Use Assessment

How can you better prepare seniors for their culminating event?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2013-05-21T08:43:36+09:00

It's 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon. Each of the 46 seniors has just completed the final part of the senior culminating event—a 20-minute presentation to a teacher panel regarding biblical analysis of and response to an issue of his/her choosing (for example, child displacement, video game addiction, nuclear proliferation, media bias, and obesity in geriatrics).

You were on a teacher panel for presentations on video game addiction. You enjoyed seeing each student shine; you enjoyed seeing each senior using his/her learning to impact the world for Christ. As you finish your written evaluations, you wonder, "How can high school teachers better prepare seniors for this culminating event?"

Good question. Here's a suggestion—backwards design each part of the culminating assessment (paper, project, presentation). In other words, develop papers, projects, and presentations for students in grades 6-11 that developmentally prepare students for the senior culminating event.

If seniors are to write a 8-15 page paper in which they use research and a biblical perspective* to analyze and respond to an issue:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing them for this culminating paper? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating paper?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of papers would they need to write in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating paper? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How many pages would each paper be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the papers?

If seniors are to do a hands-on project that contributes toward a biblical* solution for their issue:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing them for this culminating project? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating project?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of projects would they need to create in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating project? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How big would the project be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the projects?

If seniors are to do a 20-minute presentation in which they use research and biblical perspective* to analyze and respond to an issue:

What classes should be involved in preparing them for this culminating paper? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students for this culminating presentation?)
What standards should be addressed?
What types of presentations would they need to give in grades 9-11 to make this a truly culminating presentation? (What would the prompts look like? What type of research would be involved? How would they use biblical perspective? How many minutes would each presentation be?)
What rubrics should be used for evaluating the presentations?

*If seniors are to use a biblical perspective in their papers, projects, and presentations:

What subject areas should be involved in preparing students to apply a biblical perspective? (How can you help teachers in these subject areas take ownership for preparing students to apply a biblical perspective?)
What standards should be addressed?
What biblical frameworks and biblical principles (in each subject area) would it be helpful for students to be grounded in by the end of grade 11?
What skills do students need for researching and applying a biblical perspective? How will students learn these?

How do you prepare your students for an assessment?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2013-05-08T08:03:38+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Kim wants her students to make connections, including connections between God's world and God's Word. So, at the end of her course, she gives her students the following assessment:

Give a presentation (5-8 min. individual; 8-10 min. group) on something from 2nd semester English class that grabbed your attention in which you demonstrate 3 connections (literature, Bible, life), using your project as support. (Your project is worth about 1 week’s work / 5% of semester grade.)

One way she prepares her students for this assessment is by providing them with a list of the Biblical principles they studied in each unit, the questions they reflected on during the course, and questions about creation-fall-redemption-restoration framework they used. She does this to help her students review what they learned, use what they learned, and avoid prooftexting. Here's what she shared with her students:

Biblical principles we studied in English 10:
1. Meeting Image Bearers: Introduction

1.1. Because people are in the image of God (Gen. 1.27; 9.6; Jas. 3.9), we are creative (Gen. 2.19; Gen. 4.21-22; Exod. 35.30-36.1), communicative (Gen. 2.20-24; Exod. 4:10-12; Jer. 1.4-9) truth-seekers.
1.2. God charges us with developing the potentials of creation, including language. This is called the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1.26-28; Ps. 8.5-8; Heb. 2.5-9).
1.3. All truth is God’s truth: truth people can deduce from creation (Ps. 19.1-6, Rom. 1.19-20, Rom. 2.14-16) as well as truth God reveals in scripture (Ps. 19.7-11, 2 Tim. 4.16-17).
1.4. The Bible is the clearest revelation of God’s truth, the touchstone for all other truth claims (Isa. 8.20; Acts 17.11; 2 Tim. 3.16-17).

2. Restoring Shalom: Cry, the Beloved Country. God calls us to join him in His work of restoration (person with self/God/others/creation). (Mic. 6.8, Isa. 1.17, Jer. 22.16, Hos. 6.6, Matt. 23.23)

3. Disregarding Human Dignity: Night

3.1. Because people are made in the image of God (Gen. 1.26-27), every human being is worthy of honor and respect and should not be murdered (Gen. 9.6) or cursed (Jas. 3.9).
3.2. Because the Bible tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must seek the good of anyone it is within our power to help (Lev. 19.18, Matt. 22.39, Mark 12.31, Luke10.27, Rom.13.9, Gal. 5.14, Jas. 2.8).

4. Being Image Bearers: 1st semester project/presentation. Because speech is a gift of God (Ex. 4.11-12, Jer. 1.6-7, Acts 7.22), and we are called to serve others (I Cor. 10.24, 12.12-26; Mark 10.42-45; Phil. 2.1-11), a Christian speaker seeks to serve her neighbor/audience.

5. Weightlifting with Language: Grammar—As a person redeemed by God (John 3.16), you can learn and use different languages (Acts 2.5-12) to serve God and others (Gen. 39-41, 45.7; Acts 7.22; Dan. 1.3-4) by reducing alienation and restoring shalom.

6. Dancing with Language: Poetry

6.1. God values poetry: a large part of the Old Testament is poetry. (All of Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon; most of Job and Ecclesiastes; vast portions of the prophetic books. Even the books of law and history contain passages of poetry.)
6.2. Poetry can communicate truth. Paul quotes it on several occasions to connect with his audience and support his point (Acts 17.28, 1 Cor. 15.33, Tit. 1.12).
6.3. Anything that sounds like truth must be checked against God’s Word—even if it comes from a Christian source (Acts 17.11). The writer of Acts praises the Jews of Berea because everything they heard from Paul about the gospel, they checked against the scriptures to see if it was true.

7. Experiencing the World: Short stories—Human search for belonging is ultimately fulfilled in God (Psa. 90.1, Phil. 3.20, Heb. 11.8-10, 13-16).

8. Finding Myself: A Doll's House

8.1. Every individual has value (Gen. 1:27, Psa. 139, Matt. 10.31, Luke 12.7, Rom. 12.3-9).
8.2. Secure in her worth in God's eyes, the Christian follows Jesus' example of service, humility, submission (I Cor. 10.24, 12.12-26; Mark 10.42-45; Phil. 2.1-11; Eph. 5.21).

9. Finding Love: A Midsummer Night's Dream

9.1. Romantic love is a good gift from God when used according to directions (Gen. 2.18-25, Song of Solomon, John 2.1-2, Eph. 5.25-32) but devastating when used otherwise (Dinah, Gen.34; Samson, Judges 12 & 16; Amnon & Tamar, 2 Sam. 13).
9.2. The love God intends for a man and woman is a lifetime determination of the will to seek the good of the other person (Gen. 2.20-25, Matt. 19.3-9 [esp. The Message], Mal. 2.13-16, Eph. 5.22-33, I Cor. 13). Are you becoming the type of person capable of this type of determination?

Course questions that framed English 10:

Who am I?
Who is my neighbor?
What’s wrong with the world?
What is the significance of words?

To analyze something using the creation/fall/redemption/restoration framework, pick 1 or more of the following questions:

What was God’s intention for this thing when He originally created it?
How has this thing been affected by the Fall? How do humans misuse or abuse it? What difference does Jesus make? What reason is there for hope?
How can we be involved in God’s work of restoring this to His original intention?

These essays make me smile

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2013-04-12T08:50:39+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, celebrates what her students are learning:

I want my students to understand the words they hear. I want them to understand the song lyrics they hear, especially in terms of the theme and how poetry enhances the theme.

So 2 weeks ago, I asked them to write an essay on the following: “Your task is to write an article for a Christian teen magazine analyzing the poetry and truth of the lyrics of a song of your choice.”

It’s now Friday afternoon. I’m grading those essays. And I’m smiling.

I’m pleased because my students learned how the poetry of a song lyric affects the theme. One student wrote on the reflection that he handed in with his essay, “As a fan…I [previously had]…not noticed the depth of the song…. I myself learned that poems/songs still have deep meaning these days.”

I’m especially pleased because my students used creation-fall-redemption-restoration to critique the theme, for example:

“The poet may not be aware of it, but the only rescue to a broken situation on Earth is through the hope God provides….”
“Because of Christ’s act of redemption for us...we are able to forget these past wrongs and move forward; just like Bedingfield’s lyrics say, we have a blank page before us.”
“The lyrics of Macklemore’s song ‘Wings’ allude to the meaning behind brand-name shoes…. Society continues its attempts at materialistic satisfaction, which can’t restore the broken relationship with God.”

In 3 more months, my 48 students will be leaving my class. And in 2 more years after that, they’ll be leaving CAJ. By God’s grace, they will be equipped to impact the world for Him.

Student reflects on biblical perspective

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2012-07-13T15:50:02+09:00

Anneke Essenburg, a recent graduate of Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on Biblical perspective assignments and questions.

Here are 8 assignments I have had that helped me to understand and apply a Biblical perspective:

Project: My friend and I wrote a narration mimicking Sophie’s World that explained the Christian ethical system.
Project: As part of a semester presentation, I had to actually live out the biblical principle I used in my presentation in one specific way.
Project: In groups, we created posters that analyzed different worldviews’ perspective of a crime.
Essay: I wrote several papers on different philosophical topics (e.g., souls and free will), explaining and supporting my view.
Essay: I analyzed a piece of media (first a song and then a movie) to discern its worldview.
Discussion: My classmates and I watched short video clips of people reacting to different situations (e.g. an unconscious homeless man and a child bride) and then discussed which ethical system each person acted by.
Debate: My partner and I debated another pair over several topics (e.g., smoking and lying) for two minutes each, being randomly appointed to the pro or con side for each argument.
Presentation: In a group, we presented on an ethical system, including elements such as a short skit enacting that system and a comparison between that system and Christianity.

Here are 7 questions that these assignments pushed me to answer and that all high school students should consider:

What do you believe and why?
How will you live out your beliefs?
What do other people think and why?
Why do people act in certain ways?
If you thought in a different way, how would you act?
How would different perspectives view one event?
What are the similarities and differences between the way I think and other people think?

Students make connections in essays

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2012-01-21T15:24:56+09:00

Check out how Kim Essenburg's English 10 students apply a biblical perspective in their essays about Night, a Holocaust memoir:

"Selfishness, pride, and the desire for power are the driving forces for one to ignore, insult, hurt, and kill others. That is why Christians have been called to carry out the only thing that can rise above these troubles and give hope to life: love."
"Within my own life I can see myself disregarding others' importance compared to what I want to accomplish and do. The most clear example for me is when friends ask me for help on homework. Some of the time I find myself thinking that as long as I understand it, it's fine; what a waste of time to teach. In these times I am placing myself and my own convenience over someone else's learning. I am stating that they are not worth my time and effort....In his letter to the Philippians Paul clearly states, 'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves' (New International Version, Phil. 2.3).”

Students make connections in presentations

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2012-03-02T14:21:00+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, shares about presentations her students gave on human rights, morality, and taking action.

S, T, C, and K gave a presentation on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. When another student asked about their personal application, S said that we can't right now do anything for people in Zimbabwe, but the most important thing is to learn empathy for the people around us. Then we will become people who will someday do something for people across the globe.

M, J, and T gave a presentation on the disregard of women's human dignity. They had started with the introduction to Half the Sky I had available for jigsawing, and each of them researched abuse of women in a given part of the world. They did a great job and were quite informed and passionate.

