Assessment 2 - Justifying Assessment FINAL FINAL FINAL

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Name: Gabrielle Ekueti – s5218548 Assessment 2: Justifying Assessment Decisions Tutorial: Leontine [4pm] Assessor’s advice on my assessment plan The summative task provides a problem with real-world connections and features likely to engage students with acceptable use of learning and other semiotic devices. The text includes some higher-order thinking opportunities, but these opportunities need to be emphasised by having appropriate cognitive verbs. There are, however, issues with alignment between the curriculum, task instructions and marking criteria and standards, as the connection is not clearly described. The rubric must also be reconsidered to include clear K&U, P/S and Communication statements. Please see the in-text comments. The diagnostic task demonstrates a sound understanding of fitness for purpose as demonstrated by the evidence the activity will generate. Feedback is considered and would be sufficient to enable every student to improve their understanding/skill level if each student is addressed as the teacher circulates. Opportunities for transparent peer assessment processes and self-assessment are also required. Ensure you have a sufficient record of data to know students' next step in learning and use these data in your planning. The formative task demonstrates a generally good understanding of fitness for purpose, as shown by the evidence the activity will generate. It is predominantly student-centred and explained clearly. Teachers and peers offer feedback but clearly define how this feedback is executed; peer feedback could use an aligned checklist. Self-assessment also needs to be emphasised. Assessment practices are adequately communicated to their target audience; however, the feedback processes must be refined to promote student learning. My cognitive response to the feedback: [190 words] For the summative assessment, improvements can be made in incorporating appropriate cognitive verbs for actions to be made by students to complete the summative text. Improving the marking rubric to clearly outline the facts and information the student acquires and the cognitive operations the student uses to understand the principles and big ideas of the unit ensures that the real-life application of understanding is more evident and accessible for all students. The diagnostic and formative assessments share the same concern for the lack of inclusion in the peer- assessment process and self-assessment opportunities needed for timely feedback on student work. Moreover, there is also a need for practices that collect sufficient data for further teaching and learning to ensure evidence-based teaching practices. Recognising opportunities for students to document discussions and debates on literary texts in the diagnostic assessment allows students to record their current level of understanding and cultivate reflective learning amongst peers. Providing students with a success criterion will allow for students’ current readiness and experience to move to a desired level of achievement, supporting student accessibility for the assessment task by promoting the performance and attitude needed to succeed.
Name: Gabrielle Ekueti – s5218548 Assessment 2: Justifying Assessment Decisions Tutorial: Leontine [4pm] Summative Task Changes: Improving the curriculum alignment of the summative task itself involved choosing alternative content descriptors that would allow for an alignment of curriculum, task instructions and marking rubric, to be precise. The new content descriptors enable students to apply, evaluate, analyse and synthesise text structures and language features that give the summative task a meaningful and relevant context. These curriculum connections specifically encourage the use of higher-order thinking in applying their recognising and interpreting text structures and language features that draw on prior knowledge to enhance meaning and represent a particular point of view. Including the cognitive verbs a nalyse , recognise , interpret and create in the summative task sheet ensures student expectation can go beyond initial information levels of knowledge and comprehension by evaluating and analysing big ideas, issues and concepts in a text (Thomas, 2023). To reflect this change, the task has been altered from writing a piece inspired by the Astro-Boy series to students creating an alternative ending to enhance opportunities to experiment with text structures and language features in a meaningful context. The modified task sheet also includes cognitive verbs that support and improve purposeful learning for students and frame higher-order thinking skills that develop their evaluative judgement towards their work. Reworking the marking rubric to align with the curriculum and task sheet by including clear Knowledge/Understanding, Process/Skill and communication statements for student achievement was critical to improving the validity and reliability of the task. Summative Task Changes Justification: Informed by a constructivist approach, developing a learner-centred assessment stemmed from the goal of encouraging practical instructional activities that led to longer-term retention of material that conceptualised real-world issues and ideas (Rich et al., 2014). Clarifying the learning goals and standards statements of the Marking rubric encourages students to become active in their learning rather than passive recipients through understanding the levels of quality assessed in the task (Tolo et al., 2019). Providing an accurate representation of the learning goals within the criteria is essential for students because it allows for the data collected to be reliable in supporting future decisions on their achievement (Wyatt-Smith et al., 2017). Incorporating cognitive verbs appropriate for the summative task sheet, following Bloom’s taxonomy, enables teachers to conduct a deeper evaluation of the alignment between curriculum and assessment beyond the surface features of activities by connecting the underlying generalisations of student understanding (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). For example, Bloom’s taxonomy of evaluating, analysing and creating as cognitive actions were critical signals in the modified task sheet encouraging students to apply their developing understandings in new contexts. Thus, altering the summative product to involve students actively creating and predicting an alternative ending emphasised instructional activities to elicit evidence for student understanding through a meaningful, real-world context (Black & Wiliam, 2009). Overall, adjusting the curriculum, task sheet and marking rubric has improved the summative task for being fit for purpose as it adequately addresses the learning goals and criteria needed for the assessment to assess and evaluate student’s achievement.
