Kyle Deger EPSY 485

October 3, 2011 Course Assignment

1) Context I am teaching in a suburban high school (9-12), just outside of Chicago. There are thirty students in the class. It is an AP Psychology course, so there are very few students with learning disabilities. Only two students will require extended time to complete this assessment. The demographics for the high school is 62% White, 19% Hispanic, 14% Asian, 3% Black, 1% Other. The students in my AP Psychology class are juniors and seniors. Most of them have not had any previous psychology courses. The class will move at a faster pace than the normal psychology course offered in order to better prepare students for the AP Psychology Test in the spring. 2) Unit of Study https://sites.google.com/a/maine207.org/degpsych/ The Unit we are studying will cover Chapter 3 in the textbook--Biophysiology & the Foundations of Neuroscience. We will be looking at the basic structures of neurosciencethe brain and the nervous system. Some enduring understandings for students in this unit include: how did/does the brain evolve over time; coordinate the two communication systems within the body & how are they used; what specialized modes exist within the brain & how do they work together? Learning Objectives for this unit/assessment are based on the AP Learning Objectives for AP Psychology (Andersons Revised Taxonomy in parentheses): a) Students will be able to identify the basic anatomy & physiology in the biological bases of behavior, e.g., the neuron & the process of the action potential (remembering). b) Students will be able to apply the anatomy & physiology of the CNS, PNS, major brain regions, lobes, & cortical areas, the functioning processes of lateralization and hemispheric specialization to everyday situations (understanding, applying, analyzing). c) Students will investigate current & historic research strategies & technologies that support brain research and understand the adaptive significance of selected traits and behavior (remembering, understanding, analyzing, evaluating). The instructional strategies for this unit will be a combination of both lecture and a discussion to ensure that students are not passively obtaining information in class. Within lecture, there will also be plenty of Q and A to assess for learning throughout the class period. In addition, there will be some movie clips about to dysfunctions to give students a more in-depth understanding of this topic. The students will also have completed to smaller quizzes on both the structure of a neuron and the brain before given this final tune-up to the unit test. These small quizzes will help to build the knowledge necessary for success on both the unit test and the AP examination. 3) Assessment During Instruction Activity with answer key Choose the best answer to questions 1-4 (2pts each).

1. Which of the following does not belong with the others? A) thalamus B) pons C) medulla oblongata D) reticular formation E) hippocampus 2. Diego is walking along when all of a sudden he encounters six pit bulls snarling at him. Which of the following nervous systems would be the first to become stimulated? A) somatic B) the parasympathetic C) the autonomic D) the sympathetic E) all of these answers 3. Diego then realizes that the six pit bulls are behind a huge iron fence that seems impenetrable. As a result of this epiphany (revelation), which of the following nervous systems would most likely kick in? A) somatic B) the parasympathetic C) the autonomic D) the sympathetic E) all of these answers 4. Sarah observes that a shower is approaching so he turns to head back into his house. Which nervous system is being initiated? A) somatic B) the parasympathetic C) the autonomic D) the sympathetic E) all of these answers

5. Assess the major differences between an early adolescent brain and that of an adult age 25 in 1-2 short paragraphs. Be sure to cite physiological changes and psychological changes (4pts). Physiologically, the process of myeleinization is occurring in an adolescent brain. The weeding out of synapses and the maturation of the frontal are occurring in an adolescent brain, but will be complete in an adult brain. In regards to decision-making and judgment, adult-level brains will be more developed than adolescent brains. In an adult brain, risk-taking behaviors diminish. There is also a focus on consequences of behavior rather than immediate rewards and overall quicker processing of these behaviors. 4-Identifies and explains clear differences between the two types of brains and cites two physiological and psychological characteristics from sample answer (total of 4 or more) 3- Identifies and explains clear differences between the two types of brains and cites one/two physiological and psychological characteristics from sample answer (total of 3) 2- Identifies and explains clear differences between the two types of brains and cites a physiological and a psychological characteristic from sample answer (total of 2) 1- Identifies and explains clear differences between the two types of brains and cites a physiological or psychological characteristic from sample answer (total of 1) 0- Fails to make any attempt at referring to any characteristics of either type of brain. Analysis of Items