They had quite a full-orbed biblical perspective, including that the subjugation of women to men was a part of the curse, that the creation story includes the statement that both male and female are equally in God's image, and that the word for helper that women were created to be is also used of God as a help to us—so not necessarily subordinate. They also told their classmates in no uncertain terms that while sexist jokes are funny, in the long run, they communicate that women are inferior and are not appreciated.

Their concrete application, though, was to write "thankful" at the top of their agenda for each day of this past week, to remind themselves to be thankful for all the opportunities they have as females in a developed nation that others don't have. They had a powerful quote about a black man knowing the fear of walking down a dark street in a white neighborhood, and a white man knowing the fear of walking down a dark street in a black neighborhood, but a woman knows the fear of walking down a dark street in any neighborhood, because it is someone else's territory.

C, B, S, and K tackled the tough topic of morality. They ended up saying all humans share a common sense of morality, but we use our frontal and prefrontal cortex to decide to do what we know is right or what will benefit us.

For their personal application they each talked about being metacognitive about that decision-making process in themselves—whether it was S sitting on the train after an exhausting wrestling practice and struggling with whether or not to give up his seat for an old woman who was having problems standing, or C making excuses to himself for why he didn't have to pick up trash he saw on the ground next to the trash can when it was not one of his mornings to be on the job.

A, M, K, and E presented on the topic of taking action—not being a bystander. A had a lovely personal application. She said an old people's home was recently built near her house. Before, she had just complained about the noise of construction and then ignored the new residents when they moved in. But because of this project, she had started saying hi to them when she saw them on the street. And there's one old woman who she always talks to now. M also told about trying to speak up for someone who was being dissed in a group, though she didn't feel terribly effective.

The audience asked questions like, "Does it ever happen that taking action makes things worse?" A asked for clarification, "Do you mean for the person intervening, or for the person being targeted?" Several girls answered about the person intervening that in a fallen world, yes, often it does make things worse. But that shouldn't stop us because it's what God wants us to do.

Students learn from writing essays

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2011-01-14T11:55:18+09:00

On the top of the final draft of the human dignity/Night paper that 10th graders handed in today, I asked them to reflect on 1 thing they had learned in writing the paper. (See below for the paper prompt.) It was fun to read the reflections. Here are some of the things they said they learned:

I learned that doing devotions can help form my Biblical perspective in both my life and in essays.
Writing this essay really got me thinking. It scares me that so many people passively disregard human dignity. What's scarier is that I'm one of them.
I was able to acknowledge and see clearly how we so often do put others down to try to feel better about ourselves, but how that actually has the opposite effect. I re-learned once again that in God alone can we truly know (not only feel) that we are valuable.
A Christian perspective helps any essay bring its points to a satisfying conclusion.
I have known the words "human dignity” for really long but never knew what it truly meant till I had to write this essay.
I learned that we don't have to kill millions of people to disregard human dignity. It happens every day when we gossip or bully.

Paper prompt (750-1000 words): Part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others. Analyze this tendency, using examples from literature, history, current events, and your own experience, and articulate a Christian response. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment. Quote Night and the Bible at least three times each.

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Students give great presentation

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2011-01-08T14:48:28+09:00

I’m excited. I'm watching Ria, Christina, Riyako, and Yukiko (4 of my English 10 students) give a presentation. They're using a display (see photo above) to explain how sin affects us. Specifically, they're describing how war (as depicted in Elie Wiesel's Night) results in hatred, a loss of human dignity, and a loss of faith. Presentations like this make teaching worth it!

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan

Use assessment to help your students connect God's world and Word

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-10-23T14:07:00+09:00

Assessment helps your students learn. Assessment can also help your students connect God’s world and Word. Watch this video to learn 5 things about using assessment:

Want to work with your colleagues to better use assessment? If so, then purchase Use Assessment (US$25), a discussion-based kit with 7 sessions.

These 7 sessions will help you…

Evaluate and improve your use of assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Analyze and explain how assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Identify and explain what types of assessment can help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Make one assessment even better.
Prepare your students for and give an assessment that requires your students to connect God’s world and Word.
Use your assessment data to help your students connect God’s world and Word.
Increase your commitment to using assessment to help your students connect God’s world and Word

Download a sample session.

Purchase Use Assessment (US$25). This kit is 1 of a 4-part series:

Help Your Students Connect God’s World and Word
Use Assessment
Use Questions
Meet Student Learning Needs

How committed are you to using assessment to help students make connections?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2011-05-11T20:35:00+09:00

We know. We know our real level of commitment is best demonstrated by our practice. So, we know that the real commitment level of the following teachers is not high:

I’m a second grade language arts teacher who is committed to students writing well. Each year, my students write 1 journal entry.
I’m a middle school Bible teacher who is committed to students memorizing God’s Word. Each year, my students memorize 2 verses.
I’m a high school science teacher who is committed to students doing labs. Each year, my students do 2 labs.

In Christian education, we're committed to helping our students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. We know that assessment helps students make connections. So, we're committed to using assessment to help our students make these connections.

What’s your real level of commitment to using assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? To determine your response, reflect on the following questions:

How many assessments do you give each year? (Include things like daily work, presentations, projects, essays, and quizzes, and tests.)
How many of these assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What percentage of your assessments requires students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
How committed are you really?

Want to raise your real commitment level? Give more assessments that require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

Use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

How can you use your Biblical perspective assessment data?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2011-03-18T20:34:06+09:00

You designed your Biblical perspective assessment for your unit on short stories: “For one of the short stories you read, write a 500-word essay in which you identify a theme, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate it, and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective.”

You prepared your students for this Biblical perspective assessment. You helped them identify themes. You gave them opportunities to analyze how authors use foreshadowing, irony, mood, plot, symbolism, characterization, and setting to communicate themes. You gave direct instruction on relevant Biblical principles and supporting verses, which you then had them apply to the short stories they were reading. And then you had your students write rough drafts, on which you gave feedback.

Earlier this week, you collected final drafts of the essay, used a rubric to score them, and provided written feedback.

Question: How can you use your Biblical perspective assessment data?

If you want your students to better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, I suggest that you:

Give your students time in class to read your comments, review their rubric scores, and think about 1 thing they can do to make better connections.
Review your data and ask yourself, “How can I help my students make better connections?”

Use your assessment data. Help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

How exemplary are your Biblical perspective assessments?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2011-01-20T09:30:32+09:00

To get an idea of how exemplary your Biblical perspective assessments are, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Definitely • 3 Usually • 2 Sort of • 1 Rarely
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are standards-based.
___ My assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments give students opportunities to make choices.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are rigorous.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are even worthy to be taught to.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are student-friendly in terms of vocabulary and length (prompts are 75 words or less).
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are exemplary assessments (SCORES).

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about my data?
What can I do improve my Biblical perspective assessments?
What will I do?

Use assessment. Develop an exemplary assessment. Today.

Do your assessments require students to connect their lives and what the Bible teaches?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-11-19T09:29:29+09:00

You: Got a minute?

Me: Yeah. What’s up?

You: I just had a great conversation after class with Josh, a senior in my English class. Do you know Josh?

Me: Yes, I do. He’s on the wrestling team, right?

You: Yes. Well, I told him that I really wanted to help him and the other seniors connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. And I asked him what I could do to help.

Me: What’d he say?

You: He looked at me and sat there thinking. I tried another approach that tied into wrestling. He’s on the wrestling team, you know. I asked him, “If I wanted to help you make connections as well as you want to wrestle in the tournament, what would I need to do?”

And he said, “You need to help me connect my life to what we’re studying and what the Bible teaches.”

Me: I can see why you said you just had a good conversation. What do you think about Josh’s emphasis on tying in life experience?

You: I think it’s a good idea. I mean, things make more sense to me when I can make connections to my life. So, I think things would make more sense to my students. I think they’d better understand what they’re studying and what the Bible has to say about what they’re studying.

Me: Makes sense. What are you doing to do?

You: I think I’ll put a “life” component into my next writing assessment. Instead of having my students analyze a designated poem and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective, I’ll have them analyze a favorite song lyric and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective. And if I let them know that they’ll be analyzing a favorite lyric at the end of the unit, they’ll probably pay more attention when we work on literary conventions and so forth. And they’ll probably be more vested in thinking through what the Bible has to say about their favorite lyrics.

Bottom line: Use assessment to require your students to connect what they study, what the Bible teaches, and their lives. Today.

Do your assessments require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-09-16T20:27:38+09:00

Me: Yes or No—Do your assessments require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I can see why you’re asking that question. I mean, I did say that I want more of my students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Assessment is way to get them to make connections. But some of my students already make connections, even though I don’t ask.

Me: So, are you saying your assessments don’t require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I’m saying that some of my students already make connections. Why can’t all my students just do that? Do I really have to require them to make connections on my assessments?

Me: I’m sorry. I’m not sure I got an answer to my question. Do your assessments require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: Well, no. My assessments don’t require my students to make those connections. They don’t actually have to make those connections in order to do a good job on my assessments. They could even get an A without making any connections.

Me: You said that you wanted to help your students to make connections and that assessment is a way to do that. What might happen if you developed an assessment that required your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Joel: I guess more of my students would make connections. I mean, they’d have to if they wanted to do well—and I think my students want to do well. If I required connections in my assessment, I’d probably spend more class time on helping kids make connections. And if I spent more time helping kids make connections, more kids would make connections.

Me: So, what’s next?

Joel: Could you show me some assessment prompts that require students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?

Me: Sure. Take a look at these 3 prompts:

Social Studies 6: Teach your classmates about the aspect of ancient Egyptian culture/history you researched. Show what the Bible teaches about it and how it connects to you.
Science 8: Give a five-minute presentation on a piece of electricity-related technology in which you present the electrical device, the science of how it works, and a response to the following questions: How has this device impacted society? What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?
English 10: Compare/contrast how 2 characters from Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom and apply that to a current event or personal situation.

Joel: I teach 8th grade, so seeing the Science 8 assessment prompt helps. Putting in something that requires students to make connections doesn’t look that difficult. The Science 8 teacher put in “What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?” I think I could do something like that. And I think that if I require my students to make connections, I’ll make progress toward my goal of having my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Bottom line: Use assessment to require your students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

How can you more effectively use assessment?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-07-11T00:24:00+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches, complete the following self-assessment for 1 class you teach: ___________________ (name of class). Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale: 4 Strongly Agree • 3 Agree • 2 Disagree • 1 Strongly Disagree

___ My assessments require my students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ My assessments require my students to connect what they study, what the Bible teaches, and their lives.
___ My Biblical perspective assessments are exemplary assessments.
___ I use my Biblical perspective assessment data to help my students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.
___ I am committed to using assessment to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What excites/concerns me about my data?
What can I do to more effectively use assessment to help my students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches?
What will I do?

Use assessment to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Today.

*Here are additional resources that can help you use assessment to target Biblical perspective:
Tutorials
Videos
Self-assessments
Testimonials

What fun to see evidence of student learning!

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-03-08T23:51:12+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on student learning results:

I'm just reading 10th grade answers to the last question on the short story test: “What is something significant you learned this unit that you did not have an opportunity yet to demonstrate on this test?” If you're short on time, at least read the first quote.

(The big question for the unit was “How does fiction tell truth?” We explored it by reading Tolstoy’s “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”, Kafka’s “The Bucket Rider,” Camus’s “The Guest,” and Mori Ogai’s “Under Reconstruction.”)

Some student answers had to do with worldviews:
“I learned that it is important to understand others before trying to be understood. In a Christian community, we assume that everyone holds a Christian worldview, and we discuss topics according to that standard. Yet the world is full of nonChristians too. We study non-Christian worldviews so that we may understand people who do not believe in Christianity and may talk effectively to them. We can only give the right defense and impact others if we know what they are thinking.”

