Beyond the Bubble Sheet: 4 Tech-Tools to Evaluate Mastery
Assessment often feels like a bad
word to us, between state testing, national testing and general bad feelings
about ‘testing’ - assessment often gets a bad rap. Despite these feelings,
assessment affects decisions about grades, advancement, instructional needs,
curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. Assessment should inspire us to ask
the hard questions: "Are students learning what they are supposed to be
learning?" "Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby
promoting better learning?" Which is why it is important to evaluate the
way in which we assess. Lucky for us, with the technology we have at our
fingertips, assessments are better than ever.
There are two types of assessment we generally
use in the classroom, formative and major. Today, we’ll be focusing on major
assessment, beyond the bubble sheet.
AWARE: Many campuses and
districts nationwide utilize the Eduphoria Platform. A big and often
underutilized part of that platform is AWARE, a space for assessing student’s
mastery by standards. While this is a more traditional method of testing
(multiple choice generally) this gives us fast access to data breakdowns.
Not only that, but it can definitely be argued that more of the testing in
their future will be given online, not on paper, as they age and have to test
for things like certifications. I personally like testing in Aware because I
can clearly see how my students performance breaks down into the categories and
standards. Not to mention, there are Chrome Apps and extensions that read the
text out loud for those students who get read aloud! Even better in an
inclusion setting!
Google Forms: Google
Forms is a great way to assess student mastery, because there are so many ways to do it. Need to have them watch a quick video and
assess it as a primary source? You can do that. Put in a piece of artwork or a
primary source document and have them write an essay? You can do that too.
Sure, you’ve got your traditional fill in the blank and multiple choice
options, but there is so much you can do beyond that. Not only that, but to
make quick adjustments for modified or accommodated versions is even easier.
Plus, you get the benefit of that quick access to auto-graded data. Which is
really nice. And, if you’re already using Google Classroom, then you can assign
individualized versions of the assessment to individual students with ease.
Adobe Spark: Tired
of trying to acquire posterboard from Amazon or Walmart, markers rolling around
the floor, tiny shreds of newspaper and magazine clippings floating in the air
that never seem to leave the classroom? Or worse yet, students who have no
access to the sort of supplies that you need for poster-based projects? Say
goodbye to that mess and enter into the world of Adobe Spark. A free platform
from the creators of the Adobe Suite, Spark is a place where students can
create beautiful and custom images, websites, and videos. It is incredibly easy
to use, and is FREE. And I’m not just saying easy to use because I use tech and
‘get it’ - because I don’t. It literally will take less than an hour to figure
out. Your students will figure it out very quickly. There are great videos that
teach you how to utilize the tools available on Spark. It autosaves, it is what
they will be using in the future, and it eliminates the need for many of those
extraneous supplies that we are always short on (markers, glue, glitter paint,
etc.). It also eliminates the excuses of “I left it in another class!” “I left
it at home!” “My dog actually chewed it up!” “My baby sister decided to eat my
poster!” for good.
Google Drawing: A large part of many subjects is the ability to evaluate an
actual thing. Annotate the parts of a sentence, point out the incorrect
grammar, label the parts of the body, breakdown the equation or the shape,
annotate a primary source document like a picture or a declaration of
independence. Google Drawing makes it possible for students to have that image
in front of them, along with boxes inserted for annotating in. Just like any
Google Doc, you can send out an editable copy to each student and have them
annotate directly on the image. No more standing at the copier and wishing you
actually had things in color. This takes care of that! And the evaluation from
the students shows thorough thought processes in action - who could ask for
more than that?
Contributor: Alyssa Stevenson
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