Assessing and Evaluating

Week 4

This week in class we took notes on assessments and evaluation, based on chapter 14 in our textbook, "How Do I Teach Students Multiple Assessments and Evaluation?" The five powerful elements of social studies are meaningful, integrative, value-based, challenging and active. Meaningful is engaging, connects students with real-world situations. Integrative draws on more than one discipline, subject or skill set. Value-based strengthens students' sense of democratic values and social responsibility. Challenging incorporates different perspectives and draws on students' critical-thinking skills. Active is participatory, it makes use of manipulatives or physical environment. A diagnostic assessment is on-going. It continues throughout the year. Part of this assessment is pre-assessment (finding out), formative assessment (keeping track and checking up) and summative assessment (making sure). The assessment modes are performance assessment, authentic assessment, authentic instruction, and portfolio assessment.

We also learned about selected response assessment: multiple choice, binary choice, and matching. The stem is the question or incomplete statement. The alternatives are possible answers. The Distractors are the incorrect answers. There are some advantages and disadvantages to using these types of questions. Some advantages are that there is a broad sampling of knowledge, scoring is easy and objective, practice on items for high-stake state accountability tests, and they are more reliable and have more diagnostic power. The disadvantages are that they take longer to answer than other tests, it is difficult to write good multiple choice test items, especially with good distractors, and the probability to guess the right answer.

When designing multiple choice items, you should write the stem as a clearly described question or task. There should be much more information in the stem instead of in the response. You should use complete stems and short responses. the students should have a tentative answer in mind based on the stem before reading the responses. you should try to avoid negatives in the stem. Also, avoid giving irrelevant clues in correct response and avoid making longer, more detailed, and general questions. some examples of multiple choice questions are as shown:

Binary choice assessment is when students select answers only from two response categories. some advantages to using binary choices are that the format is similar to what is asked in class, it provides for an extensive sampling of knowledge (two items in a short time - 2 or 5 items per minute), they are written in short, easy-to-understand sentences, they are easy to construct and scoring is objective and quick. A disadvantage is that they are susceptible for guessing and poorly constructed items can give clues to the correct answer. When constructing binary choice questions, avoid using long sentences. Avoid using negatives or clues to the answer. Avoid insignificant, trivial facts, and do not try to trick the students. Some examples are:

 

 

Matching items effectively and efficiently measure the extent to which students know related facts, associations, and relationships. Some advantages of matching are that they provide for an extensive sampling of knowledge, they are easily and objectively scored, and constructing matching responses is easier than multiple choice items. in a matching item, the items on the left are called the premises. In the righthand column are the reponses. the student's task is to match the correct response with each of the premises. As long as the suggestions listed next are followed, matching items are excellent for measuring knowledge that includes associations. Some examples are: