creating a rubric

Last week Gabbie, Candace, Professor Mace and I reviewed the assessments we had made two weeks ago and the revisions we made last week. This weeks assignment was to create our own rubric for our assessments so we had an idea on how we would grade them.

This was very interesting because, I did not realize how many different answers children can give to me bases on my questions. I tried to narrow down my questions to try to gain a better focus on what kind of and answer I wanted to receive.

My rubric was rated on a scale of 0-3 zero being no credit and three being the most credit you can obtain on that problem. I broke down what I thought each number would represent in my assessment for each question.

This was kind of eye opening for me because I didn't really know how many ways one child can answer a question. It was very difficult to try to narrow in the focus of what kind of answer I was looking for in my assessment.

Last week Professor Mace, Gabbie, Jen, and I worked through each other's assessments. We each attempted to solve and answer each of the questions on all of the assessments. We discussed how there can be multiple ways of answering just one question. It all depends on the wording of the question and how the students each interpret the questions. This week we decided to create our own rubric to be able to grade the assessments fairly and efficiently.

I was not really sure where to start with creating my own rubric. I knew I needed a grading scale so I chose the numbers 4-0 to categorize and predict the answers that the students would give for each question. I could have used words to describe each of the categories but I feel as though numbers were a better choice because I was able to describe what answers would be accepted under each number. I started with 4 and worked my way down to 0 for each of the four questions.

Category 4 and 0 were the easiest to write descriptions for because they are both the extreme ends of the spectrum. Category 4 is the highest score that the students can receive for each question. Category 0 is the lowest score students can receive for each question. The middle categories had to be the hardest to create. The descriptions had to be very specific and broken down so that students received points for answering certain aspects of the question correctly but lost points for other aspects of the questions that were answered incorrectly.

I had to be fair when determining if the student got the overall answer incorrect but all the mathematical work was shown correctly or the explanation showed that the student had the correct answer but wrote the final answer incorrectly. The students could have made a small mistake but with the work shown it would make it easier to be able to determine whether the students understood the concept or just made a small mistake. It also makes it easier to grade and allows me to give the student as many points as they earned based on their mathematical work and/or explanations.

Creating An Assessment Rubric

Last week, the group and I worked through each others assessments to prepare ourselves to create a rubric. Seeing how other people would answer our revised assessments was particularly helpful because we were able to see how others may have interpreted the question and if the phrasing of the questions correlated to our objectives. This made creating a rubric much easier because I felt much more sure of what I would be looking for while grading. It also allowed me to see how two different people would answer/interpret the same question differently.
This activity prompted me to make some changes in my assessment to test the knowledge of my students. I added a clarifying aspect to the first question. "If there are seven pairs of cheese sticks in a bag, what is the total amount of cheese sticks in the bag? Draw a picture to support your answer or explain how you got your answer." In the third question, I added a second required answer and a clarifying aspect to the question. "Use repeated addition to create TWO number sentences that represents the amount of phones above. Mark the pictures above to show how you got your answer."
After making these changes, I created the rubric. Each question had three categories (beginning, developing, and proficient) of grades you could get. I didn't give them number grades because I feel as though they may interpret that as the unchangeable value of themselves and/or their knowledge rather than seeing it as areas they may need to improve upon in the future. I would also give my students an opportunity to take the test again if they didn't like the grade they were given. Depending on how my report card would be set up, this grading system (with a lack of numbers) may not work, but that is an issue for another day.

adjusting assessments

Last week Gabbie, Candace, Professor Mace and I reviewed the assessments we have created. We discussed how it is had to stick to one standard when making the assessment. Then we gave each other tips on how to make each assessment better and more clear to understand.

For example, on my assessment my first question was "What characters do you need to create the number 324?" ( see last post for code) I decided to change it to... "Using all three characters how many of each character do I need to create the number 324?" Followed by the follow up question of "Is there other ways? Explain yes or no." By doing this I hope to give my students a clearer idea of the answer I am looking for.

Overall, I think it was very helpful to look back on each others work and trying to improve it. It definitely makes us think about the standards and how to use them in other content areas.

The standard I decided to add was CC.1.2.2.K Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade-level reading and content, choosing from a range of strategies and tools. I believe this standard fits my assessment by clarifying what numbers would go with what character which would be the "unknown".

