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One of my successes this year would be being able to use music timers for transitions in my classroom. I have had many obstacles with this due to the school’s PC/Apple TV connection. The system is set up to toggle between the PC or the Apple TV, so whichever mode it is in, determines what audio is heard through the speakers. Therefore, when I use a Power Point with embedded timers, I could not project what was on the iPad and if I use the iPad timers for the music and we were using the PC, they would not be audible. Finally, I have found the solution of using IPod (from home). I programmed timers set up independently of the classroom system with speakers through an aux cord (my Bluetooth would not connect for the entire school day) and finally we are in business!

One of my most recent failures was an activity where we made cards/art (they had hand drawn) that light up using a simple circuit. Students had varying interest levels and some finished in a 20-minute session while others put more time and effort into their work and required 5 times as long. I usually have a discrepancy with interest and length on assignments, but this particular project was much more vast and difficult for me.

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Donner’s use of peer assessment was effective; her students were able to assess others work through the lens of the rubric. This not only helps the peer whose work is being evaluated, but also helps the student who is doing the observing to reflect on whether or not they had met the criteria.

The students have to be able to recall the vocabulary in the lesson (DOK level 1) in order to make valid suggestions to their peers. Students must make observations of peer work (DOK level 2). The students have the opportunity to reflect on the suggestions given by their peers and revise their work (DOK level 3).  The students are responsible for analyzing their peer’s work (DOK level 4).

The challenges a teacher faces in utilizing peer assessments include; ability levels, accuracy of student assessments, harsh or hurtful comments, and general comments such as, “good job” or “I like it”.

I really like her use of peer review within her classroom. I use peer review with writing assignments and would love to branch out and apply it to all other areas of learning. I have room to grow in this area. The only modification I would implement with the peer review techniques would be to have a few students analyze each piece of work. This would give every student additional practice at analyzing and applying their new knowledge as well as more than one critique of their work.

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I recently completed a dinner theater with my Drama students where we raised $6000 to go to Ashland, Oregon!  The challenge was keeping all the students motivated to practice for two hours everyday for the three weeks leading up to it!

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Donner's use of peer assessment was effective because it helped her students grow in their artwork. One student said it helped her understand how to make the dark and light contrasts using a lighter paint after she read a suggestion from a peer. The challenges she might face using peer assessments on a creative project could be students feeling as though they were being compared creatively to their peers. This peer editing strategy would work well with my Drama classes when we are doing simple skits. I could have students write suggestions on sticky notes so they do not interrupt.

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Assessment tools and strategies in my classroom

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Assessment tools and strategies in my classroom

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One of the things I would like to start incorporating in my assessments of my students is self assessment.  After a production, I think it would be a good idea for students to sit and reflect in writing the things they felt went well, and the things they need to work on to improve their own acting skills

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A recent success I've experienced in my Drama class was leading my students through a short introductory unit about Greek Theater. Surprisingly, my students had a ton of fun performing together as a Greek chorus, and translating Oedipus Rex into modern English in groups. Ultimately, my students wrote their own Greek tragedies and performed them for the class. We invited another class to observe us (so my students could perform for an authentic audience), and it was overall a hilarious and enjoyable educational experience.

A thorn in my side all year, though, has been my students who do not want to participate. Somehow, I have several students in my Drama elective class who do not want to perform, speak in front of others, play improv games, or really do anything at all in class. They always bring down the mood of the group, and I've struggled all year with little success trying to figure out how to incorporate them into the group.

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I love how Dawn was able to use peer assessments with her fourth graders to not only help them evaluate one another's work, but to give students a deeper understanding of their own work as well. This was a great example of some of the insights shown in the "Assessment in the Arts" video earlier, which reminded us that assessment is an important part of helping students to grow in the arts.
I have repeatedly tried to use peer assessments in my Drama class this year, but it has been a bit of a struggle. Mostly, I find that students who are themselves novices are not very skilled at providing useful feedback to their peers. Even when I provide pretty specific rubrics and explain them, students still tend to give each other high scores and write **super useful** comments like "good job" instead of truly evaluating one another's performances. I need to figure out a better way to teach students to give effective feedback to one another, like in the visual rubrics used my the teacher in this video.

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I really like her use of peer review within her classroom. I use peer review with writing assignments and would love to branch out and apply it to all other areas of learning. I have room to grow in this area. The only modification I would implement with the peer review techniques would be to have a few students analyze each piece of work. This would give every student additional practice at analyzing and applying their new knowledge as well as more than one critique of their work.

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I already use rubrics frequently, and I have found they are a very specific, practical way of giving students feedback on their work so that they understand exactly what they did well, and what can be improved. Something new that I want to try is giving more structured verbal feedback on performance assessments. For example, as an English teacher, I always leave comments on students' paper drafts. Then students respond to my comments, and make adjustments accordingly before submitting their final work. I want to find a way to implement a strategy like this into my Drama class as well, where I can supply specific constructive feedback which students can then respond to before their final performances. Even better, I would like to teach my students to give this kind of feedback to each other.

