Define performance Assessment
Describe how it can be used in eLearning.
Some of my performance assessment projects (performance assessments) ranged from figuring out how long the Phoenix Sun’s basketball players height/arm ratio were compared to the class arm/ height ratio (linear algebra) to making a sun dial (polar coordinates) to finding the length of a light pole (trig).I tried a tessellation performance assessment in my face-to-face class. I got very good results. The students enjoyed the performance assessment. In my classroom, on the Whiteriver Apache Indian Reservation, I tried to bring as much hands on performance assessments that I could into the classroom. I think this performance assessment would also work for an online class and student. The student would have to have the capability to take pictures, or do a screen shot of their work, and upload it as a file.
What makes performance assessments truly worthwhile in eLearning?
From what comments I read on the various websites most of the students liked doing the tessellation project. I think something like this project would be good for students who are visual/special, musical, or artistic. Even students who are creative need something to make of their own in a math class whether it s online or face-to-face.
The tessellation performance assessment was part of monthly projects I had the students do as a substantial part of their grade. 1/3 was in class work (I didn’t assign homework because it didn’t happen, it was more productive to get them to work hard in class than at home), 1/3 was formative and summative AIMS like tests (so they had practice taking high stakes tests), and 1/3 was projects (performance assessments). This way students who had test anxiety but knew the subject matter could prove that they knew the concepts by applying mathematics to a real life project.
This particular tessellation assessment was a unit project. Students had to make intricate tessellations of their own design. They had a choice of using one or more of the regular polygons that tessellate, or they could make an irregular tessellation of their own design. They could embellish the drawing as they wished. They had to explain their reasoning, their process, and the mathematics behind the choices they made in a written paragraph. They would have to take a screen shot of their drawing and paste it into their word document. A few students as usual waited till the last minute while many others created elaborate amazing drawings. I was astounded at the creativity of my wonderful students whom I greatly miss teaching.
What can you foresee as the pitfalls and problems with performance assessment in the eLearning environment?
Before any kind of assessment is written by a teacher in Arizona, or most states for that matter, the assessment must adhere to state and national math standards. That is always in the back of every teachers mind. I will assume that any teacher that does a performance assessment keeps in mind the confines of standards no matter how interesting a concept might be for the class. A teacher must justify the activity or performance assessment. I ran into this quite often when I took my class outdoors for real life math projects. When I did a trig experiment to see how tall a light pole was, I was questioned about taking the students outside on the parking lot during class time even though we were replicating the classic tree shadow math problem. Heaven forbid if I actually took my students to a park.
I found this website for Common Core Symmetry Math Standards:
I always tried to make
physical performance assessments as cheap as possible. I had over 225 students
in my face-to-face classes so I had to keep the cost of supplies down since I paid for
supplies out of my own pocket. That's why in the face to face classroom I used markers, colored pencils, drawing paper and 3x5 cards. Most classrooms also have scissors, rulers, protractors scotch tape and 3x5 cards so this project is not expensive to do for students at home or online.
Some of the problems are software related. Many students don't have the money for expensive software programs, and technology. Although most students do have cell phones. In many online classes the minimal requirements are internet, and Microsoft office suite student version. Most printers are able to scan documents , and are fairly inexpensive (the ink costs more than the printer).
I think journal writing or a Microsoft Word document helps students to explain their problem solving abilities along with the finished product.
One of the pitfalls that is common in an online class as any other class is copying and cheating. It is very difficult for an online student to create an exact duplicate of a tessellation. It would be very obvious if they had copied it because they will not be able to describe in detail how the product was made form scratch in their journal writing.
For example, I had some students copy someone else's homework from the "tree shadow" performance assessment. Basically the performance assessment goes like this:
Suppose you are a light pole repair person, you need to change the light bulb in the light pole. I want you to figure out using the trigonometry of right triangles and how tall the light pole is in feet. You are given a yardstick on a sunny day. Have fun!. First the student would have to use proportions: pole height/pole shadow = your height/your shadow. I also had students be partners since measuring your height might be a problem. I could tell which students copied by the date of their paper and the time of day. Some of the students had to redo the project because they didn't realize that the length of a shadow changes during the time of day.
I would have the student journal the experiment and draw a sketch as they went along, also the time of day when they measured the pole. I would ask for an average of readings over a few days.
I would expect them to notice the change in shadows and comment on this phenomenon. At least this project could get them out in some sunshine.
No comments:
Post a Comment