Assessments and Evaluations

So learning the different types of assessments, how to gather evidence of student learning, and then being able to practise creating an evaluation was helpful to me. I found it useful going over the different forms of assessment because sometimes I get them mixed up.

The one thing that really stuck out to me during that class was the sunflower exercise where we had to first solve the task at hand and then create an evaluation for it. I found that rich task very fun to do because it provided me with just enough information to do the assignment and yet still make it challenging. I also got to use Desmos to see what sort of graph some of the equations (or expressions? I still get them mixed up!) looked like and that was fun because it was a resource that actually came into handy! I really liked the task because it wasn't just math per se...you had to understand and apply the math to a real life situation. So for example, if you had an inverted parabola where the graph clearly isn't a linear relation, you would have to think of which scenario would best describe that particular parabola. So you couldn't just simply state that the plant was placed in sunlight and grew accordingly. One would have to take into account that it started off growing quickly but then as time passed, the growing slowed down exponentially- so maybe, just maybe the plant was initially placed in highly radioactive soil that mutated the organism to grow wild, like that bean stalk story, but then it got uprooted and planted in soil that had been over irrigated and lacked essential elements. Again this goes back to what Dan Meyer had said about math being credible and real, existing outside the four walls of a classroom.

I found that creating the evaluation part was a lot trickier than doing the task itself because creating an evaluation forces you to think about all the steps you have to take to solve the problem. It makes you have to go back and think well what was my initial thought? Then what did I think once that part got figured out and so forth. It's funny how fast your brain operates when you are engaged in solving a dynamic problem...all the steps in thinking happen so fast and organically that you don't even realise what's happening and how you came to your conclusions.

The only sort of confusion I still have is if you want to create Learning Goals with your students, so that they feel more included in their learning journey, how does one do that when curriculum expectations are clearly defined? So maybe I have this wrong, but are Learning Goals taken from the Curriculum expectations? And if they are, how do you tweek and alter them with student input? Any clarification is greatly appreciated!