Edu 5352 Final Exam
Spring 2009
Copy this entire page onto a Microsoft Word document. Then, answer four of the following questions. Responses to questions #1, #2, and #3 are required. Then, select one of the remaining six questions to answer. Each answer has equal value. To give you an idea as to how to develop "good" responses to the following questions, see the Cognitive Processing Formula that I have constructed for you. When you have completed the exam, include it in your course portfolio.
I.Using the experience of the assessment constructed, administered, graded, and reflected on in Journal Entry #1and all the insights you have gained from your second teach as well as from building a unit for a self-selected target audience and educational context, evaluate (using the term as defined by Krathwohl and Anderson in A Taxonomy For Learning, Teaching, and Assessing) the “assessment” constructed for the course pre-assessment and one other “assessment” of your own choosing from the assessments “selected” and/or “constructed” for your unit. Be sure to include in your consideration the following questions:
a. Is each “assessment” an “assessment” or an “activity” as defined by Wiggins and McTighe?
b. Refer to the questions found on p. 68 of Understanding By Design.
II.What is assessment? What is its role/relationship in the teaching/learning process? Using the construction of your unit, the unit itself, your assessment journal, and your assessment library, provide evidence of your “understanding” of assessment. You may do this as a narrative (written out in paragraph form), in a concept map with narrative support (feel free to use Inspiration software if it is useful to you), in a table with narrative support, as a web with linked narrative support, as an outline with explanation, as a Venn diagram, etc. In other words, you may use any tool that you have discovered during this course to support your effort. Be sure to identify the key concerns/elements in assessment. Limit your response to two word-processed pages.
III.Using the Rubric for the Six Facets of Understanding found on pp. 76-77 of Understanding By Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, provide evidence of your own “understanding” of assessment at this point in time. Justify with specific examples from the construction of your unit, any reading you have done, insights you have discovered from the course, etc. Be sure to use terminology from the rubric. (Again, if you can do this more easily in a matrix or concept map supported by narrative, please feel free to do so.) IMPORTANT HINT: To answer this question adequately, please consider each of the six facets of understanding found in the rubric on pp. 76-77. For each facet, determine where your understanding of assessment appropriately fits. Thus, you will evaluate whether your “Explanation” ability (Column One of the rubric) with regards to assessment is sophisticated, in-depth, developed, intuitive, or naive. You will provide sufficient evidence (concrete evidence from your course portfolio and from your reading – with appropriate citations) to support your claim. Then, you will evaluate your “Interpretation” ability (Column Two of the rubric)…and so on and so forth until you have evaluated your understanding of assessment across all six facets of understanding.
IV. Using Figure 1.6 Recent Trends in Classroom Assessment found on p. 17 of McMillan, J. H. (2004).Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Instruction (3rd ed.).Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. and other reading you have done during the course (especially the Shepard article), provide evidence that the unit you constructed supports recent trends in classroom assessment. To respond to this item, you must cite a specific assessment in your unit and explain how it reflects one or more of the trends listed on p. 17 of the McMillan text (or a trend cited in another course reading). To receive full credit for this item, you must provide "sophisticated" explanation (see p. 76 of Wiggins/McTighe) for at least 12 trends. Students may construct a table similar to the one below with which to respond to this item - however, the table is optional and students may choose to respond to this item in alternative ways.
Assessment Trend (Source) / Example from Unit / ExplanationAuthentic task (McMillan) / Place example from unit here / Sophisticated explanation of the assessment trend demonstrated by unit example -- using conceptual understanding, terminology, and insights gained from course.
Student Self-Evaluation (McMillan)
V. Define the following terms. Write no more than a short paragraph for each. Offer a connection between the term and an appropriate aspect of the unit you created. If you wish, you may create a table such as the one below the terms to complete this item.
1. Validity
2. Reliability
3. fairness
4. positive consequences
5. alignment
6. practicality and efficiency
7. formative assessment
8. summative assessment
9. criterion-referenced test (or assessment)
10. norm-referenced test (or assessment)
11. performance-based assessment
12. alternative assessment
13. portfolio-based assessment
14. “objective” assessment
15. “subjective” assessment
Assessment Term / Definition / ConnectionVI.What is the role/impact of teacher judgment in grading?