Assessment
Natalie uses both formative and summative assessment to determine how well her students are meeting the learning objectives, how effective her teaching is, and what to teach next. Natalie believes in using authentic and performance based assessments for students to demonstrate their learning.
Student Growth Objective
While student teaching at Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts, Natalie worked with the ninth grade class to conduct a condensed Student Growth Objective process. She used photographs and videos to capture students’ performance during diagnostic, formative, and summative performance assessments. Goals for this ninth grade class included proper body alignment, upper-lower connectivity during rond de jambes, and use of port de bras; addressing NJCCCS Standard for Visual and Performing Arts 1.3.12.A.3. Natalie was proud as 90% of students in the class met their target score and the range between the highest and lowest scoring students from the diagnostic to summative assessment decreased from 25 to 16 points.
Click here to view Natalie’s AchieveNJ Student Growth Objective Form.
Click here to see the rubric and scoring tool Natalie developed and used during the performance assessments.
Click here to see analyzed data, charts, and graphs including diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment data.
Click here to see Natalie’s reflection on conducting this Student Growth Objective Process.
Performance-Based Assessments Brochure
This brochure was as part of Natalie's Assessments in Special Education course at SUNY Brockport. It was made for an intended audience of fourth grade classroom students and their families. This brochure explains what performance-based assessments are, why they are should be used in the classroom, which is equally true of the dance classroom, and where families can learn more about performance-based assessments.
To view this brochure click here.
Rubric for Dance Research Project/WebQuest
This assessment was part of a WebQuest that guided students through researching information on Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, a founder of tap dance, as well as learning how to design a flyer in Microsoft Publisher. Their final task was to design a flyer, assessed with the rubric pictured left, informing their classmates and community who Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was and persuading them to attend a fictional performance of his.
To view the full WebQuest click here to visit the site.
To view just the task and rubric for this dance research project click here.
Pre-assessment to Post-assessment Growth: Recording Observations of Plant Growth Learning Segment
With first grade students, Natalie taught a two day science lesson on recording observations as the beginning of a unit on plants. The first day began with a pre-assessment and from here Natalie determined how much prior knowledge students had on seeds, plants, and the life cycle of plants before planning for the second day of the lesson. This particular artifact is a PowerPoint Natalie shared with students in her Diverse Learners in Science course at SUNY Brockport. The PowerPoint focuses on assessing and reflecting on student growth during their pre-assessment, classwork, and homework as well as collecting data and reflecting on parent feedback from a survey sent home.
Note: The skills, analysis, and reflection Natalie used in determining student progress and parental satisfaction in this science lesson are easily transferable to learning and assessment in the dance classroom.
To view this PowerPoint, with additional notes and reflections for each slide, click here. To view a PDF of this PowerPoint click here.