Alternative Assessment Involving the use of Cooperative Learning

Beverly A. Doyle
Creighton University

Jennifer Ortman
Liberty Elementary School

     Cooperative learning strategies focus on structuring learning situations so students can work together to gain academic knowledge and social skills.  When disabled students work with non-disabled peers, they have the opportunity to maximize their own and each others’ learning.  Research on cooperative learning indicates benefits for students both with and without disabilities.  Cooperative rather than competitive and individual learning can lead to increased achievement, high levels of productivity, supportive relationships among learners, and increased self-esteem.  Research on student achievement in literacy (O’Connor & Jenkins, 1995) indicates increases in achievement through the use of cooperative learning groups.  Thus, this model was used as the approach to include exceptional students in a sixth grade classroom with their peers to teach a literacy unit.
     With the inception of No Child Left Behind (Darling & Hammond, 2004), all American schools are required to administer tests to measure student progress.  Under the program, states are charged with tracing progress in every school, and also groups within the school distinguished by such conditions as poverty, race, native language and handicapping conditions.  The challenge faced by teachers is how to design and implement effective assessments for their classrooms and students.
     The Standards for Teacher Competence outline activities that teachers need to demonstrate to be in compliance with No Child Left Behind; these include understanding students’ abilities, planning instruction for individuals and groups of students, monitoring progress toward instructional goals, and identifying gains in learning and performance.  Teachers in the State of Nebraska have the opportunity to develop innovative ways to assess their students and design curriculum and teaching methodologies to increase learning.
     A cooperative learning unit was developed where disabled and non-disabled students used a novel to develop and assess literacy competencies outlined by the Nebraska Standards for Reading at a sixth grade level.  Seven approaches for assessing standards using the novel Crash by Jerry Spinelli were utilized.  These assessment approaches included making summaries of characters’ predicted behaviors, designing a reading booklet, participating in class and group discussions, taking a written or oral exam, drawing a sea chest and writing descriptions of the value of the items placed in it, designing a quilt block depicting something students liked and learned from the book, and an individual project menu demonstrating knowledge acquired.
     The National Research Center’s criteria for good alternative assessment has developed a tool kit for professional developers of alternative assessment.  This kit includes information on material to be assessed, performance criteria, sampling, representativeness and generalizability, rater bias, validity as well as cost and efficiency. These were used as guidelines when developing the assessment tools.
     Work began by listing the Nebraska Reading Standards for grade six curriculum. These would be used as guidelines for both teaching and assessing. The novel Crash was chosen for students to read because it was written at two levels; one at a sixth grade reading level, and one at a third grade level.  This allowed special education students the opportunity to be able to read the same novel as their peers.  The reading standards which served as guidelines for instruction and assessment are given in appendix one.
     Students were then assigned to cooperative reading groups of eight students per group.  Students with diverse abilities were placed together.  Each person in the group was given a reading job to perform and reading jobs  changed each day so all students had the opportunity to perform each job.  Descriptions of reading jobs are given in appendix two.
     Predictions and anticipation guides were initially used to determine each student’s ability to use background knowledge to make predictions about the story.  Appendix three describes the way this was done both at the beginning and end of the story unit.
     Hands on learning experiences and assessment were an integral part of the unit.  This allowed special education students, and students who learned best through visual and tactile/kinesthetic modalities to learn effectively through their strongest learning channels.  Sea Chests in appendix four describes one such activity.
     A quiz was administered half way through the unit.  Various levels and kinds of formats were used to meet learners’ profiles.  For example, some students were given oral quizzes using lower levels of language in the questions.  Other students were given multiple choice, short answer and matching quizes.
     In order to assess the standards of demonstrating strategies to comprehend and apply written language including organizing sentences and paragraphs, integrating ideas into given topics and  producing creative and personal writing on assigned or self-selected topics, students were given a project menu.
     Project menus consisted of eleven projects to choose from, and students were required to select three to complete.  Appendix five describes these, and the criteria established for grading them.
     Each group worked together to make a quilt.  Each student in the group produced one quilt square.  This activity was designed to evaluate reading comprehension and written language, and the  student’s ability to participate and cooperate as a group member .  Appendix six describes this activity.
     This unit was valuable not only because it taught and reinforced reading and written language skills, but also because it taught students how to work cooperatively in a group to maximize their success.  The criteria for meeting the reading standards was  set at 80%.  Special education students’ scores were in the 80th percentile, while students who had no handicapping conditions had scores in the 90th percentile or above.  The unit was used for three different sixth grade classrooms.  The average score for Class I was 95%, Class 2, 93%, and Class 3, 94%.
     There have been increasing demands to hold educators accountable for student progress and to meet district, state and national standards.  Changes in assessment  practices are evolutionary.  Although formal assessment methods are still used, assessment practices  have expanded to include new techniques to measure student learning.  This reading unit describes how our alternative assessment method was used to assess literacy skills.

