EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT METHODS & TOOLS

 the bullseye- portfolio- rubric- aronson

PORTFOLIO

A portfolio is a educative tool that can be used both for students and teachers. It is a collection of work that the student has completed over time can be a physical collection of student work that includes materials such as written assignments, journal entries, completed tests, artwork, lab reports, physical projects (such as dioramas or models), and other material evidence of student learning progress and academic accomplishment, including awards, honors, certifications, and recommendations.

Portfolios may also be digital collections or presentations that include the same documents and achievements as physical portfolios, but that may also include additional content such as student-created videos, multimedia presentations, spreadsheets, websites, photographs, or other digital artifacts of learning. Online portfolios are often called digital portfolios or e-portfolios. In some cases, blogs or online journals may be maintained by students and include on going reflections related to learning activities and progress.

It is very important a critical component of an educational portfolio is the learner's reflection on the individual pieces of work (often called "artifacts") as well as an overall reflection on the story that the portfolio tells.

Portfolios are also used to keep parents and other adults more informed about what students are doing and learning in the classroom.

Using Portfolios students are actively involved in a process of taking responsibility for their own learning and life plan as they:

·      examine a broad range of their own work collected over time

·      analyze and assess their own progress

·      plan and manage their time to complete the work

·      integrate diverse experiences in and out of the classroom

·      make decisions about future goals based on evidence and criteria

RUBRIC

A rubric is a great tool for teachers, because it is a simple way to set up a grading criteria for assignments. Not only is this tool useful for teachers, it is helpful for students as well. A rubric defines in writing what is expected of the student to get a particular grade on an assignment.

Heidi Goodrich Andrade, a rubrics expert, defines a rubric as "a scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or 'what counts.' " For example, a rubric for an essay might tell students that their work will be judged on purpose, organization, details, voice, and mechanics.

A rubric simply lists a set of criteria, which defines and describes the important components of the work being planned or evaluated. A good rubric also describes levels of quality for each of the criteria. These levels of performance may be written as different ratings (e.g., Excellent, Good, Needs Improvement) or as numerical scores (e.g., 4, 3, 2, 1)

When students use rubrics regularly to judge their own work, they begin to accept more responsibility for the end product.

Rubrics reduce the time teachers spend grading student work and makes it easier for teachers to explain to students why they got the grade they did and what they can do to improve.

•        Creating a Rubric: It is a good idea to involve your students in creating their own rubrics for classroom assignments. A student who can write the rubric for a math problem knows the whole process inside and out, and he/she can apply the knowledge and skills learned from the process to future assignments.

How do I create a good rubric?

1. List the criteria that will be used in assessing performance. 
The criteria you use should be related to the learning outcome that you are assessing.

2. Determine your performance levels. 
Examples of performance levels may be:

• Descriptors (In Progress, Basic, Proficient, Advanced)

• Numbers (1,2,3,4)

3. Write a description for each performance level. 
Describe the different levels of performance that match each criterion. You may want to start with the best and worst levels of quality, and then fill in the middle levels based on your knowledge of common problems.

4. After use, evaluate and revise rubric as needed.

RULE OF YES. YES BUT ……. NOT, BUT…… NOT

ARONSON

The jigsaw classroom is a research-based cooperative learning technique invented and developed in the early 1970s by Elliot Aronson and his students at the University of Texas and the University of California. Since 1971, thousands of classrooms have used jigsaw with great success. 


If each student's part is essential, then each student is essential; and that is precisely what makes this strategy so effective.

Group members must work together as a team to accomplish a common goal; each person depends on all the others. No student can succeed completely unless everyone works well together as a team. This “cooperation by design” facilitates interaction among all students in the class, leading them to value each other as contributors to their common task.

JIGSAW IN 10 EASY STEPS

The jigsaw classroom is very simple to use.

STEP ONE

Divide students into 5- or 6-person jigsaw groups.

The groups should be diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, and ability.

STEP TWO

Appoint one student from each group as the leader.

Initially, this person should be the most mature student in the group.

STEP THREE

Divide the day’s lesson into 5-6 segments.

For example, if you want history students to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt, you might divide a short biography of her into stand-alone segments on: (1) Her childhood, (2) Her family life with Franklin and their children, (3) Her life after Franklin contracted polio, (4) Her work in the White House as First Lady, and (5) Her life and work after Franklin's death.

STEP FOUR

Assign each student to learn one segment.

Make sure students have direct access only to their own segment.

STEP FIVE

Give students time to read over their segment at least twice and become familiar with it.

There is no need for them to memorize it.

STEP SIX

Form temporary “expert groups” by having one student from each jigsaw group join other students assigned to the same segment.

Give students in these expert groups time to discuss the main points of their segment and to rehearse the presentations they will make to their jigsaw group.

STEP SEVEN

Bring the students back into their jigsaw groups.

STEP EIGHT

Ask each student to present her or his segment to the group.

Encourage others in the group to ask questions for clarification.

STEP NINE

Float from group to group, observing the process.

If any group is having trouble (e.g., a member is dominating or disruptive), make an appropriate intervention. Eventually, it's best for the group leader to handle this task. Leaders can be trained by whispering an instruction on how to intervene, until the leader gets the hang of it.

STEP TEN

At the end of the session, give a quiz on the material.

Students quickly come to realize that these sessions are not just fun and games but really count.

THE BULLSEYE

This method is considered a participative evaluation method, for it can be done with individuals and groups, and the student can do her/his own evaluation too. It’s a higly visual, easy and fast method, that both young and older children can understand.