carenacaprile

Assessment Plan

carenacaprile ♦ April 3, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

Purpose and Learning Outcome

Throughout this semester, students will learn about the presidents of the United States throughout history. The lessons will teach students about all 44 presidents and something significant that each one did during their presidential term. Students will be taught the names of each president and which term they served. Students will learn about the president’s role as chief commander and which presidents are generally known to be considered the greatest presidents of the United States and why. At the end of the semester, I will assess the student’s knowledge on this topic. The purpose of the assessment plan is to determine if students can recall all 44 US presidents in order and demonstrate knowledge in regards to the factors and characteristics that contribute to the role of being a president.

Learning Outcome (First Assessment): By the end of the semester, the student will identify all 44 presidents throughout US history.

Learning Outcome (Second Assessment): By the end of the semester, the student will demonstrate an understanding of the factors that contribute to the presidency of the United States.

Assessment Context

First Assessment

The teacher will present a series of screen shots on the projector to the entire class. Each one will either show a question regarding an ordinal number such as 4^th, 16^th, 27^th, 30^th, etc. Other screen shots will feature a sentence or two such as, this president issued the Emancipation Proclamation, or this president initiated the economic relief program known as “The New Deal.”

If a screen shot features an ordinal number; the student will be asked to write the name (minimum of first and last) of the president that served that place.

Example

Screen shot shows the following question:  Who was the 35^th president? Please write minimum first and last name.

Student writes: John F Kennedy

If a screen shot features a statement; the student will be asked to write the name (minimum of first and last) of the president that corresponds to that information.

Example

Screen shot shows the following sentence: During his presidential term, the Louisiana territory                 was purchased           from the French for 15 million dollars. Who was this president?  Please write        minimum first and last name.  

Student writes: Thomas Jefferson

Second Assessment

Using the textbook and outside sources, all students will complete the following project that will be due at the end of the semester.

1. Students will be asked to complete the following grid: (264 points)

Ordinal  No.	Name of President	Term Years	Political Party	Any Significant Historical Event During Term	Acts, Doctrines, Laws Proposed	Year and Reason of Death or if Still Alive
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th …to 44th

1. Student will choose 4 doctrines, laws or acts proposed by 4 different presidents. The students will write a 2 – 4 page report  for each doctrine that will answer the following questions: (32 points)
   1. What is the name of the doctrine, which president proposed it and what year it came into effect?
   2. What circumstances, reasons and events contributed to the creation of the law, doctrine or act?
   3. What effect has it had in society since its creation?
   4. Do you think this law, doctrine or act needs reformation? Why or why not and what changes would you suggest?

1. Using outside sources, student will write a 4- 6 page report explaining the role that the president plays as chief commander of the nation. Explain why you do or do not think the role of the president is important to our society. (10 points)

1. Using outside sources, student will write a 2-3 page report explaining the rules to the presidential term. Include the amendment that explains the limitations and express your reasoning as to why you agree or disagree in allowing president to only serve no more than two terms in office. (10 points)

1. Student will choose 2 presidents who were assassinated while in office and will be asked to provide evidence to  the following points in a 2-3 page report for each chose president: (16 points )
   1. Who was the person responsible for committing the crime?
   2. Explain the circumstances of the president’s deaths.
   3. Explain why you believe these individuals committed this crime.
   4. What would you suggest so that no future president runs the risk of being assassinated?

1. Student will choose 3 presidents he or she considers to be the greatest presidents in US history by using outside sources to support their opinions. The student will be asked to answer the following questions in a 2-3 page report for each president: (18 points)
   1. What credentials does he possess that you believe makes him president material?
   2. What did his presidential administration contribute to the betterment of American society?
   3. What do you think is his greatest legacy that will help him be remembered throughout history and why?

Holistic Rubric (Based on Second Assessment)

After the completion of the project, the students will be given two grades; one for the project itself and one for completing teacher expectations. Points will be given based on the following rubric:

• Student correctly listed all 44 presidents of the United States in order and included their term years, political party, any significant historical event during their presidency, any proposed acts, doctrines or acts and stated whether each president is still alive or has passed away; student included the year and reason of death as well.

Total Points: 264

• Student chose 4 acts, laws or doctrines proposed by 4 different presidents and clearly explained the reasons these presidents implemented an act, law or doctrine. Student provided a 2-4 pages report for each act, law or doctrine.

Total Points: 32 points

• Using outside sources, student clearly and thoroughly explained the factors and characteristics that contribute to the role of the president of the United States as Chief Commander. Student provided a well thought-out explanation with support from references as to his or her stance on the importance of the role of the president for our society. Student provided a 4-6 pages report.

Total Points: 10 points.