Name: Gabrielle Ekueti – s5218548 Assessment 2: Justifying Assessment Decisions Tutorial: Leontine [4pm] Diagnostic Task Changes: Adjusting the task to a concept map for the diagnostic assessment ensures an optimal demonstration of student learning where specific learning goals can be identified. The same context as the previous assessment still applies as students will complete the concept map after viewing an episode from Astro- Boy (1980) instead of a Venn diagram. The concept map is organised into six categories: character, setting, theme, author style, conflict and plot to establish and measure students' prior knowledge of a narrative's text structures and language features. Communicating the key ideas and concepts explored will make the peer assessment more transparent. It is meaningful as students complete the concept map individually before reviewing each other’s answers to evaluate their peers’ understanding. Assigning instructional activities such as the concept map ensures that students can remember, understand and apply. their knowledge towards achieving competence and informing the instructional decisions needed for students to improve. Establishing their proficiency in identifying certain features and structure of an episode’s narrative allows for an investigation of a student’s true mastery of a skill, such as placing the themes, context, style and meaning communicated through images and words in the Astro-Boy episode. This change will also allow for timely feedback by the teacher through post-it notes. It can be modelled by choosing a willing participant to share a completed concept map to demonstrate the assessment’s expectations. Feedback given to students can be communicated by posing inquiry questions that encourage the interplay of student thought and participation. For example, when students have struggled to identify certain language features in the episode, such as the overall theme, drawing attention to the one or two features already identified, asking questions about how the setting and plot might inform the overall message. Personalising the posed questions for the student through Post-it notes will also encourage self-assessment practices, allowing them to revise their answers without fear of judgment and promote a sense of ownership over their learning. Diagnostic Task Changes Justification: Identifying opportunities for transparent peer-assessment processes and implementing activities for self- assessment were areas that needed to be addressed in the previous diagnostic assessment. Evaluating the progress of the diagnostic evaluation is critical to understanding the current achievement levels to inform future practices for action. Using the concept map to inform the ongoing decision-making process allows teachers to guide building student self-efficacy as learners and appreciating their effort and success for individual growth (Masters, 2014). Altering the task from a Venn diagram to a concept map will assess the true potential of learners as students generalise experiences from earlier concrete experiences and, thus, enhance meaningful learning through student knowledge acquisition. Using constructivist tools is critical to measuring students’ cognition and achievement in their learning progress as they learn to monitor the quality of their work and implement instructional correctives through feedback (Thomas, 2023). Emphasising students’ active engagement through seeking, interrelating and using evidence in the Astro Boy (1980) episode provides a limited but structured concept for students to present their thoughts, ideas and experiences unique to the individual and not to the teacher themselves. By having students recognise, explain and analyse how texts draw on the reader’s knowledge and enable new understandings, students can comprehend text structures and language features that create science-fiction narratives. Overall, improving the feedback practices of the diagnostic assessment has improved the task to be fit for purpose by implementing practices for collecting and collating evidence for future teaching and learning.
