Let's Talk Assessment!

                         “The more that you read, the more things you will know.

The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” 

- Dr. Seuss

            In one of my first blog posts, I wrote about self-assessment and how it is valuable for students to reflect on their work. This week, I want to spend some time talking about another type of assessment that is new to me. As a prospective teacher, I have learned in the past two months a lot about assessment and how it is consistently changing to address the needs of the 21^st century learner. With this in mind, I want to draw your attention to Assessment for Learning (AfL), Assessment as Learning (AaL) and Assessment of Learning (AoL). These three terms are both new to me as a prospective teacher and have helped me to better understand how assessment can be applied in the classroom.

Image from http://www.predictive-advantage.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/blog-01.gif 

Assessment For Learning (AfL)

In Assessment for Learning, the “assessment information is used to enhance learning” (Drake, Reid and Kolohon, 2014, p. 16). This means that assessment is a continuous process where both the student and the teacher can visibly see the learning taking place. This is best done through giving the student feedback so that the student knows what their strengths, weaknesses and next steps are to make learning successful (Drake et al., 2014, p. 16). Drake et al (2014) write that “the spirit of AfL really is a philosophy based on the belief that everyone can learn and that the teacher’s responsibility is to actively support learning and not just report it” (p. 17). But do you agree with this, that there is more to learning and teaching than just reporting progress in grades? If so, how can we as teachers make this work in a classroom, where students are not used to this type of assessment? I think a lot of it reflects back to my previous blog post on self-assessment, where students reflect back to the work that they have done. You can read that blog here.

Assessment as Learning (AaL)

            Assessment as Learning (AaL) is defined as having student’s gain an awareness for how they learn. This is done through self-assessment, self monitoring and metacognition (Drake et al., 2014, p. 17). Similarly, AaL goes hand in hand with AfL, where feedback is beneficially used to help students understand and visibly see the learning that takes place (Drake et al., 2014, p. 17). Generally with this type of assessment the “teacher scaffolds experience to allow for a gradual release of responsibility”, allowing for the student to gain independence and skills to suit their learning level and needs (Drake et al., 2014, p. 18). The end result is that students use the information that they learn about themselves to become aware of how they learn and possibly get an idea for their learning style (Drake et al., 2014, p. 18).

Assessment of Learning (AoL)

            The last type of assessment is Assessment of Learning (AoL), which is the most popular and traditional type of assessment. In AoL, the student is generally awarded either “numeric or letter grades, with limited if any description of commentary” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 16). Most of us will probably relate with AoL when we think of our report cards from elementary and high school or when we get an assignment back and the only thing we want to look at is the grade we received. Generally in AoL, assessment is only completed by the teacher and tends to be a “summative judgement about performance in relation to provincial standards” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 18).

            Now that I have given a brief overview about the three types of assessment (AfL, AoL and AaL), how can we as teachers implement this into our classrooms? How can we make assessment more accessible for the 21^st century thinker? Let me know what you think.

For more information about AfL, AoL and AaL in Ontario, check out this video that gives a great summary of these three types of assessment:

Video Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QuQpMStS4 

Or check out this great summery table of AfL, AoL and AaL:

 Image from https://s-media-cache ak0.pinimg.com/originals/55/ab/f5/55abf53efd2912e55886a3199e947521.jpg 

Miss Chong

References

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press

GECDSB AER (2011, October 18). Module 2 - Assessment for, as & of learning [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7QuQpMStS4

Horan, D. (n.d). Definitions of assessment of, for and as learning. Retrieved from  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309552174360029437/

Miss Chong. (2015, September 23). Self assessment in the classroom. Retrieved from http://educatelearnimagine.blogspot.ca/2015/09/self-assessment-in-classroom.html

Predictive Advantage (2012, March 30). Why bother using a behavioural assessment for your business anyway? Retrieved from http://www.predictive-advantage.com/why-bother-using-a-behavioural-assessment-for-your-business-anyway/

Let's Talk About the KDB Framework

Hello!

A few weeks ago in one of my education classes, I was introduced to the KDB model, which stands for the Know, Do and Be in curriculum documents. At first, the KDB was a little unclear, especially as it can sometimes be tricky to find. However, after a closer examination and understanding of the KDB, I have been able to already better unpack curriculum documents. I thought that I would dedicate this post as a way to provide a basic definition and introduction to the KDB framework in education.

The Know

The Know in the KDB framework is defined as “the content that is mandated in curriculum documents by subject and grade level” (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014, p. 29). When looking for the Know in a curriculum, it can be identified through the “big ideas and enduring understandings” (Drake, et al., 2014, p. 134). The value of identifying the Know in a curriculum document is that it can help an educator understand what the main focus is of a unit and what the knowledge and understanding aspect is for students to grasp and be taught.

