Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars Program sgts.ucsd.edu University of Californina, San Diego Peter Newbury 5/22/2014

1. Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars
Preparing toTeach 4:
Assessment
May 20 and 22
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2. Course Design
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What should
students
learn?
What are
students
learning?
What instructional
approaches
help students
learn?
CarlWieman
Science Education Initiative
cwsei.ubc.ca

3. Vocabulary check: assessment
is that which gives a final
judgment of evaluation of
proficiency, such as grades or
scores.
(How LearningWorks, p. 139)
explicitly communicates to students
about some specific aspects of
their performance relative to
specific target criteria, and …
provides information that helps
students progress toward meeting
those criteria…[It] informs
students’ subsequent learning.
(How LearningWorks, p. 139)
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summative assessment formative assessment

4. Grading Scheme
What grading scheme are you thinking about for
your course? How many marks for each?
midterm exam(s)
peer instruction quizzes / participation
homework every
week
day
final exam / project / essay
final presentation ( see poster session!)
other?
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5. Grading mindset
Which of these best describes your
approach to points / marks / grades?
A) students earn points for work
completed
B) I give students points for work they
complete
C) students start at 100 and loose points
D) I grade on a curve
E) other
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6. Warm-up: Multiple-choice
Write a multiple-choice question for one of
the learning outcomes you’ve drafted.
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clarity Students waste no effort trying to figure out what’s
being asked.
context Is this topic currently being covered in class?
learning
outcome
Does the question make students do the right things
to demonstrate they grasp the concept?
distractors What do the “wrong” answers tell you about students’
thinking?
difficulty Is the question too easy? too hard?
stimulates
thoughtful
discussion
Will the question engage the students and spark
thoughtful discussions? Are there openings for you to
continue the discussion?

7. Feedback and Practice
that Enhance Learning
Goal-directed practice coupled with
targeted feedback are critical to learning.
Goals can direct the nature of focused practice, provide the
basis for evaluating observed performance, and shape the
targeted feedback that guides students’ future efforts.
(How LearningWorks, p. 127)
Targeted feedback gives students prioritized information
about how their performance does or does not meet the
criteria so they can understand how to improve their future
performance.
(How LearningWorks, p. 141)
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8. Assessment Strategies…
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 addressing the need for goal-directed practice
 addressing the need for targeted feedback
Look over the How Learning
Works hand-out, thinking
about what you’ve
experienced or what you
want to do in your course.

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11. sgts.ucsd.edu
Robert Talbert
tinyurl.com/RobertTalbertRubric
Mathematics Poster and Presentation Rubric
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12. Rubrics
 support growth mindsets
 shows the path to improvement
 goal-directed
Goals can direct the nature of focused practice, provide
the basis for evaluating observed performance, and
shape the targeted feedback that guides students’
future efforts.
 targeted feedback
Targeted feedback gives students prioritized
information about how their performance does or
does not meet the criteria so they can understand
how to improve their future performance.
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14. Short-answer question
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Write an assessment question for your course based on
the learning outcome(s) you’ve drafted.
 It doesn’t have to be a summative, exam question.
 make a rubric to grade it AND provide feedback to students
 be creative

15. Student presentations
 gives each student an opportunity to show their knowledge
 presentations take a lot of time
Instead, consider Poster Day
 students prepare poster in groups of 3
 all present simultaneously on Poster Day in public space –
make it an event!
 one person gives elevator speech while others evaluate
peers’ posters using rubric (cycle thru partners).You and
colleagues evaluate each poster, too, using rubric
 requires ongoing scaffolding & support
See Talbert, R. Getting students involved with linear algebra through
poster projects. Retrieved May 9, 2013, from
http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2013/04/25/g
etting-students-involved-with-linear-algebra-through-poster-
projects/ sgts.ucsd.edu 15

16. Next week
Teaching-as-research projects
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