Responses to "Talk about assessment: High school strategies and tools" by Damian Coope and "Too Cool for School? No way!"
Chapter 1 I'm pretty impressed that I managed to read through Cooper's first chapter without becoming agitated, frustrated or sleepy. I found the breakdown of the importance of assessment informative, useful and easy to follow. It definitely seems to make more sense to develop an assessment rubric first, before finalizing a curriculum, adding vision and direction to lesson planning and themes to be taught. I found the 8 big points kind of blending together, and I wish they had assigned some kind of acronym or key word for each one, because honestly, even after reading it 2 minutes ago, I can't recall specific steps or summarize them offhand. I think the real reason I agree with the ideas presented so strongly is that my own experience in different school system echoes the pitfalls and dangers of overly strict, absent or corrupted forms of evaluation and assessment. When I taught in South Korea, my English class was not given any grade or mark, and students were not being assessed. This put me at a HUGE disadvantage, as there was no motivation or incentive for the students to participate or try, as it was basically just a free period to relax and goof off. I had to rely on generating interest, with no help from the curriculum or larger school structure. That was also highly contrasted with the students normal experience with assessment and evaluation. Since elementary school, these children had been BOMBARDED with standardized tests in almost every subject, twice a year, that rendered their whole academic year hostage to memorizing and performing mandated material. Creativity, inquiry and any other form of expression was simply ignored as there was no time for teachers to deviate from the set curriculum. Teachers would ask to take over my class time to further prep 10 year old students for their end of term exams. It was insane. Development tools in assessment, such as assessment for learning and assessment of learning were never employed. As soon as the student was assigned a grade, they were shipped off to the next grade, regardless of any other learning or improvement they could have benefited from. My third experience was from teaching in a private school in Japan. Our curriculum should have been more open and flexible, as we were an International after school program. However, it was a small school, and parent input had a disproportionate amount of power. Our students parents had decided that they valued results based criteria more than anything else, and that the sole purpose of our teaching should be to prepare their children for the standardized English Eiken tests. This meant we were constantly sacrificing content, chances for learning and the students interest and passion, to hammer in grammar points and vocabulary. Speaking is not heavily tested in Eiken, so that section of English learning was almost completely discarded. I wish I had a document such as Cooper's first Chapter to present to my bosses and parents to illustrate the real values of continued assessment, and learning based around flexible interpretations of knowledge, not simply test scores and percentages. Sadly, I did not have that opportunity and I know for a fact that many students suffered because of that. I doubt I would have paid as close attention to Cooper's arguments and points had I not had those experiences. My own background had a mix of feedback, scan-tron tests, and other forms of evaluation, but I never suspected how deeply those grades and marks could have affected my teachers, my education and the outlook of education in general. I will definitely try to keep this lesson and it's points front and center throughout my teacher education process and onward's. Chapter 2 I definitely came into this chapter thinking there would be some real practical contradictions to a criterion-referenced system, such as the ones stated, real world application, not coddling students, preparing them for disappointment/responsibility/higher education. But I have to admit, all my concerns were handled pretty comprehensively by Cooper's arguments, and especially the case studies. This also tied in closely with the discussion and lesson we had in PED3121, Teaching at the Junior Level, where we explored ideas of entity theory based learning versus incremental theory learning. That was more applicable to the teachers initial outlook on students, their ability, and if their potential/intelligence should dictate their future education. Here, the same principles are shown to be effective influences based on an assessment model. I think most teachers have good intentions, and focus on following rules, guidelines and grading criteria, with strict consequences in order to better serve their students, or at least, better serve the top performing students. Those who buck the prescribed method of teaching/evaluation need to be punished for their infractions and the teacher is then in a position of judge, jury and executioner. Cooper rightly points out how ineffective that is for their long term growth, and that such black and white portrayals of student behavior and necessary consequences only worsens their situation. I found the example of Rebecca's art class particularly hard to reconcile, as it seems that the art teacher was doing a grave injustice to her, and his unwillingness to compromise or help her was tragic. At the same time, judging that situation from just those few lines is a little hard, and I realize, after reading Cooper's points, maybe I'm overly sympathetic. I would hope that if a situation like that ever crossed my path, there would be enough room for discussion, alternatives and compromise to find reasonable work around's to keep Rebecca engaged in the classes, pursuing her education, and allowing her to take greater ownership of her classes and responsibilities. I also found the introduction, with a student taking a cell phone picture was a wonderful opportunity to open a discussion for the class on modes of learning, and how people learn in different ways. Maybe they could come to a consensus on how to incorporate new technology without becoming distracted. I think teachers need to include their students on discussions about new issues to learning, and see how they react when given a choice. Too Cool for School? No Way! 'Using the TPACK framework' by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler. This short, but fairly informative piece was interesting to read, and also terrifying at the same time. I definitely agree with the idea that teachers need to be extremely mindful of their ability to disseminate knowledge and information to students and facilitate their learning in a subject, beyond having a strong grasp of the subjects themselves (the PCK abilities); however I didn't realize how far behind my own knowledge of technology and online media is now. To be honest, I'm not one for the newest and latest technologies, and I hate things like social media, twitter, and new cutting edge search engines or databases. It's just too much for me to get caught up in and I actively tune out to a lot of it. However reading this article made me think about how detrimental that mindset will be for me as a teacher walking into a classroom with students deeply immersed in the newest website or app. I really value the importance of interpersonal connections and one to one relationships with students. Making eye contact, tone of voice, supporting them and being able to listen. I've never equated these principles with responding to a text, or posting on twitter, but maybe I should re-evaluate their merits. I would hate for my own preferences to deprive a classroom of potential learning opportunities or stifle their enthusiasm. I'll have to brush up on my tech savvy, and also look into these new fancy things like "content based web searches". I'm definitely feeling a little out of my element, but that's probably a good start.
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