References

Darling-Hammond, L. (2004) From “separate but equal” to “no child left behind”.  The collision of new standards and
       old inequalities. In D, Meier & G. Wood (Eds.) Many children Left behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act is
       damaging our children and our schools (pp. 3-32). Boston: Beacon
Hannel, Fred L. & Merz, Carol (2005).  Reframing accountability a pre-service program wrestles with mandated reform.
       Journal of Teacher Education, 56(2), 157 – 167.
O’Connor, R.E., Jenkins, J. (1995) Transfer among phonological tasks; essential instructional content, Journal of
       Educational Psychology, 87, 202 – 217.
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (2002).  Professional standards for the accreditation of schools,
       colleges, and department of education.  DC: Author
National Research Center (1993) A Tool Kit for Professional Developers Alternative Assessment. Laboratory Network
       Program. 

Appendix One

Standards
Below is a list of the standards to be met and the assessments used to measure the achievement of them:
All students will…..

1. incorporate listening skills by:
• participate actively in peer discussion
• This can be assessed using the students’ reading jobs and assignments
• process information and ask pertinent questions
• This can be assessed using the students’ reading jobs and assignments.
• demonstrate comprehension by making inferences and drawing conclusions.
• This can be assessed using the predictions/revisions and the students, reading jobs and assignments.
2. recognize literacy genre and elements.
• Fiction
• setting, plot, theme, character and conflict
• summarize written works
• These can be assessed using the students’ reading jobs and assignments as well as using the quiz and test.
• formulate emotional and logical connections relevant to personal experience.
• This can be assessed using the Sea Chest
3. demonstrate strategies to comprehend and apply written language.
• organize sentences and paragraphs
• maintain ideas as topics throughout the selection
• produce creative and personal writing on assigned and self-selected topics
• These can be assessed using  Individual Projects as well as the Crash Quilt
4. interact cooperatively.
• work as a team member
• share responsibility
• These are assessed through the reading jobs and assignments as well as through the Crash Quilt
5. utilize age-appropriate resources.
• technology, internet
• library
• community
• These are assessed through the reading jobs and assignments as well as through the Crash Quilt.

Appendix Two

Description of Reading Jobs
     Students were given a reading discussion packet in which they were to complete their reading jobs for the day.  Below is a list of the reading jobs students were to complete during the Crash unit and a description of each.

1. Discussion Director
• Develop a list of questions for the group to discuss
• Help people talk about the big ideas, not the small details
• Encourage the group to share reactions, thoughts, feelings, and concerns.
2. Connector
• Find connections between the book and the world outside, such as your own life, your school, or your community
• Find connections between this book and other books on the same topic or by the same author
• Find connections between this book and other times, places, people or problems you are reminded of.
3. Travel Tracer
• Carefully track where the action takes place in the reading for the day
•  Keep the group informed as to where things are happening and how the setting may have changed
• Describe each setting in detail and be sure to include the pare location in the text where the scene is described
4. Summarizer
• Summarize the reading for the day
• Think about the main ideas and the details that support the main ideas
• Fill out the organizer in the booklet and refer to it as you write a brief summary of the main events
5. Passage Picker
• Find interesting, descriptive, funny, sad, powerful, puzzling, and important parts in the story to share with the group
• Decide  whether to read these parts aloud, have another member read them aloud, or have the group read them silently
• Make sure the group is prepared to discuss each one
6. Researcher/Investigator
• “Dig up some background information on anything related to the story such as
1. geography, weather, culture, or history of setting
2. the author’s life and other works by the author
3. the time period portrayed
4. history or background of the characters
• Investigate something that really sparks your interest
7. Vocabulary Stickler
• Be on the lookout for a few important words in the reading
• Look for words that are unfamiliar, puzzling, exciting, different, difficult, interesting, and funny
• Search for important key words that are necessary in understanding the text
8. Illustrator
• Draw a picture related to the reading for the day
• Pictures can be a sketch, diagram, cartoon, map, or chart.  They can be something specifically discussed in the reading or something the reading reminded you of and can also reflect your feelings about the reading
• Show your picture to the group and have them speculate what it means or represents
• Explain to the group what you drew and why you drew it

