Jennifer Hetrick

7

Jennifer Hetrick

Assessment Creation Assignment

February 28, 2011

In the Life Processes strand of the Virginia Standards of Learning for Science, students focus on the life processes of plants and animals. Particular topics, such as the basic needs and the life processes of organisms, their physical characteristics, life cycle changes, behavioral and physical adaptations, and survival/perpetuation of the species, are built upon over the course of each student’s academic career. Children are naturally curious about the living things they encounter; therefore, it is important for young students to learn how to properly observe and interact with the world around them. The Life Processes strand spans the K-6 curriculum and helps students actively develop scientific the skills required to conduct investigations, reason, and think logically. This strand includes science standards K.6, 1.4, 1.5, 2.4, 3.4, and 4.4.

This particular unit focuses on student investigation into and understanding of the needs and functions of plants as living things in our environment. Students will be exposed to basic knowledge of the basic needs of plants, including food, air, water, light, and a place to grow. This unit will also expose students to the structures that make up a plant that facilitate growth, survival, and reproduction. The functions of plant parts include roots stabilizing plants and absorbing water from soil, seeds making new plants, leaves making food through photosynthesis, and stems holding the plant upright while connecting and transporting nutrients to all parts of the plant. Students are also expected to categorize plants according to certain distinctions such as edible vs. nonedible, flowering vs. nonflowering, and evergreen vs. deciduous.

This assessment and its supporting materials are designed for use in a first grade classroom at Greenwood Elementary School in Newport News, VA. It aligns with the Virginia Science standard 1.4 (as well as aspects of standard 1.1) and the accompanying assessment and rubric help to measure student abilities. The assessment is largely picture-based and its accompanying rubric prompts the teacher to read written directions out loud to the class as well as to individual students as needed based on the needs and characteristics of the students. This particular classroom is comprised of 18 students, 8 of which are English language learners and one of which is identified as learning disabled. These students and their classmates have a variety of reading abilities due to their age and development; therefore, it was important that this assessment measure science content knowledge, not reading ability. The length of this assessment was kept to one page, front and back, because of the age of the students and questions are worded in grade-level appropriate language.

The intended learning outcomes being assessed within this unit are part of the larger scope and sequence of the Virginia Science Standards of Learning, particularly those within the Life Processes strand. The Virginia Science standard 1.4 (see Figure 1) includes the mastery of the skills mentioned above as demonstrated in particular applications and/or settings. Based on this standard as well as the implied cognitive level(s) in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy, I created a table of intended learning outcomes to help outline the major focuses of this unit (see Figure 1). With this information, I was able to break down the essential knowledge, skills and processes embedded in Science standard 1.4 and create a table of specifications to help guide my assessment creation process so that it has high construct validity because it demonstrates that the content of the assessment aligns with the intended learning outcomes and their corresponding cognitive levels.

After looking at the test blueprint for third grade science on the Virginia Department of Education website, I was able to hone in on the essential knowledge for my first graders within SOL 1.4. While the test blueprint clearly demonstrates the spiraling curriculum of the SOLs, it does not show how students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge within each reporting category and it does not provide much guidance for classroom teachers. The table of specifications (see Figure 2) shows that students are not expected to know everything there is to know about the highlighted content of the SOL and helps to pair certain facts with specific behavioral expectations. This table, along with the test blueprint it is based on, demonstrates the content validity of this assessment as it adequately samples the learning outcomes. The listed SOL is the same on both documents, but how it is broken down is very, very different.

It is clear that the test blueprint is designed to help test makers create the yearly third grade exam, not help first second, or third grade teachers monitor their instruction and review. Third grade teachers are especially handicapped because they must ensure that their students are knowledgeable of all of the science SOLs they have been exposed to since kindergarten. The test blueprint does not provide guidelines for pre-assessment upon entering third grade either. While the table of specifications does not specifically address that need, it would be useful to teachers who want to test the content knowledge their students have retained from their previous year(s) of instruction. It would be interesting to see a specifications table containing all of the grade level SOLs in each reporting category (i.e. Life Processes and Living Systems SOLs K-3) to see how often the different cognitive levels appear in each category. I’m sure that certain categories contain higher frequencies of certain cognitive levels and would be very interested to see where the focus is at the third grade level.

The table of specifications (Figure 2) also delineates the summative assessment plan for the unit based on Virginia Science standard 1.4. Students will complete a two week lab investigation activity into plant needs in order to meet the standard’s first objective: stills will conduct simple experiments/investigations related to plant needs by changing one variable (food, air, water, light, or place to grow) at a time. For the purposes of this experiment, each student will plant 3-4 beans in a small plastic cup. Students will draw numbers at random to determine which essential need their growing plant will be deprived of (i.e. 1=no water, 2=no air, 3=no sunlight, 4=no soil). Students will record their observations over the course of approximately two weeks and then compare and contrast the different living situations. Which plants grew the most? Which needs seemed the most important? Students will then create a model/drawing of what their plant looked like after the growing period (which also measures the synthesis component of the secondary objective of standard 1.4).

