Week 5 Reflection

                   In general, this week’s reading on assessment left me feeling a bit glazed over, as these kinds of readings always have. I always tend to get concepts like validity and reliability mixed up, even if I studied them and got them correct on assessment in college. The concepts of formative and summative are familiar and straight forward and I include both types in my teaching. In my general music classes, I use a combination of written tests and performance tests that I grade with a rubric. I use fewer performance tests because they are extremely time consuming, even though I think they are very valuable.

                

          I am overwhelmed by all the ways to use technology in assessment and left feeling discouraged. There are certainly many possibilities, but my time is very limited, and our school has a limited amount of technology and even less support. I would be trying to navigate all of these assessment tools on my own, and there would inevitably be glitches. I suppose the key is to take baby steps.

             

          I like the idea of using Google Forms to create online quizzes that can be graded automatically, even though with our limited number of computers, it might be difficult to have access to computers to complete these kinds of assessments. The idea of using clickers   in student response systems is appearling. I would like to be able to see how many of my students understand with the safety of anonymity. The challenge is, again, lack of technology. We simply don’t have enough computers to make this a normal part of instruction, and in our school, students are not permitted to use cell phones. I also like the idea of using technology to assess musical performance. If I could assess pitch and rhythmic accuracy outside the classroom, this would save considerable time correcting errors in class and it could motivate students to achieve benchmarks at a faster pace.

               

           I already use some technology for assessment, so perhaps I shouldn’t be too discouraged.  I use video and audio recording so that my students can observe and evaluate their own performances, although this is more informal.  Also, the students and parents in my school have access to their grades at all times via our district-wide gradebook that they can access online.

            In the reading on instructional design, I was particularly struck with the idea of backward design, and would like to use this more in my teaching. I have heard of this before and it makes so much sense as an educational model.  Yet I tend to go about it as teachers often do—first with learning activities, then with a desired outcome, then with an assessment.