Ashford 4: – Week 3 – Discussion 1
Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
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Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
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In Week Two, you created a presentation on why linking assessments with report cards that reflect CCSS is imperative. In this discussion, you expand on your knowledge about CCSS and debate the idea of whether creating high-quality assessments is necessary. Note that some educators argue that it is not enough to just create a link between assessments and report cards, but that assessments need to be high level and should require students to synthesize their learning instead of only demonstrating mastery by rote memory. Alternatively, some educators argue that high-quality assessments cost more than lower quality assessments (Eisner, 2001; Matthews, 2006; Pulfrey, Buch, & Butera, 2011). One possible reason for this viewpoint is that higher-level assessments often include performance tasks and/or essays that require teacher scoring, and thus a great deal of time is spent on evaluating students’ work. Conversely, lower-level assessments measuring basic knowledge through multiple-choice and true/false responses; they can be measured using technology and take considerably less time and resources to measure.
First, choose a side from the two opposing viewpoints described above and discuss one of these two points:
- Can the American education system afford assessments for deeper learning?
- Can the American education system afford not to have such high-quality assessments?
Next, discuss if it is necessary to share assessment items, rubrics and 21st-century practices with fellow colleagues.
Guided Response: Respond to at least two peers. Find one peer who has the same argument you chose and one peer who chose the viewpoint you did not. Debate how your viewpoint is different. If your viewpoint is similar to that of your peers discuss the similarities. Evaluate your peers’ responses to the use of multimedia resources with regard to critical thinking and problem solving. Though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you, including the instructor. Responding to the replies given to you will further the conversation and provide additional opportunities for you to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world experiences with this topic.
Ashford 4: – Week 3 – Discussion 2
Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Reference the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.
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Creativity and Innovation
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Educators strive to create a classroom that instills creativity and innovation. In this discussion, you will think about the creative and innovative instructional approach known as the the flipped classroom while making direct connections to the Common Core State Standards and teacher decision making based on student assessments. Reflecting on your previous discussion on CCSS in Week Two as well as your previous discussions from EDU671: Fundamentals of Educational Research about the flipped classroom, you will complete the three parts of this discussion’s initial post.
There are three parts to this discussion, which are described below.
Part 1
- Discuss how the flipped classroom idea can be used in conjunction with CCSS (Math or English Language Arts)
- Describe ways you could incorporate technology used in the flipped classroom idea to support the Framework for 21st century learning in the classroom as it relates to decision making based on student assessments.
Part 2
Now, think about assessments you have created or used in the past to address the following:
- Discuss if a school or teacher should use a multimedia resource that is absolutely amazing in delivering both content and assessment, but is not accessible.
- Evaluate whether the resource must be excluded from a course if there are no reasonably equivalent accessible alternatives.
Part 3
Guided Response: Respond to at least two peers. Your replies should include a question about the incorporation of CCSS and the Framework for 21st Century learning in your peers’ posts and should offer an additional resource for consideration that supports an alternative viewpoint. Though two replies is the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and learning, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you, including the instructor. Responding to the replies given to you will further the conversation and provide additional opportunities for you to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real world experiences with this topic.
Ashford 4: – Week 3 – Assignment
Learning and Innovation Skills and Student Assessment
This assignment requires you to make connections between high-quality assessment and learning and innovation skills. Additionally, using the Framework for 21st century learning as a resource, you will redesign or modify a prior activity from one of your courses in the MAED program representing program learning outcome 3, 4, 5, and 7. There are several approaches you could take with this assignment. For example, you may redesign an instructional plan with assessment plans embedded throughout or a full assessment plan including a summative assessment you may have constructed. These are just two ideas out of numerous possibilities. If you do not have previous assignments to use in this assignment, please contact your instructor for guidelines on how to proceed. Refer to the MAED program learning outcomes (PLOs) list as needed. Upload your assignment to the course for evaluation and to your ePortfolio (Pathbrite).
Create your assignment to meet the content and written communication expectations below.
Content Expectations
The Redesign expectations explain what you are required to do with the prior coursework you choose to redesign. The Summary expectations are for the separate written portion of this assignment.
- Redesign – Alignment and Mastery (1 Point): Redesign an instructional plan with assessment plans embedded throughout, or a full assessment plan as noted above including a summative assessment that could be selected to include alignment between specific skills, CCSS, and objectives and includes criteria for mastery.
- Summary – Introduction/Conclusion (1 Point): A one paragraph introduction to a summary that concisely presents the scope and organization of the summary writing, as well as a one paragraph conclusion that recaps your summary’s key points.
- Summary – Modification (1 Point): In one paragraph summarize the changes you made to your activity to meet the redesign expectations for this assignment. Explicitly state how your redesign assignment provides evidence of mastery of PLO’s 3, 5, and 7.
- Summary – Evaluation (1 Point): In one paragraph, evaluate how your assessment promotes Learning & Innovation Skills, assess how it could be used as a tool for ongoing evaluation of student progress, and evaluate how it could be used as a guide for teacher and student decision making.
- Summary – Reflection (1 Point): Summarize, in one paragraph, your experience with the redesign in terms of challenges you encountered and how you overcame those challenges.
Written Communication Expectations
- Page Requirement (.5 points): Two to four pages, not including title and references pages.
- APA Formatting (.5 points): Use APA formatting consistently throughout the assignment.
- Syntax and Mechanics (.5 points): Display meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics such as spelling and grammar.
- Source Requirement (.5 points): References three scholarly sources in addition to the course textbook. All sources on the references page need to be used and cited correctly within the body of the assignment.
