# data[].attributes.headline
Phyllis

Personal communication is an important focus of the ASD
program.  Impairment in communication
must be present for a student to meet the eligibility criteria for a diagnosis
of autism.  It has been the most
difficult concept for my students to grasp. 
Asking my students questions, has allowed me to assess knowledge and a
level of perceptual understanding, as well as subject content. I have been able
to assess when a student begins to learn to communicate versus simply giving a
robotic response.  Teaching my students
to ask questions has been even more of a challenge but both were worked on
daily, during direct social skills instructional periods.  Through daily assessments I have found
students who ask questions of substance tend to be my students “in the middle”.
These students would be characterized as having average intelligence and perhaps
more importantly, basic common sense, or savvy. Students on opposite ends of
the autism spectrum are more likely to find comfort in their own world.  The lowest functioning students find
contentment in whatever it is they think they know. The highest functioning
students become excellent researchers, and seek answers by reading the science
textbook or watching an episode of BrainPop Jr. Based on my review of the
student data for my class, constant assessment of  “whole child” performance and progression has
been the reason for student growth.  I
look forward to incorporating the new information I have learned in this
course, in the upcoming school year.

# data[].attributes.subject
Phyllis

Personal communication is an important focus of the ASD
program.  Impairment in communication
must be present for a student to meet the eligibility criteria for a diagnosis
of autism.  It has been the most
difficult concept for my students to grasp. 
Asking my students questions, has allowed me to assess knowledge and a
level of perceptual understanding, as well as subject content. I have been able
to assess when a student begins to learn to communicate versus simply giving a
robotic response.  Teaching my students
to ask questions has been even more of a challenge but both were worked on
daily, during direct social skills instructional periods.  Through daily assessments I have found
students who ask questions of substance tend to be my students “in the middle”.
These students would be characterized as having average intelligence and perhaps
more importantly, basic common sense, or savvy. Students on opposite ends of
the autism spectrum are more likely to find comfort in their own world.  The lowest functioning students find
contentment in whatever it is they think they know. The highest functioning
students become excellent researchers, and seek answers by reading the science
textbook or watching an episode of BrainPop Jr. Based on my review of the
student data for my class, constant assessment of  “whole child” performance and progression has
been the reason for student growth.  I
look forward to incorporating the new information I have learned in this
course, in the upcoming school year.

# data[].attributes.headline
Phyllis      

Performance assessment results in my classroom varied based
on how much communication and/or socialization the task involved. A basic, yet
sometimes challenging activity for my students has been following proper hand
washing procedures, which I link to health standards and take IEP behavior data
on for assessments. Student must demonstrate correct hand washing procedures
immediately upon arrival to the classroom and throughout the day, which include
steps such as, using the paper towel to turn off the water after hand drying,
and disposing of the paper towel in the trash. I have been able to assess
student ability to demonstrate tasks, how often the tasks are done correctly,
and which students will likely remember the steps following a three-day
weekend.  My assessment of those very basic
skills and behaviors helped me to understand the importance of spiraling
instruction to cover academic content units, repeatedly.

# data[].attributes.subject
Phyllis      

Performance assessment results in my classroom varied based
on how much communication and/or socialization the task involved. A basic, yet
sometimes challenging activity for my students has been following proper hand
washing procedures, which I link to health standards and take IEP behavior data
on for assessments. Student must demonstrate correct hand washing procedures
immediately upon arrival to the classroom and throughout the day, which include
steps such as, using the paper towel to turn off the water after hand drying,
and disposing of the paper towel in the trash. I have been able to assess
student ability to demonstrate tasks, how often the tasks are done correctly,
and which students will likely remember the steps following a three-day
weekend.  My assessment of those very basic
skills and behaviors helped me to understand the importance of spiraling
instruction to cover academic content units, repeatedly.

# data[].attributes.headline
Phyllis

Performance assessment results in my classroom varied based
on how much communication and/or socialization the task involved. A basic, yet
sometimes challenging activity for my students has been following proper hand
washing procedures, which I link to health standards and take IEP behavior data
on for assessments. Student must demonstrate correct hand washing procedures
immediately upon arrival to the classroom and throughout the day, which include
steps such as, using the paper towel to turn off the water after hand drying,
and disposing of the paper towel in the trash. I have been able to assess
student ability to demonstrate tasks, how often the tasks are done correctly,
and which students will likely remember the steps following a three-day
weekend.  My assessment of those very basic
skills and behaviors helped me to understand the importance of spiraling
instruction to cover academic content units, repeatedly.

# data[].attributes.subject
Phyllis

Performance assessment results in my classroom varied based
on how much communication and/or socialization the task involved. A basic, yet
sometimes challenging activity for my students has been following proper hand
washing procedures, which I link to health standards and take IEP behavior data
on for assessments. Student must demonstrate correct hand washing procedures
immediately upon arrival to the classroom and throughout the day, which include
steps such as, using the paper towel to turn off the water after hand drying,
and disposing of the paper towel in the trash. I have been able to assess
student ability to demonstrate tasks, how often the tasks are done correctly,
and which students will likely remember the steps following a three-day
weekend.  My assessment of those very basic
skills and behaviors helped me to understand the importance of spiraling
instruction to cover academic content units, repeatedly.

