HTSB STANDARD #6 - ASSESSMENT

The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor the learner’s progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.

In Fall 2020, I created a lesson plan for Slab Building, which is the third hand modeling technique traditionally taught in Ceramics 1. In my rationale, I analyzed how classroom management is impacted by pacing and assessments, and made modifications to the lesson plan to include strategies to promote student engagement, such as building in greater opportunities for student reflection in my lessons. I also began to develop visual guides with benchmarks and quality indicators, so that students can clearly see in advance what to aim for in making a ceramic piece, and the resulting improvements in quality work have been evident in the Fall 2021 semester.

In Fall 2021, I involved my students in helping to understand and contribute toward their own assessment, by creating a Self-Scoring Guide together collaboratively (effectively a rubric). We did this before starting the project so that students would feel a sense of ownership and involvement (which is motivating), as well as a greater understanding of what is expected in terms of demonstrating mastery.

Students collaborated and contributed to the creation of a self-scoring guide (rubric) for presenting on their Comfort Beads projects (Fall 2021)

Gifted student working on slab construction project - very advanced work with mulitple “puzzle” pieces and developed on the theme of personal identity…this box represents “him on the inside” (Fall 2021)