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This was my reply to a post by JOD on the classics list about assessment. I have, unfortunately, lost too much sleep in the last couple of days so I know this was rambling. But... assessment is important.
For instance, in order to go to CAMWS, I had to fill out a form at school justifying my going, what I would learn, how my students would benefit, AND how I would ASSESS this improvement.
It's everywhere. You can't escape assessment. You might as well face it and make it work for you.
****
I was surprised that no one had replied to this yet. (And I will apologize in advance for this rambling note; exhaustion has overtaken me just one day after spring break....) (Additional apologies for any typos I missed.)
> Assessment is a bloodless and bureaucratic word for making sure we
> know how well we're doing what we do.
Yes, and I might add that I've learned that for one to assess well and really consider whether you are teaching what you want and getting the
results you want is VERY time consuming. This is the type of assessment
that perhaps is hard to document on paper and show to those at the top.
Grades aren't everything.
I encourage my students to "show their work" when taking tests. Admittedly I give extra credit for this, but partly to encourage the students to slow down long enough to think about what I want and to consider truly what's in front of them. Most of the time the students who make notes in the margins, circle morphology, or write on/mark-up passages are the ones that do the best on tests. Occasionally, though, I'll have a student who bombs a test BUT I can tell has really tried by the kinds of notes he made.
One such young man came in this morning because I said he could retake the last test. We looked over the original test together and I showed him where his thinking went wrong, what he had misunderstood about tense and voice, etc. My goal with retakes is mastery of the material. If I were to just say, "too bad, sorry you failed" there would be no motivation to keep up.
And the end result would not just be a decline in his grade for my course, but little motivation to sign up for Latin 3 next year. He's not a sterling student, but he makes the effort.
Assessment needs to reflect what we really want our students to be able to do. Anytime I think about it in those terms I realize where I'm drifting from my goals. For instance, if I want students to stay in the Latin more, then I need to do more questioning in Latin, more work in Latin. If I want them to be better readers of Latin, then I need to explicitly teach them those skills which would allow them to read Latin from left to right.
What, for instance, am I truly testing if students can decline a noun or conjugate a verb? (Knowledge level skills; memorization at best.) You won't find those on my tests; perhaps on a quiz if we need to master forms, but on the tests I want to assess reading skills and an understanding of morphology in the context of the reading.
Who cares if they can decline servus accurately if they can't recognize a dative in this sentence: necesse est servo pecuniam tradere. In fact, all of my vocabulary quizzes are in context because you don't meet Latin words in isolation, which means, yes, there's a bit of built in grammar in my vocab quizzes. So what? It does absolutely no good for a student to be able to define audio and provide principal parts if he fails to recognize it used in an ablative absolute (sheesh, no pun was intended here), such as here:
Cornelia, clamoribus auditis, in atrium ingressa rogavit quid facerent.
(from Ecce)
> There is much pressure from various stakeholders, many of them very
> thoughtful people inside the academy, to think how we can do a better
> job of reckoning up what we do
That's the trick, though, isn't it? Do I have grade inflation because of awarding extra credit for showing work, etc? Probably. Do I have a larger percentage of students who read Latin decently and with confidence? Probably as well. And with luck, perhaps I'm creating a few true lifelong learners.
And keep in mind that just because I don't require declining doesn't mean I'm not exacting about grammar and translations. My students know they can't get away with bluffing their way through a translation or set of reading comp questions. They know the morphology matters and you can't read without it.
I have a colleague who has probably not thought critically about what she requires. As near as I can tell, the majority of her grades are all massive vocabulary quizzes over every glossed word in Cambridge (not just the master list). All the words, all at once; matching. Nothing in context. Very little in the way of major tests. I'd like to ask her what she's really assessing myself, but it's not my place. However, if her goal for her Latin course is vocabulary prep for SAT, well then, I suppose the more vocabulary learned, the better. But the way she goes about doing it assures more kids will be using short term memory and not long term memory. And they can't read Latin.
But I digress.
*and* of
> being able in consequence to tell a convincing story to prospective
> students, parents, donors, and the wider public.
Anecdotal stories are the best thing we have currently, yes? That and the SAT scores that Bolchazy-Carducci has posted at their website. Outside of that, it's hard to pin down, isn't it? Universities (and high schools) would have to start agressively tracking their students--and who has money for that? After all, some things take time to show up. The "diet" has to be a steady one, not just the equivalent of a week or two on weight watchers. You can't see long term results by looking at our assessment of student performances in the limited arena of the classroom for one semester, can you?
