epsy 485 assignment

7/29/2019 EPSY 485 Assignment

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Allison M. Hawkins

EPSY 485DeLaRueNovember 27, 2012

Assessment During Instruction: How Will You Know If They Know?

I. School Context

This school is located within a small, rural community in which most of the families

work in small business or agricultural industries. Regarding demographics, the school has only

270 students enrolled, with 96% of the student population white and 20% identified as within a

low socioeconomic status group. Since both the community and school are small, most of the

student have gone to school together for their entire lives, know each others families, and are

extremely comfortable with one another.

In narrowing my focus to a specific classroom of students, the class is a senior-level

English 4 Honors classroom in which most of the students will be pursuing some form of higher

education after graduating from high school. Since it is an honors-level classroom, all of the

students have a high reading level and most participate regularly in discussion, offering insight

and commentary on topics introduced. Most complete his or her assignments on time and take

pride in producing work that exudes effort. There are no individualized education plans (IEP) in

the classroom, but one 504 plan for a student that was recently released from a rehabilitation

facility. This student can complete work as normal and does not need any extra assistance,

according to the plans goals.

II. Unit of Study

The unit of study for the senior-level, English IV honors class is reading the novel 1984,

written by George Orwell. The unit is structured to last five weeks and includes several writing


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and research assignments, in conjunction with daily reading and discussion of the novels main

themes. The key enduring understandings of this unit are:

Orwells novel is a commentary upon larger themes and issues involving totalitarianismthat were occurring during the time Orwell was writing the novel

Writers often create texts to make a statement or protest about a particular event In the novel, the big brother government uses brain washing techniques to control the

population and enforce alignment with rules

The themes/issues present in 1984 can be connected to events currently occurring in ourmodern society.

The key essential questions are:

What is a dystopia and why does Orwell choose to write about this kind of society? How does the government in 1984 control the population and enforce rules? How are the trajectories of the characters lives impacted by the dystopian society? How can you relate the events/themes in the novel to an event occurring in 2012?

The learning objectives are specifically designed for this particular curriculum and correspond to

objectives outlined in Blooms revised taxonomy:

Students will complete the reading of the novel 1984 and comprehend its plot structure,inferences, character types, etc. and be able to discuss these themes during open class

discussion and student-lead Socratic Seminar. This objective corresponds to Blooms

objectives of remembering and understanding in his revised taxonomy.

Students will complete three essays, one on each book of the novel, demonstratinghigher-order critical thinking and an ability to analyze the deeper meaning behind the


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events in the text. This corresponds to Blooms objective of applying, analyzing, and

creating in his revised taxonomy.

Students will be able to research modern-day topics that correlate to the discussed themesand make predictions, inferences, and conclusions about modern-day governments and

ruling practices based upon their knowledge gained from 1984. Finally, this corresponds

to Blooms objective of evaluating in his revised taxonomy.

III. Formative Assessment During Instruction

This formative assessment is entitled, Laundry Day, and is altered from an activity I

recently read in an article entitled, Scenarios on the Use of Formative Classroom Assessment

by Cassandra Erkens. This assessment activity will be used prior to a formal, summative

assessment, such as a unit test on the novel. In each of the four corners of the classroom there

will be a bottle of laundry detergentTide, Gain, Bold, and Cheer. The teacher will ask review

questions (most likely questions that will be found on the unit test) and students will walk to one

of the four corners depending on how ready/confident he or she would feel if asked this question

on a summative assessment. Students who go to the Tide corner may feel that the tidal wave of

information required to answer the question might overwhelm them. These students may need a

comprehensive review of information and opportunities to analyze the novel in new and different

ways. Students who choose the Gain detergent understand the basic concepts asked in the

question, but are missing some of the finer details that would warrant full credit. Student who

choose Bold detergent are fairly confident he or she would pass this question on a unit test, but

may still be slightly skeptical regarding a few details. Students who select Cheer are certain he or

she would be successful in passing the question. These students can oftentimes help other

students prepare for the exam. Using homework, participation in class discussion, and previous


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quizzes/assignments as evidence, students should be able to evaluate their own classroom

performance and move to the laundry detergent that is most suited to their knowledge. The

teacher can record which students go to which laundry detergent and modify instruction and

review techniques based on what students need further help in order to boost scores on the unit

test.

Possible items to ask to students during a laundry day activity are:

1. Listed below are 5 modern-day countries and their leaders. Based off of our classdiscussions, which two country/leader groupings could be identified as modern-day

totalitarian regimes?

a. Germany, Adolf Hitlerb. North Korea, Kim Jong Ilc. Russia, Josef Stalind. Cuba, Fidel Castroe. South Africa, Jacob Zuma

2. Short Answer: List the three slogans of the Inner Party in 1984. Then, in 2-3 sentences,explain how each slogan describes the dystopian society in the novel.

