Assessments are a topic that has many views in the field of education. The argument for or against standardized testing or the inclusion of performance tasks as a means of assessments as an answer to this debate has not been solved. Now there is an added means of assessment: Collaboration. Why? Because that is how the working world works. So, as a teacher, how do I plan to assess collaboration? In the primary grades assessing collaboration requires training and understanding of both the teacher and students. My first experience with collaboration was literature circles. In these groups, students have assigned task. Each task contributes to the outcome of the circles product. In science, primary teachers use a similar setup however the names of the task are different, utilizing scientific language. By utilizing these groups teachers provide the students with a participation card. These cards have the task names and students add the names of their teammates under each task. At the end, of the collaboration either each interaction or at the end students use a color code (green: good participation, Yellow: Ok participation, and Red: did not participate with the group), faces (happy face: good participation, straight face: ok participation, and sad face: did not participate with the group), or lastly written comments (students share how they felt in the group with each person and how it impacted the group). George Siemens (2008) called this model students assess their peers. This model works well in primary grades because students know that the teacher will not be the only means of assessment.
Equitable assessments for learners brings about some difficulty for the instructor. The best means of allowing equity is to provide rubrics for performance tasks. By providing an expectation (a model is useful) for students helps those that aren’t as prepared an understanding of what is being asked of them, and those students that are capable of the completion of the task can look at the highest level on the rubric to see if there is any aspect of the task they can make better. It also helps to utilize more than one means of assessment, or utilizing the principle of diversity (providing students choices to demonstrate their understanding (Silver, Harvey, Strong, Richard, Perini, Matthew, 200)).
For students that are not accustom to collaboration, the instructor may need to modify the involvement of the student. This modification is not to isolate the student, but have the student become more comfortable with working with others. In the primary grades teachers make these arrangements with students and parents to ensure that the student is not forced into unfamiliar territory which may limit or hinder the learning process for the student. The goal of primary teachers is to have students experience collaboration and become comfortable with working with others before they get into the intermediate, middle, and high school grades, because we have found that it is easier to train a child early. Teachers do this because we know that collaboration will be a requirement later.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) (2008). Principles of Distance Education [DVD]. Assessment of Collaboration. Baltimore: Author
Silver, Harvey, Strong, Richard, Perini, Matthew. (2000). So Each May Learn: Integrating Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences. Alexandria, VA: ASCD
3 comments:
I have noticed in the lower grades I deal with, there is more collusion over peer to peer assessment. All students are pressured to give each other the highest marks in participation. Have you found this to be true?
The group work I have currently in our middle school supports this. One student has the talent and another does not contribute or just copies the work of the other.
Again the weakest link philosophy enters into the mix. I am still working on a way to overcome this in my classroom, teaching STEM through robotics.
Jeff
Module 3 Response:
Greetings!
You have made a valid point by acknowledging the need for training in order to fairly assess students in collaborative groups. I agree that teachers need to know how to assess students based on their individual contributions to the group as a whole. And at the same time, assessments should also be done in a manner that highlights the importance of team corroboration so students can see how their team evaluation is contingent on thier roles as both individuals and as a group.
Tawana Stiff
Kaija rubrics are good tools to assess all students equitably. Students know what are expected of them and the expected learning outcomes are the same.
As far as allowing elementary students to peer assess each other, I have yet to do that. I just think they are not ready mentally to give an unbiased assessment of one another. At this age they may tend to rate another student high or low based on whether or not they like a person. They might even really understand what they are suppose to be assessing. So while they are collaborating I make observations and annotations on whose doing what in the group. Sometimes I even ask group members if everyone is contributing and actively participating in the group. I am not yet comfortable with letting my 3rd graders assess each other.
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