Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

Summative Assessment Part II

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Higher Level Thinking Skills is one schema for formulating questions that incorporate more than simple recall of memorized facts.

Fuhrmann and Grasha have adapted Bloom's taxonomy for test development. Here is a condensation of their list:

To measure knowledge (common terms, facts, principles, procedures), ask these kinds of questions: Define, Describe, Identify, Label, List, Match, Name, Outline, Reproduce, Select, State.

To measure comprehension (understanding of facts and principles, interpretation of material), ask these kinds of questions: Convert, Defend, Distinguish, Estimate, Explain, Extend, Generalize, Give examples, Infer, Predict, Summarize.

To measure application (solving problems, applying concepts and principles to new situations), ask these kinds of questions: Demonstrate, Modify, Operate, Prepare, Produce, Relate, Show, Solve, Use.

To measure analysis (recognition of unstated assumptions or logical fallacies, ability to distinguish between facts and inferences), ask these kinds of questions: Diagram, Differentiate, Distinguish, Illustrate, Infer, Point out, Relate, Select, Separate, Subdivide.

To measure synthesis (integrate learning from different areas or solve problems by creative thinking), ask these kinds of questions: Categorize, Combine, Compile, Devise, Design, Explain, Generate, Organize, Plan, Rearrange, Reconstruct, Revise, Tell.

To measure evaluation (judging and assessing), ask these kinds of questions: Appraise, Compare, Conclude, Contrast, Criticize, Describe, Discriminate, Explain, Justify, Interpret, Support.

Even though students, and to a lesser extent, instructors do not look upon testing as a favorite activity, it serves a very important purpose. Summative evaluation's purpose is to sum up a student's progress in achieving the objectives of the course. Well thought out and well written tests are worth the effort that is expended to perfect them.

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

Summative Assessment Part I

Summative assessment in most classrooms is used to evaluate or test students either at the end of a major unit of study or at the end of the course in order to ascertain whether students have mastered the goals of the course. Summative assessment gives the student a grade - or some other type of evaluation-either on a test or on the complete course.

Summative evaluation is usually divided into quizzes, tests, and exams. A quiz usually lasts 15 minutes or less and covers a very limited number of concepts. A test usually lasts for most of a class period and covers a chapter or unit. An exam is broad in scope and comprehensive in nature. It may be two hours or more in length.

Summative evaluations should reflect your educational goals for your particular course. What skills, content, and attitudes are delineated in your syllabus? These should be the backbone of your summative testing. A good way to do this is to lay out a grid with objectives along one side and content on the other. This is a variation of a tool called a Scope and Sequence Chart. When you make a test question, you can then check off the content and objective it covers.

Many, if not most, instructors construct quizzes, tests, and exams that rely to a great extent on factual recall questions. Most college instructors realize the importance of including questions that cover higher level thinking as well. We all realize that students will study what they believe they will be tested upon. If our questions focus on facts, details and minutia, that is exactly what our students will tend to study. If students expect a test that will require problem solving, comparison, and evaluation, that is the way they will study.

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we focus on one method. It is an excellent way to help students move some information and concepts from short term to long term memory. It also shows the instructor if there are any areas that need to be revisited before an exam.

RSQC2 stands for Recall, Summarize, Question, Comment, and Connect. RSQC2 is an assessment device that encourages students to recall and review class information comprehensively. In so doing, it allows the professor to compare students' perspectives against his or her own. Students who are less skilled at organizing information and applying it to the supporting foundation of the course ---or who are having difficulty figuring out the professor's own perspective--- are among those most likely to benefit from this assessment.

RSQC2 works like this: Students take two minutes to recall and list in rank order the most important ideas from a previous day's class. Then they take another two minutes to summarize those points in a single sentence in order to "chunk" the information. Next, students are asked to write one major question that they want answered. Finally, students identify a thread or theme to connect this material to the course's major goal. As an option, students may add a comment regarding their confidence in or wariness of the specific course content.

RSQC2 is a powerful and multifaceted assessment tool that takes time to administer and evaluate. The Recall, Summary, and Question sections are amplifications of the Minute Paper.The Connect feature is key because it forces students (and the instructor) to confront course structure. Exactly what is the relationship of this topic to the overall course plan? Why is this material important? Student feedback through RSQC2 may be crucial for aiding a professor to identify where students really need help the most but get it the least --- on relationships between ideas. ( Angelo and Cross, 1993)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

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I will be posting each section in the Student Success Center Blog. So if you are interested in checking out "back bites," you can find them there.

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week's methods provide instructors with an opportunity to use an active learning technique that boosts student learning and provides some assessment for the instructor, allowing the instructor to focus on any areas that present a problem for students.

