Emergency Teaching: A Reflection On Assessment Design

Do you feel like you're still in emergency remote teaching mode? Have you not had enough time to really dig in to the new LMS and curriculum that you are now expected to use? Do you wish you could just do it your way?

For most of us, I suspect, we wish we could just go back. But the reality is, we made it through so much last spring, and we can do it again. I have found myself going back to see what hidden gems were actually uncovered at the end of last year, and one assessment really stuck out. Even if I am not able to use it this year, it will remain in my emergency queue for the time being.

Now, full disclosure, I did borrow the look and format of this assessment from something I had purchased. That said, the content is original, even if the idea may not be.

Based on participation and the answers I received, this is one of the more engaging assessments I presented to my English Language Arts students last year. It has elements of both summative and formative assessment; and while is meant to determine what students should already know, students do construct their own interpretations of conflict and of the film itself. We covered these elements of story (conflict, setting, & theme) in our earlier lessons while still at school. I found it important to not try and present too much new material, but rather build on that preestablished literary device foundation. On reflection, I suspect I gave too much information to really make this a strong assessment. Considering the circumstances however, I felt it necessary to redefine these elements before asking students to relay their own interpretation of the short film and how these literary devices were used. But this was the purpose; reinforce already presented concepts to ensure that students retained some of these fundamentals of story. There are some general research and inquiry based questions incorporated into the assessment as well. I felt it important to cover as many bases as possible with each assignment during this time.

Because of its multifaceted nature, it was important to break down the entire activity into achievable parts. B. F. Skinners thoughts on behaviorism reflect this technique and structure. "The whole process of becoming competent in any field must be divided into a very large number of very small steps and reinforcement must be contingent upon the accomplishment of each step" (Skinner, 1954, p. 94). This assessemnt requires that all steps are accomplished and build upon another moving from understanding definitions of these terms to constructing individual answers. Students are informed right at the beginning that “This assignment may require multiple viewing of the film.” They are then presented with a step based process, numbered, and defined. Some of the responses will have exact requirements and some will be student interpretations. Much like our daily processes of entering the room, getting materials, doing, bell work, and other similar expectations of our previous “at school “ learning, this assignment does reflect the concept of behaviorism in learning.

The one reward at the end of the assignment is the ability of students to offer their “honest reaction” to the film. What I have found when I ask questions like these, is that students will sometimes offer their reaction to the assignment as well, not just the film, story, article, etc. This kind of feedback is extremely valuable in future planning and design, and I welcome even the most discouraging of commentary, within reason of course.

While Step 3 does require some absolute responses and is more summative in form, steps 1 and 2 offer a chance for students to construct answers based on their own life experiences. Even so, an extension of this activity may be more useful in terms of formation. For example, step 4 could be extended into a larger piece of writing in which more comprehensive criteria or rubric is established. Comparison to student critiques could open a dialogue of what each student brought to the assignment.

Historically speaking, this assessment moves away from Edward Thorndike’s associationist learning theory in which objective methods of testing are more commonly relied upon. Yes, I am asking students to give example of the literary concepts, which are their ability to recall a certain definition and offer an example. But the assessment is also subjective in that it is asking students to rely on their own personally held beliefs about the content and how their reaction or “thinking about it” is expressed.

Typically, I allow students to revise their work if needed. The great aspect of using a Google document for activities such as this is that teacher feedback and checks for understanding can be done right within the students responses. Asking students to critique any form of literature of film will render multiple perspectives based on their own tastes, cultural backgrounds, and individual experiences. At the time, feedback was given and subsequent film reviews did reflect those adjustments and interpretations of the desired literary device of conflict.

It felt at times during this emergency teaching and learning that we just threw everything we could at kids and hoped it worked. What may not have always been considered is the ability of students to navigate an assignment with such complexities. I made the assumptions that students would be able to:

· already understand these concepts of literary device

· have access to the link for actually accessing the film

· have the endurance or willingness to view the film multiple times in order to truly analyze

the content

· offer an honest assessment of their own about the activity

· be familiar with the style and form of the short film

· understand that this completely new look and style of lesson was just like our other Google

doc based assignments, and could be completed and turned in in the same way

By and large, my students met these expectations. The feedback was positive, and the completion rate without questions on “how do I do this” made it clear that students welcomed the assignment and had little to no obvious challenges associated with its completion.

In my previous post, I explored 3 things that I believe about assessment:

“Three things I believe about assessment is that it cannot be static, it needs to be free of bias, and ideally, it is tailored as much as possible to the individual student”.

I believe this assessment hits the mark. In the context of my instruction last spring, this assignment was anything but static. This was the one that really shook things up and drew some of those fading students back into the fold. I used two more similar activities and then moved on when students let me know they had enough short film analysis. Based on my student population, there is no implicit bias at work in this lesson, or the content of the material (the film itself). And I believe that anytime you ask a student to generate an example of a concept, and especially, when you ask them for their opinion, the assessment is inherently tailored to that student, leading to a voice and an investment in their own learning.

To some, it may still feel like we are in emergency mode. But as we move further into what may seem like another challenging year, I take comfort in knowing that educators have the ability, the skills, and the willingness to adapt our teaching and our own learning, to design and implement thoughtful and careful assessments, resulting most importantly in greater student achievement.