Assessment Technology Project Page

Real-Teacher Reasoning

One of the most important tasks a teacher must master is designing assessments that help guide her/his instructional decisions and determine mastery of content of all students. Technology can enhance assessment and allow students with varying needs and abilities to demonstrate their ability in unique ways. For this assignment, you will use the free web program, Google Forms, possibly in conjunction with one additional assessment program, to design a set of assessments that are differentiated to meet the needs of various students. Then, you will write a Commentary Paper explaining the reasoning behind your assessment design.

What do I need to turn in?

3 Google Forms Assessments:

Using the program Google Forms, you will design 3 versions of the same assessment, differentiated for various students’ needs. Begin by selecting a content area of your choice and then a topic of instruction in that area. Then, design one quiz of at least 10 questions that measures mastery of a learning objective for average, on-grade-level students. Next, select two of the following subgroups and modify your first assessment to design two new assessments that are appropriate for each subgroup: 1) students for whom English is a new language (ENLs); 2) students with disabilities (visual, physical, auditory); 3) students with speech, language, and hearing disorders; 4) students who are above grade-level; 5) students who are below grade-level. When you have completed each of the assessments, you will copy + paste your quiz links to the start of your Commentary paper.

A Commentary Paper

First, paste the 3 quiz links to the start of your Commentary paper. Don’t forget to add Karpie as a collaborator.

Then, address the following questions/prompts in 2-3 pages of writing:

Explain how you designed each assessment. How did you modify the design of each version of the assessment? How did you use media to enhance your assessments? What challenges did you face in designing each assessment?
Explain how your assessments are differentiated. How did you modify your questions for each selected subgroup? How are your differentiated assessments more accessible than the original assessment? How will mastery be determined in each version of your assessment?
Explain how you would use the assessments in planning future instruction. What kind of data would your assessments provide? What would you do if a student failed to perform mastery on each version of your assessment? What would you teach next if your students failed the assessments? If they passed?

Commentary Sentence Frame Recommendations

How will I be graded?

Forms Quality: 40%

Overall Quality: 20%

Commentary 40%

**This project is worth 20% of your overall grade.

Frequent Errors:

Watch the Loom video to the left to see the most common couple of errors that students make that cause them to lose points. No reason to make silly mistakes when it only takes a nine minute investment in video watching to avoid them.

My Assessment Beliefs

The Slides to the left dispel the myth of a summative assessment, and share my beliefs about a much more effective, cyclical assessment process that allows students to atone for errors, and to learn from and correct their mistakes.

Assessment Technology Software:

Forms

Forms are my preferred medium of assessment because they easily interface with Classroom. They're easy to differentiate, and they offer a plethora of differentiation-specific tech tools. They're also free, shareable, printable, endlessly replicable and they do a decent number of diagnostics by themselves. As of right now, they're the gold standard in assessment technology.

**Forms are the only tool here that a real teacher would ever use to differentiate. Peardeck, Plicker, and Kahoot! are all whole-group software.

Plicker

Plicker is useful for a low-stress, anonymous (as I use it, you can collect scores if you want,) and immediate feedback tool to check for understanding during a lecture, movie, or, if you're creative, during a particularly challenging group-work assignment. It also requires no technology but your own smart phone and free-to-print student cards. It's the technology that isn't really technology. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Peardeck

Peardeck blew me away the first time I saw it. (I learned about it through a student in EDU 276.) It is an immensely engaging software with a variety of tools that allow the teacher to customize an assessment on the fly based on real-time student input. It is not ideal for formal assessments as collecting individual results is spotty at best.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is the epitome of gamified assessment software. Students choose their own name. "FartButt6969" is likely to show up on your projector. I've also found that it rewards students with naturally quick synapses while condemning processing time. That being said, it is widely used in classrooms, and as such, I would be remiss to leave it out as an option for our digital assessment assignment.