Nothing truly teaches you like rolling up your sleeves and doing something. I came away with five realizations as a result from scoring K - 8 narrative on-demand assessments by myself.
Category: assessment
Slow and Steady
Nicole Frederickson, a middle school teacher, doesn't believe in diagnostic writing assessments at the beginning of the school year. Find out why she builds a community of writers before she assesses her students.
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Primary Teachers: I need your advice, please!
How much time do you think K-2 students need to complete an on-demand narrative writing assessment?
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On-Demand Performance Assessments & the Norming Meeting
I've administered and reviewed many on-demand pieces of writing. However, I've never engaged in a norming meeting until two weeks ago. Learn more about the ways in which we can work with our colleagues to assess on-demand assessments so they can drive our instruction.
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The Doors of Poetry: Guest Blog Post by Sarah Mulhern
Our first Guest Blog Post of the summer is written by Sarah Mulhern, who is a sixth grade teacher in New Jersey. Sarah blogs at The Reading Zone. When Stacey first asked me to write a guest blog for Two Writing Teachers I immediately accepted. Then I realized I would have to think of something… Continue reading The Doors of Poetry: Guest Blog Post by Sarah Mulhern
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Rubric Creation for “This I Believe” Essays
I was at the computer this morning when my students created a pretty basic rubric for their final unit of study's essays. The following is what they created. They'll use it to self-assess their essays and I'll use it to give them their final grade of the school year.
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some thoughts about assessment
One. It is constant. The more I learn about student writers, the more I am in a constant state of assessment. Any time I'm around student writers, I'm assessing them. I'm noticing what they are doing well. I'm noticing the ways that are making meaning. I'm noticing the rate at which they are recording their… Continue reading some thoughts about assessment
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Assessing.
Today my students turned in their narratives. I couldn't wait to read them, so I began today during my lunch. I was touched by their writing, and impressed by the significant revisions many of them made. Tonight (as my kids were coloring) I looked over the narratives again and began to pile them according to… Continue reading Assessing.
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My Life as a Reader.
The first unit of study is coming to a close. The summative assessment is two part. First, students are to create a multimedia presentation (text + image + audio) of their past, present, and future reading lives. (Part two is an on-demand writing, where they summarize their learning about reading + a reflection of this… Continue reading My Life as a Reader.
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More from NCTE: Jim Burke + Assignments
For the last session of the conference, I attended a session with Jim Burke, Jeff Wilhelm, and Alan Sitomer geared toward secondary teachers. It was excellent, so excellent that I took 13 pages of notes! Over the next few days, I plan to process some of what I heard. Burke shared his guiding principles for designing… Continue reading More from NCTE: Jim Burke + Assignments
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NCTE: Reading Assessment.
While at NCTE, I listened to Patrick Allen, Franki Sibberson, and colleagues discuss reading assessment. Here are some highlights: One assessment isn't better than another and none can stand alone. We need a variety. Look at the routines of reading workshop and figure out how to assess those routines. I should ask myself: What does… Continue reading NCTE: Reading Assessment.
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A Couple “Techy” Rubrics
Earlier this week, I posted about the process of determining how to attach grades to chats and discussion forums. Before break, my students divided into two groups and determined the areas which should be evaluated when assessing the success of a chat or discussion thread. I took their ideas and created two rubrics. The chat rubric… Continue reading A Couple “Techy” Rubrics
