Grade 5 Sharing the Planet Summative Quiz
I still have mixed feelings when it comes to using Moodle. At first, I thought it was a relic and not something that I would use in my teaching practices. For this reason, I tended to make ‘flight path’ and my overall expectations quite simple. Although I have stuck with my original idea of creating an online environment for my students, through the ‘quiz’ portion of this assignment I have realized the increased interactive capabilities and affordances of Moodle.
I actually enjoyed creating this quiz, as the questions mirrored many of my formative and summative assignment I use in my f2f class. That point is crucial for me, that this Moodle site can be something I could put my students in front of and they could manage without too many barriers. In regards to the making of the quiz, there were a few hiccups I encountered, but overall, the process was actually quite fun!
Pedagogically, it was great that the required questions we needed for this task were so different in terms of style, as it encourages the use of different learning styles and thinking techniques. Additionally, when dealing with younger students in an online environment I believe the key is to keep them engaged; the variety of question styles does that. Everything from matching questions with pictures, to comprehension questions about a pertinent news articles were chosen, as they synced well with my curriculum. Some questions were short, simple and what Gay, Mills and Airasian (2012) describe as “structured” (p. 186), while others were open-ended, or unstructured.
I enjoyed the feedback sections in the test, as they adhered to the principles laid out by Gibbs and Simpson (2005), whereby they explain the importance of feedback in student achievement. Although I often would give students ‘hints’ throughout the test I harkened back to my Grade 5 days; I certainly don’t remember teachers offering me hints during the actual test!
I set a time limit of one day for my test, as I wanted students to feel comfortable and not constricted by time. For years I taught Grade 4 and during the FSA provincial exams I witnessed the change the BC government made to allow for an unlimited amount of time to complete the exam. I remember applauding that decision, as I feel students that are pressured by time do not succeed as regularly as when they are free from time constraints. Additionally, because of the essay portion of my test, I felt my students needed more time to organize their thoughts.
The only real drawback I saw was in the answer section of the short answer question. I did not like how exact the answer needed to be, and I had trouble figuring out how my students could receive full marks. Other than that, I thought the experience was quite beneficial in regards to the assessment portion of this assignment. Although I have had my doubts about Moodle, the quiz portion of the site is opening my eyes as to the uses of this online resource.
Gay, L.R., Mills, G.E., & Airasian, P.W. (2012). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Gibbs, G., & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Retrieved fromhttp://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf