Teaching Today publishes innovative teaching tips on a weekly basis. Written with the busy teacher in mind, each tip is concise, practical and easy to implement in the classroom right away. Topics covered in Teaching Today are classroom management, career development, high stakes testing, instruction and planning, parental involvement, reading in the content areas, using technology in the classroom, and portfolio development. Teaching Today also offers free weekly downloads that correspond to the tips. Our free downloads make implementing the teaching tips even easier. Teaching Today provides educational resources for teachers looking for everyday solutions to the challenges of the classroom.
Teaching Today Postsecondary Teaching Today
Glencoe Online
    Home      Glencoe Home      Catalog      Contact Us      Search 

 
Printer-friendly page
E-Mail This Article

Teaching Today - This Week's Tips Teaching Today - This Week's Tips

This Week's Topic

Assessment—Part 2
Finding new and valid ways of evaluating student learning is always a challenge for instructors. In addition to objective testing, written essays, and oral examinations, instructors have new alternatives for assessment. This week’s Teaching Tips focus on some of these alternatives.

This Week's Tips

Use Portfolios as an Assessment Tool (Monday)
A portfolio is a collection of student work that reflects the student’s work over a period of time. Portfolios are introduced at the beginning of the course or section and kept for the duration. Portfolios may contain examples of work, written communication, cooperative learning projects, or documents related to community service or work experience that is related to the course material.

Prepare Students to Create Portfolios (Tuesday)
Portfolios provide a visual dialogue between you and your students. They also provide a self-assessment tool for students who collect, organize, and reflect on their work. To help students get started, give them a copy of this week’s Download Depot and remember to do the following: Provide a list of content goals students can choose from. Remind students that entries showing reflection of their learning should be part of their portfolios.

Download your free Building Your Portfolio today!

Evaluate Portfolios (Wednesday)
Evaluate portfolios on an individual basis. Be careful not to show bias toward students with the best samples; instead, grade each student on the individual merits of his or her portfolio. When grading, keep these tips in mind: Assess the student’s goals and the portfolio organization. Have scheduled evaluations every few weeks. Stagger evaluations to keep your workload even.

Self Evaluation (Thursday)
Adult students are capable of evaluating their own learning. They will appreciate assessing their learning and being able to grade themselves. Use these tips to set up a self-evaluation program: Provide students with criteria for grades A to F. Have students help create some of the criteria. Make it clear that you have the final say on the grade that goes to the registrar.

Written Evaluations in Place of Grades (Friday)
A-B-C grades never show the whole picture of a student’s learning. What happens to the students who did A-/B+ work? Do you give them an A or a B? Written evaluations are more valid in assessing students’ learning. Keep these tips in mind when writing evaluations: Assign grades if students or the college/university need them. Make your written evaluations short and to the point. Allow yourself time to reflect before writing each evaluation.



Published by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, a division of the Educational and Professional Publishing Group of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,
1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020.
Copyright © 2000-2002 Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. All rights reserved.

Please read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy before you explore our Web site. To report a technical problem with this Web site, please contact the site producer.



Glencoe McGraw-Hill