Maps, Rubrics and Portfolios

In this new entry, you will find more about formative assessment, specifically formative-assessment tools. You'll be able to find more about maps, rubrics and portfolios. 

I got the information from some readings that my teacher provided me with in class. The readings are concept maps, rubrics, and portfolios. 

We use assessment tools to measure how much our students have learned up to a particular point in time, and formative assessments help us, teachers, to be able to do something if there are problems understanding a topic because it happens when the learning is still happening and it gives us time to modify our future instruction.

Formative assessment has tools like:

• Concept maps
• Rubrics
• Porfolios

Concept maps are tools that are useful to construct, organize, and communicate knowledge and they promote active learning because they involve students to pursuit their own knowledge. They are visual presentations that explicate ideas with key concepts by arranging them into topics and subtopics. 

Arslan (2006) suggests thatt there are three things that students should do when making a concept map:

1.  Write key concepts inside shapes
2. Link lines to show the connection between the concepts
3. Write link phrases to describe the relations between them.

There are different types of concept maps:

• Anticipatory guides. Students have to respond to several teacher-generated statements or questions
• Central and Hierarchical maps. They are structured around a central topic and the information is presented in order of importance.
• Comparative maps. As its name says, it exists a comparison between two or more concepts
• Directional maps. The information is presented in a sequence as a timeline or a flowchart.
• Pictorial or Landscape maps. The information is presented with pictures, landscapes or symbols.
• Semantic maps. They are used to introduce, review and clarify previously learned and newly introduced information.
• Serial maps. They are a series of evolving maps that students can create about a single topic over a specified period of time. 
• Spider maps. The information is presented in a hierarchical and interrelated way.
• Systems. The information is organized in parts and each one of them represents an input and output.
• Webbing. The information is arranged in groups and sub-groups that show relation between them. 

Rubrics are another type of formative assessment tool  and it sets the expectations and desired outcomes. They describe the different levels of quality from proficient to poor for a specific project. 

They provide feedback to both, teachers and students, and they also provide detailed information about students' strengths and weaknesses. 

There are three types of rubrics:

• Analytical rubrics: They separate assignments into individual parts and evaluate each part separately.  
• Holistic rubrics: They evaluate the overall assignment as a whole. 
• Scoring and Primary rubrics: They are used by instructors to assign grades and they supply guidelines that describe the characteristics of the different levels of performance. 

And last but not least, portfolios. A portfolio is a collection of individual students' work which documents their performance and their growth over an specific period of time. They emphazise participation, engagement and understanding . They also give the opportunity to practice peer review by analyzing other classmates' work. 

The different types of portfolios are:

• Developmental. They document students' progress in a particular class throughout the school year. 
• Proficiency. Their goal is to prove mastery in a specific area.
• Showcase. They document only students' best work.
• College admission. Some colleges ask their participants for this type of portfolios to have a look of their capabilities. 
• Employment skills. They demonstrate an applicant's job readiness.
• Writing portfolios. One of the first uses of portfolios in education.
• Electronic portfolios. As their name describes, they are potrfolios that are stored on a server or CD-ROM and students can add images, audios or even video content.

And here is a video I created talking more about the topic: 

In conclusion, these formative assessment tools have similarities and differences, and also advantages and disadvantages. And we need to know how to used them, in order to serve an specific purpose, to help us assess our students and being able to give them feedback at the same time as we receive it.