We’ll

Begin
Shortly

TRANSFORMING
ASSESSMENT
INTO AUTHENTIC
ENGAGEMENT FOR
21ST-CENTURY
LEARNING
COURSE OFFERINGS
IMPROVING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
WITH TECHNOLOGY
$459 Per Course
3 Graduate-Level Professional Development Credits
www.learnersedge.com

REIMAGINING ASSESSMENT FOR THE WHOLE CHILD

$459 Per Course
3 Graduate-Level Professional Development Credits
www.learnersedge.com

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY:
TEACHING THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER GRADUATE CERTIFICATE
4 Courses Total | $525 Per Course
3 Academic Credits Per Course (12 Credits Total)
www.umassglobal.edu/21Century
TODAY’S SPEAKER IS...

KIMBERLY GREENE, ED.D

Professor, Chair MAE CT at UMass Global
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Gain assessment strategies and techniques designed
to be integrated into your daily academic practice
• Examine specific examples to identify the realistic
modifications to assessments that can be facilitated
in-person, hybrid, or fully online
• Learn how to use the concept of “desirable
difficulties”
and authentic assessments to empower students
• Understand the foundations of 21st-Century Learning
LEARNING OBJECTIVES (This Makes More Sense)
• Understand the foundations of 21st-Century Learning
• Learn how to use the concept of “desirable difficulties” and
authentic assessments to empower students
• Examine specific examples to identify the realistic modifications to
assessments that can be facilitated in-person, hybrid, or fully online
• Gain assessment strategies and techniques designed to be
integrated into your daily academic practice
 BASED ON A STUDY FEATURED
IN EDUTOPIA

Students who generated

their own questions
on a topic scored
higher when tested
than students who
used passive studying
strategies.
 BASED ON A STUDY FEATURED IN
EDUTOPIA

Creating questions
encourages students
to think more deeply
about the topic and
strengthens their
ability to retain that
information.
 Employing the simple idea of focusing less on student
answers and more on their questions, into assessment can
transform the practice of simply checking for learning to
designing for genuine student learning.

This concept combined with

“desirable difficulties” and the
power of authentic assessment
offers educators strategies and
conceptual tools to empower
students to be great learners in
the classroom and in the real
world.
EXERCISE #1
When I think of 21st-Century
Learning, the visual I get in
my head is...
When I think of 21st-Century Learning, the visual I get in my head is...

Head & Heart & Hands

LET’S TAKE A
QUICK POLL
UNDERSTAND THE
FOUNDATIONS OF
21ST-CENTURY
LEARNING
HEAD & HEART & HANDS
Cognition - Critical thinking
toward an Intentional Purpose

Affective Connection -
Desires, Values, Purposeful

Behavioral Engagement -
Iterative, Learning through
Doing, Creation, Action
WAIT! WHERE’S THE TECHNOLOGY?

It’s not about

the technology!
It’s about the
intention &
experience of
the learning.
 “Education is not
preparation for life;
education is life itself.”

“We only think when

confronted with a problem.”

“We do not learn from

experience...we learn
John Dewey from reflecting on
experience.”
 “Give the pupils something to do, not
something to learn; and the doing
is of such a nature as to demand
thinking; learning naturally results.”

“There is no such thing as

educational value in the abstract.
The notion that some subjects and
methods… possess educational value
in and of themselves is the reason
why traditional education reduced
the material of education so largely
John Dewey
to a diet of predigested materials.”
Using the concept of “desirable
difficulties” and authentic
assessments to empower students
“DESIRABLE DIFFICULTIES” CAN LEAD TO
DEEPER LEARNING AND BETTER RETENTION
EXAMPLES

Translation/interpretation/making hypothesis from images or “a

sales pitch” before reading/watching/researching
Varying conditions of practice Transferring

knowledge to new situations

Learning to solve multiple types of math problems/ learning

different methods of solving math problems at the same time
Source: Cummings Persellin & Daniels, 2014
 ACTIVITY THEORY
Voygotsky!

“the best kept secret of academia”

(Engeström, 1993, p. 64)

the struggle IS the learning

process

ALIGNS WITH SEL,

RESILIENCY, AND
GROWTH MINDSET
 “AUTHENTIC ASS
ESSMENT” AUTH
ENTIC?

