October 26 – November 1
Assessment and Feedback Strategies
During the first week of this unit, I want you to partner with another student in the class and review each other’s curriculum plans (in their current, evolving state). Choose someone you’d like to work with, contact them to arrange the collaboration, then schedule a meeting time and method of communication. Let me know by Wednesday who you will be working with. I’d like this group assignment to develop organically, with a partner of your choosing. If that doesn’t happen by Wednesday, I’ll assign paired teams.
Objectives
- Evaluate the efficacy of materials and strategies toward achieving a specific outcome
- Produce an assessment plan that emphasizes feedback cycles
- Devise a comprehensive unit-sized curriculum plan
First Week of the Unit
| Instruction | 1 hr |
| Assignments | 4 hrs |
| Collaboration | 4 hrs |
Reading
Review the material on assessment in the Fink text (pp. 82—100). No other reading is assigned for this week.
Learning Activities
Gather the material you’ve created for your unit-sized lesson plan. You should have:
- Situational/contextual information about your target students
- Concept map depicting levels of understanding
- Learning objectives
- Brainstormed list of learning activities
Before you meet with your partner to review your ideas, begin thinking about appropriate assessments for this lesson plan:
- Revisit the concept map that you created in the last unit. What evidence might students present to document their mastery of items on your concept map? Would mastery be best demonstrated through a test, a written paper, a project, or some other product or action?
- Brainstorm a list of possible assessment types for the material in your lesson plan. Would any of these be difficult to accomplish online? Which assessments would be most indicative of deep learning? Which would take the most time and effort for students to complete? Which would take the most time for you to grade?
- From your experience, where do students most often get hung up or sidetracked in learning this material? Are there common myths or misconceptions that must be corrected? In what areas will they most likely need feedback or additional practice? What specific type of practice and feedback would help a student move from novice to expert?
Group Work
With your materials in hand, meet with your study partner and describe your lesson plan. Remember that this will be a unit-sized plan–larger than one lesson, but smaller than an entire course. Each of you will present the main concepts of your plan. While the other student presents, your role is to listen, ask clarifying questions, and give constructive feedback. Evaluate whether the plan is cohesive: is it likely that the activities will lead to understanding? Will the activities prepare students to succeed on the assessments? Are the assessments comprehensive and feasible? Do they assess more than one category of learning? Will the assessments provide clear evidence that students have met all the learning objectives? Keep notes during your session. At the conclusion of the session, log into Blackboard and locate the assignment link for this lesson; there you will each submit notes about your process and any useful feedback you gave/received.
Reflection and Writing
For your post this week, write a metacognitive summary of your experience thus far in developing your unit-sized curriculum plan.