Characteristic Features are those traits that help define a topic and differentiate it from others. This assessment technique is particularly useful for seeing whether students are separating items or ideas that are easily confused. By selecting especially critical differentiators, an instructor can both highlight and assess the students' use of analysis to help them characterize central concepts. Because this assessment technique asks students to fill in blanks with plus and minus signs, scanning the results is easy and rapid; it is suitable for use in large classes. Even simple tallies will reveal the extent to which students are paying more attention to some traits and less attention to others. (Angelo and Cross. 1993.)

One Sentence Summary-has the students answer the questions "Who does what to whom, when where how, and why?" (represented by the letters WDWWWWHW) about a given topic, and then to synthesize those answers into a single informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence. This technique also gives students practice "chunking" information - condensing it into smaller, interrelated bits that are more easily processed and recalled. This is a powerful way to help students understand and synthesize complex information. Be aware, though, that some material cannot be easily summarized. Limit the topic and try it out yourself first so you do not inadvertently give students a confusing or even impossible task. The final sentence should be grammatical, factual, complete, and original. (Angelo and Cross. 1993.)

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we are looking at two methods that require students to make the information they have learned "their own."

The first one requires students to apply a general set of knowledge to a specific circumstance or idea that has not yet been covered. Students must have a firm grasp on the information, what it means, and how it plays out in different situations.

The second method asks requires students to understand a concept completely in order to explain it thoroughly in their own words. I think this method could be altered slightly and turned into a brief debate on each issue, providing the added benefits of sharing ideas and peer review.

Quotations - this is a particularly useful method of testing student understanding when they are learning to read texts and identify an author's viewpoint and arguments. After students have read a representative advocate of each of several opposing theories or schools of thought, and the relevant concepts have been defined and discussed in class, put on the overhead projector a quotation by an author whom they have not read in the assigned materials, and ask them to figure out what position that person advocates. In addition to testing comprehension of the material presented in lecture, this exercise develops critical thinking and analysis skills.

Directed Paraphrase –This technique asks the student to summarize in well-chosen words a key idea that has been presented during the current class period or the one just past. The paraphrase part requires the student to generate a new way to express the concept. The directed part specifies the audience to whom the paraphrase is directed, thus revealing whether the student understands the concept within the specified framework. A nursing student might be directed to paraphrase the concept of drug clearance by the kidneys to a worried patient (Angelo and Cross. 1993)

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I will be posting each section in the Student Success Center Blog. So if you are interested in checking out "back bites," you can find them there.

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we look at two methods that act as an assessment tool in a more micro-cosmic way. The instructor gets feedback from the students at the end of a lesson or class period and is then able to alter his or her approach to insure that students are learning and retaining the material they need most.

The "One Minute Paper" - This is a highly effective technique for checking student progress, both in understanding the material and in reacting to course material. Ask students to take out a blank sheet of paper, pose a question (either specific or open-ended), and give them one (or perhaps two - but not many more) minutes to respond. Another good use of the minute paper is to ask questions like "What was the main point of today's class material?" This tells you whether or not the students are viewing the material in the way you envisioned. (Angelo and Cross. 1993.)

Muddiest (or Clearest) Point - This is a variation on the one-minute paper, though you may wish to give students a slightly longer time period to answer the question. Here you ask (at the end of a class period, or at a natural break in the presentation), "What was the "muddiest point" in today's lecture?" or, perhaps, you might be more specific, asking, for example: "What (if anything) do you find unclear about the concept of 'inertia?" (Angelo and Cross. 1993.)

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week's methods focus on a fast paced active learning session, designed to "drill" students. I think these methods would be excellent for reviewing prior to test or quiz.

Finger Signals - This method provides instructors with a means of testing student comprehension without the waiting period or the grading time required for written quizzes. Students are asked questions and instructed to signal their answers by holding up the appropriate number of fingers immediately in front of their torsos (this makes it impossible for students to "copy", thus committing them to answer each question on their own). For example, the instructor might say "one finger for 'yes', two for 'no'", and then ask questions such as "Do all organic compounds contain carbon ?". Or, the instructor might have multiple choice questions prepared for the overhead projector and have the answers numbered (1) through (5), asking students to answer with finger signals. In very large classes the students can use a set of large cardboard signs with numbers written on them. This method allows instructors to assess student knowledge literally at a glance.(Paulson and Faust, 2002)

Flash Cards - A variation of the Finger Signals approach, this method tests students' comprehension through their response to flash cards held by the instructor. This is particularly useful in disciplines which utilize models or other visual stimuli, such as chemistry, physics or biology. For example, the instructor might flash the diagram of a chemical compound and ask "Does this compound react with H₂O?" This can be combined with finger signals.(Paulson and Faust, 2002)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

Last week we talked about the Gallery Walk method. This week we begin by looking at the same method with the additional element of peer review.

