And so I arrive at the latest crossroads. Actually, it’s not a crossroads at all – maybe more of a roadblock created by the Sphinx who is requesting payment in the form of revising my weekly class plans to fit my SBG framework and include frequent assessments. When you’re busy getting drunk on the SBG kool-aid, it’s easy to ignore how much work it takes to get this ship off the ground! And now I’m mixing metaphors. Boo minus.
So assessments. I really appreciate what others have written on the subject (although I’m to tired/lazy right now to hunt them down…sorry), but still, when push comes to shove it’s on me. Follow through, Sarah, you can do it.
What will my class look like in a world where kids need to earn a 3 or higher on at least 2 assessments in order to pass each learning goal? As a thought experiment to help me figure this out, I’ll use my Chemistry of Life mini-unit as a case study. We take about 2 weeks (2.5?) to get through this brief exploration of Chemistry at the beginning of the year. It’s only 1 chapter in their book, but we learn to read the textbook (and take useful notes), get our hands dirty (fun with cow liver puree!), and write our first (and very brief) lab report, among other things. There are 5 Learning Goals for this unit: Atomic Structure, Molecules & Bonding, Chemical Reactions, Solutions, and Carbon Compounds.
Ideas for assessing student understanding as we work through this mini-unit?
- Quizzes at the beginning of class – in large part, these will address the material they will (hopefully) be reading for homework (their reading notes will be ungraded, although initially I will probably “check” them informally to see how they’re doing). Since reading notes will not be graded, the quizzes will also reinforce the importance of actually doing the reading.
- Class discussions, keeping tabs on student understanding/questions/areas of strength & weakness
- Class activities – observing and chatting with students as they do various activities (e.g., asking them about molecular bonding while they manipulate molecular models… discussing data with them as they complete the liver lab, etc)
- Lab report for the liver enzyme lab – it will focus on having them describe their methods (this is an inquiry-based lab where each group has a different question to answer and generates their own methods with guidance from me), presenting their data, and describing their results. It will address Chem of Life standards as well as the Scientific Process standards.
- I imagine reassessments taking the form of short quizzes and/or asking students to explain/diagram/teach the concept to me (or another student, if possible)
Thinking about this more concretely, it doesn’t sound as scary as it once did. I think I will plan to cover all the standards at least once on a quiz, and then also 1 or more times through other assessment tools. I suspect my biggest challenge will be keeping tabs on where everyone is, especially when i use more informal means of assessment (like class discussions and individual conversations). I’m think of using a central notebook where I can keep on-going notes… which can then be entered into the lovely SBGradebook and excel spreadsheet (that I think I’m finally getting a grasp on how to use easily and effectively) that others have so kindly created and shared.