I would be able to incorporate a science standard in to my assessment by changing the character to the life cycle of a butterfly into a caterpillar. The caterpillar would be 1, the cocoon would be 10, and the butterfly would be 100. This would cover the standard...3.1.4.C. Illustrate patterns that regularly occur and reoccur in nature.

Doubling Up On Standards

The last time we met, Candace, Jen, and Professor Mace, and I browsed throughout each other's assessments from our last blog. While browsing through our assessments, we made a few revisions to our assessments. We are also going to try our hand at applying other standards to our lesson.

In regards to revisions, I have only made two changes to my assessment. I changed my first question, "1. How many circles are below? How do you know?" to "1. If there are seven pairs of cheese sticks in a bag, what is the total amount of cheese sticks in the bag?" My reasoning for this change is that the phrasing of the question and its accompanying graphics allows students to just count each circle one by one. The new question provides them with a visual of a bag of cheese sticks, but it does not show how many cheese sticks are in the bag nor can you count how many cheese sticks are in the bag. This encourages them to use the concept of pairs and count by twos. The other revision I made was simply moving the correct answer in number two to letter b that way it was less obvious.

The standard I chose to apply to my assessment is CC.1.2.2.G, "Explain how graphic representations contribute to and clarify a text." I could apply this to any of my questions by asking the students if the graphics helped them answer the questions and why or why not.

I also chose a science standard to apply to my assessment. The standard I chose is: Standard - 3.1.2.A5: Explain how different parts of a plant work together to make the organism function. To do this, I could have each part of the plant represent different factors of a number; the plant would represent the product of those factors. The question would be as follows: the roots = 2, the stem = 16, the leaves = 5, and the flower = 6. Using the number representations of each part of the plant, choose one part to create the number 30 which represents the whole plant. How many times did you have to use that one part of the plant to create 30? Do this with a different part of a plant. 

Adjusting Assessments

Last week, Prof. Mace, Gabbie, Jen, and I reviewed each of the assessments that we created. We were able to discuss each part of our assessments and give feedback when necessary. This week we decided to search through common core standards to see if our assessment could be adjusted to fit other standards in other subject areas. 

I particularly looked at English/language arts common core standards for second grade first. The standard I found that could possibly work with my assessment after some slight adjustments is CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.2.1; Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text. My original assessment has very little text above the bar graph. For my assessment to fit this standard, I would have to add more text at the top of the paper to allow the students to ask more questions about the text and bar graph before answering the assessment questions. They could discuss in groups or with their partner what they are thinking when just looking at the graph. It would also allow the students to answer the questions that they are being assessed on that relate to the graph. After talking to their classmates and asking questions, they might have even answered the assessment questions without even realizing it! 

For my assessment to relate to a science standard I would have to change the topic of my bar graph to how tall plants grow with different amounts of water and sunlight. The standard that I could fit my assessment into if I changed the content would be standard 2-LS2-1; plan and conduct an investigation to determine if plants need sunlight and water to grow. This experiment would be very hands on for the students and they would be able to see the difference in plant height each day at school for the span of a week. The students would be able to water the plants that receive water and put plants around the room exposing some to sunlight and others to darkness. The students could even record their findings and the teacher would create the results into a bar graph with 2-3 questions to assess the students. The bar graph could show the results of how tall or short the plants grew after receiving different amounts of water and sunlight. The students would not even realize they are being assessed on the results because they were involved in the process. 

Making an Assessment

Last week Gabbie, Candace, Professor Mace and I reviewed assessments and discussed how we can pull in other standards beside our own. My standard is CC.2.1.2.B.1,  using place-value concepts to represent amounts of tens and ones and to compare three digit numbers.
Which means children must be able to understand place values in three digit numbers. They also must know how to represent tens place, ones place, and hundreds place.

The assessment I made was based around Disney characters.

What characters do you need to create the number 324?

What characters would I have to take away or add if I have the number 845 and I want the number 671?

Where it says "Text box were pictures of each character. I thought making this assessment was fun and made me think past my standard. It required me to get creative with my thinking. This assessment brought in adding and subtracting along with relating numbers to pictures. Overall I think it was a fun experience.