Not Another Paper!Alternative Assessments

using Technology

Justin Reich

Harvard Graduate School of Education

EdTechTeacher

www.besthistorysites.net

www.edtechteacher.org

Goals for Today• Consider the role of assessment in our

courses

• Examine technology-based assessment projects in our courses, from both the shallow-end and the deep-end

• Consider how we would assess those projects

Why do we assign papers?

• Think and then communicate their take on the material

• Do additional research, bring in additional materials

• Select a question, investigate a question

• Synthesis

• Making connection among course material, resources

• Evaluate sources• Communicate

effectively, sentence structure, handwriting, typing skills,

• Incorporating evidence

Demonstrate command of the materialDemonstrate the ability to craft and defend

an argumentGive students the opportunity to decide and

express their point of viewDemonstrate the ability to communicate

effectively

WE CAN DO ALL THESE THINGS WITHOUT ASSIGNING PAPERS

Why do we assign papers?

Backwards Planning

See Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design

Develop lesson activitiesHow will you prepare students to master the goals and succeed on the

assessment task?

Design assessment tasksHow will students demonstrate their developing mastery of those goals?

Select learning goalsWhat do you want students to learn by the end of the lesson or unit?

Why Teach History with Technology?

1. Whoever is doing most of the talking, or most of the typing, is doing most of the learning (and the more people listening the better)

2. The more ways we put ideas in our head, the more likely they are to stay there

3. Learners need to be both independent and effective collaborators- technology can scaffold both

4. Learners can access the sources that made us fall in love with history

Teaching with Old and Established Technologies:

Word Processors• Editing with a Twist

• Historical Newspaper Projects

Editing with a twist• Students come in with a piece of writing

and need to change:– The Author– The Audience– The Context– The Argument– The Length– ???

The Original Assignment• 1) Write a 2 page sermon, drawing on the New Testament readings

we have read for homework and in-class. The sermon will be delivered on September 16th, 1963 in Birmingham. This is several weeks after the successful March on Washington, and right in the middle of the heroic and brutal Birmingham Campaign for Civil Rights. Your sermon should use Christian texts to inspire, console and motivate your congregation

• 2) Please use Times New Roman 12 point font, 1.5 spacing• 3) Save it somehow to NoblesNet. If you use a program other than

Word or Appleworks, you should copy and paste the text into an email or a document.

• 4) At the beginning of class i will give you instructions, and then I'll give you about 30 minutes to revise the sermon.

The In-Class Twist…• After successfully presenting your sermon at the morning service, you

retire to your quarters to rest before the 11:00 service.. At 10:30, one of the church members rushes in and tells you that something horrible has happened: the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed, 4 little girls at Sunday School have been killed.

• As an important leader in your community, it will be your job to console your community, and to help them understand how these deaths fit into your struggle for civil rights.

 • The second service starts in 1/2 hour. You probably don't have time to

write a whole new sermon. Your challenge then, is to adapt what you have written to take into account this shattering loss of innocent lives.

So how would you assess?

• See original and revision, check changes..

• Were they on point in terms of addressing audience in meaningful way, address new information

• Accuracy of evidence • Privileging individual

arguments…•

Newspaper Projects• Editorials

• Cartoons

• Cover Art

• Articles

• Classifieds

• Advertisements

• And more!

Don’t worry about fancy

publishing,

learn Columns and the Text Box Image from Microsoft Word

So how do we assess?• Identify key issues,

pick appropriate topics

• Factual accuracy • Clarity of prose• Design

– Writing– Images

• Restrict to primary sources; citation

• Meet the press follow up…

• Peer evaluation- what moves you, what opinion articles most convince you…

Teaching with New and Emerging Technologies

• Instant Message Conversations

• Blog/Podcast Perspective-taking projects

• Collaborative Audio-Blogging

IM ConversationsEmail: Abraham In Class ChatThe leader from each group should invite the other members into a chat. From this point forward NO TALKING, ONLY TYPING.

