Classroom Assessment Chapter 4

Classroom Assessment Chapter 4

     To help us work towards our school goal of improving our understanding and practice of assessment, my principal has provided our staff with a copy of Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right – Using it Wellby Jan Chappuis, Rick Stiggins, Steve Chappuis, and Judith Arter. As I make my way through the book, I will be summarizing my learning as a means of organizing my thoughts and getting clarification on particular ideas.


Classroom Assessment for Student Learning Cover. (Accessed 2016). Uploaded to Amazon; Pearson Education. Available online at: https://www.amazon.ca/Classroom-Assessment-Student-Learning-Doing/dp/0132685884


Chapter 4 – Sound Design

*teachers vary assessment methods to offer choice and/or accommodate learning preferences but methods should match the learning targets
Assessment Options
1 ) Selected Response
– chose the correct response from a previous list
– multiple choice, true & false, matching, fill-in-the-blanks
– judged correct or incorrect
2 ) Written Response
– construct a response based from a prompt
– short answer, extended response
– judged by a scoring criteria/rubric
3 ) Performance Response
– observation of real-time demonstration or products
– playing an instrument, lab reports, wood shop creations
– judged by a scoring criteria/rubric
4 ) Personal Communication
– structured or unstructured interactions
– participation, student journals, interviews/conferences
– good for determining misunderstandings and giving immediate feedback
*You can determine what type of assessment method matches particular types of learning targets by using this table
classroom assessment for student learning
Chappius, et al. (2012). Figure 4.3 Target Method Match. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, pg 94.
Assessment Development Cycle
1 ) Determining Users & Uses
– who will use the results?
– how will they use the results?
– is it formative or summative? (if formative, remember the 4 steps from Ch. 1)
2 ) Specify the Intended Learning Targets
– determine if its knowledge, reasoning skill or product (see Ch. 3)
3 ) Select the Appropriate Assessment Match 
– see image above
4 ) Determine an Appropriate Sample Size
– “how much evidence is enough?” “how long should the assessment be?”
a ) assessment purpose
     – an exit slip to guide tomorrow’s lesson requires less evidence than a final exam
b ) nature of the learning target
     – the broader the target, the more complex and the more evidence that is needed
     – procedural knowledge is short, competent writing is complex
c ) assessment method
     – you may need more multiple choice questions because they only ask limited information at a time
     – written response questions can cover more so you need less of them
d ) the students 
     – use professional judgement; you know when students “get it” and which ones need more evidence
     – this is more relevant during formative than summative
Assessment Blueprints
– helps ensure the assessment is measuring what you need it to: validity
– example table
Learning
Target
Target
Type
Assessment Option
Total
%

*try to account for potential sources of bias or distortion; good planning helps but you’ll never be able to address all of them with all students

Classroom assessment for student learning
Chappius, et al. (2012). Figure 4.7 Potential Sources of Bias and Distortion Common to All Assessment Methods. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, pg 112.
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I WANT TO KNOW:
What exactly differentiates between an extended writing assessment and a performance task?
Lab reports are under performance… not writing. The chapter also includes term papers as performance tasks where I would have thought of them as writing tasks.
Please leave your thoughts below 🙂

I'd love to hear your thoughts; please leave a comment!