Appendix Three

Form of Assessment: Predictions and Anticipation Guides
     One kind of assessment is to have students use their background knowledge to make predictions about the story.  This was used to assess students’ comprehension by making inferences and drawing conclusions.  An Anticipation Guide that asks students to rate a series of statements that correlated to the story in terms of agreement and disagreement was given.  At the end of the novel, the students revisited the same statements to see how their opinions and views had changed.

Examples:
Please rate the following on a scale of 1 to 6.  1 represents strongly agree, while 6 represents strongly disagree.

1. Adults are always right.
2. You should always keep your promises.
3. Money is very important.

How do you think these issues will come up in the story?

Appendix Four

Forms of  Assessment:  Sea Chests
     To assess student learning, as well as give students an opportunity to include their own personal experiences into their learning, students made sea chests.  This activity was used to assess the standard of formulating emotional and logical connections relevant to personal experience.  In the passage, students read that Scooter’s chest is where he keeps his most important possessions that have personal value to him.  Students were to make their own sea chest.  They were given a picture of a sea chest and could draw their favorite possessions or use pictures of them to put in their own sea chests.  Students were then asked to write about each item that was placed in the sea chest and why it was valuable to him/her.

• The Sea Chest was worth 10 points total:
1. Each item was worth 1 point (5 points)
2. Each explanation for the item was also worth 1 point (5 points)

Appendix Five

Form of Assessment:  Individual Projects
     In order to assess the standards of demonstrating strategies to comprehend and apply written language including organizing sentences and paragraphs, maintaining ideas as topics, and producing creative and personal writing on assigned and self-selected topics, students made their own individual projects.  Students were given a “project menu” in which they were given eleven options of projects to choose from.  The students were required to complete three of the eleven projects.  They could choose any combination of three and were graded on the following criteria:

• Each item was worth 10 points (30 for all three)
• Topic Sentences ( 2 points)
• Grammar (2 points)
• Capitalization and Punctuation ( 2 points)
• Organization of Paragraph ( 2 points)
• Content Displays Knowledge of Story (2 points)
• Neatness of the completed project was worth 5 points
• Effort was worth 5 points
• Used work time in class effectively
• Completed and turned in on time
• Met all outlined criteria
• Used various resources
• Referenced relevant parts of the book
• Total = 40 Points

Examples of selections from the project menu include:

1. Write the first page for a sequel.  Outline what would happen in the rest of the book.
2. Design a new cover for the book and write a page about why your cover is better than the original.
3. Submit a book review to Amazon.com, print it out, and turn it in.
4. Plan a meal for one of the characters in the story.  Glue magazine cutouts, pictures, or drawings of food items you think your character would enjoy on a paper plate.  Write an explanation for your meal.
5. Write a review of the book for either a movie or book review which would appear in the newspaper.

Appendix Six

Form of Assessment: Crash Quilts
     The Crash Quilts were a great idea for the students to collaborate on a group project.  This project was used to assess the standards of strategies to:

1. Comprehend and apply written language
2. Interacting cooperatively
3. Use age-appropriate resources

     Each student was responsible for their own pieces of the quilt and when put together, the pieces make something even more unique and creative.  For the crash quilt, students were each given two pieces of construction paper (“quilt squares”).  On one piece, the student was to write about what their favorite part of Crash was and illustrate it.  On the second quilt square, the student was to write what one thing they learned was after reading Crash.  In their groups, students were able to design their quilt and put it together however they wanted.
They were graded on the following:

• Each square was worth 5 points (10 points)
1. Answer the question posed
2. Grammar
3. Organization
4. Capitalization and Punctuation
5. Showed personal connections
• Participation/Cooperation with the group and Assembly of Quilt (10 points)
1. Fulfilled assigned role
2. Negotiated effectively
3. Gave appropriate feedback
4. Accepted appropriate feedback
5. Applied problem solving approach
• Total: 20 Points