From Edutopia:
“Authentic assessments
analyze student learning in a
manner that is consistent with
how our disciplines function
outside of an academic
environment”
(Wilbert, 2013)
 “AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT”...
AUTHENTIC?
Be realistically
contextualized

Require judgment
and innovation

Ask students to “do”

the subject
Source: From Understanding by Design (citing Edmund J. Hansen, 2011)
“AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT”...
AUTHENTIC?
Replicate key challenging situations
in which professionals are “tested”
in their field

Assess the student’s ability to

use a repertoire of knowledge
and skill

Allow appropriate opportunities to

rehearse, practice, and get
feedback - the struggle IS the
learning process
Source: From Understanding by Design (citing Edmund J. Hansen, 2011)
RUBRICS
!Examples
PBL focused on community issues
RUBRIC
Pitching potential solutions
to local businesses

Tracking costs, budgets, designing

the running of an event or business

Investigations on topics of
personal interest
LET’S TAKE A
QUICK POLL
Examples of realistic modifications
to assessments that can be facilitated
in-person, hybrid, or fully online
EXAMPLE #1: THE CHOICE BOOK MIDTERM
Formative Assessment Synthesis, Self-Awareness, Interpretation,
and Justification of choices/Evaluation

CCCS Reading Standards

for Informational Text, 6:
Determine an author’s point
of view or purpose in a text in
which the rhetoric is particularly
effective, analyzing how style
and content contribute to the
power, persuasiveness, or
beauty of the text.
EXAMPLE #1: THE CHOICE BOOK MIDTERM
Students choose from 2 different anchor texts; depending on their choice of this,
they then also choose their official Choice Book (4 different options for each of the
anchors, each book is something from popular culture that is specifically offered
as a choice because it aligns with its designated anchor text).

The Goal is for the student to SELL their anchor text to and Audience of other
students/people their age. Their Role is that of a brilliant marketer who loves the
anchor text and wants to be certain other young people get the chance to read it.
The Situation is that they just learned the book will go out-of-print if it doesn’t sell
more and do so quickly.
Using a rubric to guide the specificity of expectations of the Product/Performance
- a sales pitch in any form they choose (brochure, infomercial, song, interpretive
dance, Powtoon, ....).

The rubric clarifies the Standards of excellence for whatever it is the students
create to sell their book but it also outlines how the actual Choice Book must be
employed as an integral tool in the selling of the anchor book.
EXAMPLE #2: IN A DIFFERENT PAIR OF SHOES
Formative Assessment Synthesis, Self-Awareness,
Interpretation, and Justification of
choices/Evaluation

CCCS 4.3: Students explain the

economic, social, and political life in
California from the establishment
of the Bear Flag Republic through
the Mexican-American War, the
Gold Rush, and the granting of
statehood. (3. Analyze the effects
of the Gold Rush on settlements,
daily life, politics, and the physical
environment)
EXAMPLE #2: IN A DIFFERENT PAIR OF SHOES
For the summative assessment of this unit on The Gold Rush,
students will create a product (will have 4 suggested choices
- a Slideshow, Video (Flipgrid) or Animation (Powtoon or ChatterPix), or
Essay; if students prefer another way, they can discuss it with the
teacher) through the eyes/in the shoes of their avatar that they used
throughout the unit identifying the effects of the Gold Rush
(Pick at least 2 - settlement, daily life, politics, physical
environment) and analyze/evaluate how their avatar was
directly affected.

(This project will be graded through the use of a rubric)

EXAMPLE #2: IN A DIFFERENT PAIR OF SHOES
Students will create their product using an online tool such as a
slideshow (Google Slides), video (Flipgrid), animation (Powtoon
or Chatterpix) or essay (Google Docs).

The product will be graded through a rubric that will include categories such as:
• At least 2 effects of the Gold Rush are discussed with support
• Their avatar’s view of the Gold Rush and impact is clear
• A final (wrap-up) reflection podcast of the students explaining HOW thing
experience changed the way he/she they now feel about the lives lived,
sacrifices made, and reasons why people were willing to take so many risks
and continue on despite so much hardship throughout this time and how that
has impacted their own thoughts on their own abilities to persevere through
difficult situations or times.
Assessment strategies and
techniques for your daily
academic practice
STRATEGY #1
Always ensure Affective,
Behavioral, as well as
Cognitive elements in all
assessments.

This may mean adding

reflective components to
existing assessments.
STRATEGY #2
Goal
Role
Audience
Situation
Product/Performanc
e Standard
Source: Understanding by Design,
Wiggins & McTighe
TECHNIQUE
Documentation
1 in multiple
forms

Employ
2 RUBRICs
that clarify
WHAT must be
present but not
HOW
EXERCISE #2
Who is your 21st-Century
Learning superhero?
 Who is your 21st-Century Learning superhero?

Mine is still Ironman for his combo of Head & Heart & Hands
Well...on second thought...
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
IMPROVING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
WITH TECHNOLOGY
$459 Per Course
3 Graduate-Level Professional Development Credits
www.learnersedge.com

REIMAGINING ASSESSMENT FOR THE WHOLE CHILD

$459 Per Course
3 Graduate-Level Professional Development Credits
www.learnersedge.com

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY:
TEACHING THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER GRADUATE CERTIFICATE
4 Courses Total | $525 Per Course
3 Academic Credits Per Course (12 Credits Total)
www.umassglobal.edu/21Century