The marathon has begun

I remember my first 10K race. I was not in contention for any prizes. It was a personal test of my endurance. The adrenalin was flowing and my muscles anxious for the race to begin. The gun sounded, and the race began. My muscles began doing what they had been trained for and the anxious tension diminishes. That is where I am in my "race" to becoming a teacher. The excitement of the first few days has given way to the steady beat of feet hitting pavement. I'm in the first half mile and it's a long road before me. I want to jump ahead to the finish line, but realize it will get here, just keep one foot in front of the other.

There is so much I don't know. I've finished my first semester and see the vast road ahead and want to jump to the end. I remember: one foot in front of the other. What steps can I take during these holidays? I'm focusing on assessment: standards-based assessment in particular. Intel has a free internet course that I'm working on and there are math teachers blogging about their experiences. I'm hoping to find a local teacher doing it so I can observe first hand how it can be done. Have I mentioned that there is so much that I don't know? How can I possibly learn it all in one year? One foot in front of the other.....

Standards-based approach

As I read through information on the Internet about Standards-based assessments, the context is usually state testing. There is talk of moving from a comparison of how a student performs with respect to other students in that grade to the extent to which a student shows mastery of a content. In many math text books I see pages in each section dedicated to how that particular content will look on a standardized test, "teaching to the test."
The Education Commission of the States published a report in 2002 responding to "No Child Left Behind" and gave 6 criteria for assessments:

• Assessment tasks should involve activities that are valued in their own right, engaging

students in “real-world” problems rather than artificial tasks.

• Assessments should model curriculum reform.

• Assessment activities should focus on objectives consistent with the goals of instructional

activities, thus contributing to instructional improvement.

• Assessments should provide a mechanism for staff development.

• Assessments should lead to improved learning by engaging students in meaningful

activities that are intrinsically motivating.

• Assessments should lead to greater and more appropriate accountability.

As a teacher, I know I will need to be conscious of State testing, but in the trenches I am concerned with how to assess authentically and in a way that helps students and parents see where they are academically what they need work on. Nothing helps me more than seeing someone else do it. David Cox has a blog that he shows different and inspired ways of assessing students. He video tapes a task a group of kids are doing and adds their summaries and discoveries to it. I can see so many different ways of assessing, but it's the assigning a level of mastery that I think is the tricky thing. In one of his post on assessment David gives steps in the process of mastering a skill. First can you duplicate the skill, repeat it in a similar circumstance? Second, can you apply the skill in a different situation that you haven't seen before? Then third, can you create something unique using the skill? I think I see my 3 Levels of Mastery rubric!