• Student explained the conditions to the presidential term by correctly implementing outside sources. The student provided his or her stance of whether he or she agrees with allowing presidents to only serve no more than two terms in office; student supported his or her opinion with reliable sources. Student provided a 2-3 pages report.

Total Points: 10 points

• Student clearly chose 2 presidents who were assassinated while serving in office and provided information that stated the name of the person who killed the president. Student explained the circumstances of each assassination; student provided concrete evidence from outside sources regarding his or her opinion as to why these individuals committed the crime. Student also used outside sources to justify their suggestions as to how they would implement a better security plan for the president’s safety. Student provided a 2-3 pages report for each of the two presidents.

Total Points: 16 points

• Student chose 3 presidents he or she considers to be the greatest of the United States throughout history. Student used outside sources to prove his or her opinions and provided factual information regarding each president’s credentials; student provided information regarding what the president’s administration contributed to the welfare of society; student also mentioned which attributes will make their chosen president be remembered throughout history. Student provided this information in a 2-3 pages report for each of the 3 presidents.

Total Points: 18 points.

Total Possible Points for the Project Itself: 350

 

The following is the breakdown in categories for final scores out of 350 points:

 

390 – 315                                            

Advanced: Student shows a thorough understanding of the material and is able to effectively create logical compositions that uses outside sources correctly in order to support viewpoints, opinions and stances on different aspects of the topic. Student considers many factors that provide validity to his or her points.                                                             

314 – 280

Proficient: Student shows an understanding of the material and creates logical compositions that uses outside sources correctly in order to support viewpoints, opinions and stances on different aspects of the topic but misses some key factors that can provide more validity to their points.

 

279 – 245

Basic: Student shows some understanding of the material and creates basic compositions that uses outside sources but lacks strong evidence to support viewpoints, opinions and stances on different aspects of the topic. Student misses several key factors that could have provided better validity to their points.

 

245 or below

Below Average : Student shows no understanding of the material and does not create well written compositions. The student uses outside sources ineffectively and does not implement logical viewpoints, opinions and stances on different aspects of the topic. Student fails to use any key factors to provide validity to points.

 

Extra Expectations

1. Report is doubled spaced: 1 point

1. Title Page: 1 point

1. Table of Content: 1 point

1. References: 1 point

1. Correct format of references page in APA format: 5 points

1. Project in folder: 1 point

Total Possible Points for Extra Teacher Expectations: 10

10-9                       8-7                          7 or less

Organized           Minimal                Does not meet Expectations

Testing Constraints (Based on Second Assessment)

Students will need to provide the following to meet expectations:

1. Entire report must be typed, double spaced, and in 12pt. font.
2. Report must be printed and put in a folder.
3. The report must be completed in the following order:
   1. Title Page (must include a title, your name, date, class, and teacher’s name)
   2. Table of Content (all pages must be numbered)
   3. Report
   4. References (in APA style)
   5. Students will have the entire semester to work on this project. Project is due at the beginning of class on the last day of school.

My assessment plans includes two types of assessment and each assessment includes a learning outcome. My first assessment states that at the end of the semester the student will identify all 44 presidents throughout US history. Students will demonstrate their knowledge through the learning activity I created which consists of the teacher posting screen shots on the projector for the entire class to see. Each student will be asked to write the name of the president that corresponds do the information posted on the projector. The learning outcome for this assessment provides direction since it helps to “identify specifically what needs to be learned” (American Association of Law Libraries, 2012).

For my second assessment I designed, I created a different learning outcome which states that at the end of the semester, the student will demonstrate an understanding of the factors that contribute to the presidency of the United States; the holistic rubric and testing constraints will be based on this particular assessment plan. To assess the learning outcome, I implemented a portfolio based assessment in which all students will be required to complete a project that includes different guidelines and points that all students must complete. The student will have the entire semester to work on this project which can help them gather various sources and works and allow them to work on one section at a time so that each one is covered and completed accordingly.

I chose this project as an assessment plan because the topic covers a great area of information thus it would be more efficient for students to research this topic and find the information through outside sources. The project includes a specific outline that all students must follow; this helps the project maintain criteria and is properly organized so that students are provided with a standard they must meet (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010). So that this assessment supports the expectations of the learning outcome, it is important to determine if my assessment plan answers the following questions: “Which student learning outcomes will you focus on?” the learning outcome I will focus on is my second learning outcome which states that at the end of the semester the students will demonstrate an understanding of  the factors and components that contribute to the presidency of the United States.

The second question asks; “What evidence will you use to determine how well students are achieving the selected outcomes?” Each section of the project requires the student to provide certain information with the help of outside sources. I will determine how students are achieving the selected outcome by noting whether their compositions answer the questions at hand and how well they used the information they found to create a report that contain well formulated sentences that make sense and provide factual information in regards to the topic. In order to determine accurately if a student has successfully demonstrated an understanding of the factors that contribute to the presidency of the United States, I will analyze their writing and determine whether their compositions includes factual information as well as their inferences and conceptions they created based on their findings. In addition, these inferences and conceptions will have to be supported by reliable outside sources in order to securely conclude that the student has indeed achieved the learning outcome.