Image from:http://inspirationalquotes.club/education-is-learning-what-you-didnt-even-know-you-didnt-know/

The Do

In contrast, the Do is defined as the “twenty-first century skills” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 35). The main purpose of the Do is “to prepare a student to be a productive and participatory citizen of the twenty-first century” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 35). For an educator to successfully locate the Do in a curriculum they need to think about what the transferrable skills are that a student can either gain or develop from what they are learning. Such twenty-first century skills are often found to be interdisciplinary across the curriculum and according to Drake et al., (2014) can involve:

• Critical Thinking
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Creativity
• Computer or technological skills (p. 33) 

Image from: https://sites.google.com/site/abdulkadirhealthtechportfolio/21st-century-skills

The Be

The final aspect of the KDB framework is the Be. This is defined as the values, “attitudes and behaviours” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 134). In order to find the Be within a curriculum, it is easy to think about it as how you, as an educator, want students to be. For example, will you encourage your students to be:

• Curious
• Open-minded
• Autonomous
• Committed

The Be aspect of the KDB framework however, is probably the most difficult to identify simply because there is an issue in “determining whose values are considered the ‘right’ values or which values are worthy of cultivating” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 40). As a result, the Be in my opinion is very much about the individual student. While as an educator you can guide the student towards a set of values, beliefs and attitudes, it can be difficult determine which ones are correct based on the student as an individual.

Final Thoughts

As a prospective educator, I think that it is important to understand the basic concept of the KDB framework, while there are many ways to apply the KDB into classrooms, for where I am right now on my educational journey to becoming a future educator, creating a good strong foundation in these educational concepts is vital.  I hope that you, as a reader, will take these descriptions of the KDB and begin to unpack them into your own curriculum documents.

Till next time,

Miss Chong

References

Abdulkadir, H., H. (n.d). 21st century skills. Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/abdulkadirhealthtechportfolio/21st-century-skills

Boorstin, J., D. (2015). Inspirational quotes. Retrieved from http://inspirationalquotes.club/education-is-learning-what-you-didnt-even-know-you-didnt-know/

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press.

Self Assessment in the Classroom

Self Assessment. What is it exactly and why is it important for a classroom setting. As a prospective teacher and a current student, self assessment and reflection has actually become a pivotal part of my education journey, and something that I know I would like to incorporate into my future classroom. Self assessment actually goes hand in hand to a term that I had recently learned in one of my education courses, assessment as learning (AaL). This means that there is an emphasis “on developing self-assessment and metacognition….the goal is for students to monitor their own learning” (Drake, Reid, & Kolohon, 2014, p. 17). This means that students are able to critically think about what they are doing and to better understand what worked and maybe did not work in their learning.

In my educational journey, a lot of the time self assessment is used to help me reflect on my work, and as a result, has helped me self identify with what areas I need to improve upon; along with helping me to celebrate my own academic accomplishments.

            The one technique that I have found to be a great way to implement and get students talking about their work is “Two Stars and a Wish”. This technique is one of my favourites and has been used in a few of my courses. The premise of this technique is that students are able to comment on two aspects of their work that they liked and one aspect of their work that they think they need to improve. What makes this technique work so well is that it encourages students to think critically about their work and to develop the skills needed to provide constructive criticism. Below is an example of how to format the “Two Stars and a Wish” concept:

Image from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm

            So what exactly are the benefits of self assessment? According to the University College Dublin,  one benefit of self assessment provides students with a chance to reflect on the work that they are doing in a way that helps them enter a deeper level of learning. This is created by having students reflect on their learning experiences, which allows for them to become more comfortable and confident in their academic abilities (Hernandez, 2010, p. 2).

            One way that we can help guide students to reflect and self assess their work is by creating success criteria. By definition, success criteria is an “outline for the ‘look fors’ to achieve the learning goal” (Drake et al., 2014, p. 76). In one fo my education courses, one of our assignments was actually to create our own success criteria for ourselves to use as a guide to help us set our learning goals for the course. While having your students create their own learning goal and success criteria may be a bit too much for them, at first, creating one as a class might work better.

            Patrick Johnson created a wonderful slide show of what learning goals and success criteria are and how they fit together. In addition, this clip from YouTube really ties in the ideas of self assessment and how it can be used in the classroom:

Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ 

            What I know is that as a prospective teacher, I have a long way to go in understanding and developing my skills in self assessment, learning goals and success criteria. I hope that this post helps give you some ideas on how you have implemented this in your classroom.

Till next time,

Miss Chong

References

Communication 4 All (n.d) Developing thinking. Retrieved from http://www.communication4all.co.uk/http/Thinking.htm 

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Canada: Oxford University Press.

Hernandez, R. (2010, January 20) Assessment: Benefits and challenges of using self and peer assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/UCDTLA0033.pdf

Jobs for the Future (2013, August 22). Self-assessment: Reflection from students and teachers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkFWbC91PXQ

Johnson, P. (2010, October 24). learning+goals+and+success+criteria. Retrieved fromhttp://www.slideshare.net/mrjohnsonsclass/learninggoalsandsuccesscriteria

Welcome!

     Hello, my name is Miss Chong and I am currently a fourth year student at Brock University in the Concurrent Education program. I am currently a prospective teacher for the intermediate and senior grade levels for the subject areas of dramatic arts and history.

     My main interests in education are literacy and the process of how students come to understand concepts through their learning styles. I hope to do more work in this field of education and potentially continue my own education in developing a greater understanding of literacy and how students come to understand and learn in order to better teach and work with my future students.

     I hope that you find my blog interesting as I continue on my journey in becoming an educator.

     Cheers,

     Miss Chong