Rethinking Assessment (Session 2) – Inviting Students Into Learning

Authentic Approaches for Deeper Learning
(A Community of Practice)

Do you worry that students aren’t deeply engaged in learning in your class? Do you worry about students cheating or relying too much on AI for assignments and assessments? Are your students struggling to demonstrate concept mastery outside of the traditional true-false and multiple-choice questions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you would benefit from learning more about authentic assessment.

“Authentic tasks simulate adult tasks; they give students worthy work and they produce useful feedback so that students can progressively improve their understanding and performance, that is, their application of subject-matter content.” (Grant Wiggins, 1998).

Join us in this community of practice and learn how to increase engagement, comprehension, and satisfaction through designing authentic assessment for your students.

Community of Practice Sessions:

• Session 1: February 5 (12:00-1:30pm) Designing and Supporting Students with Authentic Assessments
• Session 2: March 5 (12:00-1:30pm) Inviting Students into Learning (this session)
• Session 3: April 2 (12:00-1:30pm) Designing Purposely Scaffolded Assessments
• Session 4: May 7 (12:00-1:30pm) Don’t Forget Self-Assessment and Metacognition

Inviting Students Into Learning
(Session 2)

Facilitators: Sonya Reichel (Math, CTL), Lori Hokerson (Psychology, UDL), Victor Zarate (Physics, CTL)

Welcome to the second of four sessions in our Rethinking Assessment: Authentic Approaches for Deeper Learning Community of Practice, where collaboration meets inclusivity!  You are welcome to join this session whether or not you attended the previous session.

We will start this session discussing the work done on a chosen assignment by those who attended the first session. This is a wonderful opportunity to see examples of barriers that were removed and scaffolding that was implemented. This will also be the opportunity to get feedback from your colleagues, for outside perspectives. Then it’s time to talk about equity! Using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and an equity lens, we will explore how to tap into student interests and experiences in our assessments, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. You’ll leave with specific strategies to make your assessment more inclusive and engaging for your students, and more interesting for you to grade! You will continue to develop your authentic assessment by adding these elements of equity into your chosen assessment.

This activity meets State PD Guidelines A, B, & C; ARC Strategic Goal 1 Students First and Goal 3 Exemplary Teaching, Learning, and Working Environment; ARC Professional Development Competencies: Equity-minded Service, Effective Communication, and Technology Proficiency.

Registration

This is a 4-part series and for those of you who choose to commit to joining this community of practice, you will get the opportunity to pick an existing assessment or create a new one to employ the principles of authentic assessment. The goal is to make the focus of each session a very hands-on experience with your colleagues.

• If you can’t commit to all four sessions right now, our door is still open for anyone!

Please register for each session event that you are interested in attending.

Registration