Purpose and Learning Outcome: The purpose of this assessment plan is to inform students about the fall season and to assess their abilities to recall, compare, and identify characteristics about the season of fall.
Learning outcomes:
Children will be able to recognize and recall characteristics of the fall season.
Children will use language to compare and describe leaves and acorns.
Children will count leaves and acorns using one to one correspondence.
Assessment Context:
Test Items:
Children will be shown pictures of the different seasons, and will have an open discussion about the different things they see in the photos to represent each season. Children will take a nature walk around the school neighborhood and discuss what they see, hear, feel, and can touch. Children will gather leaves and acorns during the nature walk. Each child will have the opportunity to share their items with the classroom. Each child will count how many leaves and acorns they found, describe their items, and compare their findings with the other children. The children will revisit the pictures shown to them of the different seasons and choose the best pictures they feel matches the fall season.
Essay Item: Have students draw pictures of themselves or their families on a fall day.
Holistic Rubric:
Essay & test item sample rubric with learning standards and benchmarks:
Learning Standard 5.C Use writing to research and share knowledge.
Preschool Benchmarks
5.C.ECa participate in group projects or units of study designed to learn about a topic
of interest.
5.C.ECb With teacher assistance, recall factual information and share that information through drawing, dictation, or writing.
Exploring
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Developing
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Building
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Join in an activity to learn about a topic of interest to the group.
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Join in multiple activities to learn about a topic of interest to the group.
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Join in multiple activities to learn about a topic of interest to the group and contribute documentation to the study (whether it be drawings, photos, or writing).
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With teacher assistance, share through dictation factual information gained from hands-on experiences or written sources.
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With teacher assistance, share through drawing factual information gained from hands-on experiences or written sources.
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With teacher assistance, share through writing (whether scribbles, letterlike shapes, letters, or words) factual information gained from hands-on experiences or written sources.
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(Standards, benchmarks and sample rubric retrieved from http://www.isbe.state.il.us/earlychi/pdf/early_learning_standards.pdf)
Testing Constraints: Constraints I would use to for this assessment are; 1) I would have children to work in pairs gathering leaves and acorns from outside and children will have to present their findings in pairs. 2) I would have students to use only colors that they feel represents the fall season in their drawing.
According to the authors Kubiszyn & Borich, "the best way to measure achievement is to ask your students to demonstrate mastery of a skill under the conditions you specify in your instructional objectives" (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, pg. 116). The test items I used are clear and concise, and are measurable to match the learning outcomes.
“A well-constructed essay item will clearly indicate the cognitive skills or process that should be employed to formulate the answer, clarify ambiguous details..” (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2013, pg. 157). The essay item I would choose to assess the way children view the season of fall would be to have them draw a picture of themselves or their families outside in the fall, afterwards I would have them verbally describe to me what’s happening in their picture. Because young children are just learning to read and write they gather information and express themselves using pictures or through any form of art. The picture will act as evidence that the student was able to comprehend what the lesson was about and students would be able to share their stories by describing the sequence of events happening in their picture. The test items and essay item will provide young children with the opportunity to take what they’ve learned about fall and connect it to a real world experience from the nature walk to their home life.
Reference:
Kubiszyn, T. & Borich, G. D. (2013). Educational Testing Measuring and Evaluation Classroom Application and Practice. (10th ed.). (Chpt.6,7&8) John Wiley & sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ.
Illinois early learning and development standards, preschool—Revised september 2013
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/earlychi/pdf/early_learning_standards.pdf
