Since we have been working in our UbD groups, I have been thinking a lot about assessment and how it relates to student learning. The section that I am ultimately responsible for in my group is the assessment portion and working on it has really made me question some of the assessments that I have in my classroom. I am not afraid to admit that I am guilty of two things that we have talked about making sure NOT to do in our group:
1. I definitely lead my third graders towards doing well on assessments in order to ensure that they walk out of my room as "successful" students when really all they proved was that they can memorize and take a test.
2. Although I know that the rote information that students need to know for some tests is not useless, I have recently asked myself "What is the purpose of the kids learning this information?" I'm finding that things don't tie in the way that they should
So after realizing that the way that things work in my classroom may not be the best (although I really do believe that my kids are learning and walking away with more than they came in with), I also am realizing that changing the way that you approach assessment in the classroom can be really hard! In our class, it's easy to see that we need those essential questions to drive student learning and all our activities need to be focused on addressing them, but I'm noticing that it's a lot easier to create a UbD unit from scratch than it is to change what we're already used to. I have certainly tried to incorporate some more "real world" applications with my students since I have been more aware, but coming up with them at the spur of the moment is not as easy as it sounds and creating projects that reflect application is time consuming...especially when you teach elementary school and must address multiple subject areas. Right now our Language Arts Committee is rewriting the curriculum and they are using UbD as a model. This, I suppose, is a better way to go about instigating change than one or two teachers trying to rewrite things for their own classroom. I am looking forward to what they come up with and I am also looking forward to the day when I get to sit on a curriculum committee and voice my opinion and help initiate change.
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I also have been adapting to the UBD idea by traying to focus on the "real world applications" and the big ideas. I found it does take a lot of work. I have been gradually changing my way of teaching by developing the essential questions to create discussions and guide the students to lead to the key understandings tht they need to know and are most beneficial to them. I do realize it does take time to both plan and implement these changes.
My department is also planing on revising our curriculum. It will be interesting to observe the process and how my knwledge of UBD will influence it's development.
I have also been thinking about my assessments in my classroom. I have to admit, I do use some authentic assessments, from time to time, but majority of the formative assessments are written short answer tests. After discussing Ubd in class, I can see that we not only have to make sure they have the basic knowledge but that they have the deeper meaning behind that knowledge. As you know, math is a difficult subject to teach in depth, especially at the elementary level. But according to the NJCCCS for Mathematics, we should be teaching more than the rote memorization. I think it is a challenge to move out of the teaching rut that many teachers fall into and learn to create valuable assessments that are not only connected to the material but are engaging as well. This is definitely a challenge I am ready to take!
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