“I never knew the Bible actually said enjoy the present moment. That makes me happy that God created things for us to enjoy (without putting them before him). I hadn’t realized that till now. I look forward to better enjoying the moments that God gives me, but making sure I don’t turn it into an idol that I put before God.”

“Through this unit, I learned that all authors, despite their worldviews, show a part of truth (the Fall). Thus, even in a Christian school, it’s good to read stories written by other authors. It puts us into their shoes and can show how bleak the world may seem to them.”

“Through existentialism, I realized I was a bit like that and sometimes wondered about afterlife and life’s meaning. After reading stories like this, I figured out that we need to seek meaning through God and act to what we think is right.”

Students connect memoir, life, and Biblical teaching

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-03-16T20:47:00+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects her assessment results:

The Holocaust memoir Night grabs my 10th graders. Maybe because the narrator is their age when he suffers such horrific cruelty. Maybe because it’s real—my students are face to face with the Fall, with how people can degrade one another.

Then they begin to make connections. To the way South Koreans view North Koreans. To the way laughing at another can make them feel better about themselves. To what the Bible teaches about who people are and how we are to treat them. Here are some of their connections:

“Whether it is in the form of murder, bullying, or stealing, people are being treated with less dignity than they deserve....as Christians, we must honor one another as created in God's image and love both our neighbors and our oppressors.”
“People always say that they want to make the world a better place, but they think too big or they don’t think at all or say that’s awful and sit and do nothing. But...one specific thing that I can do is to stop criticizing people...and…‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Mark 12.31, Matt. 22.39).”

9th graders apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-05-18T08:39:00+09:00

At Christian Academy in Japan, Bible 9 students applied creation-fall-redemption-restoration to a variety of topics, including words and beauty. To think through how to do this, some students found it helpful to reflect on key questions.

Students connect Holocaust memoir and Biblical teaching

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-11-19T17:30:41+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on student learning results:

Here are sample student answers to the final question on my English 10 test on Night, a Holocaust memoir by Elie Wiesel: What else did you learn this unit that you did not have a chance to show on the test?

“Night changed my view of the sufferings of others and made me realize my sinful nature.”
“I am blessed. I cannot repeat that enough even to realize it myself. Reading Night shocked me, and it made me realize God’s presence in my life. Now that I am more exposed to this realization, I feel like I want to do more for God and His people.”
“God does try to help the suffering people by sending his people to help. He uses His people….That means that God could choose me or anybody to help the suffering. All we have to do is be ready to help.”

Students learn to value having "right" relationships

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-11-14T14:25:12+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects her assessment results:

It’s 8:20 on a Thursday morning, 10 minutes before class begins. Four 10th graders (an Indian, a Japanese, a Korean, and an American) are talking loudly. So loudly that I’m getting distracted from writing my lesson outline on the board. They are discussing (in Japanese) how to say “9:45 a.m.” (in Spanish). There must be a Spanish test today....

I love seeing these diverse students working together. It reminds me that God calls us to have right relationships with Him, others, ourselves, and creation.

Such “right” relationships, of course, don’t always happen. For example, my students sometimes fragment into groups based on language (English, Japanese, or Korean). To encourage my students to value and to have “right” relationships, I had them read Cry, the Beloved Country and focus on God’s peace (shalom). Here’s what they learned:

“From now on, I will be quick to forgive....”
“In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country there are characters from all walks of life—rich, poor, important, and unknown. However, they each do what is in their power to help restore the brokenness around them, and this is a powerful message for us today.”
“Each person’s actions lay a brick in the bridge we’re trying to build, the bridge we call shalom.”
“God is the ultimate source of shalom and without Him, nothing can be restored.... Jesus was crucified…to restore shalom, and He is the first Restorer. After He ascended to heaven, who was going to carry on His mission to restore shalom?…Christians.”

Student apply Biblical perspective on introductory unit test

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-09-09T14:41:51+09:00

Kim Essenburg (English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan) reflects on her assessment results from her introductory unit test:

I just finished marking my introductory unit tests. I’m pleased with the results. Students understood the unit’s central idea—that as God’s image bearers, human beings are creative, communicative truth-seekers.

I included a 25-point essay question about the central idea on the 100-point unit test: Discuss the Cultural Mandate and its significance to this unit. Since it was the first test of the year and since I wanted to test their understanding of the central point (and not their writing and thinking skills), I decided to break the essay into 4 short-answer questions:

What is the Cultural Mandate? (2 points)
How is it rooted in who humans are as being made in the image of God? (4 points)
How is it connected to literature as part of creation? (4 points)
Give 3 examples of authors we read carrying out the Cultural Mandate (15 points).

Here’s a sample student response to “Discuss the Cultural Mandate and its significance to this unit (25 points)”:

(1) What is the Cultural Mandate? (2 points)
The Cultural Mandate says, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it.” We are to develop the social world (schools, governments, families, law, etc.) and use what we can from God’s creation to create culture and civilization.

(2) How is it rooted in who humans are as being made in the image of God? (4 points)
Like God, we are creative beings—because we are in His image. Therefore, it is in our nature to desire to create things using our imaginations—and thus develop the various cultures in the world

(3) How is it connected to literature as part of creation? (4 points)
God gave us the gift of language and the ability to read and write. So when authors write, they are doing what God intended—using language to spread their thoughts and ideas throughout the world.

(4) Give 3 examples of authors we read carrying out the Cultural Mandate (15 points).
Confucius’ ideas became a very big part of Chinese culture and have shaped it for 2,000 years. His teachings guide people in how they should live. Confucius used the ability of speaking and sharing his knowledge to influence mass numbers of people.

Allende said she wrote so people would love each other more. This shows her desire to improve the relationships between mankind. Through writing about experiences people may have in common, she hopes to bring people together.

Marquez was called the master of magical realism because he was the first author to use it a lot. In this way, he used his ability to imagine and create something which added to the world’s literature and language.

Student applies Biblical perspective to geography

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-03-17T07:59:00+09:00

Want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study? If so, ask good questions on assessments. For example, ask “Why is it important to study ___?”

An 8th grade social studies teacher put this question on a geography quiz. Here’s a student response to “Why is it important to study geography?”

Geography helps us to learn more about where we live, where people around us live, and opens our eyes to where God has placed us. I believe it is very important to study geography especially since we are in a culturally diverse school. Learning geography helps us to build bridges with those around us. It opens ways and opportunities to understand where those around us have come from. It also shows us there is a bigger world out there, not just our own that revolves around school. Studying geography helps us see God's power and helps us through our lives.

To get started with using assessment, take this self-assessment

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-07-27T23:29:38+09:00

You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to use assessment.

Question: How can you get started?

Answer: By taking the following self-assessment. Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

___ I understand how assessment impacts student application of a Biblical perspective.
___ I know what type of assessment to use to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.

___ I know what makes a good assessment good.
___ The assessments I give my students are good.
___ I work to make my assessments even better.

___ My students proficiently apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.
___ My students apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration to what they study.
___ My students get sufficient practice in applying a Biblical perspective to what they study.

___ The rubrics I use to score my assessments are good.
___ I use my rubrics effectively.
___ I use my assessment data to modify instruction.

___ I use assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I have a clear vision for using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I want to learn more about using assessment to help my students apply a Biblical perspective.
___ I am committed to helping my students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
Which items would it be helpful to learn more about?
What will I do?

Additional resources:

Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
Use assessment
To learn more about using assessment, explore these 12 questions

To learn more about using assessment, explore these 12 questions

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-07-28T11:11:31+09:00

You want your students to apply a Biblical perspective to what they study. You’ve heard that assessment can help. So, you want to learn more. Good.

Question: How can you learn more about using assessment?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 12 questions.

How does assessment impact student learning?
What type of assessment can you use?
What makes a good assessment good?
How good is your assessment?
How can you make your assessment even better?
How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?
How much practice do your students need?
What makes a good rubric good?
How can you use a rubric?
How can you use assessment data?
What's your vision for using assessment?
How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn more about using assessment?" The real question is "How will you use assessment help your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study?”

Additional resources:

Videos: Teach and assess Biblical perspective, Biblical perspective assessment helps, Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective,
Teacher testimonials regarding using assessment
Self-assessment: To get started with using assessment, take this self-assessment
Tutorial: Use assessment to help students understand and apply a Biblical perspective
Use assessment

How good is your assessment?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-07-28T10:56:42+09:00

You want to use assessment to help your students develop a Biblical worldview. You want to use assessment to help your students connect what they study, the Bible, and their lives. Good. Just make sure your assessment is a good assessment.

Question: How good is your assessment?
Answer: To answer that question, consider the following 5 questions:

To what extent is your assessment Student-friendly in terms of vocabulary and length (75 words or less)? Your assessment needs to be student-friendly because students are taking the assessment. Your assessment doesn’t need to be teacher-friendly because the teacher isn’t taking the assessment. What do I mean by teacher friendly? I mean the prompt is written for the teacher. I’ve seen prompts only the teacher could really understand—500 words with no clear point.
To what extent does your assessment require your students to Connect content/skills, Biblical principle(s), and life? Don't give an assessment that leaves things disconnected. That’s like putting chocolate chip cookie ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate chips) in a bowl, but not stirring them together to make dough. Which would you rather eat: chocolate chip cookie dough or unmixed ingredients?
To what extent does your assessment give Opportunities for student choice, as appropriate? Giving your students the opportunity to make choices unleashes student learning and potential. I’ve seen this repeatedly. So have you.
To what extent is your assessment Rigorous?A rigorous assessment inspires student learning. In my experience, students enjoy challenging assessments and don’t enjoy easy assessments.
To what extent is your assessment Even worthy of being taught to? Prepare your students by teaching to the assessment. Just make sure your assessment is actually worthy of being taught to!

Use assessment to help your students develop a Biblical worldview. Give them a good assessment. Today.

Empower others to use assessment to help students apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2010-01-11T07:54:00+09:00

Here's a set of DRAW questions you can use for a discussion of “How can you use assessment to help your students better apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration?”

Define: Get the facts defined.

Which parts of creation-fall-redemption-restoration do you tend to assess?
What are your student learning results?

Respond: Get the facts responded to in terms of feelings/experiences.
What excites/concerns you about assessing student application of creation-fall-redemption-restoration?

Analyze: Get the facts, feelings, and experiences analyzed.

How does assessment impact student learning?
How does assessment impact student application of creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
How does assessment of student application of creation-fall-redemption-restoration impact your teaching?
What helps you assess student application of creation-fall-redemption-restoration? What hinders you?

What’s next?: Get next steps considered.

How can you use assessment to help your students better apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration?
What will you do?

Teacher encouraged by assessment results

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-09-14T07:51:00+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects her assessment results:

What assessment did you give your students?
Kim: I gave them an essay (750-1000 words) on “Who are you spiritually, temperamentally, and culturally, and why is this a significant question to consider?”

What were your assessment results?
Kim: My students did a good job of responding to the prompt. I was encouraged by their essays. They wrote things like:

"Jesus, my model, influences which cultural values I adopt."

“I thank God for His allowing me to live overseas; I see it as a blessing. I think it was His plan all along to reduce the shyness in me by thrusting me out into the unknown so many times.”

"As a human, I am a reflection of God and therefore have value (Gen. 1.27, Matt. 10.31). As a Christian, I am a child of God (Eph. 5.1). These truths are liberating because they mean that I do not need to focus on obtaining value and love—I already have them. Instead, I can work on making others feel valued and loved (I Cor. 10.24)."

