Joe Rusek

TE 407
Assessment Assignment
According to the University of Connecticuts Education
Department, Assessment is defined as, the process of gathering and
discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to
develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand, and
can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational
experiences; the process culminates when assessment results are used
to improve subsequent learning (Assessment.Uconn.edu). This
definition of assessment is ideal because it mentions using Multiple
and diverse sources to determine what students have learned and
how much their knowledge has grown. No one form of assessment can
perfectly sum up all student has learned, however, when using multiple
forms of assessment, a teacher can get a solid idea of how a student
has improved in their knowledge of the subject.
The golden question on assessment is always, What is the
purpose? Is assessment used simply to get a grade? Is it used to test
content knowledge? Maybe comprehension? A perfect assessment
would be able to touch on everything that a student has learned,
whether it be content knowledge, comprehension of the material, or
any other factor that is important to the actual learning process. New
Zealands Ministry of Education gives this purpose to assessment, The
primary purpose of assessment is to improve students learning and
teachers teaching as both respond to the information it provides.
Assessment for learning is an ongoing process that arises out of the
interaction between teaching and learning (assessment.tki.org.nz).
The core of this idea is that assessment is an Ongoing process.
Assessment is not simply finished when you take a test or write a
paper, but part of a real assessment is looking at the information
gathered from that test or paper and responding to it. Whether the
response to a students assignment is in the form of test corrections, a
follow up assignment, or even just a sit down to discuss the students
answers, a teacher needs to use the information they gather from their
students assessments to continue their learning processes.
Bens Chapter 9 test starts out with a test on the students
knowledge of chronology. Chronology can often be difficult for
students to remember, as most of the focus is usually on the
people/places of the chapter, but I do believe that a student
understanding what time and what order these certain events occurred
in can give them a better understanding of the federalist era and start
to make connections from event to event. The next section is Bens
short answer section. Short answer questions are one of the best ways
to assess what a student knows, simply because it takes away a lot of
the guessing that is usually done in multiple choice/true and false
questioning. This is the section that I think would most benefit the
student down the line if they were interested in history/academia, as

Joe Rusek
TE 407
Ben requires specific reasons for the answers. By requiring specific
answers, students gain experience giving evidence or backing up their
claims, which is an essential part of schooling and assessment down
the line in high school and college. Ben then finishes his test with two
separate matching sections, a cause and effect section and a federalist
or republican section. The cause and effect section further builds on
testing a students ability to connect specific events to an end result,
like the whiskey rebellion causing the government to realize it needs to
use force in certain situations. The matching section that has students
differ between federalist or republican ideals is great for not only
building content knowledge on the two parties, but for informing the
students more as citizens and future voters. While the Federalist party
no longer exists and the Republican party is now much different, these
parties were the basis of the two main political parties we have today.
Looking at the different issues these parties stood for can open up a
dialogue (hopefully not during the test) with their peers or family
members that can help them form their own political opinions.
When Ben shared the distribution of scores, many of the TE 407
students, including myself, were very surprised at how poorly our 5th
and 6th hour classes did on Bens test. We have heard and seen many
bright students in these classes, but our two hours performed the
worst out of the whole day, were we to blame? After hearing Bens
rationale however, the scores did make more sense. Ben explained
that a lot of students hit the post-lunch lull in 5th hour, and many
students are so excited to leave school in 6th hour that they cannot
properly pay attention. While these are unfortunate realities of the
school day, I do not know how I would personally feel about altering
my scoring system based on the performance of just two of my
classes. If all of my classes are averaging a 70 or lower on my tests,
then I know there must be some error in the way I am teaching the
content or how I assess my students. However, if only one or two
classes does worse than the other 3-4 classes I teach in the day, is it
really fair to adjust my grading scale for that minority, even when I am
giving all the classes that same test? My solution to the afternoon lull
in grades would be to 1) offer test retakes that can replace the grade
of the original text, or 2) offer students the opportunity to take the test
in the morning before school, so they have the potential to be more
alert for their test. I believe that every student will have a day where
they grossly underperform school wise because of the mental state
they are in that day. Every college student ever can name one day
where it was almost impossible to get anything done, and if it did get
done, it was not done to his or her full potential. These days are why I
strongly believe that test retakes are fair, if a student shows that they
have the proper ability to pass one of my tests or even just improve on
their previous score, why should I not allow them to express what they
truly know/can do?

