Chapter 7: Teacher-Designed Strategies

1. Chapter 7: Teacher-Designed Strategies Lecture by: Chris Ross

2. Purposes of Teacher Designed Assessments & Tests • Many times the purposes of these assessments is to provide objective data on student’s learning and accountability. Also, provides additional information for making instructional decisions. • They all for teachers to make more accurate decisions for the instruction of individual students. • Assessments can also support teacher’s decisions that may be questioned by parents or other faculty/staff. • Allows for a teacher to change their instruction for a student • Can increase teacher accountability for decisions and student learning.

3. Purposes of Teacher Designed Assessments & Tests • Teachers can find it difficult to assign letter grades. The practice of assigning them to primary-grade child is debated; teacher made testing can help teachers make decisions. • These tools can be used to support diagnostic decisions about a student’s needs. • Assessments can be created to correspond to a local instructional objectives that provide information on accomplishment and needs of students. • Allows for evaluation for local instructional programs.

4. Types of Tests Used with Preschool and Primary- Grade Children • Teacher-designed assessments for preschool children must match the way these students learn-active interaction with concrete materials. • Assessments using tasks or oral responses can be done during activities, learning experiences, or in assignments • For some assessments oral responses will be the most appropriate • Paper-and-pencil tests must be adapted to the limited reading and writing skills.

5. Types of Tests Used with Preschool and Primary- Grade Children • Most common beginning written tasks are marking/circling a response, drawing a line, X by their choice or writing simple numbers or words (see 7-4 on page 191) • All examples or written assessments for primary grades follow the same guidelines: • Child must have visual cue to be able to respond, but an example is given to also help understand the task • Written instructions are provided, teacher may need to read and discuss the instructions to ensure understanding

6. How Tests are Designed & Used • Classroom tests tend to match curriculum objectives and content • Classroom tests measure student accomplishment and learning needs relating to specific classroom objectives • Classroom tests can be used for • Placement and diagnosis • Formative testing • Summative testing

7. How Tests are Designed & Used • Formative tests => a test designed to evaluate progress on specific learning objectives or a unit of study • Summative tests => a test to determine mastery of learning objectives administered for grading purposes

8. How Tests are Designed & Used • Steps in Test Design • Determine instructional objectives • Constructing a table of specifications • Designing formative and summative evaluations • Design learning experiences • Designing correctives and enrichment activities

9. How Tests are Designed & Used • Determining Instructional Objectives • Learning outcomes have replaced the instructional objectives in most states, but carries the same purposes • National and state standards are the current framework for curriculum and instruction. • Behavioral objective => an educational or instructional statement that includes the behavior to be exhibited, the conditions under which the behavior will be exhibited and the level for performance required for mastery. (Used interchangeably with instructional objective)

10. How Tests are Designed & Used • Determining Instructional Objectives • In many state behavioral objectives specify the measurement of the effectiveness of the instruction and learning. The objective is stated in observable, behavioral terms to include: • Observable behavior (action verb specifying learning outcome) • Special conditions under which the behaviors must be displayed • Performance level considered sufficient to demonstrate mastery • Another way to approach this is the ABCD acronym: • A is the audience • B is the behavior • C is the condition • D is the degree or level of mastery

11. How Tests are Designed & Used • Determining Instructional Objectives • Analyzing Objectives to Determine Prerequisite Skills. • Teachers need to known what must be taught to the student to master the skill, but also prior experiences or knowledge to build from. • If the students do not have mastery of the prior skills, it prior skills needed may need to be taught/re-taught. • Setting a Standard for Mastery • Teachers, districts or state department of education may set the objective. • The objective can reflect established standard of mastery

12. How Tests are Designed & Used • Constructing a Table of Specifications • Table of Specifications => a table of curriculum objectives that have been analyzed to determine to what level of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives the student must demonstrate mastery. (Page 197. figures 7-7, 7-8) • NCLB brought higher expectations of how teachers understand student learning. A system of Depth of Knowledge (DOK) was developed to guide teachers as they support students learning to higher level. (Page 198, Figure 7-9)

13. How Tests are Designed & Used • Designing Formative & Summative Evaluations • Correctives => Instructional materials and methods used with mastery learning that are implemented after formative evaluation to provide alternative learning strategies and resources. • Enrichment Activities => In the context of mastery learning, a challenging activity at a higher cognitive level on Bloom’s taxonomy than the instructional objective described on a table of specifications. • The summative evaluation in the final assessment or test of what the student has learning/accomplished.

14. How Tests are Designed & Used • Test Formats & Assessment Items • Test length. After determining format and developing items- the task of how many items/tasks should be included. • Young children need a balance between number of items need to demonstrated and a reasonable length that does not tax their ability to complete tasks. • Preschool and primary grades, the test lengths should not exceed normal classroom activities and assignments. 20-30 minutes is reasonable testing for primary-grade students.

15. How Tests are Designed & Used • Test Formats & Assessment Items • Assembly. Assemble test items into both formative and summative form. There should be enough items so that both forms of the test can be put together at the same time. • After formative assessments, the teacher can re-teach, provide new experiences/practice (if needed), or move on to the summative test if there is progress. • A teacher also needs to consider instructions and how they will be written and explained.

16. How Tests are Designed & Used • Designing Learning Experiences • Instructional objective contains the structure for the learning experiences. They provide the instances for students to interact and master concepts. • When planning activities teachers choose a format to describe the activity and how it will be used.

17. How Tests are Designed & Used • Designing Corrective & Enrichment Activities • The purpose of corrective activities is to allow the student different or alternative ways to learn information in a learning objective. • Enrichment activities allow students who easily mastered the object to engage in challenging and more creative activities.

18. Advantages/Disadvantages of Using Teacher-Designed Assessments Advantages Disadvantages Can fit student progress Fit particular class Can be improved when needed Potential weakness in design; not always required to learn how to design May lack training in test design Time consuming

19. Developing Quality Teacher-Designed Assessments • Concrete Tasks for Preschool • Be sure that the tasks is at the same level of difficulty as the learning activities stated in the learning objectives • Have a variety of objects and/or concrete materials so that the assessment task can be administered several times • Administer tasks for a number of learning objectives. Have materials for a number of tasks organized and available.

20. Developing Quality Teaching-Designed Assessments • Test for Primary-Grade Children • Items should match the child’s reading level. • Use clear directions, even if they are read by a teacher • Ensure that response items for multiple-choice assessments only have one correct answer • Ensure that response options for multiple-choice assessments are the same length and are brief • Keep the list of items brief for matching exercises • Be sure that the list of items for matching exercises are homogeneous • Ensure that length of blanks is the same for completion test items • Us only one blank for each completion item.