Read chapter 6 and then apply your new knowledge to answer the following questions:
1) Look at my old English test. What did I do right and what did I do wrong? What would make it a more valid assessment?
2) Examine your own assessment. Find one question that would be considered a good question based on Wormelli's guidelines.
3) Find one of your questions that does not meet Wormelli's guidelines.
4) Tell me one way that this article could help you improve assessments in your classroom.
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8 comments:
I HATE going 1st!!!
Question #17 on Dianne's test seems to fit the"put some fun into test questions." Comparing/contrasting the qualities of beauty now to those in Wollstonecraft's era, Dianne's question is very similar to the Frederick Douglas example on page 82 of the article. This test needs some variety of question types! The "define" questions could have been used in matching or even reworded to make F-i-B. To make it more valid, she could give more details about what she wanted on questions that were like #9.
As for my own assessment, I'm good at having a variety of questions. :-) I looked at a quiz I had for understanding demand, demand curves, demand schedules, and the graphic representations of changes in demand and quantity demanded [UGH!]...one question that is bad because the question references film photography and since the majority of society has gone digital, my students could not figure out how the price of cameras affected the demand for film. Should try to figure out how to change that question to fit our new technological lifestyles.
Some of the advice I will take from this article is to be clearer with my intentions on constructed reponse questions and to definitely work on efficiency for both the students and me [love the ideas for making grading easier!!!]
Rachel beat me. I guess I will be second.
I think that Dianne did a thorough job of having her questions assess what she wanted to assess. She asked very specific questions and the students had to know the answers. As it states on page 82, her questions are straightforward.
I agree with what Dianne said in class that this test was probably very overwhelming to students. She should have used a variety of questions. Many students feel that they are not successful on short answer tests. I think that there should have been multi-choice or matching added to the test.
I was looking at social studies test. The teacher did an excellent job of using a variety of questions. There were one or two questions that had the word NOT in the question. These can be confusing to the students. They are not clear and concise questions. These types of questions can misguide the students.
I think that this article has many great ideas. I do give assessments in my classroom, but I can share these ideas with other teachers who I work closely with. I think that the one idea all students could benefit from using smaller tests over time. I think that students get overwhelmed about large test. It would be better to test them on smaller chunks of materials so that they could retain the information.
When I read Question 13, I started to feel the anxiety that I always experienced when having to take a test such as this! Raul’s thinking is a carbon copy thoughts I would also be thinking if I were taking this test. It could be d and e, but also b... and on and on! I agree with the statement that every test questions should be important enough to ask and clear enough to answer. Yes, don’t waste students’ minds or time- Check Mastery.
After looking through Diane's test I am sure it was no surprise to her students to be presented with this test. Diane would have thoroughly covered every inch of this material and reviewed and reviewed and wanted to know exactly what her students knew. She wanted specific answers to the information she had covered. It would have been a better idea to divide this evaluation into smaller tests and add a variety of types of questions. On page 84, Use Smaller Tests Over Time, mentioned that in order to get an accurate rendering of students' mastery give multiple, smaller and focused tests over the course of the grading period (instead of one large one at the end). On page 85 I thought, Include Two Special Questions, was very interesting...ask the student, "What did you think would be asked on this test but was not?" However, the second question they suggested would not really serve any purpose from my point of view, including a question that at first sounds reasonable, but on closer examination, is impossible to answer.
Although I am not testing students this year, in the last few years when testing special education self-contained students, I would include three sections to the test. The test I am looking at includes 10 questions of multiple choice, one section of writing in the appropriate syn. and antonyms and two questions that asked them to answer "what happened" and define. Each section has very specific directions and is separated by several spaces in order to not confuse one section with the other.