Item 1: This item is linked to the first learning objective which requires students to remember significant structures of the brain stem. Although it does not inquire higher level analysis, it is still important for students to understand the basic structures in neuroscience to eventually build up a base knowledge. The item addresses their capacity to remember/identify the structure (hippocampus) which does not relate to the parts of the brain stem. Item 2: This item addresses the second learning objective which asks students to apply their knowledge of the CNS and PNS to an everyday situation. Students need to understand the differences between the three systems (parasympathetic, sympathetic, and somatic), and apply them to a specific scenario by analyzing factors of significance. Item 3: This item addresses the second learning objective which asks students to apply their knowledge of the CNS and PNS to an everyday situation. Students need to understand the differences between the three systems (parasympathetic, sympathetic, and somatic), and apply them to a specific scenario by analyzing factors of significance. Item 4: This item addresses the second learning objective which asks students to apply their knowledge of the CNS and PNS to an everyday situation. Students need to understand the differences between the three systems (parasympathetic, sympathetic, and somatic), and apply them to a specific scenario by analyzing factors of significance. Item 5: This item is linked to both the first and third objective because it gets students to analyze new research on the development of adolescent brains. It pushes students to apply this newly acquired knowledge of brain development to compare and evaluate the characteristics of this brain to a fully developed brain. I believe this is a fair assessment because it is information which is covered in both lecture slides and the textbook. The reading is not too heavy on comprehension, and there are no biases which will put certain students at a disadvantage in the wording of the assessment. Extra time is also allowed for the two students in the class who need it. This is a small tune-up before the students unit exam, so most of the information is review by now, and it has been assessed throughout the unit along the way. To make sure the assessment is reliable; I will not simply run the assessment through a scantron machine. I will look at each multiple choice question response to assess the students understanding of each of the systems. I will also examine all of the short answer questions at once to have some consistency in the type of response which matches what I ideally expect. This assessment is valid because not only does it align with the learning objectives of each student, but it forces students to use deeper cognitive skills like analysis to full grasp the functions and structures of the different systems in neuroscience. I plan to use this assessment to see how prepared the students are for the unit assessment and then review what items still need to be given more attention. Administer the Assessment This assessment will be administered at the end of the final day of instruction of the unit. The following day will be for review, and then the students will take their unit exam. Students (except for those who qualify for extended time) will have the final twenty minutes of class to complete the assessment. This final tune-up quiz will be

announced one day in advance, and I will inform students to review the nervous systems, so that they are being assessed on their application of the information rather than just memorization. I would grade the assignment because it is part of assessing their knowledge of the unit as a whole. This is an AP class, so these students are responsive to scored assessments, and the types of questions on this assessment are reflective of items they will see on their AP exam in the spring. Students have been administered smaller quizzes throughout the unit as building blocks for their overall knowledge of neuroscience. This quiz would not come as a surprise, so a grade is a good way to ensure that students are putting in the time to grasp the concepts in neuroscience. Students will be able to keep their quizzes after we review them in class as another study material for their larger unit exam. Performance Criteria and Next Steps This assessment is the classs final quiz before their unit exam. It is expected of them to already be able to identify and understand the different functions and parts of the brain, nervous system, etc. This assessment is geared to evaluate the students ability to apply the material to everyday situations, in addition to composing a short comparison between an adolescent and adult brain. Someone who has mastered the material would receive an 12/12 total points because they have fulfilled the learning objectives in answering these predominantly analytical questions. Excellent Understanding: Students who have answered all of the multiple choices correctly demonstrates that they understand the basic structures of the brain and can apply their knowledge of the nervous system to everyday examples. These students also demonstrate the adaptive behavior of the brain by citing differences between an adolescent and adult brain. Acceptable Understanding: Students who have received above an 8/12, with no lower than a 4/8 on the multiple choice portion, has demonstrated an acceptable understanding of the subject matter. These students have an adequate understanding of the nervous system because they are generally able to apply its functions to everyday situations. These students also make a strong attempt to compare an adolescent brain to an adult brain, but may just not be citing enough specific examples to strengthen their point. Poor Understanding: Students who receive lower than 4/12 have demonstrated that they are struggling to apply the knowledge of the brain and nervous system to everyday situations and comprehensive questions. These students make no real attempt to cite any of the characteristics of either adult of adolescent brains to show they can draw comparisons between this newly researched psychological topic. As a whole, I would like my class to have at least an acceptable understanding of the material, but I am hopeful to have more that display an excellent understanding. If this is the case, we would continue to move on with the unit. However, I would ask them some additional follow-up questions which did not make their way onto the exam to see if all of the material has been mastered. The assessment is a pretty good determinant of this because it addresses the three

