There were many, many assessment techniques presented this week. Between Booth and the BCIT hand out, there were many suggestions for ways to get feedback from students in the lesson and afterward.
The Classroom Assessment Techniques handout listed many writing exercises you can use with students. What I found especially fascinating was the "Planning" document on page three. I honestly had never before considered coming up with an assessment based on what you want out of it. Does that sound dumb? I guess maybe I did that, in part. But it was much more casual. "Oh, I need feedback. I'll either ask for feedback or hand out note cards." Or, "Oh, I need to insert an active learning component because my professor tells me I need active learning. It's a best practice. Let's pick one that will make students not fall asleep."
What a practical person I am.
I guess I never realized how many different types of assessments there were, even within one category! For example, the packet lists muddiest point, one-minute paper, listing, application cards, matrix, one-sentence summaries, and summarizing. While these are all writing assignments, each requires a different amount of time and gives you slightly different information.
Yes, essentially your goal with any of these is to see if the students "get it," but depending on the teacher and students, you can fine-tune the feedback for better response rates or specific issues (eg. muddiest point) to help you clarify mid-lesson.
I was intrigued by the "Confirmative Assessment" step that Booth talks about on p. 144. She says that while "Formative and summative evaluation focus on the immediate and cumulative progress made towards objectives in an interaction...it is also important to examine the long-term realization of the ...goals and outcomes."
I wonder what this would look like in an academic setting. Booth talked about having long-term relationships with the professors that are in charge of the class you gave instruction to, for example. But that sounds like bugging professors during a busy paper-grading time period. Hm. I wonder how to approach this successfully.
Any thoughts?
All of the librarians I observed talked about how difficult it is to include meaningful assessment in one-shot sessions. One of the librarians mentioned he once was able to get all the students' bibliographies at the end of the class, which he then assessed using a rubric. Actually, another mentioned she also had access to student bibliographies in the past as well. I imagine finding a professor willing to partner like this is a bit rare, though. I imagine situations like this are one reason why subject librarians are so focused on building and maintaining strong relationships with their faculty.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was impressed by the number of assessment options. Many things I never would have considered assessment actually are assessment!