Teaching with the End in Mind. Learning Targets Review alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment Examine teaching with the end in mind Examine.

Teaching with the End in Mind

Learning Targets

• Review alignment of curriculum, instruction,

and assessment

• Examine teaching with the end in mind

• Examine components of good assessment

• Explore the use of rubrics for assessing

student performance

• Examine the HEAP rubrics

• Score student work using the HEAP rubrics

Why Is Assessment Important?

• to help educators guide improvements in health education planning and delivery

• to ensure students develop lifelong health skills, rather than merely learn health education facts

Health Literacy

Health literacy is the capacity of an individual to obtain, interpret, and understand basic health information and services and the competence to use such information and services in ways which are health-enhancing.

Joint Committee on Health Education Standards

Why Is Assessment Important?

Focus on what’s important

As a tool, assessment helps us decide what’s important. It helps focus our teaching strategies and helps us use our time more effectively.

The Connections

This graphic shows the cycle in which assessment can help educators gauge how well students are doing in reaching the academic goals we set. Assessment also holds the key to helping you determine what needs to be adjusted when those goals aren’t being met.

The Standard

As you look at this graphic, pretend the academic goal—the standard—is to ensure that students are able to juggle.

Curriculum

We then have to come up with a plan—the curriculum—on how to go about teaching kids how to juggle. The curriculum is the plan for instruction that addresses the standard “Students are able to juggle.”

Instruction

Once that’s in place, we translate the curriculum into practice—that is, classroom instruction. Instruction provides a variety of learning opportunities about how to juggle and allows students to practice this skill.

Assessment

To find out whether our chosen curriculum and instruction actually teach students how to juggle, we need to have criteria for and a way of scoring students’ performance. We need an assessment tool. Using criteria, assessment establishes a structure to measure the student’s ability to meet the standard—in this case, to juggle.

Let’s take a look at a four-point scoring criteria for juggling with the score of 4 being fully proficient in the skill and a score of 1 showing little or no evidence of the skill.

Rubric

Criteria for number four… Looking at the first student, the girl with the number four on her shirt, you can see that all balls are alternating smoothly. Moreover, she demonstrates confidence in her knowledge and skills. That is, she’s looking straight ahead—or at an audience—and not focusing on the balls.And although we can’t see this, we gather that she could continue juggling in this manner for some time. This student exceeds the standard; she demonstrates a number four.

Rubric

Three: This student meets the standard; that is, he shows the ability to juggle. It’s true that the balls are alternating. And he could probably continue juggling in this manner for some time. But his juggling isn’t as smooth as the first student’s and he lacks confidence. See how he’s concentrating on the balls?

Rubric

Two: This student demonstrates some evidence of juggling. The balls are alternating and the student might be able to keep them going for a while, but it looks like he could lose control of the balls at any moment.

Rubric

This student demonstrates a one. He shows little or no evidence of being able to juggle.

Evidence

Take a moment to look at this student juggling. This is the evidence, the student’s response.

Using our 4 point rubric, with 4 exceeding the standard and 1 showing little evidence of demonstrating the skill, what score would you give this student?

Got a Number in Mind??

• Most people would give him a score of two because he demonstrates some evidence of the ability to juggle.

• He probably needs more instruction on process steps in juggling. He definitely needs more practice.

Assessment As an Alignment Tool

If our assessment indicates that most students seamlessly and effortlessly keep the balls aloft, then our results—the evidence—shows we’re right on target and we’re meeting our standard. That is, everything’s aligned.

Assessment As an Alignment Tool

• If, on the other hand, our assessment shows that most students manage to keep the balls aloft but often drop a ball or two, then we know we’re basically on track but have to make some changes. Maybe we have to tweak the curriculum. Or perhaps we need to look at and change our approach to classroom instruction (Formative!). Then again, we may simply need to provide more practice for specific groups of students.

• Regardless of our approach, educators can use assessment as an effective tool for driving changes and improvements to align the system. And, perhaps more importantly, it can be an effective tool for ensuring that students acquire a high level of health literacy.

Assessment Modes

Selected Response

Constructed Response

Performance Task

Task Selected answers Create short answers and/or essays

Create complex product

Time 1 class period 1 class period 1 or more class period

Scoring Right/wrong Content/skills Content/skills

Characteristics Broad coverage; little depth; objective

Some depth; some coverage; subjective

Less coverage; greater depth; subjective

Generally Reveals

What students do not know

What students know and can do

What students know and can do

Performance Modes Explained

• Selected responses are commonly known as multiple choice responses and can be scored by machines.

• Short constructed responses are also known as short answer responses. These performance-based assessment items pose questions that require students to write a short answer.

• Extended constructed responses are performance-based assessments that pose questions requiring a longer response, such as an essay question.

• Performance tasks are activities embedded in the curriculum. They are grounded in authentic student experiences and support skills- and standards-based classroom instruction. Students complete these projects outside of class and over a set period of time.

• As you can see, the student work produced using performance-based assessments can provide a clearer picture of how students are moving to health literacy than do selected responses.

The Basics: Performance-based Assessments

• Provide a rationale for what students will learn.

• Develop activities for studentsto acquire skills and knowledge.

• Create varied opportunities for studentsto apply what they’ve learned.

• Assess students on what they can do.

Why P-B Assessment?