learning objectives I set out for my students. If there were students who had a poor understanding of the material, I would try to get them at the next level by providing them opportunities for extra help or perhaps even extra credit based on the items they answered incorrectly. Whenever a student has to do any additional work on a matter which is unique to them, they tend to remember that better. So, if a student incorrectly answered the question about the parasympathetic system, I may suggest having him create a couple examples for me which show it being activated. I think this is a great strategy because it really will hammer a concept into a students mind without providing too much extra planning for a probably busy teacher. If the entire class were to score poorly, I would obviously reassess the questions and not count the quiz for a grade. Perhaps the wording was a little too vague, or maybe the material was not presented clearly in class. I would receive this feedback from the class as we went over the quiz answers the following day in class. I like the idea of preparing an almost identical assessment with different scenarios and/or wording. Assessment is not supposed to catch students by surprise. It is supposed to measure how effectively they are meeting the learning objectives. In this particular class, the use of multiple choice and short answer question is important to prepare the students for the style of AP questions they will see when they take the AP exam in the spring. Other factors like time and occasion (maybe the day of a pep rally) would also be taken into account if the students did not perform well. Self-reflection I learned so much from this piece of work. I learned how much planning and thought it takes to create a meaningful assessment. Assessment should push students to think critically and at a higher cognitive level. Assessment is not just for the purpose of students regurgitating facts to get a high mark in a grade book. Good assessments act as constant reminders for students to obtain and keep fresh the material they have just learned. We need assessment in education. It challenges students to do their best and gain the application and analysis skills which seem to be lacking in most schools. School could not exist without assessment. No one would want to try to learn aside from the extremely dedicated students. If I were asked to complete this assignment a second time, I would not change much. I am rather proud of the situations I constructed to help students analyze differences in the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems. I also feel strongly about my learning objectives. I have been writing them almost weekly for over a year now, and I think I am starting to get a strong grasp on that. I also thought my short answer question was very specific and left little gray area. I always hated when I did not know to what degree I had to answer a question because as a student, you do not know how much information your teacher expects you to include. The two areas I think I do struggle in are the creation of rubrics and the rationale for my assessment. I am still caught up in that explanation from class a few weeks ago when someone said that answer is a 4 because it just looks like a 4. I need to get out of this mindset because grading is heavy on rubrics in todays classroom (even for the assessment of this assignment). We are in the age of standardized testing in which people want to quantify as much of educational evaluation as possible. I also need to improve in my explanatory skills of why I

chose to use certain assessment or instructional methods. Maybe next year I will have a parent coming up to me asking a question pertaining to the purpose of an assignment or an assessment. I best have an answer for them, and this assignment was good practice for this. I would not do much differently if I were to do this over. If this was my only job, I would devote so much more time to the types of questions and material I wanted to cover. However, I am not an experienced teacher yet, and I do not have access to the materials which I will be in the near future whether they be sample units, lesson plans, or assessment ideas. The one problem I had with this assignment was creating a set of questions that matched up with only two or three learning objectives. I found it difficult to do at first, but then I realized that I should focus on the skill the learning objective wishes to instill in students. Words like analyze or identify made it easier for me to then create appropriate assessment questions. It was important for me to develop good assessment questions when I completed this assignment. The only other class in which I had to create assessment questions before was for my EPSY class, but those were done as a group. So, this was the first time I was able to get my feet wet in assessment, and I actually did enjoy constructing the multiple choice questions. You are given the freedom to create your own questions which incorporate your personality into the assessment. I found this assignment to be rather rewarding, although it was an immense amount of work.