Henry Ho EDUC450

Regarding how I plan to connect my inquiry to the real world, I will most likely be implenting the assessment policies and strategies that I come across in the readings. For example, the strategy of offering retests but having students submit corrections or some sort or come to an afterschool session (or FIT time) to be able to take the retest. From the assessment course I went to on Wednesday evening, one of the main ideas was to assess the understanding at the end. Professor Kevin gave a great example where if a student was failing the class throughout the term but gets a high pass on the final, how can you possibly still fail that student (if final was worth a low %). In my own classroom, I plan to retest strategies like the one mentioned above, and have a policy where they can replace a unit test or mid term if they get a higher mark in the final to support this.

1. Clark, D., & Talbert, R. (2023). Grading for Growth . Outlines major alternative grading systems and explains how they reduce anxiety and promote mastery.  2. Meadows, M., & Billington, L. (2005). A Review of the Literature on Marking Reliability . Demonstrates that traditional tests are not as objective or reliable as we assume. 3. Dueck, M. (2011). How I Broke My Rule and Learned to Give Retests . Explores a teacher's shift toward structured retesting and how it can reduce stress while maintaining high expectations 4. Frey, B., Schmitt, V., & Allen, J. (2012). Defining Authentic Classroom Assessment . Describes authentic assessment as a meaningful alternative to traditional tests.  5. Wiliam, D. (2011). What is Assessment for Learning? Why feedback and ongoing checks for understanding are more effective than single-shot tests 6. Assessment Methods Overview of direct and indirect assessment methods 7. Ulutan, D. (2019). Treating Students Like Adul...

Today I was went over all the additional readings I have accumulated. I observed the assessment course yesterday and was provided a huge assortment of readings. While I still have yet to go through all of them, I am enjoying the articles that I originally found on Google Scholar:  Grading for Growth by Clark and Talbert, and “How I Broke My Rule and Learned to Give Retests.” One cool idea I found during my school visits was a teacher who gave retests but would not give any part marks on those retests to still give incentive to do well on the initial test. Funny enough, both these readings mention the same policy. One teacher in the second reading went further by only permitting retests for students that have done extra work, went to the extra-help session, or submitted extra work.\ Together, these two readings have helped me refine the direction of my inquiry. I will look into the readings from the assessment course next. I am particularly interested in the pdf titled "assessment...

For the initial stage of my inquiry, I started searching on Google Scholar using keywords such as “alternative grading policies,” “assessment reliability,” and “test grading schemes .”   These searches helped me locate readings that connect to my inquiry about how assessment systems can balance accuracy with student well-being. One source I found was Grading for Growth by David Clark and Robert Talbert (2023). This book discusses how traditional grading systems often fail to reflect authentic learning and instead create unnecessary competition and anxiety among students. What drew me to this source is its discussion of “alternative grading systems” such as standards-based grading and specifications grading , which prioritize feedback and revision rather than single high-stakes evaluations.  Another article that caught my attention was A Review of the Literature on Marking Reliability by Meadows and Billington (2005). This review goes over issue of marking reliability , ...

Originally, my inquiry topic was how can we balance teaching for understanding vs teaching for assessment. However, after the short practicum I have had a slight change in perspective. While tests can cause stress and anxiety, it is extremely difficult to find an efficient alternative that accesses students as well as a test. With that in mind, I want to dive into more test policies and grading schemes that can help reduce the stress of students while giving just as accurate of an accessment of their learning if not better. One example is from my SA where they are given a mark based off the proficiency scale instead of a letter grade or percentage and then given the chance to correct their answers to get a bump up the scale. Alternatively, I saw another where there are retests for every test but there are no part marks given on the retest to still give incentive to do well on the main test.

Today in groups of 4, we made permutation poems or PH4 poems. They work by picking 4 words and then constntly mixing up the order of the words until you get back to the original order. After taking a brief look around us, the 4 words our group came up with were “plant, leaves, swallow, flies.” I personally recommended starting with this order because I hate flies haha… Not that it is an issue for these poems, but our 4 words unfortunately did not flow too well when mixed in a way such as: “swallow flies leaves plant.” One group though did have 4 words that seem to all flow at any order with the words: “I only love you.” Even at a mix where the verb comes before the two nouns, it still seemed to flow: Love only I you.” Still, if I were to create another permutation poem, I would try to have all 4 words sticks more to a theme. For example: “fear, silence, death, arise.” All these words relate to one another thus giving a good flow no matter where the verb is.