Certainly high schools are turning to alternative assessments beyond testing and homework. My new school does impressive work with portfolios. Each student has to pick X number of pieces a year and write a reflection on why that piece was worth including (most important, most satisfying, least satisfying [usually a failing grade on something that they knew they could have done better on if they studied!], awards, etc. Seniors have to present to a panel of 3 people (a teacher, a parent from the community, and a professional in the field of interest of that student). It's extremely impressive and helps students to focus on their interests early on. This often leads to internships, jobs, scholarships, etc. One of my seniors is an extraordinarily talented artist; her portfolio is amazing. Our students can't cross the stage without doing one of these presentations. It is a BIG DEAL!!
I suppose my point is, at some point should we put the burden of assessment back on the student? Of course, at a university it would be more difficult to keep/do the portfolios. The English teachers keep them here and make sure students get them put together.
But imagine if each year your declared majors had to put together a portfolio for his/her undergrad advisor? Perhaps it would include, like ours, a most important piece, most satisfying, least satisfying, etc, (all with "reflections") plus PRI's--private reading inventory, as we call them--a summary of books read of educational significance (English snooty for works of literature assigned in your English class). Add to that perhaps conferences attended and X many outside articles read that pertain to the declared major. Plus extra curricular stuff, etc etc.
What would be the result? Perhaps a more focused student, getting them to examine their directions, their interests, etc, and pushing them more in that direction as they make it clear to us. Will that help them get better jobs? Be more prepared for jobs, such as teaching? Maybe, because the portfolio could be the means of getting students to read those pedagogy articles sooner or attend those conferences sooner. It may also help undergraduates figure out which unversity would really suit them for graduate studies.
> So a question and request -- What can we learn from that in classics?
> What would it take to make similar cultural changes in classics
> programs? Who's doing good stuff in that direction?
> I have a purpose in asking beyond desiring to know -- hence the
> request -- because my old teacher Bob Connor, now president of the
> Teagle Foundation
> (
> conversations, and has asked some of us (not getting grant money to do
> this!) to push the conversation further and seek feedback.
> Comments back to this note, accordingly, will be added to a small
> packet of stuff I give Bob to put on the liberal arts blog on his
> site. I'll double-ask anybody who writes in before I give Bob the
> stuff, just to make sure it's ok to repost there.
>
Send my thoughts along, prefaced with only 4 hours of sleep last night, and a fear that I won't have grades for interims done by tomorrow night but knowing I better crash now.... Otherwise this run-on sentence will go on and on and on....
www.teaglefoundation.org) is spending money cannily to push just such
question
Date: 2007-03-21 07:06 am (UTC)Re: question
Date: 2007-03-21 11:08 am (UTC)And frankly (and this is after very little sleep) my former school district, which I did so much for INCLUDING writing curriculum when the teacher who just does these massive vocab lists and as near as I can tell never has a stage tests didn't, so screwed me over during the gang fights last year (read from about mid Feb 06 on) that I really couldn't care less.
Is this two faced of me? Maybe. But it is hard to sit by and listen to this person say at certamen tournaments that she's doesn't do much oral Latin/isn't that big on pronunciation (and by her lack of attendance at local and state conferences demonstrates no interest whatsoever in remedying this) and know that she is my son's teacher.
And with that said, she has a knock-out certamen team. She does more with derivatives than I do (watch the next post).
So, is it wrong that I complain about her and have complained about another colleague who is so absolutely brilliant but (bless his heart) can't teach and all my former students went to him and lost their love and passion for Latin? Maybe. Maybe it is. Hell, it's like Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville...by the last verse I'll be saying yeah, it's my own damn fault.
BUT what is the purpose of this blog? It is REALLY to help create teachers who really think about what they teach and why and how.
Do you know how much shit I've gotten over the years being grouped with middle school teachers? (Which I was for 6 years and will be again next year.) Because in general FOR WHATEVER REASON the high school teachers seem unsatisfied with the quality of learning going on at the middle school.
Yeah, and I can see why. And someone needs to speak up if we are going to save Latin programs. Here in Austin over the last 6 years I've watched at least 3 middle school programs close....and if taught well and taught right this wouldn't happen.
Re: question
Date: 2007-03-21 11:54 am (UTC)We're supposed to be teaching Latin. We can't keep arguing for saving Latin programs just on SAT scores. That's an SAT prep course, not Latin.
I don't mind you calling me on this. You're right; but you also don't know me in person, you don't know my relationship to my classics community locally, regionally and nationally. I can risk speaking out because for better or worse I'm well respected.
ANd if someone doesn't talk out about why programs fold and where teaching takes a wrong turn (even unintentionally), then more programs will fold. It's a chain reaction. A district could easily kill Latin if enrollments drop or too many schools lose their programs. SOMEONE needs to analyse why and try to put it right before it's too late.
And I guess I appointed myself the arrogant bitch to do that.