Jeff Jakob


Abstract

I teach world history at the seventh grade level at Jefferson Middle School in Champaign Unit 4 School District. As our district continues to introduce standardized multiple choice tests in the light of No Child Left Behind, I feel that alternative assessments must be included as well. With such high importance placed on reading, math, and writing, our district suggests that all classes work on these subjects to better prepare our students for ISAT testing.


I would like to help students become better readers and writers through social studies. I feel the inclusion of these skills throughout the curriculum will increase reading comprehension and through alternative assessments, students can practice these skills while proving what they have learned in the context of social studies. Original tests that were traditionally multiple choice or very short guided response have been altered to incorporate reading and writing skills, as well. Cross-categorical work also helped align the reading and writing with our social studies assessments



Analysis


Although the results are positive, I have found it very difficult at this time to determine if the inclusion of these advanced skills will affect ISAT or other test results for students' reading and writing levels as the results are not published at this time and many other factors affect these tests. Student participation was high for the new tests and the achievement gap closed in comparison to traditional tests. Traditional low scoring groups of students received the new tests well and scored well compared to their scores for traditional tests given throughout the first half of the school year.


What I learned

One of the major factors for increased interest and success with these new assessments is the inclusion of student creativity. Although my social studies classes include 'fun' projects throughout the year, they have never been considered assessments by myself or the students. With the Japan brochure, students were able to exhibit their understanding of culture and mastery of the course objectives in a creative way. With the DBQ, students are able to interpret documents, as true historians do. Having an active role in history enables the students to use their prior knowledge gained through instruction with their personal interpretation of the documents to create an essay. Students enjoyed the cross-categorical work that strengthened the lesson that all subjects are inter-related. The writing components are worked on with the English teacher and graded on mechanics while the content is graded separately for social studies.


The culture of assessment as a multiple choice test has been ingrained in Unit 4 students. It was interesting to see the response of students and renewed interest in these new assessments as students slowly understood that their knowledge of the material and objectives is being assessed through these project-based assessments. Some students were left confused, waiting for the catch. “Mr Jakob, when are we going to have the test?” Now both the teacher and student understand that a test does not need to be a multiple choice standardized test.


What Would I do Differently?
Next year I would like to use my knowledge of alternative assessments throughout the year. I feel that my assessment style was drastically changed at the start of this project. The student reception of these new assessments was great, but it is quite a change for the students to make midway through the year. I would like to alter assessments used at the start of the school year and work them in when appropriate. I do feel that students need to take multiple choice tests, as they are a significant part of student standardized tests, but the overload of these types of tests at the start of the year causes many students to view the class as 'the same as every other class.” A creative style of assessment from the start could have reached more than a handful of students early and changed their perception of social studies. The renewed interest and motivation during the second half of the year helped many students that did not find success in social studies during the first and second quarter to earn higher grades during the third quarter and are on track to do the same for the fourth quarter as well. Assessment grades are a major factor in this change in quarterly grades.


There are small changes I would make in the actual assessment tools and directions and even wording on rubrics, but I feel that this is a part of teaching. Teachers must constantly alter their lessons, lectures, and assessments as we learn from experience the strengths, weaknesses, and student interest levels in different teaching areas. I have taken notes that will help me improve these assessments to make them even more effective next year. I will review these and learn how to alter the assessments according to the needs and interests of my future students next year.


Questions for My Peers

  1. As many of my new assessment tools are project based, I introduced them during the chapter. I felt that the additional time for students to understand the objectives would help the students as we progressed through the material. There were two things that arose that I now question. A) Some of the higher achieving students were upset that there was no chapter test. They have become accustomed to studying for a multiple choice test at the end of the chapter. Have any other teachers noticed this 'need for finality' in students? B) When it was explained that the new assessment tested their knowledge, there was a sense of uncertainty for some of these students. Is there a way to help these students feel more comfortable with the new assessments?

  2. The use of rubrics makes grading much more more objective, but has anyone come across situations where the rubric may hurt the student that tries to be unique? I have used rubrics in the past, but not at this level. What do other teachers do when a high achieving student creates a project that does not fit the rubric? This only happened a few times for me, but I was torn on what to do. One example was a good student that creatively wrote a paper for the Africa Persuasive essay. Rather than prove that Africa was not a continent of savages but a collection of advanced cultures, the student wrote an essay that explained how Europe is a culture of savages. The student took a risk to stand out, but if the rubric is applied, the student's score would only be average to below average. Has anyone else had experience with this, and what would others do in this case?

  3. The success of the cross-categorical assessment with the English teacher was greater than I had ever expected. I have already talked with my team's science teacher for a project that can be altered to collaboratively assess science objectives for science class and social studies objectives for our Scientific Revolution unit during the second quarter. I am excited to work on this new assessment as a cross-categorical unit next year, but I would like to do more of this. I am having trouble finding a way to incorporate math and other subjects. Has anyone done cross-categorical work with social studies and another subject, and how can I work this into my curriculum?








Project objectives



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Students do not like tests; many feel punished while many feel the test did not measure all that they learned.

How can we make tests a measurement of what a student has learned rather than punishment for not learning the questions on the test?

Students still do not like tests, but when the test is in an interesting format, they try hard and many give even more information than needed for open ended questions. Students that do not like tests seem to not like writing assignments, too.

Reading and writing are difficult skills for many students.

If we incorporate reading and writing skills into the curriculum AND assessment, will students become better readers and writers?

Although I do not have data to prove or disprove an increase in reading and writing, the extra practice could not have hurt the students. The writing samples for most students were better than earlier attempts in the year.

Our subgroup students are over-represented in the “failing” category and under-represented in “A” category

Can alternate assessment styles 'level the playing field' or allow students to find success in an area they typically do not (tests)?

While the achievement gap was decreased, it was not a 'cure-all' fix. I did see an increase in motivation of subgroup students for assessments that they did not have a history, especially a history of failing. This may be attributed to the 'newness' or maybe the alternative assessments are a better measure.

Our school struggles to meet AYP.

How will alternate assessments in social studies affect AYP in reading?

The data for this will not be available until the start of next school year, but as mentioned earlier, this may take years to determine. The additional reading and writing along with increased feeling of success with assessments for lower achieving students must have positive effects on student achievement in other areas.

Students take many multiple choice tests in Unit 4 Schools

How will a new test format be accepted by students? Will they view it as negative?

Almost all students were interested in the new tests. The negative perception of state and district tests did not transfer over to the new assessments. The students that were nervous that the answers were not in front of them to be chosen quickly adapted. Students that normally 'fill in the circles' and go to sleep spent much more time with the test and had many more questions. Although many students still view it as a test, it was received better and the level of motivation was much higher.

My students have a wide range in level of ability and many have IEPs, making test writing difficult.

Will rubrics/alternate assessments allow students to be tested according to his or her ability/IEP?

After working with the Special Education teacher, the same rubric was used for all students, the services received is what changed. Some students had the test read according to IEPs while others were given additional time, but all students took the same test as their peers. Students with IEPs did score lower than their peers on average, but there was much more equity in achievement compared to multiple choice or district-wide tests.