Designing Assessments to Support All Learners | Origin: EC150
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Assessment Strategies for CTE Educators --> Designing Assessments to Support All Learners
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
This module gave me a target I did not have before: the work is not better assessments for their own sake, but expert learners, students who are purposeful, strategic, and goal-directed, who know what they are working toward and why it matters. The connection I had missed is that the skills of an expert learner and the skills of a career-ready worker are the same skills, goal setting, planning, monitoring progress, and abandoning a strategy that is not working, so when I codesign an assessment with students and teach them to name a goal and move toward it, I am teaching career readiness through the structure of the assessment itself. Self-Determination Theory named why my old point-inflation approach failed, because motivation runs on autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and a heavier grade weight touches none of them. I intend to apply it by pacing the change through the design cycle, one barrier, one adjustment, one reflection, holding the North Star question in front of me: how am I impacting students? The one place I want the group's thinking is measurement, since I can design a task for autonomy and relevance but do not yet have a clean way to hear whether students actually experience it as relevant without the check collapsing into vague self-report, so I will put that back to all of you: how are you capturing student intentionality in a way that stays honest? I would rather build that answer together than pretend I have it.
use a variety of assessments
I’ve learned that assessments should be flexible and accessible so all students can show their learning. I plan to offer choices, use clear rubrics, and focus on skills rather than one format.
Until now, I had not considered having my students design their own rubrics. Cool idea!
Utilizing different types of interactive tools such as flip or Padlet to help students work together.
I learned that UDL assessments help remove barriers and provide various ways for students to show their learning. I have started offering students the opportunity to choice one of the "I CAN" statements from the day and answer it as an exit slip. This provides student autonomy and allows them to pick what they are comfortable in.
I learned that assessments should support learning by aligning to clear goals, removing barriers, offering choice, and using formative feedback. I’ll apply this by designing flexible, low-stakes, goal-aligned assessments that help all students engage, self-regulate, and demonstrate real-world skills.
Being flexible is the most important thing you can do as a CTE educator
Removing barriers for one student may create a barrier for another so multiple options for assessment are needed.
To be flexible and build assessments to better improve all students. I would also like to introduce more simulations for hands-on training.
I learned that UDL assessments help remove barriers and give students different ways to show their learning. I plan to apply this by offering choices in how students complete assessments, so they can use their strengths.Reflection will also be important to keep improving and focus on student learning.
I definitely plan to use UDL this year. I loved the self determination theory and share the video with my students as I change my teaching practices and include more student voice.
knowing what students think of assessments are important for the teacher on how we can improve the assessment for the next one or the next set of students
Getting student feedback on assessments is important and I want to try to implement that more often. I typically do it at the end of the semester and by then they probably have forgotten valuable feedback they could give me on a project or assessment.
I plan to work harder within my lesson planning to allow my students to explore the many ways they can complete an assessment. I want to make assessment fun, yet encouraging for my ESL, 504, IEP, & ELL students. I learnt that the teacher is in control and all students should be prepared for the real world. Students shouldn't have to memorize answers they should be able to come to a solution utilizing the skills/techniques and knowledge they've acquired.
