An example of bad practice; assessment must be transparent and equitable for all students to access their learning.
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Assessment, feedback and reporting play are integral parts of teaching at all levels. By assessing student progress and product, educators are provided with essential information pertaining to the students' learning needs and reciprocity towards the content, how the content is being delivered and synthesized. Feedback from students' attempts in school can provide students with the appraisal of the student's cognitive strength and weaknesses (McInerney & McInerney, 2010, Page 356). To further understand the importance of assessment in the classroom, I will refer to Edutopia's article "Why is Assessment Important?" with the following points:
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The marking key I had created for assessment within the short course and subsequent marking.
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1. Assessing the Year 12 Certificate III Video Game Theory lessons with the Video Game Theory task sheet and marking key.
For the first three weeks of my placement at Apple College, I created a short course on the exploration of video games as a text. In doing so, I had created a course outline, student task sheets, resources and a marking key. |
2. Marking submissions on MyAICT and providing feedback. The year 11 Certificate II course in Information Technology was interesting in that the My AICT portal offered varied ways in which to provide the display and delivery of student results and feedback. Results could be viewed by a listing of all students and their progress within the course in comparison to each other, as seen within the first example. Student attempts and results could also be viewed within the constraints of each assessment task, and I could view how many attempts the students have made, their submission. whether it had been marked, and their results with feedback, as seen on the right. This provides various ways in which student progress and achievement can be viewed by students, teachers, and parents (Standard 5.5). As a result, students had immediate access to their work in various modes of display to provide results and feedback. The deliverance of timely and appropriate feedback is beneficial to students as student engagement is dependent upon the nature of the feedback. In making sure that feedback is constructive and not overly negative can assist the student in perceiving their weaknesses without causing disengagement through feelings of defeat. The addition of constructive feedback should assist the student in bridging gaps in their learning, and if results are repetitive, students may require additional scaffolding and support, as displayed in the third image with a resubmission of MyAICT work (Open Colleges, 2013). For the year 11 cohort in particular, along with the nature of the certificate course, the standard is for students to be given minimal scaffolding at first, monitoring the results of other students within the class for any repeated difficulties or similarities in submission and quality. If there is a pattern of repetition with student submission and the inability to acquire the correct quality or components for submission from the students, then it is clear to me that the fault lies within the course parameters itself. Because this online MyAICT course is always within a state of flux throughout the term, oftentimes sections of the course is changed and assessment pieces have not changed or vice versa, to reflect a cohesive course, as a result numerous students will tend to fail the submission component. From this problem, I would usually have to contact the support team of MyAICT to resolve issues. Meanwhile, I would counsel students and modify the lesson as to how to achieve competency by providing alternative ways of retrieving the information needed to pass while MyAICT issues are resolved (Standard 5.5). If issues are student related, more direct feedback is given to ensure that the student achieves competency within the course. This especially concerns prior knowledge regarding the particular behaviours of a student or their skill set, which then involves the implementation of behaviour management to correct student efforts (Standard 5.2).
An example of a student submission with accompanying feedback.
Collaborative marking of a student's assessment task before comments were added. The allocation of marks were discussed to resolve discrepancies in marking.
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Progress bars in MyAICT which display all students enrolled within the Certificate II in Information Technology course and their progress in comparison to their peers.
An overview within MyAICT which illustrates attempts within a specific assessment task of the course, and which students have completed the assessment task successfully and which student have to resubmit.
3. Collaborative marking with Mr. Anonymous of the Year 9 Photography essays. Moderation can be defined as a "quality assurance process that ensures appropriate standards. It is a process for ensuring that marks or grades are awarded appropriately and consistently. Moderation involves checking and reviewing assessment schemes, items and assessor judgments." (University of Southern Queensland, 2015). With the Year 9's I was able to assess their Magazine Cover Production tasks and mark their resulting essays as part of the task. By taking part in marking the work and collaborating with my mentor in marking the essays, I was able to demonstrate that I could not only interpret the marking key, but also use the key as a point of guidance towards seeking demonstration of students' skills and knowledge and consistencies within the allocation of marks. Doing so also ensured that the marks were consistent between all teachers within the same learning areas (Standard 5.3). |
Situation: During my time at Apple College, my mentor introduced me to the school's system of creating final reports on an application called SIS. While I was briefly introduced to the program, I did not get the opportunity to use it myself. As I will be teaching at Apple College next term, it is imperative that I gain experience in using the SIS system to create student reports at the end of the term.
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