"I have a bad habit of comparing myself with others and feeling insecure, but now I realize that God gives each person a precious gift. Knowing this, I began to gain confidence in what I like and am good at doing, such as music and making people feel welcomed."

"Being a student at Christian Academy in Japan has transformed me spiritually. Although my family is not Christian, being in a Christian environment has led me to become a Christian....”

Assessment helps students value and get proficient at Biblical perspective

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-07-08T08:48:59+09:00

Use assessment to help your students value and get proficient at connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches.

Student applies creation-fall-redemption-restoration to nature

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-05-25T07:25:18+09:00

Nidhi, a high school student at Christian Academy in Japan, goes to Bible 9 and receives a handout for an assignment:

Prompt: Trace one part of God’s creation (music, animals, our intellect, families, etc.) through its creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.
Due: Your project must be finished by Tuesday, April 21, at the beginning of class. What “finished” and “turned in” look like will depend on what you do.
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to help you understand the ideas of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration, and to help you start to see how these ideas apply to everything in school and life.
Options: This is intentionally very open-ended. You can make a poster, write a paper, write a song, write a poem, do a dance, write a speech, make a PowerPoint, etc. We encourage you to talk to us about what you want to do. We will evaluate each person’s work on its own merit.
Helpful Questions: These questions can help guide your thinking about the part of God’s creation you have chosen.

Nidhi decides to apply creation-fall-redemption-restoration to nature. During the next 4 weeks, she studies, develops her material into a presentation, and turns in her presentation on April 21.

Her high school principal asks her to give her presentation at the May 19 PTA meeting. Nidhi gives her presentation, using the following visual aids:

Rigorous assessment inspires student learning

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-03-13T15:52:50+09:00

Question: What inspires students learning?

Answer: Rigor. Students may not want to admit it, but they enjoy rigorous education. So, make your Biblical perspective assessment rigorous, not easy.

Question: What do easy and rigorous assessment prompts look like?

Answer: Check out these examples:

Presentation

Easy: Share something you found interesting (2-3 minutes).
Rigorous: Connect to something you studied this semester in English 10, develop that connection as your project, connect a Biblical principle to the topic, and connect the Biblical principle to your life in a way you can implement and report on. This may be done as an individual (5-8 min. presentation) or in a group (8-10 min. presentation).

Essay

Easy: For one of the short stories you read, describe the theme (paragraph).
Rigorous: For one of the short stories you read, identify a theme, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate it, and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective (500 words).

Bottom line: Inspire learning. Inspire students to connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. Give rigorous assessments.

Teach to your assessment

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-05-11T08:52:02+09:00

Question: Is it OK to teach to an assessment?

Answer: Yes. In fact, teaching to an assessment is an effective practice. When I teach, I look at what students are supposed to learn, develop an assessment, and teach to it.

Question: So, should I teach to all my assessments?

Answer: That depends. Are your assessments worthy of being taught to? If so, teach to them. If not, change your assessments so they are worthy of being taught to, and then teach to them.

Question: What does a worthy assessment look like?

Answer: Here is a sample essay prompt from English 10: Using the poetry analysis skills we practiced, critique the lyrics of a favorite song (what the lyrics say, how they say it, and what God might think of what they say).

Bottom line: Make sure your assessments are worthy of being taught to—then teach to them.

Students understand perspective and make connections

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-02-11T10:36:44+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on students learning results:

Here are sample student answers to the final question on my English 10 short story test: What else did you learn this unit that you did not have a chance to show on the test? I think understand that everyone has a perspective and that it’s important to connect literature and the Bible.

All of the authors, it seems, either were born or ended up in situations where they didn’t really belong, or they were missing something, or something went wrong. It’s interesting to note the different responses each author had in their situation. Tolstoy had a primarily Christian perspective, Kafka was nihilist, and Camus was existentialist—each one giving their own reasons for why things were the way they were.

I learned from Leo Tolstoy’s “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” that if we are selfish and greedy, it might seem like you’re “living the life” at the moment, but in the end you’ll lose everything (the important things) you have.

Both Christianity and existentialism believe that people have the desire to find meaning. In Christianity, we find the true meaning in God and find joy, but in existentialism, people find their own meaning and find joy in that process. I thought it was sad that not all the people have hope and that not all people can feel true joy.

I learned a lot about decision-making and finding my place here. We all get left out and feel like an outsider, but I know that I still belong to God.

Every piece of literature has a worldview. It may be difficult to find, but if the author has any voice at all, you should be able to find it.

I learned that just like “The Guest” we all have to make decisions between two things. I learned that I have to pray to God before choosing the decision by myself because without God’s power, we are all weak and cannot make a decision we won’t regret.

From reading “The Bucket Rider” I learned how people who feel like they don’t belong anywhere are suffering because of emotional needs that may be as extreme as the Bucket Rider…. I want to be able to choose to act with empathy towards these people, unlike the coal dealer’s wife who ignored the Bucket Rider.

Give opportunities for student choice

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-01-23T09:11:08+09:00

You want to help your students better connect what they study and what the Bible teaches. You know that assessment helps your students learn, so you want to give your students good assessments. Specifically, you want to give your students assessments that give them opportunities to make choices—because you know making choices helps your students get engaged.

Question: On an assessment, how can you give your students opportunities for choices?

Answer: By giving your students opportunities to choose, for example, the type of project, the topic of a presentation, the examples for an essay, and the color of paper for a poster.

Here are sample assessments that give students opportunities for choices:

Science 2: Write a two-paragraph report about a dinosaur of your choice. Include where the dinosaur lived, when it lived, what it ate, what it looked like, its size, how it got its name, who found it, and any other interesting facts you found. Give three examples of how your dinosaur shows God’s creativity and power.
Social Studies 6: Teach your classmates about the aspect of ancient Egyptian culture/history you researched. Show what the Bible teaches about it and how it connects to you.
English 10: Compare/contrast how 2 characters from Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom and apply that to a current event or personal situation.

Bottom line: Design good assessments. Give your students opportunities for choices. Today.

To help your students make connections, what unit assessments do you give?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-01-10T12:38:38+09:00

Kim Essenburg, English 10 teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, responds:

I use assessments to see how well my students are connecting what they study and what the Bible teaches—and I use assessments to give my students practice making connections. I give a total of 9 Biblical perspective assessments. I assess content/Bible connections in 2 of 4 presentations, 2 of 9 unit tests, and 5 of 8 essays.

Here are the prompts for my 9 assessments:

Presentation prompt (used at the end of first and second semester): Connect to something you studied this semester in English 10, develop that connection as your project, connect a Biblical principle to the topic, and connect the Biblical principle to your life in a way you can implement and report on. This may be done as an individual (5-8 min. presentation) or in a group (8-10 min. presentation).

Unit test prompts:
(1) Short story unit (12/100 points): Describe Camus’s existentialism. Be sure to include:

A definition of existentialism.
The juxtaposition that makes humanity’s situation absurd.
The 2 things the author says give meaning, illustrating them from the story.
A response to “What of truth (from a Biblical perspective) has the author seen, and what has he missed?”

(2) Night unit (6/60 points): What can a Christian say to someone whose painful experience causes him or her to question the existence of a good God? In your answer, be sure to list and briefly explain 3 of the points in the letter “What Can Speak to Our Wounds?”

Essay prompts:
(1) Cry, the Beloved Country unit (750-1000 words): Compare/contrast how 2 of the characters from Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom. Next, apply insights gained from your comparison/contrast to a current event or personal situation.

(2) Night unit (750-1000 words): How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Illustrate your answer from literature, history, current events, and your own experience. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment.

(3) Short story unit (500 words): For one of the short stories you read, identify a theme, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate it, and evaluate it from a Biblical perspective.

(4) Poetry unit (500 words): Using the poetry analysis skills we practiced, critique the lyrics of a favorite song: what the lyrics say, how they say it, and what God might think of what they say.

(5) A Doll's House unit (750-1000 words): What kind of individual are you, why, what kind do you want to be, and what will help or hinder you in becoming that individual? In your answer, be sure to include responses to the following 3 questions:
(A) Who are you spiritually, personality-wise, and culturally? (See below.)

Spiritually: How does God define you, to what extent do you agree (if not, what’s your alternate definition?), and what practical implications does that have? (Cite the Bible at least 3 times.)
Personality-wise: How does the Meyers-Briggs assessment define you, to what extent do you agree (why/why not), and what practical implications does that have? (Cite personality information at least 2 times.)
Culturally: Which of Kohls’ cultural values are strongest for you? Why? (Influence of home culture? Japanese culture? US culture? CAJ culture?) (Cite Kohls at least 2 times.)

(B) How do these aspects of you interact?
(C) How does understanding these things about yourself help you determine your mission in life and how to attain it?

Biblical perspective assessment helps

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-12-12T16:54:17+09:00

Do you want to help your students connect what they study and what the Bible teaches? To value those connections? And to get feedback you can use to modify instruction? If so, give your students a Biblical perspective assessment.

Students use a Biblical perspective to respond to a Holocaust memoir

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-12-04T14:11:10+09:00

Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares student responses to a 1-point, open-ended test question on Elie Wiesel’s Night.

Question: What is one other significant thing you learned or thought about this unit that you have not yet had an opportunity to show on this test?

Student responses:

I learned how because we are made in God’s image, we should not hurt ourselves or others, because we are hurting God and His wonderful creation.
We read and see cruel events through newspaper or TV or in our daily life. When we see such things, we begin to feel sorry for the people who are suffering and try to become compassionate. However, we only keep that feeling for a moment and go back to our usual life. Therefore, I learned that in order to show a real compassion like God does to us, we need to take action and try to make a change.
It’s so true how we see something as terrible, but we don’t do anything. We say, “That’s somebody else’s problem,” but really, as God’s people, we should do something.
I learned clearly why this world can’t survive without God. Without God, there would be no equality among peoples, and nobody would have value. And if this were the case, there would be no reason for any of us to regard any other human with any kind of respect or dignity. Everything would be equally meaningless, wars and chaos would ensue, people would be killing each other, and no one could survive. But God gives us meaning, purpose, and a reason to live.

A case for quality faith integrated assessments

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2009-02-13T08:42:17+09:00

Dan Beerens, vice president of learning services at Christian Schools International, focuses on Christian education in his blog Nurturing Faith. In this blog entry, he makes a case for quality faith integrated assessments.

If one of the most important things in a Christian school is to nurture faith through the ability of a student to apply a Christian perspective (or worldview) to contemporary life, then we should make sure that our assessments are top notch and will drive our instruction. Additionally we need to make sure that the assessments involve the higher level thinking skills of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

What follows is an excellent example of this type of faith integrated assessment question for 8th grade science (thanks to Kristyn Kamps and Lloyd Dozeman from Holland Christian):

Letter to the Editor: God included fire as part of His creation; its effects can be not only good but necessary. However, wildfires can also create wide scale destruction and death as did the fires of 1910. On January 4, 2002, CNN ran the following story: “Wildfires which were started by multiple lightning strikes early last month continue to burn out of control. They continue to wreak havoc across Australia’s most populated state and are expected to rage into next week. The largest fire has burned about 160,000 acres of bone-dry forest, killed animals, and created millions of dollars in property damage. Nothing good can come of this tragedy…”

Using what you have learned about forest fires, write a reaction to the CNN story using the following format.

