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The Partnership for 21st Century Learning writes that "Complicated, multi-dimensional, real-world solutions rarely require mastery of a single, isolated skill or understanding of a single subject matter. Thus, a 21st century assessment must be able to measure or observe a student’s mastery along several different axes." (route21.p21.org) Tony Wagner, in his TedTalk, gives names to the axes that he identifies as necessary in order to keep up with the pace of change in our "global knowledge economy." He cites seven major skills our students must obtain:
- Critical thinking and the ability to ask the right, good questions
- Collaboration across networks
- Agility & adaptability
- Initiative
- Effective oral & written skills
- Accessing & analyzing information
- Curiosity & imagination
As these skills are not necessarily those we teach via our Common Core Aligned textbooks, they are also not necessarily assessed in the same standardized ways. SBAC cannot assess curiosity and imagination, nor can it assess collaboration across networks, and so on. As we, the educators, begin to understand the need to integrate these 21st century skills in our teaching and in our students' and our own learning, we must also make the connections to assessment; these "global knowledge economy skills" need to be assessed in line with our 21st century mindsets and values.
Adaptability and agility in students' (and teachers') approaches to learning should be a top priority. We educators have seen our fair share of various grading/attendance/parent communication/email programs come and go over the years; we know that specific tools and trendy devices come into and fall out of fashion, yet it is how we apply and adapt the skills we have acquired to be able to use them that make us successful when our districts switch over to a new, more cost-effective (insert item) platform. We must foster the same adaptability and agility in our students, and are providing more opportunities for this as time moves forward.
My computer lab consists of 25 iMac desktop computers; teachers have access to ChromeBook carts for their classrooms. Our students have become more adaptable over the last 2 years with going back and forth between the two. The ChromeBooks have apps and buttons, whereas the iMacs have Applications Folders and URLs. PowerPoint is no longer heralded as the "be all" presentation tool - there are myriad apps and software available - so students need to be able to apply their knowledge of good presentations, attention to audience, commitment to content, in mind regardless of the tool they choose to utilize.
The articles listed below provide excellent examples of technologies that are available to support the assessment of 21st century skills. My favorite example of this is Blogging by using tools such as Blogger or WordPress. By keeping a blog, regardless of the host or platform, students are able to process and analyze their own works and creativity. Teachers can use this type of assessment formatively or summatively. The 21st Century Skills Assessment video highlights the use of electronic portfolios as an assessment tool, with the emphasis placed on the portfolio, and not on the electronic output method. Functioning as a repository for projects, blogs, information, and highlighted works, electronic portfolios showcase students' longitudinal work, provide evidence of growth and metacognition, and demonstrate proficiency in the global 21st century skills mentioned above. Khan Academy is another excellent example of a technology available to assess 21st century skills. Sal Khan created this incredible instructional model based on videos, interactive lessons, badges, points and skill tracking for students, complete with a coach dashboard that provides a summary of class performance as a whole as well as detailed student profiles. Many teachers in my building use this for math practice; I use it to teach my students coding, specifically Java Script.
One of my Grade 6 sections just completed an activity we called the 'Lego Challenge', where the students were given a Lego kit with a few extra props and were challenged to create a car that would travel 15 feet in the shortest amount of time. This activity showed how students can be engaged in an authentic activity where the assessments extend beyond the CCSS and into the 21st century. Students had to collaborate, problem solve, utilize their different strengths, navigate their individual challenges/weaknesses, and be creative. One of the district's technology integration specialists is putting together a blog to document the students' experiences. You can find it by clicking here.
Marx, G. (2014). Sneak Peek: Twenty-One Trends for the 21st Century - Education Week. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/marketplace/books/sneak-peek-21-trends-for-the-21st-century-gary-marx.html
21st Century Skills Assessment. (2009, June 29). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2WKCBxeoxU
Tony Wagner Ted Talk - 4 Min. Video. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7eFyNvA1uU
P21: Partnership for 21st Century Learning. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/index.php