Name: Gabrielle Ekueti – s5218548 Assessment 2: Justifying Assessment Decisions Tutorial: Leontine [4pm] Formative Task Actions: Incorporating peer assessment and self-assessment as forms of timely feedback was a critical component that needed to be added to my previous formative assessment. In preparation for the summative task, executing transparent peer assessment practices would involve students understanding the criteria used to judge the quality of their short story by reviewing the narrative checklist and activating students as instructional resources for one another (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). Providing an aligned list will allow students to engage in timely feedback as it is planned to be completed after students have finished writing their short stories. Practising peer assessment in the formative evaluation is essential for students to strengthen their capability to detect errors in evaluating their work in a collaborative setting and provide suggestions for improvement that further scaffold any concerns towards the marking rubric. Self-assessment practices are also incorporated in the modified formative task , which shares explicit success criteria for students to answer before they engage in peer-editing for their short story. This will allow the teacher to engage in one-to-one exchanges during the writing process to steer learning dialogue that responds to their progress and focuses on their improvement rather than the adequacy of previous performances (Black & Wiliam, 2018). Providing success criteria on the same page as the student’s short story makes them individually accountable once they engage in peer editing. Incorporating explicit self-assessment and peer-assessment practices and processes will encourage and promote student learning as they learn to enhance the quality of their assessment by recognising and supporting feedback uptake critical in their evaluation. In removing barriers to students based on their level of competence in peer assessment, organising students to edit peers opposite of their current strengths will promote learning modified through teacher and student feedback. Designing the formative assessment to engage students in the assessable standards of the criteria will encourage greater student retention and class participation in their learning and assessment. Formative Task Justification: The nature of the formative assessment within the teaching and learning processes provides a meaningful context for students to build their capacity for timely, transparent and individualised self- assessment so that the feedback effectively supports self-evaluation and reflection in the student’s work (QCAA, 2022). Thus, Enhancing the feedback processes of the previous formative task was critical for encouraging a positive feedback orientation as an agent of assessment that maximises student learning (Bond, 2021). Following the evaluation paradigms for measurement and improvement purposes, it was important for self and peer assessment to facilitate students to track processes through seeking and using feedback modelled clear expectations of student participation (Black & Wiliam, 2018). Informed by a constructivist approach, providing immediate and timely feedback for students during the writing process through the success criteria included students understanding the learning process and encouraging dialogue between the assessor and the assessed (Thomas, 2023). Involving students in opportunities where they are evaluated on the quality of their work and their peers by using appropriate criteria and checklists develops their judgement on sources of information and feedback (Bond, 2021). Framing the formative assessment to involve students in evaluating the language choices, features and structures used in their evaluation encourages critical and creative thinking as students are given agency in which steps to take in their learning through effective feedback processes. Overall, clarifying the peer and self-assessment needed for students to improve and receive guidance for improvement in their learning makes the formative tasks capable of being fit for purpose and allow students to be successful in the upcoming summative task.
Name: Gabrielle Ekueti – s5218548 Assessment 2: Justifying Assessment Decisions Tutorial: Leontine [4pm] References Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing . Pearson. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability , 21 (1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092- 008-9068-5 Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2018). Classroom assessment and pedagogy. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice , 25 (6), 551–575. https://doi.org/10.1080/0969594x.2018.1441807 Bond, D. (2021). Assessment-as-learning for the development of student’s evaluative judgement. In Assessment as Learning; Maximising Opportunities for Student Learning and Achievement . Routledge. Frey, B., Schmitt, V., & Allen, J. (2019). Defining authentic classroom assessment. Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation , 17 (1). https://doi.org/10.7275/sxbs-0829 Masters, G.N. (2014) ‘Assessment: Getting to the essence.’ ACER Centre for Assessment Innovation. Available at: https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=1018&context=ar_misc. Readman, K., & Allen, B. (2013). Making judgement about student achievement . In Practical Planning and Assessment . Oxford University Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/reader.action?docID=4389149 Rich, J. D., Colon, A. N., Mines, D., & Jivers, K. L. (2014). Creating learner-centered assessment strategies for promoting greater student retention and class participation. Frontiers in Psychology , 19 (5). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00595
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