Assessing for enhance personalized student learning by Sarah Loyola

1. How do teachers use assessment data to improve individual student learning plans?

sarah_loyola — 2015-03-26 20:19:56 UTC

2. How does assessment work in a blended or online learning environment?

sarah_loyola — 2015-03-26 20:20:52 UTC

I need help processing the question...

robmead58 — 2015-03-26 21:05:36 UTC

I am not familiar with the term "individual student learning plan." Is this a formal document? Is it something created by the student?... the teacher?... or through a joint negotiation? I can understand if a student is aiming to achieve an "A", but how about the student whose target is a modest "B" or lackluster "C"? Do teachers (and parents) sing off on those plans? How much teaching time is devoted to hammering out an individual student learning plan? Other teachers are doing this?

Ric

2015-03-26 21:18:57 UTC

I think quick checks as those utilized by Khan Academy are very useful in blended & online instruction, esp. when resources to help students master concepts are given. I think given the nature / setting of these environments, assessments need to be a bit more creative than a standard multiple choice / short answer test.

Perhaps I am using assessments incorrectly...

robmead58 — 2015-03-26 21:22:27 UTC

For me, an assessment is working when it incentivizes students to engage fully in the underlying assignment/project. A student who is engaged is going to learn. A student who is incentivized to complete the assignment to the best of their ability, or to help his/her teammates, or to make new intellectual connections, will do these things. The best assessments offer promises of individual and group rewards, and then ultimately deliver when all the students in the class "Pass" at the same time.

I'm not familiar with the term "individual student learning plan" either...

kneely — 2015-03-26 21:34:11 UTC

However, I gauge students' success on assessments to determine how to move forward with a unit. If it appears the group has mastered the concept, I'll move on, but if it appears that enough students are struggling, I'll either restructure the assessment, give them opportunities to meet with me to go over and then redo the work, or have a group conversation to determine how best to move forward.

I'm still trying to figure this out...

kneely — 2015-03-26 21:38:09 UTC

I find that using small check-ins, as Ric says, proves to be helpful. Students and I can then determine if they are ready to move forward or if they need reinforcement.

Success with Kahoot.

2015-03-27 00:32:50 UTC

I've had some success lately gauging how well the class understands basic factual information using Kahoot. It's a basic quiz game that calculates immediately how well the class did. I use it at the start of the review process (before a big test), then address the things that they did not learn well. Laying down a factual base lets me use the rest of the review time to explore the meatier questions of the unit. Marty Rubio

Kristen

2015-03-27 05:17:36 UTC

It helps me groups students and decide who needs further development. Formative assessments allow me to group students so that they are appropriately challenged and therefore it allows students to move at a pace that works for them and in a way that works for them.

Kristen

2015-03-27 05:18:58 UTC

For me, I use them at the beginning of class after the students watch videos at night. Formative assessments allow me to group my students and summative assessments allow me to figure out when we can move on...

Ditto on Kahoot

2015-03-27 13:25:14 UTC

I just discovered Kahoot too and my kids LOVE it. I have them make their own and we play their games in class. Works as a good HW assignment and then provides part of the lesson plan for the next day. Kahoot's a nice online assessment tool! ~ Allynn

Nicole

2015-03-27 13:57:31 UTC

I like to use assessment data to gauge if there are specific types of skills an individual student is consistently struggling with such as critical thinking, writing, etc. This can help me when I meet with one students one on one to discuss their progress and where I see things going well and where they can improve.

Nicole

2015-03-27 14:00:41 UTC

I used quizzes in the beginning of class.

This helps me see what needs further clarification

and I use it for grouping.

Mastery Learning

akelley1990 — 2015-03-27 15:20:45 UTC

I have begun to incorporate mastery learning into my upper-level courses and use data collected from both formal and informal assessments to help guide students in selecting activities to work on within a unit before progressing to the next unit and also to help guide them in unit selection in the more modular courses. Hopefully, this is what you mean by improving student learning plans as I am not familiar with that particular terminology either.

Not Well?

akelley1990 — 2015-03-27 15:24:14 UTC

In my online Sports Medicine one-semester course I have used quick checks, wikis, blog posts, and more formal tests and projects for assessment with mixed success. Students either "forget" to upload work or to log into the assessment and request a more traditional assessment in the classroom as a "make-up" test.

Sarah

2015-03-29 15:28:16 UTC

I like Google forms as a quick check for understanding. I put the reused in thr

Sarah s.

2015-03-29 15:29:47 UTC

I use Google forms to do quick checks for understanding. I put the results up and we can see as a class what concepts we're getting and what ones we need to review. I use little things like this to decide off it's time to move on or not.

Sarah S

2015-03-29 15:31:50 UTC

Online learning lets me get the info quicker and I can use lots of different ways to get feedback. Google forms, Padlet, TED Ed videos and questions, online polls. These are easy and quick ways to assess students and results and feedback can have a quicker turn around time which benefits all.

Exit Slips & Journals

2015-03-31 11:24:01 UTC

A quick check in at the end of class or the end of the day provides me with a lot of information to help guide students during the next class/day. Socrative, Google Classroom, Blog, the Five Fingers protocol, and our Dialogue Journals all play a roll in gathering data. Traditional paper and pencil also is part of the process. - Tim

It has a place

2015-03-31 11:27:31 UTC

Some of the tools we use face-to-face can also be used in the blended environment. Currently, we use a center approach and embedded in those lessons are assessments using digital or analog tools. Face-to-face check ins following a lesson proves the most helpful so we can reinforce the playback/rewind opportunities blended/digital lessons provide. - Tim