1. Written Synthesis Précis of Two Articles
Black, Wiliams and Shepard outline their view of assessment and its value and impact on learning culture through the two articles The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture and Inside the Black Box. In the following paper I will outline similarities and differences between the two articles and their standpoint on assessment. Both are strong advocates of formative assessment and their ideas overlap in this area, outlining ways to provide meaningful feedback and engaging learners throughout the learning and assessment process.
References
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-144.
Shepard, L. (2000). The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.
The Google document can also be accessed via this link.
2. Annotated Assessment/Evaluation Exemplar
This assessment is one I have recently set and assessed for my year 8 (grade 7) students. The assessment is a practical project to create a piece of music (composition) based on a style of music we have studied. The piece could have been written individually or in a pair and all students had access to Cubase (music sequencing software), computers connected to keyboards and the internet.
Students were encouraged throughout the composition process to have open the embedded document below, with step by step instructions, assessment criteria and to regularly browse the exemplar pieces and stimuli for ideas.
The purpose of the assessment was to develop students understanding of the genre of minimalism through the creation process, develop their more generic composition and musical development skills and further embed their understanding of music technology.
The level grid criteria comes from my own development of the national curriculum for music levels and the project is designed to explore about 1/2 of the curriculum requirements for key stage 3 music.
My current employer requests that students be assessed 2-3 times per marking period (this for me is a term) therefore this end grade will be used to inform the end of year grade which students are given.
The following assumptions have been made regarding this assessment
- Students have a working knowledge of the software to be used
- Students have basic musical understanding- e.g. which notes “work together”
- Students understand the terminology included in the instructions and assessment criteria
- Students have had the opportunity to explore pieces of music in the minimalist style
- Students will have the required amount of time to complete the project satisfactorily (4-5 lessons)
Ideas for redesign
- Rewording of the introduction and steps to complete and tidy up the document.
- Develop to include a peer assessment/comment/critique. For example midway through the project students complete an “assessment” of others work to inform their own understanding and provide constructive criticism to others to develop their work
- As this (for most students) is a paired task it is often difficult to assess each persons contribution to the project. Turning this into an individual project would solve this issue but cause other issues. 1. Equipment, there are not enough resources for each student to have a separate workstation. 2. Removing a partner loses the collaboration aspect of the project which some students need in a creative project, they need to bounce ideas off each other! I wonder if it could be possible for students to create a written “commentary” explaining their ideas and personal role in the creation to cover this aspect or if the software could be used to simply “label” the parts created by each student.
The Google document can also be accessed via this link.
B Jones 