Information+Gathering

At the beginning of my research in the classroom, after I selected my students, I conducted a short interview (click here for a copy [|student survey.docx])with each student to get a feel for their perception on assessment. As the students were discussing how they learned best they all mentioned addressing the information in a variety of ways. Nick said he learned best if he took notes on it first and then did something with a group that involved the information. Lance said he learned best with a combination of lecture and discussion followed with and activity. Arriel said she is a visual learner, but it also helps to write down the information. Sammi said she learned best after she wrote something down and then repeated it several times, using the information in different ways. All of these responses could be addressed with authentic assessment. I next asked them all what they liked about traditional assessment and if it does a good job assessing the information covered. They all had similar responses dealing with how it is easier, all you have to do is cram and remember it for a day, and you can figure out answers if you don’t know them. This went hand in hand with their opinions on how well it assessed the information. They all said it didn’t. When I asked them what their assessment would be if they could create one, they all said some form of project that allowed them to be creative. Nick included in his description a multiple choice and matching section. All the students felt they learned more and remembered more when doing a project because they actually had to use the material or they had to do something with the information. The second thing I did was after a unit I would give a reflective learning log (click here for a copy [|**Reflective Lesson Log.docx**] ) to the students for them to fill out. This just allowed me to see if they were learning the material and making the correct connections that I wanted them to make. If I was going to be experimenting with authentic assessment I needed to prove to myself that my students were learning the correct material. Were they able to figure out the key themes and concepts we covered without having them take a test? I found with these learning logs that yes they were. I was not sure if they would retain the information or if the projects were going to help the students take an authentic style final exam, but at least after the unit was over the correct information seemed to be in place. The final thing I did that involved the entire class was administer my final exam (click here for a copy [|**ancient final.doc**] ). Throughout the semester all the assessment I had my students do, as far as unit assessment, was authentic. I needed to know if, and prove, my students had retained this information and if they would do well on a traditional style exam after being first assessed with an authentic format. In the age of standardized testing this could be a very important piece of evidence if an administrator or parent questions my use of projects as an assessment form. Also, would students have really learned this material if they couldn’t apply it to another format? The exam I administered is a combination of fill in the blank and short answer. I provided almost no study guide, and simply told the students to use their projects and other classroom material to prepare. Reading through them, I found that the answers had much of the same information that was included in the projects that were created. I looked at the two columns that did not have an authentic assessment element, Minoans/Mycenaeans, and Rome, comparing the results in those areas to the results in the others. Sammi received a perfect score, but Nick, Arriel, and Lance lost more points in those two categories than the other four combined. Overall, the students scored very well and their answers contained a lot of detail, both that of which we went over in class and information that researched on their own for their projects. The final way I gathered information was through an exit interview (click here for a copy [|final interview.doc]). I wanted to get a feel for how the students felt while taking the exam, how they felt about the class format, if they felt they learned more using this format, which style they felt helped them learn the most, and if they felt they were more motivated as the year went on. All the students like the format of the class. They liked that is wasn’t just reciting facts, it was as Lance put it “open-ended”, and that it was different and fun. While I was glad they liked the course, I was more interested in the academic effect. All four gave very similar answers to the second question. They all said yes it helped a lot, and that it helped because it had the same topics as the projects and that they would think about their projects when filling out the answers. THINK ABOUT THEIR PROJECTS, this is exactly what I had wanted to hear. The projects that helped to most varied from student to student, but after comparing the areas they did the best with the projects they liked the most, in each case they were the same. Each student felt at the end of the course that they learned a lot and this was because they were involved in the material and they could relate to it. All the students agreed that their projects got better as the year progressed. While Nick still liked the first project the best, he acknowledged that as the year went on he began to realize what would make his projects better and they became more creative. The students also all agreed that this style of assessing motivates students to do better and learn more because it is more fun and you are using the material in a lot of ways. Also students felt more motivated if the project was going to be presented and if some are put up for display in the classroom.
 * How did I gather information? **

Once the data collection process was complete, I was left with a pile of projects, interviews, learning logs, exam, and general observations. I wanted to start to see if what I saw and what the students experienced was in line with what the experts have been saying about authentic assessment. I began to re-read through my interviews and write down the words that students used to describe the ways they liked to learn, favorite projects, authentic assessment, and the class as a whole. I began to look for common themes (see below) and compare that to what I knew and learned about authentic assessment. I started to look at my exit interviews and break down what the students liked and didn’t like and why, and then compare that to how they felt they learned the best. All the students felt they learned a lot during the course of this semester, so again I looked at why they thought that and compared it to what I already knew about student learning. Finally I began to break down the final exam. I knew what projects the students really like, I knew what areas they felt they learned the most in, I needed to find out if this matched up with the results of the exam.
 * Reduction: **

While I was reducing all my information, I started to notice some themes throughout my evidence. I compared the words the students used to describe authentic assessment, how they learn best, their favorite projects, and the ones where they felt the leaned the most. The list I came up with was: ACTIVE, OPEN-ENDED, GROUP, INTERST, CREATIVE, VISUAL, INVOLVED, RELATABLE, and FUN. I can honestly say I was not surprised, who wouldn’t want to complete an interesting, creative project with your friends where you are very involved in selecting how it is created. While find the themes related with authentic assessment I also looked for themes in their description of traditional assessment and the projects that they didn’t like or areas where they didn’t do well. The list was: easy, uninvolved, boring, confusing, not motivating. There should be no surprise that these are used to describe a project or area that lacked interest. The other two themes I found as I was breaking down my data were, good project scores equaled good exam scores in that area, and projects with great interest equaled good exam scores. This also means that the projects where there was a lot of student interest were the same projects that were done well.
 * Themes: **