PLC - Common Assessment

Instructions

This activity is designed to be completed as a group using a video room. 

Who: Work with your Professional Learning Community group members.

What: Create a common assessment or a set of common assessments for your unit.  You will work together and submit one assignment as a group. 

When: Meet at a time that works for all group members.

Where: Meet online using your meeting room and work together using Collaborations.  Invite the professor kaitlynrayneosborne@gmail.com and TA at daylinkaywilliams@gmail.com to edit your google doc.

Why: Professional learning communities create common assessments together.  This allows the same standards to be expected in each section of the course.  It also allows the PLC to compare data across the sections and make decisions about which students need additional support to reach the unit objectives.  Even more importantly, it allows teachers to improve their practice in a safe and encouraging environment.

Tasks

Do not break up the tasks and complete the sections individually unless advised to do so. Submit one assignment for your group. 

1. Consider the four case-study students as you complete this assignment. 

• James: Case Study
  ,
   IEP
  
• Brittany: Case Study Download Case Study, IEP Download IEP
• Shawn: Case Study Download Case Study,  IEP Download IEP
• Isabel: Case Study
  ,  IEP
  

2. Download this document Download document

3. Copy and paste the table into a Google doc. Go to Collaborations, set up a new collaboration and title it "Common Assessment." Copy and paste the information from the Word doc so your group can collaborate on it.

4.  Invite the professor (Kaitlyn Osborne) and the TA (Crystal Summerhays) to your collaboration.

5. Review your PLC-Unit Learning Goals Assignment. As a PLC, look back over your PLC-Unit Learning Goals assignment to review your unit and learning goals.  You will use the same unit and learning goals to complete this assignment.

6. Discuss how you will measure student performance on the Unit Learning Goals. Use your group's video conferencing room to discuss how you will measure student performance on the unit learning goals. Do your learning goals already describe a method of assessment? If so, what would that assessment actually look like? How will you use these assessments to formatively measure your students' progress throughout the unit? How will you use summative, or end of unit, assessment (unit test, project, written assignment, or portfolio)?

7. Write a summary about your discussion of the Unit Learning Goals.  As a PLC, using your knowledge of course readings, materials and personal insight, write a summary of how you will measure the unit learning goals.

8. Select assessments.  As a PLC, decide specifically what assessments you will use to assess the unit learning goals. The assessments should

• test the students’ performance on all of the unit learning goals.
• be measurable, meaning that you could give them a score. In the case of projects, written assignments, and portfolios, you may need a use a rubric in order to make them measurable.

They may be separate assessments that test each of the learning goals or they may be a cumulative assessment that assesses all the learning goals. You can use a combination of these approaches as long as all learning goals are assessed appropriately.

9. Create your assessments. As a PLC, create the actual assessments you will use for the unit.  If you are going to include a unit test or a set of quizzes, you should create the actual test questions with instructions.  If you are going to use a project, written assignment, portfolio, or other assessment, then you will need to create the assignment with directions and a rubric for scoring the assignment.  You can divide the assessments among your group members, but make sure that each group member has a portion to complete.

Include your assessments on the google doc below your table

10. Determine a passing score for each assessment. Discuss each assessment and determine a passing score, or the score that would indicate that the student has demonstrated mastery. The score can be written as a fraction, such as 4/5, or as a percentage, such as 80%. Base your passing score on the importance of the content demonstrated in the assessment. If the importance is somewhat low (such as how do you feel about the invention of the pencil) than perhaps a 50% or any amount of participation is enough to pass. If the content is extremely important (such as how to use a skill saw correctly), then maybe students should pass with 100%. Your PLC should make these decisions together. List the passing score below the assessment.

11. Determine assessment accommodations. As a PLC, discuss each assessment and determine if it will be necessary to offer any accommodations on the assessments. Review the IEPs for your case study students to see the accommodations that they should receive.  What accommodations will they need to demonstrate their understanding of the content on the assessment without being penalized for their limitations of their disabilities?  Consider areas such as reading, writing, attention, and physical limitations. List the accommodations for each case student below the assessment.  If no accommodations are needed for a student, state that below the assessment.

12. Write a summary for each assessment. Using your knowledge of course readings, materials, and personal insight, write a summary about each assessment.  Discuss how each assessment was selected and designed, what you expect to measure with the assessment, and why you feel the assessment is an appropriate measure of the students' understanding of the objective. Justify your passing criteria and your accommodation decisions.  Each group member can write a summary or the group can work together to write the summary or summaries for the assessment(s).