Heading: Your reaction should be addressed to the editor of the article; begin your letter “Dear Editor.” (1 point)
Paragraph 1: Your first paragraph should explain who you are and why you are writing. (2 points)
Paragraph 2: Describe conditions that cause wildfires to spread. (3 points)
Paragraph 3: From what you’ve learned about what God created fire to be (good) and the issues people face when dealing with wildfires (bad), give detailed examples of how wildfires can be BOTH good and bad. (6 points)
Paragraph 4: Choose a position: either AGREE with the statements from the CNN article or DISAGREE and give 2 reasons for your position. (4 points)
Closing: Be sure to sign your letter with a closing (”Sincerely,”) and your name. (1 point)

I really like this assessment because it asks the student to apply a perspective to a real life scenario. Since it is a letter to the editor, it is also ready to be shared with others who may have agreed without thinking too deeply that “nothing good can come out of this tragedy…” - this statement reflects the nihilistic view that often pops up in media and needs to be countered by Christians who believe that we have a redeeming God who can bring good out of evil. This assessment asks students to use higher-level skills and apply a faith perspective to the situation.

Are you using these kinds of assessments with your students? Are you willing to share them with others?

Require your students to make connections

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-11-20T07:44:41+09:00

At Christian schools, we want our students connecting:

Content/skills and life. We want students connecting ecology with how they dispose of trash.
Content/skills and Biblical principles. We want students connecting decisions made by government with Biblical principles regarding justice and peace.
Biblical principles and life. We want students connecting Biblical principles regarding wealth, love, and the sanctity of life with the movies they watch.

Question: How can you help your students make connections?

Answer: By giving assessments that require your students to connect content/skills and Biblical principles or content/skills, Biblical principles, and life.

In other words, don't give an assessment that leaves things disconnected. That’s like putting café latte ingredients (coffee, water, and milk) in separate containers—then eating the coffee, drinking the water, and then drinking the milk. Which would you rather have: a real café latte or the ingredients of a café latte?

Question: Got any sample assessments that require students make connections?

Answer: Check out the assessment prompts below.

Bottom line: Require your students to make connections. Today.

Here are some sample assessments that require students to make connections:

English

How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Support your answer with (1) examples from literature, history/current events, and your own experience, and (2) the Biblical principles of respecting God’s image bearers and loving our neighbors.
Using a book that you’ve already read for independent reading this year, prepare a 2-to-3-minute presentation in which you give an exciting introduction to the plot, a brief explanation of the conflict and theme, a Biblical perspective of the conflict and theme (including how the book shows “taking a stand”), and a satisfying conclusion.
Using examples from various literature and from the Bible, explain the nature of evil, its relationship to suffering, and what you can do to respond Christianly to both.

Math

Construct a model of the solar system that accurately represents planet size and planet distance from the sun. Next, write a paragraph in response to the following question: What does math have to do with God’s world? In your paragraph, make three connections between the Biblical truths we studied in class and the model you made. Include quotations from two Bible passages.
Mr. Hall wants to buy an Apple computer and doesn’t have enough money to pay up front. As Mr. Hall’s financial advisor, use a spreadsheet analysis to explain the credit-card payment plan, the Apple credit-account plan, and the Apple education lease plan. Next, advise Mr. Hall on which payment plan he should choose, basing your recommendation on a Biblical perspective of wealth and material goods that was studied in class.

Science

Write a two-paragraph report about a dinosaur of your choice. Include where the dinosaur lived, when it lived, what it ate, what it looked like, its size, how it got its name, who found it, and any other interesting facts you found. Give three examples of how your dinosaur shows God’s creativity and power.
Give a 5-minute presentation on a piece of electricity-related technology in which you present the electrical device, the science of how it works, and a response to the following questions: How has this device impacted society? What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?
Use three carbon footprint calculators to estimate your family’s and your greenhouse gas emissions. Compare your results with national averages. In the context of using your learning to care for God’s creation, identify three ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Next, make a poster that shows what you learned, including your calculations, a graph of your personal footprint, a Biblical perspective of carbon footprints, and three steps you could take to reduce your carbon footprint.

Social Studies

Write a one-page essay about the following: Based on what the Bible teaches about war, would you have fought in the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists? In your answer, explain what the Bible teaches (cite two Bible verses). Next, use what the Bible teaches to evaluate reasons colonists fought in the war. Conclude with what you would do and why.
Teach your classmates about the aspect of ancient Egyptian culture/history you researched. Show what the Bible teaches about it and how it connects to you.

Students grapple with shalom

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-11-03T17:30:42+09:00

Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares about a recent prompt and her student learning results.

The prompt? Compare/contrast how 2 characters from Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country illuminate the Biblical concept of shalom and apply that to a current event or personal situation.

The student learning results?

Forgiveness is ceasing to feel resentment against those who deserve it….
One speech, one sentence, one word, can change the world. It can either corrupt or rebuild.
Scripture refers to this peace in an analogy—“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat…for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (New Internatioal Version, Isa. 11.6, 9). Without complete shalom in the world presently, we as God’s creations are “subjected to frustration” and we “groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for…the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8.20, 23). In order for us to attain this ideal, we must “act justly,” “Love mercy,” and “walk humbly with [our] God” (Mic. 6.8). Shalom is peace in every aspect of creation, and it is the full restoration of God, so people have an obligation to join God to work towards this ultimate goal as God does so, too.
God has given everyone many different gifts and talents, and none of them is any more important than the others. As Paul says to the Romans, “we have different gifts, according to the grace given us…. If [one’s gift] is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously” (Romans 12.6-8). It is our duty as servants of God to work to build shalom into this world, to build unity and loving relationships through whatever gifts we have.
Once we comprehend what shalom is, we are all responsible for using our gifts to work toward it. This leaves two problems: first, that people may not know that the world is lacking shalom, and second, that they may not bother to make any difference. This is what is so necessary about stories like Cry, the Beloved Country: they help us understand shalom and show the results of either using your gift to help bring shalom to our world or just using it for yourself. How will you now live?
…although I did not generate gossip about this person myself, to my shame, I did not stand up against it. Regrettably, I even laughed along occasionally, graduating from tacit agreement to a deepening evil…. Whether this girl had heard the bad things said about her or not, churning rumors or gossip about anyone or secretly taking pleasure in someone else’s dismay, is against what God created us to do.
I have been challenged to think how I could bring shalom in my community. Contributing in bringing shalom is a very difficult thing to do, but I came up with a tiny action toward it. That is to help my mom wash dishes. Her fingers suffer from bone deformation. They can suddenly start hurting, and she often has a hard time washing dishes. By helping my mom, I would be able to bring shalom in my house because my mom will suffer less. In shalom, love sweeps away suffering and pain. I would be part of it if I could wash the dishes and make her suffer less.

Make your assessment prompt student-friendly

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-09-19T07:58:59+09:00

Question: Who is the audience of an assessment prompt?

Answer: Your students. So, keep your audience in mind when writing your assessment prompt. Be sure to:

Use developmentally appropriate vocabulary. For example, you can use “disregard” with 10th graders, but not with 6th graders.
Keep your assessment prompt to 75 words or less. That’s right, 75 words or less. Meaning, 75 words for high schoolers and less for lower grades.

Question: Who is not the audience of an assessment prompt?

Answer: You, the teacher. You are the author of the assessment prompt, not the audience. Implications?

The assessment prompt doesn’t need to be teacher-friendly. For example, the assessment prompt doesn’t need to be written using vocabulary words that are developmentally appropriate for you.
The goal is not to have an assessment prompt that makes sense to you, the teacher. The goal is to have an assessment prompt that makes sense to your students.

Question: What does a student-friendly assessment prompt look like?

Answer: The following 3 assessment prompts use developmentally appropriate vocabulary and are 28-56 words in length.

Grade 6: Presentation (5-7 minutes)—Teach your classmates about the aspect of ancient Egyptian culture/history you researched. Show what the Bible teaches about it and how it connects to you.
Grade 8: Presentation—Give a 5-minute presentation on a piece of electricity-related technology in which you present the electrical device, the science of how it works, and a response to the following questions: How has this device impacted society? What’s a Biblical perspective of that impact?
Grade 10: Essay (750 words)—How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Support your answer with (1) examples from literature, history/current events, and your own experience, and (2) the Biblical principles of respecting God’s image bearers and loving our neighbors.

Bottom line: Make you assessment prompt student-friendly in terms of vocabulary and length (75 words or less). Today.

Students can connect course content and Biblical teaching

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-07-25T01:00:44+09:00

Heidi Schaeffer, who teaches grade 5 at Christian Academy in Japan, reflects on a recent unit.

What are you excited about?
Heidi: I’m excited that my 5th grade science students can connect course content to Biblical teaching, resulting in them making healthy choices. In an essay at the end of a recent health unit, students wrote things like:

“I learned that...if you're not spiritually healthy, it will affect your physical health.”
“I have learned that you need to be with God. God will help you make decisions. If the answer doesn't come right away, you have to wait. He will help me.”
“The first step in being healthy is to have a good relationship with God. I will put God first and trust Him that He can help me with my health.”

What were your students studying?
Heidi: They studied human growth and change in terms of 4 aspects of health: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. For physical health, students learned about family life, the respiratory system, and nutrition. For mental health, they studied about expressing their feelings appropriately. For social health, we learned about wise ways to respond to others. And for spiritual health, students studied how our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and, consequently, how spiritual health is the foundation of all health.

What was the essay prompt?
Heidi: In a 4-paragraph essay, respond to the following question: How can I make healthy choices? Be sure to address each of the 4 aspects of health.

How did you prepare your students for writing the essay?
Heidi: After studying an aspect of health, we talked about good choices and bad choices. For example, for physical and spiritual health, we discussed how to have a healthy respiratory system and a healthy spiritual life. During the discussion, students referred to information from the text, including Biblical teaching on taking care of our bodies. They also looked up verses on being the temple of the Holy Spirit, like I Corinthians 3:16-17 and 6:19-20. Students then used being the temple of the Holy Spirit as the basis of decision-making.

For social health, students read about and discussed 3 ways they could handle emotions and respond to others. Then, they studied verses from Proverbs (11:13, 15:9, 17:9, 17:17, 21:33) regarding how to respond to others in specific situations—when others gossip, for example.
To further prepare to write the essay, my students reviewed each aspect of health, the impact it has on growth and change, and what types of choices they should make, given that they are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Then, I introduced the essay prompt. To get started on writing an organized essay, my students brainstormed content for each of the paragraphs—what they learned about a given aspect of health and how to connect the content to making a healthy choice. Students used their brainstorming to write their 4-paragraph essays.

What did you learn from teaching your unit on health?
Heidi: I learned that because my students are growing and changing, their views on health are also growing and changing. They are taking responsibility for themselves and their choices. I learned that students can connect course content and Biblical teaching, provided they are given frequent opportunities and time to make the connection. My students are familiar with Bible content, and giving them opportunities to connect it to a choice helps them deepen their understanding of how God wants them to live.

What modifications will you make to your unit?
Heidi: My students have different levels of Bible knowledge. Some are new to the Bible and making connections; some understand the Bible and readily make connections. Having these types of students work together, especially when brainstorming for the essay, would help.

Teach and assess Biblical perspective

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-06-06T21:28:06+09:00

Help your students develop a Christ-centered worldview during class by teaching Biblical perspective lessons and giving Biblical perspective assessments.

Give your students a Biblical perspective assessment that SCOREs

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-06-03T12:19:53+09:00

Like you, I want students to develop a Christ-centered worldview. Like you, I want students to understand the importance of connecting what they study and Biblical principles, and I want students to proficiently connect what they study and Biblical principles.

How can you help your students understand the importance of connecting what they study and Biblical principles?
Use the same strategy you use for helping your students know what course content is important—give an assessment. That’s right. Give a Biblical perspective assessment.