Each person will then in turn ask one of their discussion questions. You will be given 15 minutes to discuss. The goal is to discuss questions as deeply and thoroughly as possible. I'd rather read an in-depth examination of two questions than brief discussions of six. GO DEEP!

You will get a 5 point grade for this exercise. While I will raise the standards later, for now the grade will be mostly based on the following:1) Do you stay on topic?2) Do you carefully read and respond to each other?3) Do you ensure that you finish each question before moving on?

In the future, I will also expect you to actively challenge one another and to incorporate evidence from the source material.

When you are finished, the leader should copy and paste the chat into an email and send it to turninreich.

• Pablo Toribio-09[10:11:31 AM]: Why is Arjuna is reluctant to fight?• Jess Lippincott-09[10:11:54 AM]: because he doesn't want to kill all of those people• Pablo Toribio-09[10:11:55 AM]: Arjuna is reluctant to fight because he believes those people are his family.• Jess Lippincott-09[10:12:02 AM]: and his teachers• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:12:07 AM]: yeah• Jess Lippincott-09[10:12:09 AM]: and his great uncles• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:12:22 AM]: his family, he didnt want to kill them• Jess Lippincott-09[10:12:29 AM]: right• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:12:39 AM]: he felt like he was close to these people• Jess Lippincott-09[10:13:12 AM]: yeah, and he thought it would be cruel and unnecesary to kill them• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:13:17 AM]: yeah• Jess Lippincott-09[10:13:28 AM]: +, he says he doesnt want a kingdom• Jess Lippincott-09[10:13:30 AM]: right• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:13:32 AM]: he became overcome with grief• Pablo Toribio-09[10:14:04 AM]: "Then Arjuna saw in both armies fathers, grandfathers, sons, grandsons; father of

wives, uncles, masters;brothers companions, and friends. When Arjuna thus saw his kinsmen face to face i both lines of the battle, he was overcome by grief and despair and thus he spoke with a sinking heart. "

• Jess Lippincott-09[10:14:20 AM]: right• Vinesha Collymore-09[10:14:44 AM]: so that's our conclusion for number 1• Jess Lippincott-09[10:14:49 AM]: then "I have no wish for victory Krishna, nor for a kingdom, nor for its

pleasures"

Podcasting and Blogging as Assessments

• Teenage Hobo Radio Show Project– There’s no Aunt Sarah– Podcast Excerpt

Collect-Relate-Create-Donate

Students Should…• Collect the information needed for the

performance of understanding

• Relate to one-another in collaborative learning groups

• Create meaningful, authentic performances of understanding

• Donate their work to a broader audience

Podcasting and Blogging as Assessments

• Teenage Hobo Radio Show Project– There’s no Aunt Sarah– Podcast Excerpt

So how do we assess?

Collaborative Audio-Blogging with Voicethread

• Voicethread.com

• Art of the Renaissance

So how do we assess?

Voicethread ChallengesGRASSHOPPER

1. Register for Voicethread

2. Upload an image

3. Record (or type) a comment

MASTER

1. Set your Voicethread to be publicly accessible

2. Share your Voicethread link with a colleague

3. Record a comment on a colleague’s Voicethread

Things to Remember• Learning Goals come first, assessments and activities

come after• Technology use in the social studies has four affordances

worth our consideration:

1.Whoever is doing most of the talking, or most of the typing, is doing most of the learning (and the more people listening the better)

2.The more ways we put ideas in our head, the more likely they are to stay there

3.Learners need to be both independent and effective collaborators- technology can scaffold both

Backwards Planning

See Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design

Develop lesson activitiesHow will you prepare students to master the goals and succeed on the

assessment task?

Design assessment tasksHow will students demonstrate their developing mastery of those goals?

Select learning goalsWhat do you want students to learn by the end of the lesson or unit?

Why Teach History with Technology?

1. Whoever is doing most of the talking, or most of the typing, is doing most of the learning (and the more people listening the better)

2. The more ways we put ideas in our head, the more likely they are to stay there

3. Learners need to be both independent and effective collaborators- technology can scaffold both

4. Learners can access the sources that made us fall in love with history