While the laboratory investigation lasts the majority of the unit, other, more formal assessments will be administered throughout the course of the unit to check student understanding and progress. Students will complete a series of sorting activities to distinguish between the plant characteristics of edible vs. nonedible, flowering vs. nonflowering, and evergreen vs. deciduous plants as part of this ongoing assessment. Students will also be formally tested on the deciduous vs. evergreen aspect of this objective at the culmination of this unit (see Assessment #1). This culminating activity involves students identifying different leaves as belonging to either a deciduous or evergreen plant by grouping using color-coded circles. Students are then asked to identify how many of each type of plant are present in each of their groupings and evaluate which type of plant loses its leaves in the fall. Assessment #1 will also test students’ comprehension of different plant parts by asking students to match the names of different parts of plants with the actual part as depicted in a drawing. Students will also be asked to add an additional part to the drawing to demonstrate further understanding and will be graded according to the rubric provided (see Scoring Rubric for Assessment #1 and Answer Key for Assessment #1).

This assessment and its indicate the culmination of the plants unit in a first grade classroom; however, they are not intended to be the only assessment considered. The other assessments outlined on the table of specifications as well as each student’s experiment completion, participation, and behavior will all contribute to the culminating grade for the science unit. All assessments have error, so I feel that it is important to provide my students with a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. In creating this assessment, I tried to eliminate as much systematic error as possible to ensure that all of my students have the best possible chance to succeed. I believe that I eliminated cultural bias, developmental inappropriateness, and subjective scoring while adequately sampling the intended learning outcomes; however, there is no way of knowing how reliable the assessment is until I test it with actual first graders.

After students take the test, I will look for consistency among test takers, consistency among test takers, and consistency within an individual’s scores to determine if there are specific ways in which I can improve upon this assessment before administering it again. Only then can I know that the assessment is valid (it measures what I intended it to measure) and reliable (the results indicate student learning).

The scoring rubric for Assessment #1 aligns with the assessment because it describes the nature of an acceptable response to each section of the assessment. It is an analytical rubric that breaks down the point allocation for each response section and, on sections worth more than one point, what each point value is based on. Before grading this series of assessment questions, I would fold over the top part of all of the worksheets so that I could not see the student name associated with each test while grading them. I also based my criteria on not only science skills in SOL 1.4, but considered bias that might be made based on handwriting. I will also read all of the questions aloud to my students so that those who have a harder time reading fluently will have the same opportunities as those who are more proficient readers. The detailed guidelines for grading this assessment make it easy for another adult to understand how I intended to allocate points for each question. I did not include rankings to certain points (i.e. Satisfactory to an 8/10) because I do not feel that it is appropriate for students of this age level.

Figure 1 /
First Grade Science: Life Processes Strand
SOL 1.4: The student will investigate and understand that plants have life needs and functional parts and can be classified according to certain characteristics. Key concepts include
a)  needs (food, air, water, light, and a place to grow);
b)  parts (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, blossoms, fruits); and
c)  characteristics (edible/nonedible, flowering/nonflowering, evergreen/deciduous). /
Intended Learning Outcome:
Underline the content and circle the word(s) that provides an indication of cognitive level(s) / Content:
List the explicit, implied, and conditional content / Cognitive Level on Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Provide the cognitive level(s) in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy /
The student will conduct simple experiments/investigations related to plant needs by changing one variable (food, air, water, light, or place to grow) at a time. Students do not need to know the term variable. / Explicit – simple experiments/ investigations
Implied – understanding of what an experiment is and how to approach one, knowledge of living vs. nonliving things, what is required to sustain life
Conditional – related to plant needs by changing one variable (food, air, water, light, or place to grow) at a time. / Analysis /
The student will create and interpret a model/drawing of a plant, including seeds, roots, stems, leaves, blossoms, and fruits. / Explicit – a model/drawing of a plant, including seeds, roots, stems, leaves, blossoms, and fruits
Implied – knowledge of the characteristics of a plant, their function, and their arrangement
Conditional – model or drawing / Comprehension & Synthesis /
The student will identify the functions of the seed, root, stem, and leaf. / Explicit – the functions of the seed, root, stem, and leaf
Implied – knowledge of the parts of a plant and their arrangement
Conditional – none / Comprehension /
The student will classify plants by the characteristics of edible/ nonedible, flowering/nonflowering, and evergreen/deciduous, using tables, charts, and picture graphs / Explicit – plants by the characteristics of edible/nonedible, flowering/nonflowering, and evergreen/deciduous
Implied – understanding of the characteristics of a plant vs. animal or object, distinctions between different types of plants
Conditional – using tables, charts, and picture graphs / Application /
Figure 2
Table of Specifications
Content / Knowledge / Comprehen-sion / Application / Analysis / Synthesis / Evalua-tion
simple experiments/investigations related to plant needs by changing one variable (food, air, water, light, or place to grow) at a time / X
Conduct
(Assessed in student lab investigation)
a model/drawing of a plant, including seeds, roots, stems, leaves, blossoms, and fruits / X
Interpret
1, 2, 3, 4 / X
Create
(Lab Component)
5
the functions of the seed, root, stem, and leaf / X
Identify
(Additional Assessment)
plants by the characteristics of edible/ nonedible, flowering/nonflowering, and evergreen/deciduous / X
Classify
(Additional Assessment)
6, 7, 8, 9

Assessment #1