Assessment for Learning Kia Taylor

Task 2 In this essay I will be analyzing the student formative assessment data and curriculum alignment with the given supporting document. I will also be recommending changes in curriculum taught to improve student comprehension. In my analysis of the grade book, the first thing that I noticed was that the overall average of the class on the formative assessment was a 76%. This tells me that most of the students did not master the objectives of the assessment. After reviewing the grade book and student profiles I also noticed that certain populations of students performed lower than others. For example, the students who are English Language Learners performed lower than their counterparts. I also noticed that the students who were below grade level performed lower than their counterparts as well. This lesson has 3 objectives that I will be analyzing for alignment to standards and the formative assessment. The purpose of a formative assessment is to assess the learning that is happening during the lesson and to gauge whether the students are in the trajectory to achieve the instructional objectives (Tauer, 2012). The first objective is to identify human qualities and scientific habits of mind that famous scientists in history may have possessed. The formative assessment does align with this specific objective. The assessment asks the students to identify key characteristics in aspects of famous scientists’ life. It discusses the qualities and mindsets of famous scientists and the assessment does reflect the intended objective. The alignment of the objective to the standards is not as clear. The first standard that is aligned with this objective is the abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry. I believe that this standard does not align with the objective because in the assessment the students are recalling information but not exhibiting abilities to do scientific inquiry. However, I do believe that the assessment does align with the other two standards, Science as a human endeavor and the history of science. The second objective is to identify scientific questions, data and methods for collecting and presenting data. I do not believe that the assessment is appropriate for this objective. The questions do not discuss content that aligns with scientific questions and data. The standards that are paired with objective do align but the assessment does not properly address what is intended for the students to understand. The assessment does not allow the students to display their ability to inquire as the focus of the assessment is information recall. I would not use this to tool to measure this objective. The third objective is to participate in a group work activity by performing specific group role functions. I believe that this assessment is not a proper tool to measure this objective. The assessment is completed individually and focuses on the ability to recall information. The students are not completing this in a group setting so I feel that this is an inaccurate depiction of the ability to perform in a group. Although the teacher has the students discuss their findings with another classmate the assessment is completely up to the individual to perform on. The assessment does not reflect the objective. This lesson is misaligned in some areas and as a result of that the lesson has some weaknesses that should be addressed to ensure each student is achieving success. The content in the lesson is not aligned with the objectives and the standards. One change that I would make to the content of the curriculum would be to change the assessment questions to relate to the information given to the students in the lecture at 9:15 in the lesson plan. I would change the questions to focus on the methods that lead to their scientific discovery and information about where and how they lived. My content change would increase student performance by exposing them to information that is directly on the test. In the initial lesson plan the students are essentially assessed on homework they did the night before. This does not ensure that all students had the correct or reliable information to be successful on the assessment. Changing the content on the assessment would ensure that each student was exposed to the content and that they will be assessed on what was exactly taught in the class, this will increase student performance.