NAEP Reflection

          The NAEP project was a great experience. I realized the value of providing further instruction (curricular implications) so students could continue to practice the skill to avoid the same mistakes. I also recognized the importance of creating clear, well-developed, logical, and effective rubrics when grading student work. Sarah, Kaitlin, and I reviewed a 4^th grade math problem (Graph of Pockets) where students analyzed and interpreted bar graphs. We evaluated students’ answers and used a rubric to score their answers. I thought this process would be fairly cut and dry. However, once we started looking at the students’ answers and comparing them to the rubric, it was much more of a challenge than I anticipated. I think we struggled with so many students because they seemed to fit into more than one category (i.e. some students’ answers could fit into both partial and minimal). We may not have scored all of these answers perfectly, but we did remain as consistent with our grading as possible. Each person may interpret the rubric differently, but the key was making sure we followed our interpretation and graded consistently. I learned that rubrics are a great grading tool. However, the creation of the rubric can make or break how easy it is to grade the students. Rubrics need to be written with careful thought, making sure each level has clear differences. I learned about the making of rubrics in some of my other methods classes, and despite the format of the rubric (i.e. 4, 3, 2, 1, proficient, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, etc.), each category must be different so it can be easily determined where the student falls. After picking three of our seven students (one extended, one partial, and one off task), we created a learning activity where all students could participate. It was definitely hard to think of an activity and make sure it was tailored to each student. However, in a classroom there will always be students who have different levels of understanding, and it is critical that each student’s needs are being met. For our activity, we created a human bar graph/SmartBoard graph where all types of learners could be successful and appropriately challenged.  Throughout this NAEP project, I gained a lot more knowledge about how to continue practicing the content/providing further instruction, adapting activities to support all types of learners, and creating clear rubrics.

            I thought it was great when we shared our NAEP problems as a class. It was interesting to see how the other groups graded their students and the struggles they encountered. It seemed that each group developed a certain system when grading; each group stuck close to what the rubric said and were consistent with how they graded. I was glad to know that my group wasn’t the only one to struggle with the rubric! Some students seemed to be in between scores and all groups were challenged by this problem. The 3rd-5th grade group (tile problem) had an especially hard rubric! It was confusing and hard to scroll up and down between the rubric and appropriate answers. I think it’s safe to say we all learned the importance of developing clear rubrics with easily distinguishable categories/criteria!