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WAB Faculty & Staff

MYP Assessment: School Closure

Managing MYP Assessment During School Campus Closure

We will see out the year in "online mode". All assessment and reporting recognises this situation. Our guidelines are designed to best support our community and their diverse needs. 

We need to adapt and plan accordingly to complete some suitable assessment tasks. 

  • We can still meet MYP requirements overall. 
  • We will need to re-think assessment tasks, timelines or order of units.
  • If you need support in designing/checking tasks, contact Stephen and/or Scott.
  • If you think it is not possible to meet MYP requirements by the end of Semester 2, HOD's contact Stephen and/or Scott. 

MYP Criteria are measures of performance against subject objectives. There can be multiple ways to gather "acceptable evidence of understanding" against a strand/criterion in a subject. There is an FAQ at the bottom of this page. 

Update: Details on assessment and reporting will be shared in detail in sectional communications. 

Suitable Summative

School Closure is more suitable for some forms of assessment than others.

  • Students must be able to get back on track, if they have fallen behind. 
    • Focus on moving forwards to a successful end to the year. 
  • Set reasonable assessments in this time. 
    • Focus first on assessment for criteria that are "missing" in order to report as normal. 
  • Reduce the scale of assessments. Reduce the content of the assessments. 
    • Make Core Content & Concepts the main part of the assessment. 
    • Reduce assessed content by about half. 
    • Keep extension content labeled as extension/enrichment for students to go deeper. 
  • Don't overload the students with assessments, particularly if they could require intense teacher input. 
    • Breaking assessment into smaller tasks or chunks to save stress. 
  • Don't create an unnecessary technological burden. Do check that tools work without VPN. 
  • Be mindful of the time and resources needed by students and families. 
  • Be mindful of the workload on yourself.
  • Be consistent between class sections. 
  • Set deadlines that allow for flexible working and ongoing feedback. 
  • Students facing challenging circumstances must not be disadvantaged as result of school closure. 
  • Give clear task-specific clarifications. Consider video support sessions. 

Clear Is Kind*

Thanks Liam for sharing this simple template for giving clear, accessible instructions for assessment (or any task). 

  1. Find X              (and this is how you do it)
  2. Read/watch X (and this is what to look for)
  3. Think about Y (and these particular points)
  4. Do Z                (and this is how you do it)
  5. Submit Z         (and this is how you do it)

Also: "Make it multimodal" and remember, "Teachers support language development with consideration for the language profiles of students. (IB Standards & Practices (0403-05-0400))". 

*unclear is unkind. Brené Brown. 

Guiding Questions in Assessment

As with all MYP Assessment, tasks must accurately reflect the intended learning of the subject.

In this asynchronous, remote learning model, we must pay close attention to task design, scale and the load on students. 

Some guiding questions in task design: 

  • What is the key learning we are trying to assess?
  • Which criteria will support this?
  • What makes "acceptable evidence of understanding"?
  • How big does the task really need to be?
  • How long will it take? What technical challenges are there?
  • What opportunities does this open up when we return to campus?

Focus on Formative & Feedback

In the early stages of a unit and school closure, a focus on formative assessment and giving effective feedback can helps students' learning develop and maintain momentum. 

"MYP assessment encourages teachers to monitor students’ developing understanding and abilities throughout the programme. Through effective formative assessment, teachers gather, analyse, interpret and use a variety of evidence to improve student learning and to help students to achieve their potential. Student peer and self-assessment can be important elements of formative assessment plans." (source MYP:FPIP)

MYP Assessment FAQ's

Frequently asked questions related to:

  • MYP Assessment in general
  • Assessment in school closure

This section will be updated regulary. 

"Acceptable Evidence of Understanding"

Using the backwards planning process in our units, to identify acceptable evidence of understanding against our objectives, we can design assessment tasks that are valid, fair, reliable and authentic. 

  • Not all assessment engagements need to be huge tasks
  • Think: how can we collect evidence that supports student learning?

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/

Fair Is Not Always Equal: Communication Matters

Online learning and uncertainty are stressful for students, parents and teachers. It is crucial to communicate always with supportive language, in order to ensure learners can get back on track if they fall behind. Some common causes of stress in online learning: 

  • Awarding zeroes for work not completed yet. This is not allowed. 
  • Using direct "deficit" language ("you are behind", "your work is late") or statistics without a clear solution to re-engage.
  • Expecting total completion of past missed tasks. For some students under challenging conditions this can make them fall further behind. Focus on how to move forwards. 

 

UPDATED Sample email/message to support students:
 

Dear Students, as we think about the rest of year, let's look ahead to see how we can finish well. 

If you have had had challenges over the last couple of months, and have not been able to complete some assignments, we can move on.

Here are some key tasks coming up ______________. We will have sessions online to help you be successful. 
 

We hope to see you as soon as possible. For now, we are here online to help you learn.