Week 4

Group Project Status-
My group met twice in the past week. We finished the rough draft of our report and are in the development phase. Unfortunately I encountered some technical difficulties this week and lost several files, including the PowerPoint pictures for our digital story. I completed the PowerPoint again and we are almost done with our digital story. I have completed the lesson plans for the instructor portion of our website. I will now begin work on the Web quest assignment. I thought I would be over the panic mode by this point, but I am not. Just when I feel like I have a handle on things and my stress level drops, something else is added that shoots my stress back through the roof. I had no idea how involved the Web quest assignment is, and now I’m worried about completing everything on time.

Reading and Class Discussions-
This week we discussed Assessment. I thought the discussion on writing effective exam questions was particularly interesting. I didn’t know the official terms for many of the different types of questions. I was able to see how I can improve many of my exams. I have tended to give short answer and essay exams because I feel like the students have to know the information better, but I can see how that doesn’t allow for successful testing experiences for all the students. I would like to try writing some good multiple choice exams.

Whatever evaluation approach is used, there must be a direct relationship between instructional objectives and assessment measures. Multiple data sources are particularly valuable in providing a more accurate and comprehensive picture of a particular outcome than any single measure could provide.

Morrison, Ross, & Kemp. Designing Effective Instruction, 5th Edition. 2007,
pp. 258.

This quote illustrates the reason I like Backwards Design for unit and lesson planning. It forces me to think about how I will assess my students while I am planning my lessons. Too often assessment is an afterthought... and I have been guilty of that.

Another thing in the reading I found particularly helpful was figure 12-4 on page 323. It is a sample of a survey used to gather subjective responses about the effectiveness of a course. I liked the checklist at the beginning. Students are asked to check words that describe how they feel about the projects and other course materials (ex. interesting, dull, worthless, useful, etc). I think this form could be very helpful in my teaching practice. I'd like more student input about my curriculum and teaching practice.