Reading Reflection #9

Chapter 9: Making Assessment Meaningful

1)   Description of a method of understanding prior-knowledge of students.

a)   Active learning is essential for good projects and students benefit by being actively involved even at the assessment stage. In a well-designed project, students know why they are taking on a particular task and how it leads them toward important learning goals. Students also know what “success” looks like, and they understand the various categories by which their performance will be measured.

2)   Discussion on the importance of establishing anchors for a project.

a)   By establishing “anchors” the teacher gains a sense of where the students are starting and how far they are going as they work to meet learning goals. In a project-based classroom, you expand the opportunities to differentiate instruction and help all learners be successful.

3)   Description of several ways to assess what students learned during the project.

a)   There are many ways to assess your students’ learning. For example, a teacher who teaches digital media has a circle of friends who work in the graphics and video gaming fields. She drams on these experts to help critique her students’ work, and giving them the real-world experience of having their portfolios evaluated.

4)   Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

a)   This concept relates to my topic because it is very essential to assess students on their work because it gets them prepared for the real-world and helps them take critique well.