# data[].attributes.headline
Phyllis

Written response is great way for me to assess what my
students are thinking but more importantly, overall growth and maturity.  Many of them have fine motor deficits and
receive occupational therapy services. Getting these students to communicate,
in writing, is challenging.  Others
refuse to write because they struggle with reading and spelling, and become
anxious about making mistakes on the paper. I have been able to get writing
samples by providing many writing supports. Supplying my group with “story
starters” would not have met the needs of most students in my class. At the
beginning of the school year, I would project an image on the whiteboard and
cover the board with one large sheet of paper. Each student would need to tell
me at least two sentences about the image or its concept.  I took dictation and wrote each student’s
statement with red pen, on lined paper. Each student traced the modeled
sentence, then copied it on the line below the model.  When a student completed tracing and writing
two sentences he was free to trace and color a part of the big poster paper,
and label it with his sentences. That strategy reduced student anxiety, got
them writing, and helped them give me something to assess. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Phyllis

Written response is great way for me to assess what my
students are thinking but more importantly, overall growth and maturity.  Many of them have fine motor deficits and
receive occupational therapy services. Getting these students to communicate,
in writing, is challenging.  Others
refuse to write because they struggle with reading and spelling, and become
anxious about making mistakes on the paper. I have been able to get writing
samples by providing many writing supports. Supplying my group with “story
starters” would not have met the needs of most students in my class. At the
beginning of the school year, I would project an image on the whiteboard and
cover the board with one large sheet of paper. Each student would need to tell
me at least two sentences about the image or its concept.  I took dictation and wrote each student’s
statement with red pen, on lined paper. Each student traced the modeled
sentence, then copied it on the line below the model.  When a student completed tracing and writing
two sentences he was free to trace and color a part of the big poster paper,
and label it with his sentences. That strategy reduced student anxiety, got
them writing, and helped them give me something to assess. 

# data[].attributes.headline
Phyllis

I use selected response for both formative and summative
assessments.  Matching, fill-in, and
multiple choice test items are commonly found online. I prefer assessments with
visual cues, as pictures are extremely helpful for students with autistic spectrum
disorder. Through this course, I have learned how to raise the level of rigor in
my class this fall.  I use true/false far
less often. My lower functioning students tend to become more confused by the
“true/false” concept than the academic content.

# data[].attributes.subject
Phyllis

I use selected response for both formative and summative
assessments.  Matching, fill-in, and
multiple choice test items are commonly found online. I prefer assessments with
visual cues, as pictures are extremely helpful for students with autistic spectrum
disorder. Through this course, I have learned how to raise the level of rigor in
my class this fall.  I use true/false far
less often. My lower functioning students tend to become more confused by the
“true/false” concept than the academic content.

# data[].attributes.body
Phyllis...Hope my tech works. My submission was too long!

# data[].attributes.body
I enjoy using performance assessments within Social Studies and Science.  In Science, the class conducts experiences while I observe and review their  work.  In Social Studies, the students create their own skits, art pieces, or songs to perform in front of their parents.  Students are eager to share with parents what they have learned.
I need to work on Personal Communication as a classroom assessment. At times I become so enthralled in our class discussions when I realized we have moved away from our learning target. I need to plan more effective questions that will help us remain on task.

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I use selected response as a formative assessments in Social Studies and Science.  I can quickly gauge where my students measure in knowledge and reasoning.  I use multiple-choice items, matching, and fill-in-the-blank items.  I tend not to use true/false because, in my opinion,  these types of questions confuse ELLs.
I use written responses more frequently because it help me to tap into the student's knowledge, understanding, and reasoning. I use written responses in all content areas: Literacy, Math, Science and Social Studies. For Writing Workshop, I have the students create the rubric by using what I have taught them and exemplar writing samples.

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Personal Communication is used during my lessons, but for very short time periods.  I will usually pose a question to the class at the beginning of the lesson.  Students will see the question(s) on the screen and will be asked to respond to the whole class when called upon individually.  I will call on random students to either repeat what another student said or to expound on what another students said.  I attempt to engage all the learners by asking them to discuss topics related to the lesson for two minutes with their elbow partners. I will monitor their engagement with one another and chime in with various pairs to check for understanding and making sure they stay on task.

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Performance Assessments tend to occur after my students have organized a written response.  For example, if the students have written a research paper that is biographical in nature, they may be asked to perform a scene representing a situation in the person's life.  Students may also have to do performance related tasks to demonstrate to me they have mastered a technology related skill.  For example, they will have to show me they can properly edit film using Windows Movie Maker or Adobe Premier.  They may be asked to show me they can format a paper in MLA style using Microsoft Word.

