Assessment TIPR + edTPA Prep

Current Teacher Behaviors

1. How does the teacher assess student learning? Identify specific instances of informal and formal, formative and summative assessment and explain the types of assessments (e.g., self-assessment, portfolio, project, performance, etc.) that are used. How valid, reliable, biased, and practical are these assessments?

I've seen a lot of evidence for formal and informal, formative and summative assessment from my cooperating teacher through the following ways:

• The cooperating teacher administered a vocabulary quiz they took on their Chromebooks (she mentioned that you couldn't come back to a question because she didn't want you using the process of elimination to figure out the definition)
  (Assessment Types: formative, formal, online test-taking performance type, valid, reliable, unbiased, and practical)
• She mentioned having "what some might call a test, but I prefer to call it an extravaganza" next week (not sure exactly what she means by that, but I love how she's framing it)
  (Assessment Type: summative, not sure the type)
• She also had a group do an oral presentation on a chapter from the book, They Say I say by G. Graff and C. Birkenstein
  (Assessment Type: formative, informal, performance type, valid, somewhat unreliable, and impractical for use as a regular assessment)
• She had one-on-one interviews in the hall about the students reading outside of class
  (Assessment Type: formative, informal, interview type, valid, reliable, could be biased depending on the teacher, and usually impractical because of time constraint)
• She talked about a paper they were gathering information about that will be due at a time in the future
  (Assessment Type: summative, informal, performance type, probably valid, reliable, could be biased, and it's practical)
• She also talked about the students doing their own version of TED Talks. They will spend 1 1/2 to 3 minutes talking about success using two stories: one about the student and one about someone else
  (Assessment Type: summative, informal, performance type, valid, may be unreliable and biased due to anxiety or stage-fright, and not practical to do often)

 I feel like my cooperating teacher has a handle on where her students are and how well they are learning. She holds them to task, and does so with understanding and always with a touch of humor. The tone of her classroom is such a positive one and the students engage often in classroom discussion--especially her AP English classes. The regular English class I see is a little less forthcoming in their participation, but they will participate when encouraged and do seem to enjoy her class. I did ask her about feedback and she said she subscribes to a minimalist approach. She always tells the student something positive about the work--even if it is difficult to find and she has to say something along the lines of, "I'd never thought of it that way before" and then she gives them one thing they could do to improve. The rest of it, she just follows the rubric for their grade.

As of yet, I haven't witnessed any adjustments of assessments to accommodate students. She did, however, address concerns students might have concerning public speaking and anxiety they might feel in giving a talk about success. She did say that everyone would need to participate, but if there were students who struggled with anxiety, they should come to her and she would help them.

Student Needs

2. What are these students' needs with regard to assessment in this class? What more could or should be done?

 I don't see how my cooperating teacher could do more in the area of assessment. She is really on top of things. She formatively assesses her students daily and gives encouragement and feedback. Perhaps she could possibly give more feedback, but as often as she's assessing, it may be difficult timewise for her to do. Not only that but hearing more that one thing a student can improve on may defeat the purpose intended and make the student discouraged. Constructive criticism is best served in a sandwich of compliments.

Plan for your Lesson

 

3. How will you address these needs when you teach your mini-lesson in this class?

I will look for opportunities to praise the students for doing something right, and if they do make an error, I will gently guide them to the proper answer and make sure the correction is not made without also praising something about something the student did right. For example, I plan to do an activity where the students practice putting parts of a citation source in the proper order. This allows the students a hands-on way to move through their schemas and achieve equilibrium. If a student puts something in the wrong place, this indicates their disequilibrium. In this situation, I might ask, "Are you sure that's where you want it?" giving them an opportunity to change their answer. And then if they move it to the right place, I'll say, "Nicely done. Thanks for helping out. That's a great example of self-correction." This helps encourage the students to progress through adaptation to get to a state of equilibrium.