Literacy for the iGeneration

Last week was a continuation of looking at assessments. As a class we created an assessment for the wiki everyone is to generate. I found it to be a rather interesting assignment, and that the discussion was actually a bit more illuminating in the evening class than in the afternoon class. In the evening class there was some disagreement about whether to assign point values or gradations of success for the different qualities that were identified. This discussion lead to some excellent points about the strengths and weaknesses of different types of rubrics that we didn’t get to in the other class. The decision in both classes, I believe (and correct me if I’m wrong), was that we’ll use the assessment we created to provide feedback at midsemester. I’ll schedule lab time for us to look at the wikis and use the assessment to guide feedback. Then at the end of the semester, we’ll use it more quantitatively or to do summative assessment or evaluation. In general, I was more or less pleased with the outcome of the class work. We were able to explore the concept and purposes of assessment. More than anything I want students to understand that assessment is to be used to inform instruction. I also want students to understand that assessment shouldn’t be an after thought but should be an integral part of instruction.  I’m not convinced we got to that understanding.  After creating the wiki assessment the students worked in groups to create an assessment for something in their content area. It happens every semester. Some groups decide to do something they experienced when they were in high school. I struggle with that because it’s simply recreating existing practice, but in some respects I guess it’s ok because they are using it because it was a powerful learning experience for them. My job then is to push their thinking farther. Not every wheel needs to be recreated. Following the creation of the assessment, I asked the students to assess their assessments using material I had gathered from a graduate course I observed. I did a terrible job explaining the assessment assessment. I did a better job in the second class, but still didn’t do a good job. The biggest issue is that I lifted the assessment wholesale. Bad idea. I know better than that. To make something really work, I need to adapt it. For the most part, I just can directly lift something. Lesson learned. Next time I use it, I’m going to rework the assessment assessment to make it more useable.Finally, we ended by going over the CALLA strategy taken from the Math/Literacy book. I talked a lot. I’m not sure the instruction was particularly helpful. But I really wanted to share the CALLA tools with the students because I found them to be straight forward and useful. The strengths of the CALLA tools are that they move the students in and out of speaking, listening, reading, and writing all within the same task, so language and literacy is really reinforced as tools for understanding. Secondly, I liked the CALLA tools because they reinforce metacognition.So that’s it for this week.