Assessment that can be used....

WHAT AM I DOING TO HELP KIDS ACHIEVE?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN THEY ARE THERE?

WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE?

     It seems that we bombard kids with assessments.  It is getting to the point where it is crazy.  Also, it is hard to believe that these assessments are being used for positive change.  So here is one possible scenario.  Professor Emeritus Anthony Lawson developed some years ago a scientific reasoning test that students can take and a teacher can tell if they are "concrete" or "abstract" thinkers.  It has been a well researched diagnostic tool.  Our students take this as part of the Project TIMU program.  I have never really looked closely at it because of time and I did not fully understand it.  Something happened to make me take a second look...

     I had a few students who seemed to do well overall but struggled on the semester exam.  I went back and looked at the Lawson test.  Students who struggled with proportional reasoning on the Lawson test had a hard time on the exam and other similar tests involving proportional reasoning.  Students who did well on the Lawson test did well on the proportional reasoning parts of the exam.  So, if I just help students with proportional reasoning, problem solved....well...not exactly.

     The Lawson test is a diagnostic tool that tries to help teachers establish what "developmental level" a student is at.  Here is the rub...the only intervention for this is time.  It does NOT mean that students can't do chemistry, won't get into college or will not be able to have a career in science.  It does mean that at this TIME their proportional reasoning abilities are different than another kid.  Chemistry is chalked full of proportional reasoning problems.  They just need a bit more time.  And they may need to work much harder than I student who is at a higher level of proportional reasoning skills in the same class.   So what now...

     One of my projects is to find a simple way to administer the Lawson test, get feedback and immediate response from the teacher.  If I find out that 80% of my students struggle with proportional reasoning than I will probably drastically alter my instruction and I want to communicate this in a positive way to parents, kids and teachers.  I think the technology can allow us to do this...I will keep you posted.

     On a lighter note, I hope to start ionic and covalent bonding in Academic.  First and foremost, we are going to start with a macroscale lab before we hit models or the symbolic.  Found a cool PHET simulation that might help.  We shall see....