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I seldom use selected responses because of the nature of what I teach. The time I spend teaching a group of students is typically 3 days maximum at a time.  During that time we are creating, analyzing or critiquing something.  I use performance and written responses more often than selected responses.  I have seen teachers at my school use selected responses during summative assessments.  My assessments tend to be all formative.

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Most of the lessons I collaboratively teach relate to information literacy. This results in most of my assessments being written responses.  Some of the written response are 3-2-1 in nature or tickets out the door.  I may want to quickly assess whether the students understood the lesson or if I need to revise the lesson when I teach it to another group.   I also use written responses a great deal because many of the lessons I teach are related to research and reference skills.  Students who work with me typically have to write a research paper or support their position on a topic when they're writing a persuasive essay.

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Personal communication is essential between teachers and students whether the students or verbal / nonverbal.  One example of communication practice my students work on involves CNN Student News.  It is a student led activity and the leader has to ask the class questions about what they had seen on the daily news.  Every student knows they have to participate.  It gives me an opportunity to assess their learning as well as assess their ability to communicate with each other.

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Performance assessment is the most utilized assessment in our school's setting for students with special needs. Students set goals based on their own objectives in addition to the teachers assessments of functional life skills in a variety of settings.

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Karen - My students do not use written response assessments; however, my students do write a response to a daily question that I try to make meaningful to 'real-life' situations.

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Karen - My students do not use written response assessments; however, my students do write a response to a daily question that I try to make meaningful to 'real-life' situations.

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I am enjoying reading your submissions.  Keep up the great work.  I look forward to reading more.  I hope you are learning more about the Padlet resource tool as well.

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Performance assessments are time consuming but we do about four per year in our science classes. We started this two years ago. We also do at least two extended response questions (about once per semester) and these count as test grades.

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Although I have used Selected Response items, they are not normally used on the math assessments that I give.  We are more interested in the process and strategies that students use to derive an answer then just choosing from a multiple choice answers.  In Science and Social Studies however, they are used on every test and although every now and then some of the distractors are irrelevant to the question, for the most part I feel that our teachers design relevant test questions and answer choices.  Written Response items are used frequently on our assessments because we challenge the students to explain their thinking and reason through problems.  I do not use Performance Assessments due to time constraints and pacing.  Occasionally,   as in once or twice a year, I try to incorporate an assessment based on performance but normally when doing this it is part of a STEM unit.  The last area or Personal Communication as a Classroom Assessment is the one I feel that I use most often.  I continually question my students to gauge understanding and have them explain their thinking to their peers.  Students love to go to the board and demonstrate their thinking, but the key is to have them explain using the appropriate vocabulary to their peers what they are doing.  When they can use the vocabulary correctly they understand what the terms mean.  I will continue to use all four types of assessment and will try to find more ways to incorporate Performance Assessments into my instruction.

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Our Kindergarten students are 5 or 6 year-old and they can't read or write, particularly at the beginning of the school year.  At the beginning of school year we do a pre-assessment of skills and our students have to circle the right answer (pictures or numbers).  The questions are read aloud by the teacher. Students require supervision to keep them on track. This type of assessments are not ideal for this grade level. One of the most common types of selected response formative assessment we use in Kindergarten for all subjects is matching items (using pictures). Also, personal communication is used on a regular basis during formative and summative assessments for most subjects. During summative math assessments, our students meet one-on-one with the teacher to demonstrate mastery of knowledge or skills verbally and  kinesthetically by using manipulatives (performance). I will continue to use personal communication, performance and matching items as part of my formative and summative assessments.

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I have used selected response to measure which students can read an analog clock, identify the hour, quarter hour, half hour, and minutes.  For assessment, I use worksheets with fill in the blanks underneath various times on an analog clock.  For students who struggle with this concept they become my time keepers, have to tell me what time it is when called upon, or let me know when it is time to get ready for skills, etc.  I will continue to use this method in the future.

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I have used all of these to some extent.  They each have their own advantages and disadvantages.  Written responses stress my special education students out and obviously take longer to grade as well. This makes delivering feedback in a timely manner more difficult.  I would like to try more personal communication assessments. I believe some of my students know more than a written test can show.

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In your Chappuis & Stiggins textbook, Chapters 5 - 8 discuss 4 types of assessments - Selected Response, Written Response, Performance & Personal Communication in Classroom.  Please share your thoughts and findings on these 4 types of assessments - When do you use the various types? What are some examples of each type?  Have you used these before?  Will you use them now?

# data[].attributes.subject
In your Chappuis & Stiggins textbook, Chapters 5 - 8 discuss 4 types of assessments - Selected Response, Written Response, Performance & Personal Communication in Classroom.  Please share your thoughts and findings on these 4 types of assessments - When do you use the various types? What are some examples of each type?  Have you used these before?  Will you use them now?