Reflection for Module 5 - Taxonomy of Assessment

This has been a good review of Bloom’s taxonomy. I think he has the levels described quite realistically and I would do well to internalize them. It is good, even though it seems a bit tedious to review a course like this. We should do that with every course we write and/or use. This taxonomy is good in writing objectives as well as activities. So often I focus on what they have to learn to do well on their objective tests, and not allow enough time to massage the information, so they can apply it to their own lives or predict the events that follow (in history). I wonder if this is more characteristic of middle school and elementary. I have always looked upon elementary school as the time to learn the foundational facts, middle school as the transition time where such things as inference begins to dawn upon students, and high school as a time appropriate for what Bloom calls synthesis and evaluation. However, it is not that clear. So often I find that middle school tends to put students in a holding pattern, because their social relationships dominate everything they do. So, I have discovered, groups are a good way to use that tendency to be “overly” social and get them to learn something! Anyway, I have decided to keep Bloom’s taxonomy close at hand as I write my lesson plans. I need to deliberately spread out more the types of questions and the types of activities that I use in my classes, to include higher level thinking.

I do think that if I actually had the opportunity to teach an online middle school class, I would need to be just as careful about including higher level thinking assignments. It actually would be easier to require those kinds of activities, because online students tend to spend a lot of time working alone, out of the sight of peers and their criticisms and influences. Those “written thoughts” as Sandra calls them, are provided with a certain anonymity when working on a computer. Chat and discussion provide an opportunity to present complete thoughts without interruption or observance of negative body language. That would be good! Online groups would be even more monitored than in the classroom, if all communication had to be written.
So the Casey case study was a good opportunity to revisit the ideas in Bloom’s taxonomy and remember another way to evaluate assessment in my own curriculum work.

The articles on plagiarism encouraged me to pursue the detection of plagiarized material at an early age. I began to realize a few years ago that my middle school students often begged for the opportunity to do an essay in order to bring up their grade. One of my students came in the next day with several perfectly polished essays to bring his grade from an “F:” to a “D”. Needless to say, I was suspicious, but was not sure how to approach the subject. I really don’t think they were buying papers online, but with World Book online, Encarta and Wikipedia, essays are a breeze to “cut and paste.” Now I require a print of the home page of the website they used, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t using some website to copy from. One of the things I learned in a previous class, was that most teachers who want to check for plagiarized material just Google a few of the suspicious phrases. However, unless you pick the right ones, that is not foolproof.

The overview of Turnitin by Dr. Kidwell was very interesting. It does seem quite practical for schools secondary through college. I could not get to the actual pricing, but I suspect it would be substantial for a large school or system. So, as a teacher in a small middle school and high school, this looks very effective, but cost prohibitive.

The article “Dealing with Plagiarists” did ring true with me. I have thought for a while that this is probably the level where we need to “nip it in the bud.” I have been contemplating having the students go through the research paper process, and then take them to the computer lab, with their printed resources, and have them write their paper. While they may be able to spell check and all of that, it will at least reveal if they had prepared and knew their subject well enough to write from their notes or resources. Students could use the computer lab since there is no internet access to students there. That would at least slow up some plagiarizing.

The final project still fascinates me because our instructor is offering so much flexibility. I am deciding whether I should write something for a middle school history class, or develop a unit from an interpersonal communication project that I have used with my Sociology students. The unit is not formally written, and consists of a written essay about emergent leadership, and a few forms. I wonder if it would be acceptable to develop that activity into a full unit with objectives and assessment. I also wonder if it would even work as an online course. I have graded the product of the group, but never the individual observations about group dynamics. I did appreciate the discussion about using group roles in an online activity. I may try that.