This is reasonable. After all, you’ve taught your students a Biblical perspective of what they’re studying. You’re doing the same thing you do with other material you deem important.

By assessing Biblical perspective, you demonstrate that you think it’s important, and you help students think it’s important. Trust me—students correlate what’s assessed with what’s important. (If you don’t assess Biblical perspective, your students will probably conclude that Biblical perspective is as important as other things that come up in class that you don’t assess. Not good.)

How can you help your students proficiently connect what they study and Biblical teaching?
Use the same strategy you use for helping your students get proficient—give your students practice. You know practice helps:

Writing essays helps your students improve their writing.
Singing in concerts helps your students improve their singing.
Giving speeches helps your students improve their speaking skills.

Why am I telling you this? Here’s why: Essays, concerts, and presentations help your students improve. Essays, concerts, and speeches are forms of assessment. Assessment helps your students improve.

What's the connection? Assessment helps your students connect what they study and Biblical principles. That’s right. Your students will improve their connections as they complete assessments.

What type of assessment can you give your students?
Any type—provided the assessment prompt SCOREs.

What do I mean by “any type”? I mean you can give more than just tests. For example, you can ask your students to write essays, do projects, and give presentations.

What do I mean by “provided the assessment prompt SCOREs”? I mean that the assessment prompt needs to:

Be Student-friendly in terms of vocabulary and length (75 words or less). That’s right. The assessment needs to be student-friendly because students are taking the assessment. The assessment doesn’t need to be teacher-friendly because the teacher isn’t taking the assessment. What do I mean by teacher friendly? I mean the prompt is written for the teacher. I’ve seen prompts only the teacher could really understand—500 words with no clear point.
Require students to Connect content/skills, Biblical principle(s), and life. Don't give an assessment that leaves things disconnected. That’s like putting chocolate chip cookie ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate chips) in a bowl, but not stirring them together to make dough. Which would you rather eat: chocolate chip cookie dough or unmixed ingredients?
Give Opportunities for student choice, as appropriate. Giving students the opportunity to make choices unleashes student learning and potential. I’ve seen this repeatedly. So have you.
Be Rigorous. A rigorous assessment inspires student learning. In my experience, students enjoy challenging assessments and don’t enjoy easy assessments.
Be Even worthy of being taught to. Prepare your students by teaching to the assessment. Just make sure your assessment is actually worthy of being taught to!

What’s an effective Biblical perspective assessment look like?
Here’s a prompt for a 750-word essay: How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Support your answer with (1) examples from literature, history/current events, and your own experience, and (2) the Biblical principles of respecting God’s image bearers and loving our neighbors. (54 words)

Bottom line: Assessment help students to understand the importance of connecting what they study and Biblical principles and to proficiently connect what they study and Biblical principles.

Action step: Develop a Biblical perspective assessment that SCOREs. Prepare your students for this assessment and then have them take it.

Reflect on your Biblical perspective lesson and assessment results

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-06-03T10:54:56+09:00

You’ve designed and taught your Biblical perspective lesson, a lesson that prepared your students to demonstrate their understanding/application of a Biblical perspective. You've also given your students the Biblical perspective assessment. Good!

Now, leverage your work by reflecting on it. Use the following 8 questions to talk with a partner:

What was the assessment? (What type of assessment did you use? What was the prompt?)
How’d your students do on demonstrating their understanding/application of a Biblical perspective?
How’d you prepare your students to demonstrate Biblical perspective on your assessment?
What satisfies/concerns you about how you prepared your students?
What excites/challenges you about the assessment results on Biblical perspective?
To maintain and/or increase student learning about Biblical perspective, what 2-3 things do you want to keep doing/start doing?
Other insights?
What 2-3 SMART actions steps will you take to modify instruction (lesson plans, assessment prompt, unit map)?

Assessment helps students apply a Biblical perspective

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-03-13T17:17:32+09:00

Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares about how assessment helps students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study.

What student learning results are you excited about?

Kim: At the end of a recent short story unit, I had students apply a Biblical perspective to 1 of the short stories we studied. Here are 3 excerpts from student essays:

“The Guest” by Albert Camus: In contrast to what Camus and Daru experienced, there is inherent meaning and moral guidelines in life given by God—a conclusion based on a Biblical principle. Truth, which is God’s teaching, is apparent everywhere…(New International Version, Romans 1.20). In fact, the truth of the only God is accessible…(Acts 17.20). We must learn what God’s truth is and apply it to our lives because as Daru understood, human wisdom is faulty…. Humans must establish God’s truth as their anchor and base their decisions on his truth, which may not yield the obviously “good” consequences in this life, but are right because they are part of God’s perfect will.
“The Bucket Rider” by Franz Kafka: We…have…hope that Nihilism doesn’t know of: all our suffering is going to end. Revelation describes the coming of heaven in chapter 21, verse 3b and 4: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tea from there eyes. There will be no more death or morning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” What a comforting thought!
“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” by Leo Tolstoy: The Bible is clear about what fostering such desires does to people. Jesus said in Luke 12.15 that people have the wrong idea about what it is to truly live when they look for fulfillment in things…. And Paul commands the rich to put their hopes in God, rather than in their wealth “so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (I Tim. 6.17-19). But what could be greater than having substantial wealth? Hebrews sheds some light on this question: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Hebrews 13.5).

What was the assessment prompt?

Kim: My students wrote a 500-word persuasive essay on the following: Identify the theme of a short story, analyze how the author uses literary conventions to communicate the theme, and evaluate the theme from a Biblical perspective.

The main part of this essay will be about the theme.
For your thesis and preview of points, state the theme and the main literary conventions the author uses to communicate the theme (setting, characterization, plot, imagery, symbol, irony, diction…).
In the body paragraphs, use support from the story, including at least 3 quotations.
For your conclusion, write a Biblical perspective paragraph. Pick 1 Biblical principle related to the theme and cite at least 3 Bible passages and 1 example from your own life/observation to support the Biblical principle.

What are you learning about helping students apply a Biblical perspective to what they study in class?

Kim: Assessment helps. The more Biblical perspective assessments I give, the better my students get at applying a Biblical perspective. The more practice I give them, the better they get. Repeatedly giving Biblical perspective assessments really does help my students apply a Biblical perspective!

Assessment helps students more deeply connect what they study, their lives, and a Biblical perspective

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2008-01-19T09:05:34+09:00

Kim and Michael Essenburg, missionaries with Christian Reformed World Missions, serve at Christian Academy in Japan. Here they discuss students applying a Biblical perspective.

Michael: What are you excited about?

Kim: I’m excited that 1 of my English 10 students wrote, “I have no right to choose whether I should help or not; the day I chose to follow my consistent and loving God, I threw away the option of apathy.”

Michael: I can see why you’re excited. What were your students studying?

Kim: Elie Wiesel’s Night, a Holocaust memoir. During their study, they focused on 2 essential questions: “What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?”

At the end of the 3-week unit, my students wrote essays. I’m excited that their writing is improving, and I’m excited that they applied a Biblical perspective to a theme of Night, the mistreatment of others.

Michael: What was the essay prompt?

Kim: My students wrote 750-word essays on the following: How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Illustrate your answer from literature, history, current events, and your own experience. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment.

Michael: That’s a challenging essay prompt. How did you prepare your students for it?

Kim: Before they started reading Night, my students considered 2 essential questions (“What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?”) and discussed “Justice in an Unjust World,” a 5-page article by Gary Haugen, president of International Justice Mission.

Then as they read Night, they discussed racism, discrimination, human dignity, and the basis of human dignity, being created in God’s image. They also increased their awareness of recent events by watching clips from Hotel Rwanda and jig-sawing 4 articles:

“Being Muslim in a Mad, Sad, World”—an August 3, 2005, editorial in The Yomiuri Shimbun (which was reposting the article from The Washington Post).
“Keep Crying Out”—a 1-page description of Darfur from the December 9, 2006, edition of The Economist.
“A Responsibility to Protect”—a 2-page article from the December 2006 edition of Sojourners that considers the question, “‘Is military intervention the only way?’”
“Alien Nation”—an article by Isaac Canales from the fall 2007 edition of Leadership that discusses illegal aliens in California.

After reading Night, they discussed Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which asserts that apathy helps the oppressor. They also worked in groups of 4 to study Leviticus 19:18 (which talks about loving our neighbor) and the 7 Bible passages mentioned in the NIV study note. For each of the 8 passages, they identified the speaker, occasion, audience, and purpose.

Michael: Your students did significant preparation for the essay. Sounds like they learned a lot. What did you learn from teaching your Night unit?

Kim: Well, I have a deeper appreciation for the power of preparing students for an assessment before, during, and after the study of a piece of literature. And I realize that providing students with additional articles is helpful—last year they discussed 2 articles and this year they discussed 5. The additional articles helped my students get a better understanding of sin and its implications for how people treat each other.

Teaching can be discouraging at times, and reading essays in which students apply a Biblical perspective is encouraging! I was encouraged, for example, when I read, “Our voices can be heard. We just need to speak up loud enough for the world to hear; there are many ways to do this…[not] telling racist jokes is how I plan to do my part.”

Writing this essay helped my students more deeply connect what they study, their lives, and a Biblical perspective.

* Want to read additional reflections?

How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-11-21T11:54:35+09:00

Deep down, we know our real level of commitment is best demonstrated by our practice. So, we know that the real commitment level of the following teachers is not high:

I’m an elementary Bible teacher who is committed to students memorizing God’s Word. Each year, my students memorize 2 verses.
I’m a high school English teacher who is committed to students being effective writers. Each year, my students write 2 essays.
I’m a middle school science teacher who is committed to students doing labs. Each year, my students do 2 labs.

In Christian education, we want students to love God with their minds, to apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn.

Question: How committed are you to having your students apply a Biblical perspective to what they learn?

Answer: How many Biblical perspective assessments do you give?

Raise your real commitment level. Give more Biblical perspective assessments. Today.

Use a bookmark to prepare students for a Biblical perspective assessment

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-11-10T11:19:15+09:00

Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares about the power of using a bookmark:

I’m excited about a bookmark. Why? Because I’ve found a simple, effective tool for preparing students for a Biblical perspective assessment.

At the start of my English 10 unit on Ellie Wiesel’s Night (a Holocaust memoir), I gave each of my students a bookmark. On the bookmark are the unit:

Assessment (essay, 750-1000 words): How significant a part of what’s wrong with the world is the tendency to disregard the human dignity of others, and how should a Christian respond? Illustrate your answer from literature, history, current events, and your own experience. Be sure to address the relevance of the Biblical concepts of the image of God and the second greatest commandment.
Key vocabulary, including: fascist, deportation, Aryan, emaciated, annihilate, apathy, and vulnerable.
Key reading strategies, including: accessing background knowledge, drawing inferences, and synthesizing information.

I use the bookmark:

To introduce the unit and the assessment.
When giving reading assignments. I remind students to look at the bookmark for vocabulary and for reading strategies related to the reading assignment, and I encourage them to journal about the assigned reading with the assessment in mind.
At the start of the next day. I use the bookmark to review appropriate vocabulary, point out places where certain reading strategies would have been helpful, and review the day’s reading assignment in the context of the assessment.

I want my students to do well on the unit assessment. I really want them to be able to apply a Biblical perspective to mistreatment of people. The bookmark helps me focus on preparing my students for the assessment and helps my students learn with the end in mind.

Take a self-assessment, then take action

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-09-20T10:36:17+09:00

To get an idea of how you can more effectively help students increase their understanding and application of a Biblical perspective, complete the following self-assessment on Biblical perspective assessment. Next, use your self-assessment data to develop action plans.