Finally, the last questions asks; “How will you use the information to improve your program” (Creating an assessment, 2012)? If students are providing well written compositions that provides clear evidence of their understanding of the topic and they are achieving the learning outcome, I will be able to conclude that the assessment of the project is an effective measurement of student performance and beneficial in teaching students the fundamentals of the factors that contribute to the understanding of the presidential system of the United States. However, if the project includes mostly compositions of facts and copied information from sources but no explanations of personal viewpoints of the matter, then I will consider reforming the project and conclude that it might be too complicated and overwhelming for the student. Possibly, it will lead to major alterations and enhancements of the guidelines and expectations so that the project seems more reasonable to students. Furthermore, if the changes do not provide any improvement in student performance, then the learning outcome will also be in need of changes and alterations so it can be more suitable to the students’ abilities.

My holistic rubric covers the point distribution for the entire project. Students will obtain two grades from this assessment, one grade will be based on the project itself and the second grade will be based on teacher expectations on the project.  Based on Boom’s Taxonomy, the first assessment targets “knowledge” in which the student “Exhibits previously learned material by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers.” The student is asked to fill a grid that only requires factual information that a student must recall from memory. If student is not able to remember, he or she must find the answer in an outside source to complete the areas with information he or she does not possess. The grid does not require critical thinking; only recollection of previously learned material.

The second item targets “comprehension” in which the student demonstrates an “understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions and stating main ideas.” For this assessment, the student is asked to provide ideas and motives to comprehend the reasoning behind the acts, doctrines and laws that the chosen presidents implemented. The student is asked to explain these reasons by supporting their ideas with outside sources. The third item targets “application,” in which the student solves “problems by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules in a different way.” For the third assessment, the student is asked to find sources that will provide accurate information regarding the factors that contribute to being a president, and based on that information, the student has to apply the learned material to create a reasonable and logical idea that justifies the importance of the role as the president of the nation.

The fourth item targets “analysis” in which the student will “examine and break information into parts by identifying motives or causes; making inferences and finding evidence to support generalizations.” So that students can demonstrate analytical skills, the fourth item of the project requires the student to analyze different factors that they might see relevant and that can effectively and evidently explain why presidents are only limited to two presidential terms. By using relevant and reliable sources to support their viewpoints, the student will be assessed on how well their composition can help validate their opinions.

The fifth item targets “synthesis,” in which the student will “Compile information together in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions.” In the fifth item of the project, the student is asked to investigate the assassinations of two presidents in history and create a plan of security they see effective that can help future presidents so that their lives are better protected and the chances of future tragedies can be avoided. The student will need to resort to outside sources to gather information about the components of security for such important individuals such as the president of the United States, and with the found sources, the student will need to propose a different plan of action that can provide an alternative form of security that’s more advanced and effective for human safety.

The sixth item targets “evaluation,” in which the student must “present and defend opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas or quality of work based on a set of criteria” (Metro, K. 2012).  In order to exercise this concept, in the sixth and last item, the student is asked to pick 3 presidents of their choice whom they consider to be the greatest presidents of the United States. The student will need the support from outside sources that can provide concrete and factual evidence regarding the president’s attributes and accomplishments. The student will need to evaluate this information and compose a logical argument that defends their opinions and supports their choices.

For my grading rubric, I decided to score the content of the actual project individually from my expectations so that the performance of the student on the content of the project is isolated from unrelated expectations, thus the final score will “explicitly represent the performance on the assignment.” The project is based on a point system scale; each item is worth a given amount of points. The total possible points for the project itself are 350 points and I created a chart of competency that will categorize the student performance based on their final score. The content of the project is broken down into different parts and each student will be given a certain amount of points that is based on how well they composed their answers to the questions in each item. Once students receive their individual points for each item, each result will be combined together to calculate a final score. That score will then be divided by the total possible points and that score will place the student into one of the levels of mastery that I created. I implemented this type of rubric which contains a range of levels of competency because it can help provide “a clearer picture of the strength and weaknesses of the class” (Grading and performance, 2012). Most importantly, their final score can help determine if the student has successfully gained an understanding for the material and has provided enough adequate performance in order to determine if he or she has achieved the learning outcome.

