Student Work
Artifact Description
As an artifact to represent Standard 8, I included student work from a lesson on compare and contrast. The work samples come from three students: one above level, one on level, and one below level.
AnalysisFor this assignment, I had the students compare and contrast themselves to one of the characters from a story I read aloud to the class. Using a Venn diagram, students were to make statements that compared intangible attributes between them. I collected the diagrams and made notes on them rather than assigning a grade or score. I was advised from my cooperating teacher that this method yielded student learning from the feedback provided, whereas assigning a grade or score resulted in reduced learning. Students tend to focus on the grade and skip over teacher feedback, thus missing vital growth opportunities. Therefore, I implemented this strategy in my assessment of the students' work and opted out of including their score directly on their work that I handed back.
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SynthesisAssessments for writing are far more complex than for math, for example. In math, answers are generally either correct or incorrect. There is not much room for interpretation. In writing, I need to remain focused on the objective of the lesson when I am assessing the work. I still make note of misspelled words, grammatical and punctuation errors, and so forth. However, those mistakes must not take away from what I am teaching in my lessons unless those aspects are the topic of the lessons. I also must consider the grade level expectations and stages of cognitive development.
Making sure that my feedback is constructive, relevant, focused, and warm is vital to students' academic progress. Additionally, I need to provide feedback that appropriately stretches students to continue improving and thinking deeper. I feel that this is an area in which I need to personally improve. I want to become more knowledgable in how and when to prompt students to include more detail and expand on their ideas. |