Q&A: Publishing & Assessment

This was an original Q&A interview from an undergratuate course on Middle Grades writing. Amanda Orr answers the interview questions.

Publishing

Q: What is publishing?

A: Publishing is when students put their pieces into its final form.  Students share or present their final copy of their writing piece.  Publishing is a way to celebrate writing and the students’ writing accomplishments.  

Q: How can teachers incorporate publishing into the classroom?

A: Publishing can be done in many forms.  The class could have an author's chair, where the students read their final piece aloud.  Teachers may also put together a class booklet with pieces from each student. Students may also take part in a gallery walk, where students walk around the classroom and read their classmates' pieces.  Students may even send their pieces to somebody special, or post them online.

Q: How is publishing recursive?

A: Publishing can be recursive since writing is not necessarily final.  We can always go back to our pieces and improve them, or publish them in a different way.

Q: How does publishing relate to community in the classroom?

A: Students need to feel comfortable to share.  In a safe environment, students will be open and more eager to share their writing.  Knowing that a piece is being published motivates students to put in their best work and make it look presentable.

Assessment

Q: What is the difference between formative and summative assessment?

A: Formative assessment is feedback on teaching and learning without a grade.  Examples include: observations, exit slips, journal entries, graphic organizers, and discussions.  Even a writing conference is considered a form of formative assessment in teaching.

Summative Assessment is a form of assessment that is graded.  “The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.  Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value” (Carnegie Mellon). Examples of summative assessment include: midterm or final examinations, final projects, and essays.  Assignments graded under rubrics or the Pennsylvania Domain Scoring Guide fall under summative assessment.

Q: What is the purpose of formative assessment if it isn’t graded?

A: “The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning.  Formative assessment involves helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work.  In addition, it helps teachers recognize where students are struggling so they can address problems immediately. Formative assessments are generally low stakes, meaning they have low or no point value.”

How much do teachers need to assess?

A: Not every piece of writing needs to be formally assessed with a grade.  Too much assessment will take away the purpose of writing, as students need to realize that they should be writing for themselves, not for a grade.

Interview: Special Education

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about special education. The post is set up in a question and answer format. These answers were last updated in 2013.  The source to many of these answers come from Teaching Students with Special Needs in an Inclusive Setting.

Define and describe special education. 

Special education is specially designed instruction provided by the school district or another local education agency that meets the unique needs of students identified as disabled according to federal and state eligibility criteria. 

Define differentiated instruction and explain its usefulness in meeting the needs of a diverse classroom.

Differentiated instruction is “the planning of curriculum and instruction using strategies that address student strengths, interests, skills, and readiness in flexible learning environments.” It is a “philosophy that guides your thoughts about, and actions with, children in the classroom” (167). Differentiated instruction is important because it tailors teaching to meet the needs of all the students in the class. Typically, teachers will teach to one set of students, but everybody in the class learns differently. Differentiated instruction meets all of the needs of the students in the class.

Teacher Interview: Assessment

I interviewed a second grade teacher back in March, 2013.  We discussed how the teacher utilized assessment in the school.  The interviewees name has been removed to protect the individual's identity.

Q: How do you assess students?

A: Our assessments are broken down by subject.  For math, we do unit tests, which are created by the Investigations program.  We also have district created benchmarks, which are done once per trimester.  At the beginning of the year, there is an assessment to see what skills the students have and see if they know the skills they were supposed to learn in the previous grade. This is also district created.

For reading, we use Fontas and Pinnell, which assess guided reading level. They are given a short story and have to comprehend it.  There's also DIBELS.  We assess fluency and ability to phonetically sound out words by giving them nonsense words. So the words aren't real but we see if they can pronounce them using phonetic rules.  There are also weekly unit tests and benchmarks created from Journeys, which is from Houghton Mifflin.

For writing, there's three benchmarks which are at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. They are district created.

For science, we have checkups to see if they understand the skills.

Q: How is Response to Intervention (RTI) implemented in your school?

A: We have a performance tracker program.  It tracks all the kids in the program. We use data to respond to what is going on. I also compare to the benchmarks, question by question.  I also give instruction.

Q: Do you do any benchmarking? If so, how?

A: Yes, we do a lot of benchmarking for reading, writing, and math. Many are created by the district.  (see question 1).

Q: How do you determine good test questions?

A: We assess to the state standards. If we teach to the standards and follow the standards, good questions come from what is taught.  If most of the kids get a question wrong, I check and see if it was worded correctly. I think about if I taught the material well enough, the wording of the question, or how it relates to the standards.  When there are numerous students who get a question wrong, I meet with them in a group, go over the question, and touch base with them to what went wrong. It goes along with RTI.

Teacher Interview: Morals in the Classroom

I interviewed "Mr. V." and "Mrs. K.," who are both eighth grade teachers at a middle school. Mr. V. teaches history and Mrs. K. teaches English.  We discussed moral issues in the classroom and how different teachers deal with different issues.  The interviewees names were changed to protect their identities.  This interview is from 2012.

1) What is the discipline policy at your school? In your classroom?

Mr. V:  The school regulations are stated in the agenda.  It's like a constitution.  Depending on the violation, I give them a penalty.  Overall, I'm a little more lenient in the classroom than what the agenda states.  

For example, the agenda says that chewing gum is an offense that deserves detention.  But when you think about it, it's really not that bad of a crime.  They're gonna chew gum.  Kids this age are more concerned with the social aspect than the academic.  They want to impress the opposite sex, and mint flavored gum helps that.  If you ask, most of the time the kids are chewing mint gum.  So, the first time I catch them with gum, they just throw it out.  If it's a goofball in the class chewing gum, you make it fun, like have them put it on their nose before throwing it out or something like that.  If they do it again, I give them a warning.  If it is a repeated offense, then yeah, they get detention.  I had one girl who I told everyday to stop chewing gum.  She got a lunch detention.  She learned her lesson, but it was just a minor offense. But for a first offense, I don't see it as a big deal.  Just give them a warning, depending what the offense is.

Mrs. K.:  All the school's rules are found in the agenda.  It's a foundation handbook that lists all the rules.  It's really long and strict.  Teacher's also get a teacher handbook with rules.  The handbook says how to handle a classroom.