Different Types of Assessment

When we think assessment, we automatically think tests.  Can you think of other examples of assessment beyond tests?


Why yes I can. Jasmine and I had the wonderful opportunity to take an entire class devoted to assessment. Here are two examples of assessment that are different than testing:


Early Childhood Environmental Rating System (ECERS): The ECERS does not rate a student's performance, instead, it rates the classroom environment. On a scale of 1-6 (or 7, maybe 5), classrooms get rated on a very wide range of factors. These factors have a lot to do with things that can be literally numbered or measured--such as the number of books showing people of diverse backgrounds or the depth of the mulch on the playground. It dips a little bit as well into behavior management and student-teacher interactions. The main problem I find with this assessment is the level of feedback given to the teacher. An independent rater comes in to the classroom for one day and then observes for a few hours. The classroom will receive their scores but they won't know why they got the high/low score. The feedback is simply a number, which doesn't allow for much improvement.


Work Sampling: This assessment uses more of a portfolio approach to assess children. Teachers will collect a range of assignments and take notes throughout the year to look at the student's development over the course of a year. They will be focusing on a certain number of developmental benchmarks, such as one-to-one correspondence and holding a pencil correctly, and the teacher will check over the year if they fall under the "needs improvement", "in progress", or "proficient" category.

assessing everywhere, everyday

What role does assessment have in your life? How does assessment show up for you as a natural or unnatural part of your life inside and outside of school?

I feel like assessment is apart of all aspects of my life.  In formal settings like school it's through finals or at work it's through my performance and task completion.  In informal settings like with friends it's through assessing our relationships and problems or even more simply assessing an outfit.  The purpose of assessment is reflecting and trying to improve/better whatever aspect of your life, so assessment is or should be consistent in all contexts of our lives.


What ways do you guys see assessment happening in your lives?

I am motivated (:

What motivates you to participate in different activities in your life? Is your motivation different for activities such as school, hobbies, family obligations spending time with friends, etc.? How might you explain any differences you experience?


I am motivated to participate in different activities for different reasons.  For example, I am motivated to complete my academic work because it is the means to an end and the end being my undergraduate degree and starting my graduate program where I get to gain experience specific to my desired job.  I am motivated to spend time with my friends because I love them and hanging with them is enjoyable and they keep me sane (:  


The differences in motivation for different activities can be explained by knowing what your goals are and knowing what activities help you achieve those goals.  Also, motivation has a lot to do with your culture and what values and expectations you were raised to accept.  Motivation is such an interesting concept as it is so individualistic to every person and can involve many different types of motivation for such a specific task.

Assessment Prompt, etc.

Here's the assessment prompt: What role does assessment have in your life? How does assessment show up for you as a natural or unnatural part of your life inside and outside of school?

If you don't want to use this prompt, feel free to discuss assessment and second chances.  Just be sure to discuss how opportunities for second chances have played a role in your life and ideas.

Another thing to think about that I'm not sure you discussed is assessment beyond tests.  When we think assessment, we automatically think tests.  Can you think of other examples of assessment beyond tests?

Happy blogging!

My Motivation to do this Blog Post

Writing this blog post a week late, not having commented on the week before this one's posts, and not yet having started this week's current post... I think it's a great idea to talk about my motivation to write in this blog.

I honestly do enjoy reading what you ladies write. I think you've all got interesting ideas to put out there and discussion is one of my favorite parts of class. Unfortunately, completing this assignment falls somewhere in between doing my laundry and sweeping the kitchen floor. Pretty low on the totem pole.

So what intrinsic and extrinsic factors are at work in me as I type up this post? First of all: grade, grade, grade, grade, grade. Secondly, sense of obligation I feel from being raised to do what the teacher tells me. Thirdly, like I said, this blog is kind of fun if I ever get around to doing it. And lastly, the great feeling I get knowing that all of y'all have to read this.

So tell me. Why do you blog?

:)

Motivation Prompt

What motivates you to participate in different activities in your life? Is your motivation different for activities such as school, hobbies, family obligations spending time with friends, etc.? How might you explain any differences you experience?