Rate each statement below. Use the following scale:
5: Consistently • 4: Usually • 3: OK • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely

Self-Assessment for Teachers

My assessments require students to connect a Biblical perspective and what they are studying.
My assessments require students to connect a Biblical perspective and their lives.
My assessments are worthy of being taught to.
My assessments require students to use upper-level thinking.
My assessment prompts are clear.
My assessment prompts are specific.
My assessment prompts are engaging.
My assessment prompts are 75 words or less.
My assessment prompts use developmentally appropriate vocabulary.
My assessments require students to demonstrate what they learned in class about a Biblical perspective.
My assessments are exemplary assessments.
In my units, I give Biblical perspective assessments.
I use Biblical perspective assessment data to modify instruction.
I am committed to using assessment to help students increase their understanding and application of a Biblical perspective.

Self-Assessment for Principals

Teachers give assessments that require students to connect a Biblical perspective, what they are studying, and their lives.
Teachers assessments require students to demonstrate what they learned in class about a Biblical perspective.
Teachers give exemplary Biblical perspective assessments.
Teachers give Biblical perspective assessments in each unit.
Teachers use Biblical perspective assessment data to modify instruction.
I review student work samples from Biblical perspective assessments.
I use Biblical perspective assessment data when making decisions about modifying the instructional program.
I am committed to having teachers use assessment to help students increase their understanding and application of a Biblical perspective.

How can you use assessment data?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-07-09T08:54:16+09:00

You can use assessment data to improve student learning. Here are 4 ways to do this:

Give each student his/her assessment data. Provide students with class time to reflect on the data and to write down 1-2 action steps they want to take to improve their performance.
Use the data to modify your unit plans.
Talk about common assessment data with teachers at your grade level and/or in your academic department. Collaboratively develop a team action plan for improving student learning.
As a faculty, tabulate assessment data in terms of schoolwide outcomes. Use the tabulated data for setting learning targets for increasing student achievement of the schoolwide outcomes.

Use assessment data to improve student learning. Today.

How can you use a rubric?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-05-24T10:12:33+09:00

You want to help your students increase their understanding and application of a Biblical perspective. Using a rubric can help. How?

Use a rubric to clarify expectations: When assigning a Biblical perspective assessment, review the rubric with your students. This will help your students better understand your expectations.
Use a rubric to provide feedback: Make a copy of the rubric for each student. Use the rubric to score the assessment, marking on the rubric to indicate how each student is performing. When returning the assessment, give each student a marked-up rubric. (Before returning the rubric, tabulate overall class performance for each rubric line to determine how many students performed above, at, or below standard.)
Use assessment data to increase learning. Ask each student to use his/her assessment data to develop an action step for increasing understanding and application of a Biblical perspective. For yourself, use the assessment data to modify your instruction.

Use a rubric on your next Biblical perspective assessment.

What makes a good rubric good?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-03-27T15:19:41+09:00

Feedback—you know it helps increase student learning. You know it can help your students increase their understanding and application of a biblical perspective. And you know that feedback can help you effectively modify your instruction to help your students increase their understanding and application of a biblical perspective.

A rubric is a good tool for providing feedback for students and for yourself. Why? Because a rubric provides specific feedback on student performance. I encourage you to use a rubric when assessing your students’ performance on a biblical perspective assessment. (And I encourage you to show your students the rubric before you give the assessment. Student learning increases when performance expectations are clear—rubrics help you make your expectations clear.)

Your task: Develop a good rubric so you can use a good rubric.

Your question: “What makes a good rubric good?”

My answer:
(1) A good rubric has criteria that…

Are linked to standards and student objectives
Are logically ordered (if applicable)
Are written in clear, concise, student-friendly language
Are defined by 5 levels of descriptors (Level 5 = exemplary, Level 3 = meeting the standard, Level 1 = Poor)

(2) A good rubric has descriptors that…

Are evenly graduated from Level 5 to Level 1
Are measurable
Are written in clear, concise, student-friendly language
Identify what the student does (not what the student doesn't do or what the student is missing)
Include elements that are present at all levels and in the same order
Can be used by teachers effectively and efficiently to assess student learning

Here’s a part of a high school writing rubric that is being piloted. The 2 criteria below target understanding and application of a biblical perspective:

Criteria 1: Biblical perspective content
5: Significantly beyond the obvious
4: Beyond the obvious
3: Basic, addresses the obvious
2: Limited, does not fully address the obvious
1: Lacking, hardly addresses the obvious

Criteria 2: Application of biblical perspective to course content
5: Original
4: Thoughtful
3: Predictable
2: Weak or erroneous
1: Lacking

An English 10 teacher, who uses the rubric, says, “The rubric is useful. I find that using it helps me assess more consistently. My students like the rubric because it tells them how they did and what they need to do to improve. Using rubrics helps my students increase their understanding and application of a biblical perspective.”

Develop a good rubric. Then use it.

How proficiently do you want your students to use a Biblical perspective?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-02-01T16:41:16+09:00

Gary (high school English teacher) has asked Michael (director of school improvement) for coaching. Gary wants to get a more specific answer to his own question “How proficiently do I want my students to use a biblical perspective?” Seated at desks in Gary’s classroom, they have just started talking.

Gary: Thanks for coming today. I’ve been thinking about our recent inservices on helping students understand and use a biblical perspective. I’ve really enjoyed the inservices. I’ve started asking my students questions like “What’s wrong with the world?” and “Who is my neighbor?” The discussions are really good—kids are connecting course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective.

And I’ve started designing and giving unit assessments that fit these questions. For example, for the last essay, I used the following prompt:

In an essay (700-100 words) reflect on the power and prevalence of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination; how are Christians to think about and respond to them? Support your answer from literature, history, current events, your experience, and the Bible. Be sure to:
Describe power and prevalence of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination with examples, including at least 2 quotations from Night.
Analyze the biblical principles regarding how God intends for people to treat other people, using at least 3 quotations from the Bible.
Give at least 1 general action people can take and 1 specific thing you can do.

Michael: You’ve made real progress on implementing what you learned from the inservice meetings. Good.

Gary: Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good about the results. And here’s a sample of what one student wrote on a recent short-answer test question for a unit on discrimination: “Discrimination, prejudice, etc., is wrong. No one has any right to decide they’re better than others. Although I don’t go around killing people from a single race, by disliking people, I’m dishonoring God because that person is made in God’s image.”

I really want my students to be able to apply a biblical perspective to course content. I think I could help them more effectively if I had a clearer understanding of how proficiently I want my students to use a biblical perspective. The inservices were about getting students to apply a biblical perspective to course content. I want to take it a step further and define a goal of some sort regarding the proficiency with which I want them to apply a biblical perspective. Having a goal will help me focus efforts.

Michael: Well, with what level of proficiency do you want your students to apply a biblical perspective?

Gary: Let me think about that… My overall goal is for my students to apply to a biblical perspective to the course content they have learned. To be honest, my goal used to be having kids learn course content. So, since applying a biblical perspective is now my goal, I want my students to do as well at applying a biblical perspective as they do on their essays, projects, presentations, and the AP English test.

Michael: Tell me more about that.

Gary: I want my students’ use of a biblical perspective to be automatic. Being educated involves being able to do some things automatically. You know, typing the correct letters on the keyboard, knowing when to go left in a basketball game, using the writing process when doing an essay, knowing that 5 X 5 = 25. Using a biblical perspective should be automatic.

Michael: So you want your students’ application of a biblical perspective to be automatic.

Gary: Yes. It should be efficient and effective. My students need to be proficient. Their scores for biblical perspective application need to be at or above standard. The scores should be based on rigorous assessments. On a variety of assessments. Like essays, projects, and presentations.

Michael: You want your students to apply a biblical perspective efficiently and effectively on a variety of rigorous assessments.

Gary: Yes. That sort of puts it all together. But I need something more definite. More specific.

Michael: How will you know if you are achieving this goal?

Gary: Good question. What I have so far isn’t very measurable. I think having a measurable goal would help me answer my question. I think I need to set a learning target that includes the percentage of my students I want to be at or above standard. You know, C or above.

Michael: What criteria will you use to set that percentage?

Gary: Overall, my students do pretty well. Class average is about a B+. About 90% of them will attend college. It’d be great if 100% of my students could meet the standard (you know, get a C) on applying a biblical perspective. But I think that’s shooting a little high. So, I think I’ll go for 90% of my students scoring at or above standard on applying a biblical perspective. I’ll base their scores on 3 types of assessment—projects, presentations, and essays.

That’s a good place to start. I can change the goal later if I need to. I probably need to do it a bit, collect the data, and decide if the goal needs to be revised.

Michael: How do you feel about your goal now?

Gary: Seems clearer, now that I’ve added a percentage. And now that I’ve added the 3 assessments I’ll use. Seems clearer.

Michael: Earlier you asked, “How proficiently do I want my students to use a biblical perspective?” To what extent have you answered your question?

Gary: I think I have a pretty good answer. Knowing the percentage and the types of assessments will help me focus my efforts. Might be a good idea to set a schoowide goal about this. But right now, I need to figure out how to work on my goal. A good place to start might be developing rubrics for the assessments. I’ve already got a rubric for essays. I need to add a section on applying a biblical perspective. Then when I assess the essays, I can pull out the data and see how my students are doing.

Make your own goal:

_____ % of my students will be at/above standard on applying a biblical perspective, scores being taken from the following assessments: ____.

Take action on your goal. Today.

How can you make your assessment even better?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2007-01-10T09:29:55+09:00

You’ve done it! You’ve developed a biblical perspective assessment that meets the following 4 criteria:

Connects course content and a biblical perspective or (preferably) course content, your students’ lives, and a biblical perspective
Assesses student learning
Is worthy of being taught to
Requires upper-level thinking

Your new goal: To make your assessment even better. You want your assessment to be a showcase assessment.

Your question: “So, how can I make my assessment even better?”

My response: Before I answer your question, take 1 minute and try to answer your own question. What are 3 things you could do to make your assessment even better? Do this right now.

Good. Now that you’ve identified 3 things you could do to make your assessment even better, please keep reading.

Here are 6 actions you can take to make your biblical perspective assessment even better:

Invite a colleague to use the 4 characteristics to check it and to provide input in terms of wording and format. Collaborating will help get your assessment refined to a level that is usually reached after giving the assessment to students once or twice.
Design the assessment to allow students to make choices about content and format. Student engagement increases when students make choices. How can you do this? When having students work on a project, have them make choices about the topic, relevant life experiences, and format (poster, model, diorama).
Design the assessment so the audience is outside the classroom. For example, have students write a letter to the editor regarding a biblical perspective of a social issue or give a presentation to parents regarding a biblical perspective of current movies and music.
Take the assessment yourself, use your findings to revise the assessment, and then give it to your students. Taking the assessment gives you first-hand experience with the prompt—with the clarity, precision, and feasibility of the prompt.
Finalize the assessment before you start the unit. If you do this, you will be able to design instruction to target the assessment. For example, if the assessment is a project, you might use cooperative grouping, Venn diagrams, and reflective writing; if the assessment is a presentation, you might use discussion, direct instruction in presentation skills, and drill and practice.
At the start of the unit (or when appropriate), tell your students what the assessment is and how you are going to prepare them for it, show them the rubric so they understand the expectations, and show them appropriate samples so they know what good work looks like.

My question: You identified 3 actions, and I identified 6 actions—which action step are you going to take today to make your assessment even better?

Your answer: I’m going to _______________________________________________.

My response: Taking this action will move you toward achieving your vision—each of your students proficiently applying a biblical perspective to course content.