3. Match each character with his or her description. Put the corresponding letter in the blanknext to each characters name.

_____ Julia A. Although part of Inner Party, linked to rebel group

_____Mr. Charrington B. Works in Fiction Department of Ministry of Truth

_____OBrien C. Has dreams of developing revolution

_____ Winston D. Secretly a member of the Thought Police


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Answer Key:

1. B, D2. War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength (sentences may include

information on paradoxical nature of dystopian society, descriptions of government in

1984, how government enforces these rules and brainwashes citizens); Some knowledge

of definition of dystopia is required to answer this question.

3. Julia (B), Mr. Charrington (D), OBrien (A), Winston (C)Analysis of Items

Item 1: This item is linked to the third learning objective as students will have to apply their

knowledge of modern-day totalitarian governments in order to correctly answer the question.

While the question does not get at how these governments exhibit totalitarian characteristics, it

functions as a way for the instructor to know if they gained basic knowledge on modern-day

regimes, rather than popular historical ones, such as Hitlers Third Reich in WWII Germany.

Another item in the assessment should definitely be one that allows for a chance to more deeply

analyze aspects of modern totalitarian governments.

Item II: This short answer question corresponds to the second learning objective because it

allows students to access information they would have analyzed during the essay requirements of

the unit. Students not only have to identify basic plot information, (learning objective one) but

use this information to analyze and explain why it is important and how it connects to the major

themes of dystopia in the novel. With the 2-3 sentence requirement, students must take their

thinking to a deeper, more reflective level and apply knowledge to thematic concepts.


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Item III: This matching item corresponds with the first learning objective because students will

need to access basic plot information and character identification in order to correctly answer the

question. This item addresses basic, comprehensive knowledge of the text and should be

mastered by the students in order to serve as a springboard for questions that need deeper, more

reflective thinking.

I believe this is a fair assessment because it represents an accurate review of information that will

be included on the summative assessment. Students will eventually be asked these questions, so

instead of surprising them, they will be aware of what kind of questions will be asked and how

they should answer them. Since the formative assessment is occurring at the end of the unit, all

opportunities for learning information were included in the previous lessons. Also, each question

has non-biased wording/format and can be accessed by all students in the aforementioned

classroom environment. Regarding reliability, I will record which corners of the room students

go to for each question during the laundry day activity and will reflect upon how to modify

instruction accordingly by making quick bullet points. In this way, I avoid making sweeping,

generalized modifications that only help certain students. Regarding validity, I have aligned each

item with a specific learning objective and have created questions that actively allow students to

access previous knowledge obtained during essays, class discussion, and homework assignments.

Therefore, there are multiple avenues through which students could have obtained the knowledge

to correctly answer the questions. I will use the results of this laundry day formative

assessment to not only help student review for the unit test and boost scores for this exam, but

also to modify instruction for the entire unit so that the next time I teach the novel, students will

have a more complete understanding.


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IV. Explanation

A) I would choose not to grade this activity because, as a formative assessment, it is beingused to gauge the understanding of the students and is serving as an example of how

students will do on the more formal, summative assessment. Using the results of the

activity, I can help students more completely so that when I do actually grade the exam,

the results will prove better. This is an opportunity for students to reflect upon their own

class performance and to witness the gaps in their learning.

B) This activity could be done in two different ways. For example, the teacher could conductthis activity each day during the week before the unit test. If the teacher only asked three

questions, it would only take roughly 15 minutes of class time each day. Also, teachers

could ask many questions during an entire class period, rather than spreading the time out

during an entire week. If done during the entire week, students may get used to the

activity on a regular basis and be able to more effectively evaluate how he or she would

answer a particular question. No assessment accommodations are needed for the students

in the class.

C) Performance criteria:Proficient Understanding: Students will answer all questions correctly and be in the

Cheer corner of the room.

Adequate Understanding: Students will be able to answer most questions correctly and be

in the Cheer or Bold corners of the room. These students will understand major

concepts, but may need help with details and reflective thinking.


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Poor Understanding: Students will have difficulty answering most questions and will be

in the Tide or Gain categories. These students will not be able to answer questions

completely and may need one-on-one instruction to get a comprehensive understanding.

D) Undoubtedly, I hope all students are at the proficient and adequate understanding levels.In this way, review can concentrate on more abstract themes/concepts, rather than on

basic plot understanding. Students who demonstrate poor understanding will need more

intensive instruction. These students could be put into small groups with those in the

Cheer category in order for students to learn from each other.

E) If a majority of students for a particular question are in the Cheer or Bold categories,I am then aware that this particular information does not need to be reviewed and my

energies can be focused on questions in which a majority of the students were in the

Tide or Gain corners. If results are consistently mixed, it may be more worthwhile to

split students into groups with more focused review activities, rather than lecture to

students on why a particular answer is correct.

epsy 485 assignment

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