The second method is an excellent way for each student to receive constructive feedback from their peers. It can make a big difference for a student to hear from another student about an area s/he needs to improve on.

Variation of "Gallery Walk" Use this technique when you have individual or team long-term products. Rather than having time-consuming oral reports, each product, such as a term paper or student portfolio, is assigned to specific work area, as on tables or displayed on a wall. Then a class period can be spent with students walking around, examining one another's work. To provide an opportunity for feedback, each student leaves a short comment sheet next to the product.

End of Meeting Evaluation  Give each student a 3x5 card. Ask each student to write his/her name on one side. Students place the note cards from their team in a stack with the names down. Shuffle the cards and each student draws one and writes honest and constructive feedback for the person whose card appears on the card. Team members then return cards and engage in a discussion about the successes and needs for improvement for the group. (Karre, 1994)

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Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

We have been spending a great deal of time looking active learning methods. This week is no exception. The first one sounds fun. It may be a bit confusing for the class at first, but if this method is used a few times during the semester, it would catch on and quickly become a fun way for classmates to work together in groups and "shuffle" their ideas.

The Gallery Walk is great because it allows students to spend more time where they need to and quickly observe and glean what they can on subjects they know more about.

Three-Stay One-Stray - Like "Stand Up and Share," this structure requires the easy identification of a team member who will become the group's spokesperson. It too builds on some other structure, but in this case, the topics can be far more complex. After the problem solving discussions are complete and all team members indicate that they can give the team's report, you designate the student from each team who will "stray." That is, one student from each group (such as the "Number One" or the "Diamond") leaves it and rotates to an adjoining team to give the report. In large classes it is essential that the order of rotation is clear. Playing cards work particularly well because the "Aces" know to rotate to the "Twos," the "Jacks" to the Queens," and so forth. The designated student, who is welcomed as a visitor, shares with this new team the results of his original group's discussion, giving proposed solutions to problems or summarizing discussions. A second rotation may be desirable if the topic prompted divergent thinking and solutions. Three-Stay One-Stray offers a low-threat forum where students can exchange ideas and build social skills such as asking probing questions. It also offers students the opportunity to learn by teaching. Placing the report-out responsibility on the students reinforces the valuable conception that knowledge resides within the learning community, not just with the "authority-figure" instructor. Perhaps its greatest value lies in its efficiency. Instead of, for example, ten sequenced five-minute reports to the entire class (fifty minutes, plus transition time); individual students are simultaneously giving five-minute reports throughout the room. (Paulson and Faust, 2002)

Gallery Walk  The Gallery Walk is one of our favorites. It requires a report-out that can be visually depicted, preferably on butcher paper. It can be an outline, a concept or mind map, or any other written or drawn product. In this technique a student stays next to the butcher paper taped to the wall and serves as the group spokesperson. The other students rotate around the room examining the products of other teams' thinking, asking questions of the designated spokesperson. This technique works best if the spokesperson role is rotated so that everyone knows that each person is responsible for the final product. This structure is also efficient and engenders a sense of team cohesion as each group displays the product of their "group think."(Johnson and Johnson, 1994)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

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Hope you enjoyed it.

Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we consider two methods that allow students to work in small groups and then report to the class. This offers the opportunity for instructor input and peer review. The first method has the added benefit of debate or competition. This works very well with incentives such as bonus points or candy bars.

Stand For Something - A fun activity - but don't use it too often. This requires a topic about which the class has differing opinions, preferably opinions that fall along a continuum. First, everyone stands up and forms a line. The instructor gives the students a set amount of time to find their place in the line, depending on the strength of the agreement or disagreement with the topic. To do this successfully, students have to interview each other and come to a conclusion in their own minds about where they stand on that issue. A further variation of this activity is to fold the line in half so that the two students with the most opposite opinions pair up, and so on until each person has a partner with a differing view of the issue. Then each partner is asked to be able to explain to the class their partner's position.

Stand Up and Share - This report-out method should be rapid and energetic. It works best when students have completed an activity, such as Roundtable, that lends itself to single statement summaries. It relies on students having an easily designated identity within each team so that you can call on the "Number Twos" or the "Hearts" to serve as spokespersons. These designated students then rise, prepared to respond on behalf of the group. Each team responds in turn, giving only one response, in rapid round robin fashion. Depending on the number of answers and the number of teams involved, you may want to go through another rotation, calling on another group member to share one group idea (the "Number Fours" or the "Clubs" this time). All students must attend to the sharing because they may serve as the next spokesperson. No ideas should be repeated. If student spokespersons find that all the topics on the team's list have been covered, they merely sit down and the rotation continues. (Johnson and Johnson, 1994)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

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