Module 8 Evaluate: As Fast as We Can, as Slow as We Must

Activity

The purpose of completing this Evaluate activity is to provide you with an opportunity to apply what you have learned so far in the module. This will not be graded. It is for you to self-assess your mastery of the concepts, apply your learning to your classroom by creating useful tools or plans to implement new techniques, and produce work for your personal portfolio for future reference.

Once you have completed the activity and used the rubric to evaluate yourself, you may save a copy of it to your portfolio. Suggestions for structuring your portfolio are provided at the end of this module.

How can you make continual formative assessment an integral part of science teaching and learning in the science classroom?

As John Almarode suggests in the video you watched earlier in this module, educators may often use exit tickets and multiple choice exit cards as formative assessments. There is nothing wrong with this when the decision has been made purposefully. Remember that the goal is to get information from the students, making their thinking visible, which gives you the data needed to make the next instructional decisions.

In this activity, you will reflect upon and evaluate two examples from your own teaching experience. Choose two examples of activities that correspond to either surface, deep, or transfer learning in the science classroom.

For each example, describe an appropriate form of formative assessment that you used or could use to elicit data from your students. Think beyond exit slips for this activity. How does formative assessment make your students’ thinking visible? What data does this formative assessment provide? What impact does this data have on your instructional decisions?