• Using performance-based assessment is an elegant approach to teaching that captures what all students—who have very different styles of learning—can do. It is the antithesis of the cookie-cutter approach to education that measures, to a large extent, what many students can’t do.

What do you tell students?

• First, you let students know what they will learn and why it’s important to learn a particular topic or skill. (Learning Targets)

• Then you need to provide instruction that imparts knowledge on a topic or skill. Ideally, your instruction makes the learning process applicable to students’ interests, their everyday lives, or the world about them. And it does so in ways that are challenging and motivating. Your instruction should also provide students with varied opportunities to apply the knowledge and skills they’re learning.

And then….

• Finally, you must assess your students on what they’ve actually learned. That is, you develop opportunities for students to create products that allow them to demonstrate what they can do.

• The next slide offers a list of projects that lend themselves to performance-based assessment.

Examples of Projects

• personal plan

• teaching poster

• public service announcement

• PowerPoint presentation

• board presentation

This is just a partial list. Infomercials, photo essays, and skits, to name a few examples, would all lend themselves to assessing student knowledge and skills.

Good Assessment

• is worth the student’s effort– meaningful

– realistic

– clear criteria for proficiency

• demonstrates student progress– ongoing

– allows students to monitor their progress

– reinforces learning

– shows skills and knowledge

How Do You “Grade” Performance Assessments

What Is a Rubric?

A rubric is a set of criteria

for directing student performance and

for scoring performance-based

assessment items.

Advantages of Rubrics

Rubrics:

• help students know what to expect

• provide detailed feedback

• help students see improvement over time

• offer guidance for continuous improvement

• align teaching and learning to standards

Disadvantages of Rubrics

• time-consuming to score

• don’t translate to letter gradesor norm-referenced grades

Holistic Rubrics

• provide overall judgment, based onthe whole, about the performance

• score content and skills

• help teachers assess the level ofknowledge and skills students acquire

• indicate level of learning (four-point scale)

Four Point ScaleFour Point Scale

4 3 2 1

4-3-2-1 Rubric

• Every student response must receive a score. But not all student responses for a given score are alike. For example, some fours are higher than other scores of four. Yet all papers that meet criteria for a score of four, despite their differences, must receive a score of four. Similarly, some threes are higher (or lower) than others, some twos are higher (or lower) than others, and so on.

• This graphic ← 4, 3, 2, 1 → illustrates the ranges in scores. There is far more variation in the range of student responses for scores of four and one than for scores of three and two. For example, one student might produce a short film on binge eating as a performance task. This film garners the equivalent of an academy award from health education assessment specialists. Another student-film on the same topic, although amateurish and plodding, still provides a response that is complex, accurate, and comprehensive; that shows breadth and depth of information; and describes relationships and draws conclusions. Both films, though vastly different, would receive a score of four. The same is true for the variation in student responses that receive a score of one.

SCASS HEAP RUBRICSSCASS HEAP RUBRICS

Core Concept – HEAP 4 point Rubric

• Review the description for each score point. The ability to describe relationships and see connections between health facts and draw conclusions about these connections is an important consideration in scoring.

• As an example, let’s say you gave your elementary students an assignment about smoking. What score would you give the student who wrote the following?

– Smoking causes your breath to smell like smoke and will make your teeth yellow and your fingers brown with tar. If you smoke for a long time it could cause shortness of breath, emphysema, heart disease, oral cancer, and lung cancer. Smoking can cause lots of diseases and can shorten your life. Using tobacco products is too dangerous for your health and therefore you should not even start smoking.

• Based on the score criteria you see before you, what score would you give this student? Got a number in mind? This elementary student would receive a score of 4 because the response is comprehensive, shows breath and depth of information, relationships are made and a conclusion is drawn.

Another Example!

• Let’s try another example of student work. Based on the score criteria, what score point would you give the student who wrote, “Smoking is bad for you”? Got a score in mind for this one? This student would receive a score of 1. The response shows little evidence of the understanding of health concepts and no relationships are made or conclusions about health are drawn.

SCASS HEAP RUBRICSSCASS HEAP RUBRICS

Health Skills– HEAP 4 point Rubric

• Let’s continue with the tobacco example and apply the advocacy skill to this rubric. The student response for advocacy must show audience awareness; support the response with relevant information; take a clear health-enhancing stand; encourage others to make healthful choices; and demonstrate passion and conviction.

• Based on the skills rubric for advocacy, what score would you give a student who wrote the following?

» Fellow students, I have seen many of you smoking after school. I am concerned. Smoking can lead to heart disease and lung cancer. Right now it can reduce your ability to play sports because you can’t breathe as well when you smoke. It can reduce your life span. You are my friends and I want to have my friends around for a long time. Let’s all make a pact not to smoke. Your life may depend on it—so please—Don’t smoke!!

• What score would you give this student? Got a score point in mind? The response would receive a score point of 4. This student takes a clear health-enhancing stand directed at others. The response shows audience awareness and demonstrates passion and conviction.

•

Another Example!

• Let’s try another. How about this student response? For the student who wrote, “Smoking stinks so don’t smoke,” what score point would you give? Got a number in mind? This student would receive a score point of 1. Although it is a health enhancing statement, there is no evidence of audience awareness, nor is it supported by relevant information. A persuasive argument is not made.

Rubric AssessmentRubric Assessment

Final Wish

Hope this module has been instrumental in supporting your efforts to adopt a skills-based, standards-based approach to teaching health education.