Exploring Visible Light: Term IV (Spring 2016)
The topic for the first week of my unit in the spring was visible light. While I chose to plan and schedule my lessons and activities in consideration of the classroom’s established weekly instructional schedule, I adjusted the format in order to meet my own instructional goals.
As the week began, I performed a series of visual demonstrations of the behavior and properties of light for the students to observe, interpret, and analyze. I also presented a series of images for observation and analysis; the majority of the photographs were set in Philadelphia. This was followed by a day of more formal lecture, which preceded a day of small group lab exploration of the characteristics and behavior of visible light waves that the students had been observing and learning about throughout the week. In place of my CM’s usual/traditional “exit slip” (i.e. summative written quiz) on the week’s material, I devised and administered an “alternative assessment” to conclude the week's activities.
With this assessment, which I introduced at the beginning of the week, I gave each student the choice to demonstrate what s/he had learned through the creation of a writing or drawing of his or her choice. Suggested formats included, but were not limited to: a comic strip; an advertisement; a story; a fictional newspaper story; a poem; a song/rap. The only requirements were that the students include the vocabulary words and main ideas that had been covered throughout the week, and that they take it seriously.
I created a rubric, along with both a sample story and sample drawling to present to the students in order to better explain the assignment.
I had been motivated, in part, to develop the assessment following an advisory meeting that I attended earlier in the spring between my CM and the Director of the Middle School. The MS director expressed the desire for my CM to
allow/enable students to demonstrate their knowledge through multiple methods/modes to better assess individual performance based on the strengthsof each individual student. I was also motivated to design the assessment based on my observations throughout the spring that many students—some of whom struggled on formal/traditional assessments—excelled at and gravitated toward visual art and written expression.
The materials that I created, along with samples and analysis of student work, are displayed below.
Alternative Assessment Materials: worksheets; grading rubric; sample story and drawing
 Alternative Assessment |
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 Alternative Assessment, pg 2 |
 Alternative Assessment Rubric |
 Sample Story |
 sample drawing |
Student Work and Analysis:
While I had planned extensively, and looked forward to administering the Alternative Assessment throughout the week, I was admittedly unsure what to expect in terms of student reception and work.
There was initially some resistance and confusion among the students as I introduced the assessment, which was unlike anything they had taken previously. However, reviewing the rubric and my samples seemed to allay most of the students' concerns.
The work that the students ultimately created was incredibly diverse, and seemed to reflect individual student's interests, strengths, and knowledge/understanding of the topic and concepts.
Written Assessments:
Visible White Light Poem
Analysis: Visible White Light Poem
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(Artifact S1)
This student communicated the week's concepts thoroughly and creatively.
In the form of a poem he explained virtually all of the main ideas, touched on the vocabulary words, and referenced one of the stations from the small group lab explorations that the students conducted earlier in the week.
Analysis: Visible White Light Rap
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(Artifact S2)
As with the poem above, this student expressed the week's concepts thoroughly and creatively. He took ownership of the material, infusing the information with his own style and touch.
He successfullydefined and explained each of the vocabulary words and main ideas.
Artifact S2:
Visible White Light Rap
Artifact S3:
Visible White Light Fictional Advertisement
Analysis: Visible White Light Fictional Advertisement
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(Artifact S3)
This student did not directly address all of the vocabulary words or main ideas.
However, she did demonstrate a seeminglythorough understanding of many of the concepts and behaviors of visible white light waves. Additionally, the subject of her advertisement (light blocking curtains for the classroom) referenced a "Quick Check for Understanding" that I had posed to the class earlier in the week.
The classroom has large windows that span an entire wall. It is perpetually bright and hot in the classroom, and the students often complain about the intensity of the light and heat. I was inspired by this reality to ask the following question:
"What material would you use to make curtains for the classroom windows? Explain your answer using the words: absorb, reflect, and transmit."
Based on the student's advertisement, this question and the concepts at its core seem to have stuck with her.
Illustrated Assessments:
Analysis:
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(Artifact S4)
By combining illustrations and captions, this student creatively expressed--and thoroughly explained--each of the week's main ideas and covered all of the vocabulary. Based on this work, I am confident that student understands the properties and behaviors of visible white light.
Visible White Light Properties & Behaviors
Analysis:
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(Artifact S5)
While similar to the illustration above, this student explained the concepts in a different way, and placed more emphasis on certain main ideas than the previous student.
She explained the properties and behaviors of visible white light by referencing observations that she had made during the small group lab explorations earlier in the week. While she did so less explicitly than the student from Artifact S1 did in his poem, her approach is equally effective.
Visible White Light Properties & Behaviors (2)
Visible White Light, Rainbow Explanation
Analysis:
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(Artifact S6)
While the illustration is less detailed/elaborate than some others, it clearly communicates concepts that were explored earlier in the week.
I was especially proud of this student's work. Throughoutthe spring, he has often appeared unengaged and has performed poorly on the majority of traditional exit slips. However, his work on the alternative assessment seems to indicate a higher level of engagement and an understanding of the material.
Final Analysis:
A few days after the assessment, I spoke to a student about the assignment. During our conversation, he explained that he had liked it because it had given him a chance to discuss the ideas in a different way. He liked that he a choice, and felt that the choice had made it easier for him to show what he knew. When he had not needed to focus on shaping his answers to fit a particular format, he had been able to concentrate more deeply on the ideas; the "how" no longer eclipsed the "what".
Ideally, I believe that the Alternative Assessment should be offered along with the option of taking a more traditional exit slip. For some students, that format may be most comfortable and best reflect their strengths.
To reference Howard Gardner, under the multiple intelligences theory, an intelligence can serve both as the content of instruction and the means or medium for communicating that content. (32) If instruction and assessment is structured exclusively around/in consideration of one intelligence, it may be an inaccurate way to gage a learner’s abilities or advance his or her learning and achievement. I believe that all students can—and should—be viewed as diverse learners. Each child has his or her own strengths and faces his or her own unique challenges. Ideally, all students should have the freedom to learn--and to demonstrate what s/he has learned--in the most effective way possible.
Having reviewed the completed alternative assessments, I believe that the format may be a tool to allow just that.