Minecraft as Assessment

This week my 3rd graders’ dreams came true.. Mrs. K played Minecraft! Well, kind of. I explore a tutorial world of MinecraftEDU and began to consider how it could be used as an assessment tool in my classroom. I certainly hit bumps along the road and focused on having a growth mindset as I worked to overcome challenges! In the video below, you can hear more about those challenges as well as my initial thoughts about using MinecraftEDU as an assessment tool in my classroom. I’m looking forward to really digging into the program to create an example of how I could use the program in my classroom!

 

CMS Assessment 1.0

This week in CEP 813, we began to design an assessment using a content management system. The CMS that I chose to work with was Schoology. This particular assessment was created using the discussion feature on Schoology. I used a common activity featured in my district’s math curriculum called Puzzled Penguin. These activities are typically completed in the student’s math workbook, but that method is limiting and does not make the most of this important activity. Puzzled Penguin problems require students to identify mistakes, use strategies to correctly solve the problem, and explain their mathematical thinking.

The ability to take this activity out of the math book allows students to collaborate with one another and be exposed to other ideas or methods of solving the problem.  Also, by being able to read the work of other students, the kids can continue to develop their mathematical explanations which is a focus area for many of my students. This CMS also allows me to give feedback on their discussion posts and students can also provide feedback to one another. This formative assessment not only helps me to understand where my students are at as they work to master the CCSS that aligns with this assessment, but I can also use it to help me guide my student as they learn to clearly explain their thinking.

Assessing Content Management Systems

This week in CEP 813, we were asked to spend dome time digging into three different content management systems to be used for assessments. The three systems I looked into were Google Classroom, Edmodo, and Schoology. I hadn’t had any experience with Google Classroom or Edmodo, but I have had limited experience with Schoology. As I was  looking though each of the systems they each had their areas of strength and weakness when used for assessment. To help organize my finding, my professors provided a chart with specific areas to focus on when deciding which system would best fit our assessment needs. You can access the chart that I used to organize my findings as I looked into each of these three content management systems by clicking here.

Overall, I felt like the best choice for my needs was Schoology. I liked how Schoology made it easy to create rubrics right in the system and the Common Core State Standards are easily connected to the work you create. I also like that the system has a three-layer analytic section to monitor student progress and activity on the system. This system also allows me to create discussion boards for the whole group and small groups. Another benefit of using this system is that the teacher can grade the student responses on the discussion board. The final reason I think Schoology is the best choice for me is that my school district uses Schoology for grades 4 through 12. As a third grade teacher, it could be very helpful for my students to have experience with the system before they move on to using it to receive their official grades in 4th and beyond.

Rubric 4.0

After many revisions and a lot of research, I have developed my Rubric 4.0 designed to assess assessments. Click here to view my Rubric 4.0!