Joe Rusek
TE 407
I think one of the coolest mediums ben offers for his projects is
the making of a rap song. Hip Hop culture is very prevalent in
Michigan, is especially around the Lansing area, and I believe that this
is a project that student could get legitimately excited to complete.
My intro to a rap project would go something like this, For the
Write a Rap project, the student should show content knowledge
while also showing creativity in their song. Whether it be a timeline of
events of the era we are focusing on, or simply highlighting one event,
the student should use specific information from the textbook in their
rap. Students are encouraged to be as creative as possible, and are
even allowed to accompany their rap with a beat they have selected if
they would like. ALL RAPS/BEATS SHOULD BE SCHOOL APPROPRIATE.
My rubric would include these 2 areas, 1) Expression of content
knowledge (15 points) 2) Presentation Ability (15 Points). These two
areas would be broken down to provide the students with details on
how to get full points in these areas. For the rap assignment,
presentation ability would include how well the student performs, if the
song rhymes/makes sense, overall preparation shown for the
assignment/presentation, and maybe a few other factors. Content
looking at what the student talks about in their rap would assess
knowledge and how it relates to the section/chapter we just learned.
For the test assessment I decided to analyze student X. Student
X received a 64/100 for their chapter 9 test. While student X missed
quite a few of the matching questions, they did do well on the short
answer, especially on questions that involved George Washington.
Student Xs response to why Washingtons presidency was significant
was that he Never went to political parties and stayed neutral. While
this answer is not a high school level answer, it still shows that the
student has a solid understanding of Washingtons presidency and
what precedents he was able to set. After looking at Student Xs retake
test, which was all short answer, it seems that the students real
strength lies in writing out short answer tests. I see no corrections or
Xs on the exam, so I assume that the student received a 100 percent.
This is a classic example of a student not being able to test well one
way, but doing incredibly well on a different form of testing. The retake
allowed the student to show their knowledge of chapter 9 in a way that
was obviously much more comfortable to them. Student X did a very
cool word collage for their Chapter 9 project, however, I think the test
allows the teacher to better assess the students content knowledge.
While the word collage was very well put together, at the end of the
day, it is just a bunch of vocab words made into a collage, something I
would consider very surface level for knowledge. However, the student
was able to show they can cite specific examples in their short answers
when they mentioned what precedents Washington was able to set,
what was significant about his presidency, and so forth. To further
Student Xs learning, I would have them go back through the matching

Joe Rusek
TE 407
they did so poorly on and do test corrections, I would then offer them a
few points back if they could turn in a Venn diagram or any small scale
project that shows their knowledge of the Republicans vs. the
Federalists, because that section is one of the worst for the student.
For the feedback section of the test, I would write something
along these lines for the Student: Student X, while you may not be
happy with your total score on the test, you did show some great
knowledge on Washingtons role in the federalist era and had some
great short answer questions. I would encourage you to go back into
the chapter and find the answers you missed on the matching section.
I noticed you struggled with the matching section with Federalists vs.
Republicans, so I would like to give you the opportunity to get 3 points
back on your test by creating a Venn diagram (or some other kind of
graphic organizer) showing the difference between the two parties
ideologies by the end of the week.
After looking at this students performance on the Chapter 9 test,
I believe I would continue to set my tests up just like Ben had done for
chapter 9. While this student did struggle in the matching and did well
on the short answer, I do not believe its possible to cater your tests to
every student. The only fair way, in my mind, is to include all different
kinds of assessment (short answer, multiple choice, matching, etc.) so
every student has the same opportunity to show their knowledge of
the subject matter. I would continue to allow students to take retakes if
they are not happy about their grade as well, just so students can
have an opportunity to make up for a poor test grade or a grade they
do not like. While I would not change Bens tests, I would check up on
this particular student during the week before the test to make sure
they are on task with their studying. This student seems to need more
help on the memorization aspect of the test, so I would make sure I
offer help at the end of the day for anyone who has questions or is
confused on content and also just check in with the student to see how
studying is going. I feel the random check ins will encourage the
student to study hard and will also (hopefully) make them more
comfortable with me and therefore, my tests.