 

 

References

American Association of Law Libraries. (2012). Archived: writing learning outcomes. Retrieved from http://www.aallnet.org/Archived/Education-and-Events/cpe/outcomes.html

Creating an assessment plan. (2012). Unpublished raw data, The Office of the Vice President for Academic Planning & Effectiveness, Loyola Marymount University , Los Angeles, California. Retrieved from http://www.lmu.edu/about/services/academicplanning/assessment/Assessment_Resources/Creating_an_Assessment_Plan.htm

Grading and performance rubrics. (2012). Unpublished raw data, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/rubrics.html

Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. D. (2010). Educational testing and measurement, classroom          application and   practice. (p. 495). Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Metro, K. (2012). Writing objectives using bloom. Retrieved from http://teaching.uncc.edu/articles-books/best-practice-articles/goals-objectives/writing-objectives-using-blooms-taxonomy

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Explaining My Test Items and Essay Items

carenacaprile ♦ March 13, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

In order to assess students efficiently, the assessment must include various types of testing so that students have the opportunity to exercise their knowledge through various activities, rather than using only one type of testing which can become repetitive to the students and may not assess students accurately. By implementing different forms of written tests, for example, a student can demonstrate his or her strengths and give the teacher an idea of which testing items better suits the students’ learning abilities .

For my testing items, I decided to use matching items, true or false items, multiple choice items and completion items, as well as essay items. By implementing different types of activities I am able to provide the students a variety of testing items equally and not focus on only one form of testing which can provide inaccurate results of a student’s academic ability and knowledge retention. One of the main reasons why the Standardized Test, for example, is considered such an inefficient method to test our students is because it is composed of little variety in activities. It is mostly focused on multiple choice questions, which, for many students, it might not do justice to their abilities or the knowledge they possess regarding the topic or subject at hand (“Fairtest,” 2007).

I chose to implement matching items because, based on my topic, I can successfully make all “options plausible distractors for each description to ensure homogeneity of lists” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010).By writing the Spanish words in column A, for example, and the translation of those words in English  in column B I can ensure to base each option on facts  so that no ambiguity can arise and students are not confused with the options provided. Each item does not include opinions or ideas; each is based on matching the word in column A with its English translation in column B, thus allowing the student to think and remember that there is only one correct answer per item. In addition, by keeping each question or item short and with minimal amount of words, students can easily focus on the activity and not risk losing their attention and effort on reading long sentences that can cause a student to become frustrated and guess the answers in order to finish the activity quickly so that he or she is free to move on to the next activity.  

Another type of testing item I implement were multiple choice items. Unlike the Standardized Test, the key is to ask a few to a couple of questions of multiple choice only and not base almost all or the entire test on these types of items. The topic of Spanish language has to be broken down into sections in order to effectively and efficiently teach the students the given information; thus assessing students’ knowledge on this topic through multiple choice only would not provide the best results in terms of improving the knowledge on the subject. Therefore, implementing just a few multiple choice questions, however, can provide an effective activity to exercise a student’s knowledge on the topic at hand. Consequently, I implemented multiple choice items that include a specific question or a scenario regarding a particular topic. Because each item has only one right answer, the options include “two to four distractions plus one correct answer,” hence, this method helps to “optimize testing for knowledge rather than encouraging guessing” (Pg. 148).   

I also implemented completion items. Each item I presented  requires students to fill in only one blank space, which allows every answer to be a “brief and definite statement” and it allows key words of the sentence to remain in place so that key elements are not omitted and “the sense of the content is not impaired” (Pg. 151). Because the topic is Spanish for a beginner’s level class, asking students to provide an answer that requires more than two words in a language they are just beginning to learn can contradict the learning objective and jeopardize the learning outcome. By focusing on only one blank, the student is able to give his or her attention to answering only one item at a time.  

I also implemented a true-or-false test item. With the Spanish language, or any other language for that matter, the function or meaning of a certain word is factual; therefore, I used this aspect of factual information to create a true or false activity. Each true and false item in the activity was created in “short statements that eliminates extraneous material” (Pg. 135). Each items is written in short sentences rather than phrases that may include unnecessary amount of words that can confuse the student and provide unclear context of the question. The answers to this activity are in no particular order thus eliminating predictability of answers .

Lastly, I implemented one essay item for each outcome. Each essay item focuses on one specific idea and asks the student to provide specific answers. The essay items include a clear task that the student must perform and it requires the student to use critical thinking as well as implement his or her own creativity to complete the essay. Therefore, each essay item will ask the student to apply their own logic and knowledge, thus requiring each student to implement their mental process to develop a cohesive answer to the question at hand. Each essay item includes a “reasonable time or page limit,” so the student has an established criteria that he or she must meet.

 

 

 

 

References

Fairtest. (2007, August 20). Retrieved from http://www.fairtest.org/facts/howharm.htm

Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. D. (2010). Educational testing and measurement, classroom application and               practice. (p. 495). Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons Inc.

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carenacaprile ♦ March 4, 2012 ♦ 1 Comment

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