Prentice J. Sargeant
Social Studies: Licensure 6-12
Assessment Of and For Student Learning
Assessment Of and For Student Learning is best described as the ability to formally and informally collect, organize, and analyze student learning data to better enhance lesson planning and improve upon student educational growth. The purpose of this standard is to ensure that educators understand the importance of assessment and how it affects the learning process. Educators need to understand the importance of assessment, both in the short term and in the long term. In order to successfully master this standard, educators must first be able to incorporate student choice into the assessment paradigm, allowing students to have their voices heard when it comes to setting their goals and monitoring their progress. Secondly, educators must use a variety of assessment tools, especially those related to project-based learning, to reinforce the mastery of both knowledge and skills. Finally, teachers need to be able to properly explain the purpose of an assessment to students, in the form of guidelines or rubrics.
Student Choice:
Autonomy allows students to be more involved in the decision-making process, both on an instructional basis and an assessment basis. It can give them more confidence to demonstrate mastery on any given assignment. For example, when students have to reinforce the material that they learned in class for homework, I give them the choice of drawing a picture demonstrating what they’ve learned or writing a paragraph describing what they’ve learned. Below are some examples of student drawings and paragraphs written after a lesson concerning the major world leaders of the second half of the 20th century.
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Project-Based Learning:
I am a huge advocate of project-based learning and I believe that students can better demonstrate knowledge and skills by creating or presenting something than by completing a test or a quiz. In each unit I designed, I created at least one major project to encapsulate part of the unit.
In my World War II unit, I created a project in which students had to research a genocide from the 20th century, create a PowerPoint presentation, and share it with the class. A group of students did an exceptional job creating a PowerPoint describing the Bosnian Genocide, which I have included here:
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In my Cold War unit, I created a project in which students had to research a major event of the Cold War, create a poster board, and teach the topic to the entire class. Below are a few of the final products I collected from those groups:
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Guidelines & Rubrics:
In order to best explain the purpose and expectations of an assessment, educators must be able to create and properly utilize guidelines and rubrics. Both guidelines and rubrics are necessary because they create accountability, in students for their work ethic and final product and in teachers when it comes to grading.
In every project I designed, I created a guideline sheet and rubric to go along with each one. For World History II, that included the 20th Century Genocide Project and the Major Events of the Cold War Project. In Government, I created the Making a Bill Writing Assignment, a Letter to a Politician Assignment, and the Supreme Court Case Project. In each case, the guidelines and the rubric helped each student create projects that demonstrated their abilities and their mastery of content knowledge and the skills they developed in relation to it.
For examples of some of the completed versions of these projects, please refer to the Student Academic Progress page of this website.
Contact Information:
Prentice J. Sargeant
prentice.sargeant@gmail.com
540-797-8373