Kim Essenburg, English teacher at Christian Academy in Japan, Christian Reformed World Missions

It used to take me several years to develop a good biblical perspective assessment. But I’ve discovered that when I invite a colleague to review my assessments and when I take the assessments myself, I’m able to develop good assessments in 1 year.

What makes a good assessment good?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-11-20T12:22:32+09:00

Using assessments can help your students increase their application of a biblical perspective to course content, particularly if the assessments are good assessments. So, what makes a good assessment good?

Before I answer that question, please identify 3-4 characteristics of a good assessment. Please do this right now. Before reading any more….

Good. Now that you have identified 3-4 characteristics of a good assessment, keep reading.

Shortest answer: CAWR (Welsh for “giant”)

Shorter answer:

Connect
Assess
Worthy
Require

Short answer:

Connect course content and a biblical perspective or (preferably) course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective
Assess student learning
Worthy of being taught to
Require upper-level thinking

Longer answer:
(1) Connect: An effective biblical perspective assessment requires students to connect course content and a biblical perspective or (preferably) course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective. (Please remember that connecting course content and a biblical perspective does not mean having students develop object lessons or associate Bible verses with a topic.)

What does this look like in Social Studies 5? Write a one-page essay about the following: Based on what the Bible teaches about war, would you have fought in the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists? In your answer, explain what the Bible teaches (cite two Bible verses). Next, use what the Bible teaches to evaluate reasons colonists fought in the war. Conclude with what you would do and why.

(2) Assess: An effective biblical perspective assessment assesses student learning—not student faith. Students are sensitive to this and may feel that being assessed on how well they can use a biblical perspective means being assessed on how good a Christian they are.

To address this, design assessments that assess how well a student can apply a biblical perspective of money—not if they are committed honoring Jesus by implementing it. Or design an assessment in which a student has to explain the plan of salvation to a hypothetical person—not the extent to which the student is committed to Jesus.

This is similar to how other assessments are handled. For example, if a student does a 12-minute run for a fitness test, the score is not affected by the degree to which the student is committed to running. If a student takes a reading test, the score is not affected by the degree to which the student is committed to reading. Assessment should assess learning, not motivation.

Assessing student learning also means assessing what was taught—another way to make clear to students that their faith is not being assessed. Target teaching valued-added content, which includes new content and/or connections between course content and a biblical perspective.

For example, teach students the just war theory and ask them to apply it to a war that they studied in class. Teach students about what it means to be created in God’s image and have them apply this to substance abuse issues studied in class. (See sidebar “Being Christian Does Not Equal Being Proficient.”)

(3) Worthy: An effective biblical perspective assessment is worthy of being taught to. With an effective assessment, there is no danger of over-teaching to the assessment—just like there is no danger of over-teaching to a band concert, an Advanced Placement test, or a basketball game.

Our seniors, for example, give a 30-minute presentation of an analysis of and biblical response to a social issue—we teach to this assessment and we find that we cannot over-teach to this assessment.

(4) Rigorous: An effective biblical perspective assessment is rigorous. It’s challenging, engaging, and requires appropriate thinking levels. Biblical perspective assessments should be showcase assessments.

For example: Write a 750-word reflection on the power and prevalence of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, and how Christians are to think about and respond to them. Support your answer from literature, history, current events, your experience, and the Bible. In your essay, be sure to include at least two quotations from Night, an analysis of the biblical principles of how God intends for people to treat other people (using at least three quotations from the Bible), and at least one general action people can take and one specific thing you can do.

What type of assessment can you use?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-11-10T10:47:05+09:00

Knowledge: You know that assessment can help your students increase their application of a biblical perspective to course content.

Vision: You are committed to achieving the vision—every student in every class proficiently applying a biblical perspective to course content.

Action: You want to act. You want to design and give your students an effective assessment.

Question: You ask, “What type of assessment can I use?”

Your answer: Before I respond to your question, please identify 3 types of assessment you could use. Right now. Please stop reading and identify 3 types of assessment.

Good. Now that you’ve identified 3 types of assessment, keep reading.

My answer: Here are 4 types of assessment you can use—presentations, projects, tests, and writing. You can use these types of assessment to help your students increase their application of a biblical perspective to course content. At Christian Academy in Japan, for example, departments use the following types of assessment:

Art: writing
Bible: presentations
Computer: projects
English: tests, writing
ESL: writing
Math: projects
Music: tests
Social Studies: presentations, tests
Science: writing

What might a given type of assessment look like? Here are 7 examples:

Presentation in English 8: Using a book that you’ve already read for independent reading this year, prepare a 2- to 3-minute presentation in which you give an exciting introduction to the plot, a brief explanation of the conflict and theme, a biblical perspective of the conflict and theme (including how the book shows “taking a stand”), and a satisfying conclusion.
Project in Math 8: Mr. Hall wants to buy an Apple computer and does not have enough money to pay up front. As Mr. Hall’s financial adviser, develop a poster that outlines what he payment plan your recommend that he should use. The poster should include a spreadsheet analysis that explains a credit card payment plan, the Apple credit account plan, and the Apple education lease plan. The poster should include your recommendation of payment plan Mr. Hall should choose and an explanation of how you used a biblical perspective to arrive at this recommendation, giving at least 1 Bible reference. (Use the biblical perspective of wealth and material goods we studied in class.)
Project in Science 9: Use three carbon footprint calculators to estimate your family’s and your greenhouse gas emissions and compare your results with national averages. In the context of using your learning to care for God’s creation, identify three ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Next, make an A3-size poster that shows what you learned, including your calculations for greenhouse gas emissions, a graph of your personal footprint, and a written explanation of a biblical perspective on why Christians should be concerned about the size of their carbon footprint and three or more steps you are taking or could take to reduce the size of your carbon footprint.
Test in English 10: (Short Answer) In this unit we studied “What’s the significance of words?” In a well-written paragraph, answer the question. In your paragraph, refer to 2 authors studied and the biblical perspective lesson we did.
Writing in Science 2: Write a 1–2 paragraph report about a dinosaur of your choice. Include where the dinosaur lived, when it lived, what it ate, what it looked like, its size, how it got its name, who found it, and any other interesting facts you found. Give three examples of how your dinosaur shows God’s creativity and power.
Writing in Social Studies 5: Write a one-page essay about the following: Based on what the Bible teaches about war, would you have fought in the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonists? In your answer, explain what the Bible teaches (cite two Bible verses). Next, use what the Bible teaches to evaluate reasons colonists fought in the war. Conclude with what you would do and why.
Writing in English 10: Write a 1000-word essay to answer the following questions: Who are you? How does knowing who you are help you love your neighbor and/or heal what’s wrong in the world? In your answer use first-person, use six quotations (three from the literature studied in class and three from the Bible) and cite a minimum of seven sources (including works of literature, the Bible, and a dictionary of theology).

Take action: You know assessment can help your students. You are committed to the vision of your students using a biblical perspective. You want to take action, and you now have several answers to your question, “What type of assessment can I use?”

Take action. Now. Determine the type of assessment you will use. Develop an assessment. Prepare your students for the assessment. Give your students the assessment. Completing an effective assessment helps your students

How does assessment impact student learning?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-09-29T13:14:40+09:00

You know.

You know the following 5 statements are true:

Writing essays helps your students improve their writing.
Singing in concerts helps your students improve their singing.
Giving presentations helps your students improve their presentation skills.
Playing basketball games helps your students improve their basketball skills.
Performing in plays helps your students improve their acting.

Why am I telling you this? Here’s why:

Essays, concerts, presentations, games, and plays help your students improve.
Essays, concerts, presentations, games, and plays are forms of assessment.
Assessment helps your students improve.

Connection: Assessment helps your students improve their use of a biblical perspective. That’s right. Your students will improve their use of a biblical perspective as they complete rigorous assessments that require them to connect course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective.

Ask yourself, “If my students completed an assessment in each unit like those listed below, how would that affect their proficiency?”

Science 2: Write a 1–2 paragraph report about a dinosaur of your choice. Include where the dinosaur lived, when it lived, what it ate, what it looked like, its size, how it got its name, who found it, and any other interesting facts you found. Give three examples of how your dinosaur shows God’s creativity and power.
Math 6: Construct a model of the solar system that accurately represents planet size and planet distance from the sun. Next, write a paragraph in response to the following question: What does math have to with God’s world? In your paragraph, make three connections between the biblical truths we studied in class and the model you made. Include quotations from two Bible passages.
English 10: Write a 1000-word essay to answer the following two questions: Who are you? How does knowing who you are help you love your neighbor and/or heal what’s wrong in the world? In your answer use first-person, use six quotations (three from the literature studied in class and three from the Bible) and cite a minimum of seven sources (including works of literature, the Bible, and a Bible dictionary).

Now you know. Assessment helps your students improve their use of a biblical perspective of course content. Use assessment to help your students. Today.

How much practice do your students need?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-04-13T10:34:25+09:00

Being educated involves being able to do some things automatically. For example:

Typing the correct letters on the keyboard
Knowing when to go left in a basketball game
Reciting John 3:16
Using the writing process when doing an essay
Speaking with appropriate volume and pace
Knowing that 5 X 5 = 25
Spelling words correctly

How much practice does a student need before she can do the above?

Being educated at a Christian school involves being able to do some things automatically. For example, using a biblical perspective:

How much practice do your students need to “automatically” use a biblical perspective of course content in a given subject?
How much practice do your students currently receive?
What will you do to close the gap between how much practice students need and how much practice students get?

Give your students quality practice

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-04-11T08:03:54+09:00

Learning involves practice:

How many math problems does a student need to successfully complete to learn math?
How many essays does a student need to write to write effectively and efficiently?
How many times does a choir need to rehearse a song in preparation for a concert?
How many keystrokes does a student need to make to master keyboarding?

Yes, learning involves practice. Involves repetition. So, how many times does a student need to practice using a biblical perspective in a given subject so that she can use it effectively and efficiently on a classroom assessment?

If every student in every class in every unit completed an assessment requiring the use of a biblical perspective, would that be sufficient practice? Yes and no.

Yes—that would be enough practice. This would mean that students would do 6-8 assessments per year requiring them to use a biblical perspective. Assuming a student takes 6 classes, that means 36-48 assessments per year. That's 144-196 assessments during high school. Sound like a lot? It's not, really. How many math problems do students do per chapter? Per year? During high school?

No—I say no, because repetition alone is insufficient. In addition to repetition, students need quality practice, need quality assessments. What are the characteristics of an effective biblical perspective assessment? An effective biblical perspective assessment:

Requires students to connect course content and a biblical perspective or (preferably) course content, their lives, and a biblical perspective
Assesses student learning, not student faith
Is worthy of being taught to
Is rigorous

Students need quality practice in order to become proficient in using a biblical perspective. Give your students some today.

What’s the vision for using assessment?

learnmore@closethegapnow — 2006-03-14T09:32:18+09:00

Imagine.

Every student, in every class—proficiently demonstrating an understanding and/or use of a biblical perspective to complete an assessment.

Imagine.

If this happened...

How would this affect your students' understanding of the importance of looking at all of life through the lens of Scripture?
How would this affect your students' ability to impact the world for Christ?
How would current parents respond?
How would parents considering sending their children to your school respond?
How would staff at your school respond?
How would your board respond?
How would this affect the achievement of your school's outcomes and mission?

Just imagine.

What are you willing to do to make this a reality?

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being high), how committed are you to this? (How committed is God to having students at Christian school proficiently applying a biblical perspective on course content?)
If you said 8 or less, what would it take for you to say 9 or 10?