I really liked this article..it even made me think of some things I really hadn't thought of before. I especially liked, "Use a Variety of Questions/Prompts," which suggested mixing traditional and not-so-traditional questions and prompts. The traditional (matching, true/false, fill in, multiple choice, definition, essay and short answer) can be combined with anallogies,, drawings, diagrams, analyzing, etc. Plus, forced choice items (true/false, matching, multiple choice) could be combined with constructed response items such as interpreting graphs, mindmaps or flowcharts. Of course, by using a variety of quesitons and prompts, we get a better picture of students' mastery. At the very last of the article: we need to get feedback to students in a timely manner, which means we need to design our tests and quizzes to be graded efficiently and make sure our students get copies of the tests and quizzes with their answer sheets so they can learn from their mistakes. One interesting thing about being a tutorial teacher this year has been all the different types of assessments (and the different ways of assessing) that I see in the various classrooms.
As Dianne had said in class, all of her questions were short answer. I find nothing wrong with having short answer questions, but I would have not wanted to be one of her students taking this test! Nor would I want to be her and have to grade them! Her questions were specific enough for illiciting the answer she was looking for. I think that for question 35 - Compare and contrast Shelley's dreams and her writing, it could have been appropriate for students to create a Venn diagram as their answer. Like Rachel, I think that this test required variety.
In reading the article, there were several things that were stated that I try very hard to make sure that I do on my MC tests. All of my tests contain a MC section because I am trying to prepare them for the EOC. I am a firm believer that you can create higher order thinking MC type questions ("vigor") if you just take the time. I for the most part try to avoid "all of the above" and "none of the above" type answers.
I like the idea that you should provide the "true" and "false" for them to circle...it certainly cuts out any confusion.
My test that I decided to review, Atomic Structure, actually had a good bit of variety in it. MC, fill in a table, sketching electron dot diagrams; interpreting diagrams. I think that the best question was the one where they had to identify an isotope based on the nucleus' components. The question that I think probably would not fit with Wormelli's quidelines would be "Which of the following statements is not true?" although I did bold "is not". I think that the question should have be finished up with "..about the nucleus of an atom."
1. I'll start off with what could have been done differently. The test is way too long. This test should have been broken down into several smaller tests throughout the unit for better accuracy of grades and achievement, as Wormelli points out. On the bright side, though, most of the questions were very clear and direct, with no confusion as to what the student was being asked to write about. I think the ability levels of various students were addressed throughout the test, as each section had basic comprehension up through textual analysis.
2) My assessment is a Bronx Masquerade test. A good thing about it is there are only 10 short answer questions and the students got to choose which 5 they wanted to answer. As Wormelli discusses, my students had been prepared for the types of questions on the test and the style of answer required. One of my most direct and unconfusing questions was "What do the boxes symbolize in Devon's poem "Black Box"?
3. After reading about keeping questions clear of confusion in Wormelli's chapter, I discovered how confusing this question from my test was "Why does Janelle as "Is your heart/like an onion too?" in her poem "The Door"? What does this simile mean?" I wanted the student to analyze the simile, but I asked them why the character wrote the quote first, which is what most of them responded to. I should have said "Explain what Janelle means when she writes "Is your heart/like an onion too?"
4.This article can help me to double check the clarity of my statements. I need to be sure that I'm not asking the students to read my mind, but rather to actually show their knowledge.
1.)I agree with Mrs. Hartly --the test was too long. However, the majority of the test questions were clear and precise.As Wormelli suggest---use a variety of question/prompts.Qestions 41 42 were good questions--with specifics. Questions 47 and 50 should have more defined as it relates to exact details. This assessment can be improved by using a variety of questions.rompts and by being very specific ---not leaving a answer to be sujective.
2.)Topic: Setting Goals
One of the prompts ask the student to identify a short term goal, chart the ojectives and define the target date(s) of completions . This type of prompt supports Wormelli's suggestion of put some fun into the test questions.
3.)Test Question:
Define success. This question is too subjective.
4.) Double Recording of Test Responses is one strategy I will incorporate in my tutorial. Because I only see these students once a week, I feel using this strategy will give them the instant feedback they need. Instant feedback will also help them identify their strenghts and weaknesses for the next session
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