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A rose I've experienced is related to my thorn.  As a multiple subject elementary teacher that works at a middle school, our schedule is challenging.  I worry each year that I do not have the teaching time needed to prepare my students for sixth grade.  I'm constantly seeking ways to teach multiple subject standards within one lesson.  Recently my grade level team discovered a holiday lesson to teach before the winter break.  The students were grouped and given the challenge to re-write the lyrics to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  I began by teaching mini-lessons that focused on alternating rhyme stanzas (ABAB), syllables, and rhythm. Students were then given the task to change the song's following literary elements: main character, unique feature, conflict related to the feature, and heroic solution.  Students designed art posters, typed their lyrics for a class sing-along (with the score), and performed the song for each other.  It was an engaging way to integrate language arts, music, and performance.  The students LOVED the project.  I loved that I could teach multiple subjects.

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The peer assessment is effective for multiple reasons. It allows the teacher to CFU (formative assessment) before the final project's summative assessment. For example, if a student is unable to articulate on a post-it the rationale for his/her peer's "rating," then the teacher can intervene to review the class rubric categories. A completed peer post-it review hopefully will lead to students explaining their technique and justifying how it follows the rubric. Further it can lead to clarifying questions that develop a deeper comprehension of the rubric. The greatest challenge can be guiding students to provide each other with constructive criticism. I would teach a mini-lesson prior to this lesson on developing precise, respectful language that appropriately challenges his/her peer. Perhaps a rubric for the peer feedback (e.g. one category for improvement, one compliment, one question related to a level four category)?

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I use a variety of assessment strategies: student check-off lists (rubrics), past student example work, exit tickets for formative assessment, peer feedback, etc. I would like to try a year-long portfolio of work to show student progress. This can be used with many subject areas and it would be a wonderful way for students to reflect on their academic and personal growth.

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A challenge (thorn) I encounter is students missing drama class.  We are a small school.  I only have 6 students in my drama class.  So when even 1 is absent, we can not perform some of our scenes.  I will organize curriculum for each class, then it gets thrown off because some of the curriculum can not be done that class session. I find myself thinking on my feet and it is stressful.  A success (rose) I experienced is watching the students open up and get more expressive with their peers, in drama class, than I see them outside of class.

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A challenge (thorn) I encounter is students missing drama class.  We are a small school.  I only have 6 students in my drama class.  So when even 1 is absent, we can not perform some of our scenes.  I will organize curriculum for each class, then it gets thrown off because some of the curriculum can not be done that class session. I find myself thinking on my feet and it is stressful.  A success (rose) I experienced is watching the students open up and get more expressive with their peers, in drama class, than I see them outside of class.

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Donnor's use of peer assessment was very effective. Students corrected their work based on the suggestions of their peer assessor. The peer assessor based their suggestions on the rubric. The teacher used whole class discussions on the effectiveness of the peer assessments. Students participated in these discussions and described how the peer assessments worked for them. The challenges teachers might face in using peer assessments is that some students might not be very good at it, so the student getting assessed might not get very good feedback. I would modify this strategy by having a second peer assessment.

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Donnor's use of peer assessment was very effective. Students corrected their work based on the suggestions of their peer assessor. The peer assessor based their suggestions on the rubric. The teacher used whole class discussions on the effectiveness of the peer assessments. Students participated in these discussions and described how the peer assessments worked for them. The challenges teachers might face in using peer assessments is that some students might not be very good at it, so the student getting assessed might not get very good feedback. I would modify this strategy by having a second peer assessment.

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I would like to try the tool of having my students working in pairs with a student director in the rehearsal and performance of a scene. I like the idea of co-generating checklists and developing an acting rubric which focuses on physical and vocal expression. Just as said in your example used on this website. Then, student directors use the rubric criteria to communicate feedback to the actors. This process puts students in the driver's seat of their own learning! Which is a big motivator for students to be involved in their own learning. I believe this would help students develop good performance skills in scene work.

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A rose (success) I've had this year is my students' willingness to embrace the power of words as art in our look at poetry. (This is still ongoing.)
A thorn (challenge) I've had this year is trying to figure out how to provide my students with engaging and meaningful lessons, but still get them ready to move into the heavy lifting tasks of accessing information presented in a textbook or other informational texts and successfully navigate a more "traditional" read and assess method. My students really seem to be struggling with some basic reading comprehension and recall from informational texts.

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Donner's use of peer assessment seemed to be effective because the students were involved in helping decide and explain the levels that made up the different measures on the rubric. Also, the feedback was pretty specific about what should be modified and how.
Peer assessment might be challenging because sometimes students are not well versed in determining levels of proficiency or competency in their own work, let alone the work of others. Also, there can be hesitancy to be critical of another's work.
I already use peer assessment and feedback in my classroom when we write, but I do a lot more work on initially showing them what I'm looking for and how I would gauge work. Then I ask them to see how close to my rating they can get before they start giving other students feedback.

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I like the use of rubrics because it helps make the expected outcomes pretty clear for students. With practice, students can easily use rubrics for self-assessment and get a good idea of the level of how they are doing based on the expectation for the assignment/assessment.