Assessment | jessicapiaeportfolio

Jeopardy! Haudenosaunee Unit Review (Grade 6)

Narrative Elements: Choose Your Own Adventure

This is one of the summative assessments that I designed for a Grade 8 unit on Narrative Elements in Short Fiction. It was the first major assignment of the year, and it took a lot of guidance and check-in's with the students to help them choose which option they were going to run with to demonstrate their learning. As an open-ended project, it gave the students different entry points to the task, and they were able to bring their creativity an strengths into their projects.

The diversity of projects was really exciting! Besides the Spotify playlist, Photo gallery, video game design projects, students who chose the Rebel route came up with such different approaches to demonstrate their understanding. For example, one student created a full out menu for a restaurant based on the theme, tone, mood, characters and setting in one of the short stories that we read. Another student designed a digital representation of a protagonist's bedroom, using Prezi, and all the elements in the bedroom represented not only his characterization, but also the conflict, theme and mood of the story. Other variations of the Rebel project included: art murals and a forensic investigation board!

Sample Assessments for Learning

Sample Assessments of Learning

Sample Assessments as Learning

Persuasive Essay Writing: Thesis "Speed Dating" (Gr. 8)

This is one of the formative assessments that I designed for a Grade 8 introductory unit on persuasive essay writing during the Spring of 2016. After introducing the key characteristics of thesis statements and examining them together in a whole-class and small-group setting, I wanted to gain an understanding of where my students were at in their developing understanding of what makes a strong thesis statement. This is a routine that worked really well for me in terms of scaffolding students' learning and improving my teaching: first check for prior knowledge; then introduce and model a concept; work through it together; have the students work through it while I observe and assist; tailor the next steps to the students' learning needs.

For this formative assessment, each student drew a thesis statement from a jar and had to find a matching thesis statement based on our learning about strong and developing thesis statements. The students sat in chairs across each other and had 2 1/2 minutes to discuss their statements with each other and determine if they were a match. The end goal was to eventually have the students clustered into larger groups and for them to decide what characteristics they shared with each other to justify them as being thesis-mates.

Throughout the process I was able to listen to and engage with the students discussions, and it was eye-opening to hear the students' questions and points-of-view as they tried to figure out who they matched with and why.

Afterwards, I had students complete an exit ticket in which they had to write one thing that they learned about writing a thesis and one question that they have (either from before or a new one as a result of the task). Then I created a customised FAQ sheet for each class (which had such different questions) and we discussed them at the start of the following lesson.

Pia, J. Thesis Speed Dating Formative Assessment Task—Lesson Plan

Pia, J. Thesis Speed Dating Formative Assessment Task—Thesis Statements (cut out and place in jar)

Pia, J. Narrative Elements: Choose Your Own Adventure Summative Assessment

One of the FAQ docs, created in response to students' questions on their exit tickets

This is one of the summative assessments that I designed for a Grade 8 Humanities unit on worldviews within the context of the Aztec and Spanish empires. It is a performance based task in which students are challenged to design a board game that will teach others about the ways in which worldview shaped the geological and cultural aspects of the Aztec Empire.

You can also view the other assessments that follow this one on the website that I created in the spring of 2016 to see how this assessment fits in with the overall unit here: http://jessicapia4.wixsite.com/humanities8

Persuasive Essay Writing: Peer Review (Grade 8)

News Article Writing: Key Features of a News Article (Grade 6)

One of the formative assessments that I used for a unit on news article writing is photocopying a current news story and cutting the news story into sections according to the different features and the structure of a news article. Then I made sure I had enough copies of the inverted triangle graphic organizer on legal sized paper for students to work in pairs and reassemble the news story and label the features. There's no corresponding document for you to click on here, since I used marker, legal sized paper, and the local newspaper!

An example of peer assessment is when I had my grade 8 students workshop a partner's rough draft vis-a-vis the rubric and give written and verbal feedback to each other about what was strong in the work and what areas can be revisited so that they meet the evaluative criteria on the rubric. I always like to go through any rubric with students at the beginning of the task to help them gain a clearer idea of the learning goals.

"So What?" Post-Unit Surveys

Pia, J. Persuasive Essay: Rubric for self, peer and teacher assessment

Sorting Tasks

I like to use sorting tasks at the beginning of a unit or when I am adding to a concept that students are likely to have previous knowledge of, but may have developed misconceptions along the way. I find that sorting tasks bring about great discussions amongst students when they debate with each other over "yes" and "no" examples, and it allows me to observe, hear, and respond to their ways of thinking about the concept.

The difference between classes is sometimes pretty astonishing. Sorting tasks allow me to plan my next steps, as I can see if I need to revisit the concept in more detail before moving on, or if I can move on the next stage of learning.

I like to use sorting tasks at the beginning of a unit or when I am adding to a concept that students are likely to have previous knowledge of, but may have developed misconceptions along the way. I find that sorting tasks bring about great discussions amongst students when they debate with each other over "yes" and "no" examples, and it allows me to observe, hear, and respond to their ways of thinking about the concept.

The difference between classes is sometimes pretty astonishing. Sorting tasks allow me to plan my next steps, as I can see if I need to revisit the concept in more detail before moving on, or if I can move on the next stage of learning.

Like sorting tasks, sometimes I'll use Kahoot in the class to pre-test where the students' understanding is at. Other times, I have used it as a review of literary/rhetorical/poetic devices prior to quizzes. The students love the music and the safe competition!

An example of peer assessment is when I had my grade 8 students workshop a partner's rough draft vis-a-vis the rubric and give written and verbal feedback to each other about what was strong in the work and what areas can be revisited so that they meet the evaluative criteria on the rubric. I always like to go through any rubric with students at the beginning of the task to help them gain a clearer idea of the learning goals.

At the end of a unit, I like to have students to reflect on their learning. Questions that I ask them to reflect on/assess themselves on range from: where they feel they were successful, where they feel they need to grow, which skills and/or concepts they see as being important beyond the wall of the classroom, how their work changed over the course of the unit based on the skills that they applied to tasks. I think this is a valuable practice to help install a growth mindset in students, and make them think about their own thinking.