"Smart" = more academic than social

I had a conversation with a friend about his experience with school growing up. He was known as "especially smart," being able to teach himself to read at an early age and expressing an interest in college-level math as a pre-teen. During this conversation, "smart/intelligence" was used to measure his academic or "intellectual" ability in comparison to others. (Funny that "intellectual" refers strictly to academics/critical thinking.) This led me to think about how intelligence is also very strictly defined by our culture. Although we consider social and cultural intelligence as valuable, these seem to take second place when people use the term "smart." You can be "street smart" but street isn't redundant here- it has to be used to define smart in another way. Also, football players for example, might be "athletically smart" but people don't define smart any farther when they talk about academics. The stereotype for them is "dumb" at books, and even sometimes "dumb" off the field in general. On the other hand, the kid reading the book is "smart." As you guys were saying, it's interesting that this is very cultural, and other places, like Japan, value social intelligence more.

Smart?

So my peers identified intelligence and used the word smart as an someone who knows everything on whatever context the situation pertains to.  But what I found interesting is my peers associate intelligence with effort and practice put in to obtain that knowledge to be considered intelligent.  This seems to be a contrast as the parents of this 3 & 5 year old boys I nanny for associate smart with effortless ability as smart seems to be acknowledging a gift or talent.  So one of the boys' nannies is consciously trying to reiterate to the boys that they are smart BECAUSE they worked really hard etc.  I thought it was interesting how significant a word's interpretation and usage could impact a child's perception of his/her own ability.

What is intelligence? What is disability?

So I didn't actually pick up on any "smart" conversations so I just decided to ask my friends and roommates straight up. Here are the responses I got.

When you say that someone is smart/intelligent, what do you mean by that?
"They're able to see connections between things."
"They're good at academics."
"They have intrinsic mental capacity, like, raw horsepower."
"Make connections quickly and they can understand situations in all contexts."

How do you define disability?
"When you're impaired beyond the normal condition (as defined by society)."
"Having a condition you don't have control that impedes your functioning in daily life."
"An inability to perform normally, but normally is not the right term. I don't know what the right term is."

I think I could agree with everything that they said in some shape or form and nothing they mentioned really offended me. What's interesting is what the last person said under intelligence: "Make connections quickly and they can understand situations in all contexts." After they said this, one of my roommates responded, "That's interesting you'd add a social aspect to it..." and it reminded me of the Japanese school teachers who valued social competence/intelligence over academic knowledge.

Also of note, for the third response under intelligence: "They have intrinsic mental capacity, like, raw horsepower.", my roommate was searching for the word and originally said ability instead of capacity. I then asked him, "Do you mean ability or capacity?" and he responded with capacity. The mention of horsepower also reminds me of how we often view our brains as working like a machine.

Ability blog prompt (required)

Don't forget that for this week you need to respond to this prompt: 

Notice when people identify intelligence, competence, or ability. They might say: “Johnny is so smart!” or “My cousin has a disability.” If you can, ask them what they mean by “smart” or “disabled” (or whichever word they use). Write about these experiences in your blog.

How My Culture Has Developed Me

Recognizing your own culture is obviously a difficult task (we experienced that a bit on Tuesday). However, I think if you take the time out of your day to begin to pinpoint your values and beliefs it can foster a greater sense of identity and also improve personal relationships. In this blog post I'm not going to talk very broadly about my culture but just give one example and see if I might be able to piece together where that value came from. (Quite literally, I am going to figure it out as I am writing this)

So here's one value I have: The worth of things has never been that big of a deal to me. In fact, I think I actively seek out the cheapest option possible. For example, I didn't bring up a mattress with me from Texas so when I went mattress shopping after I moved out of the dorms, I picked out the cheapest mattress in the store without even having to look at the price. Also, the majority of my clothes are secondhand. And, when I was deciding with my roommates where to live last year I didn't care about anything in the house as long as it was below a certain price. I just don't really care about nice things. Of course, my definition of "nice" is extremely culturally based. What I might consider to be nice someone else would think is terrible and vice versa.

But I have no idea where this value came from. I grew up with nice things, my parents buy nice things, and I have the money to spend. Maybe because I was raised in a well-to-do environment I become guilty anytime I buy something frivolous knowing that other people can't afford it? Maybe because I've grown up during a very environmentally conscious era I think twice before I get something new? No idea! But it's food for thought!

(I really figured that one out, didn't I?)