade from there.  I also like that students can resubmit assignments and the original assignment doesn't go away.  I do this a lot with rewrites. With all assignments I can always write comments to the students.  This is especially nice with the rubric option.  I can write a student a note on the rubric to tell them why they missed the points they did.

Minecraft Video

The last few weeks we were given the opportunity to look at Minecraft and how we could use this type of game as an assessment in our classrooms.  I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about the whole thing, but after exploring the actual "world" and creating my own world so to speak I do see the value that this game could have in the classroom.  I am not a gamer...so this assignment was a huge stretch for me.  I would get frustrated, lost, and I would give up a lot.  I did plow through it though, and the more I did it I could see how people could become addicted to it.  I have to admit it, if I had more time I would like to see how I could develop my Macbeth world and see how my students would react to it as well.

Link to my Minecraft Podcast: Minecraft