Meaningful Assessment with Rubrics, Clickers, and Inspiration

Rubrics provide teachers with an excellent way to evaluate students.  Not only do these checklists help keep the teacher on track during grading, but it also guides the students throughout the entire assignment. Rubrics can help add a sense of objectivity to subjective projects as well.  Technology-based rubrics are especially great for assessing meaningful learning.  Although rubrics can be time-consuming to create, they provide clear and detailed lists of expectations for student products.  Today, there are a plethora of rubrics online at teachers’ disposal, however the writers of our textbook remind teachers to be diligent when using rubrics from these banks.  Teachers should check to ensure that rubrics are applicable for the anticipated learning outcomes in their own classroom.  We checked out rubrician.com for this class.  There are also other sites to help you make your own rubric the way you want it.  Rubrics are one of the best ways to assess meaningful learning in the classroom, especially in language arts when assignments can often be subjective. 

The best feature of clicker assessment tools is that students can respond to questions without having to raise their hands or talk over each other. Students simply key in a response, and the results are visible to the entire class. Clicker technology is a great way to assess meaningful learning because it can be used to quickly test knowledge in order to check for understanding and reevaluate teaching methods.  This technology also “evens the playing field” as our book tells us. Often, it is a race to answer first in class.  However, the opposite is also true.  Students are slow to answer for fear of embarrassment or fear of being incorrect.  With clicker technology, all students answer without these fears coming into play.  Clicker technology assesses meaningful learning by encouraging participation from each student in the classroom.  It allows for individualization and self pacing. 

I think Inspiration and Kidspiration would make really great tools in the classroom after looking through the websites. These tools allow the students to organize their thoughts in a visual manner that aids them in understanding material. It feels a lot like mind-mapping to me, but on a much higher level.  I checked into both Inspiration and Kidspiration, and I think Inspiration would be helpful in my high school English classroom.  Organizing visual concepts for theme, character, and plot would be so much easier with the help of this software.  I think students would enjoy using it as a medium for brainstorming and organization for essays and papers as well.  

Audience Response Systems | Electronic Voting | Interactive Learning | Qwizdom. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. <http://www.qwizdom.com/?gclid=CNLygeH3mpcCFQZqswodWV6D-g>.

"Kidspiration - The Visual Way to Explore and Understand Words, Numbers and Concepts | Inspiration.com." Inspiration Software, Inc. - The Leader in Visual Thinking and Learning | Inspiration.com. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. <http://www.inspiration.com/Kidspiration>.

Rubric, Rubrics, What Is a Rubric?,Sample Rubrics, Holistic Rubrics, Free, Downloadable, Rubric Links, Rubrician,Templates, - Rubrician.Com. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. http://www.rubrician.com/

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning With Technology (3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Visualizing with Technology

Digital storytelling is great for getting students actively engaged in a project. Students have to apply their creativity to make a storyboard, use a camera to film the video, and some type of editing software to create the completed product. Students really have to use their critical thinking skills to tell a story digitally. I think this could be a really great idea for students. Students get to exercise their creativity and have fun while still gleaning necessary information from the lesson.  This would be a really fun tool to use in the English/ language arts classroom.  I think this type of activity could aid in reading comprehension and sequencing.  By creating a storyboard for a short story or part of a play the class is reading, students can visualize what is going on in the story.  Shooting the video, doing the artwork, and having the ability to edit the story would allow students some creativity and ownership in a project.  I think this would be really helpful for students struggling to retain information from reading assignments.

Math has never been my favorite subject.  When it comes down to it, however, I am a very visual learner.  I need an example, or several, to follow and apply to a lesson.  I have to see how it is done before I can understand. I need to be shown, not told.  Thankfully, math lends itself to visualization.  Math is taught in examples and problem work.  In the chapter, four different methods are discussed that would help engage students in math work. The first example suggested graphing calculators. Graphing calculators allow students to see visuals of abstract ideas. This idea could be helpful since, “Students often have difficulty distinguishing important features of functional relationships.” (p. 198) I have a hard time visualizing in my head.  I need to get out of my head and see it on paper or a calculator in my hands.  The ability to see a picture almost always aids in understanding of the material.  The second method suggested was data sets. I love that the book suggested that teachers allow students to “tinker” with data since this helps them to analyze and, ultimately, understand it.  Fathom Dynamic Statistics Software takes the analysis of data sets to a larger, much broader level.  Not only does this help increase understanding, but it helps students develop important math skills at the same time. The last method was visual geometry. A lot of the time, students are intimidated by geometry because there are so many formulas and rules.  Geometry has a lot going on.  Often, students have no idea why they need to use or follow the guidelines and many rules of geometry. They just memorize techniques for the test and then forget. I think if students could better visualize these rules and formulas, they would better understand the rationale behind them.

            In some ways, I do think it is possible to learn from watching instruction on television, but I think that there has to be some kind of interaction to really learn.  Watching a chef cook a recipe on television doesn’t mean I now know how to make that dish.  Yes, they taught me the recipe step-by-step, but I haven’t done it myself.  I will still make mistakes if I try it myself without practicing.  I think application is so important when it comes to learning.  We don’t learn much from what we watch someone else do.  While it is good to have an example, we learn by doing.  Applying information is a critical part of the learning process.

References: 

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning With Technology (3rd Edition). Columbus, OH: Pearson/Prentice Hall.