Posts on “ assessment ”

BrainPOP’s Allisyn Levy shares her experience integrating assessment into game-based learning. For a long time, I was on a hunt for an amazing English Language Arts game that tied into curriculum and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). A big part of my role at BrainPOP® is vetting games for GameUp®, our online games portal. I focus a lot on working with teachers and students to play-test new games and features so we can shape our offerings to meet our audience’s needs. For months my search continued, and for every huge handful of games we saw, only one or two were really gems. We did discover some outstanding Language Arts games, including Classroom Inc.’s TSN2, Learning Games Network’s Quandary, and many of the iCivics games, all featured on GameUp. But we started to realize that you can actually tie digital games across all subject areas into English Language Arts (ELA) using assessment. In one of my favorite student challenges, I ask the class to create a “cheat sheet” or walk-through. This involves the kind of 21st-century skills the CCSS focus on, both in terms of ELA and literacy in the content areas. Quality digital games are a powerful way to teach the formulation of evidence-based arguments, for… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP’s newest topic, ethics, provides an accessible, engaging storyline and a terrific entry point for students to frame and build skills focused on in the Common Core State Standards. Understanding the ethical dimension of reasoning will prepare students for critically evaluating a broad range of topics, from science and technology to history and literature. BrainPOP is making an strong effort to support implementation of the Common Core State Standards by creating new topic movies that consider changes in curriculum and performance based assessment. The Common Core standards for English Language Arts emphasize proficiency in making and evaluating arguments, problem-solving, and critical reasoning. Our ethics movie begins with age old questions – when you’re faced with a tough decision, how do you figure out what to do? What guidelines or examples do you use to make up your mind, and what happens when there’s more than one good way to act?  Tim and Moby offer some simple advice on what to do when you’re faced with tough choices about right and wrong, or good and bad. Students will consider some rules of thumb about ethical decision making, including ways to find a solution that does the most good while doing the least amount of harm. Ethics also primes students… Read the Rest»

Last Friday, I had the honor of being one of the judges for the the Rube Goldberg Machines Boss Level at NYC’s Quest 2to Learn School. With all of debate surrounding assessment, it was refreshing to witness a unique approach to middle school finals (or as Quest to Learn refers to them with a kid-friendly nod, “boss levels”). A “Rube Goldberg machine” is a device that’s designed to complete a simple task in a complex fashion. For this challenge, 6th-graders teamed up to create simple machines that served different purposes – one created art using paint, another lifted a tissue out of a tissue box. In order to complete their boss levels, these 6th graders had to design a solution to complete the tasks that they were assigned. Beyond the curricular content students had to apply, they were collaboratively problem solving, planning, testing, and iterating as a team in order to complete this challenge — a very accurate set of real life skills that we employ regularly at BrainPOP.  We visited six classrooms and assessed the completed projects using rubrics, providing authentic feedback to the students from a variety of professions represented by the judging panel. Upon entering each classroom, the excitement of… Read the Rest»

BrainPOP is thrilled to introduce a new category of free English Language Arts (ELA) games! When you visit the main GameUp page, you’ll now see an “English Games” button which takes you to our growing collection of online games that target a wide range of literacy skills. We’re also excited to announce the addition of Classroom, Inc.’s The Sports Network 2 (TSN-2) to our English GameUp offerings. The result of a 2011 Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), TSN-2 can easily be adapted for use with students in grades 5-9, but is designed to assess students’ proficiency in key grade 8 Common Core State Standards in Reading Informational Text. We love the way TSN-2 uses challenging tasks within a virtual workplace to address each of its target standards multiple times. Last spring, Classroom, Inc. piloted TSN-2 in eight schools in NYC and Chicago. Analysis of student data gathered through Classroom Inc’s Teacher Dashboard showed strong correlations between students’ scores on the TSN-2 embedded assessments and MAP reading scores—compelling evidence that TSN-2 is a valid predictor of student performance on standardized grade level reading tests. Pilot teachers were enthusiastic about how TSN-2 provides effective CCSS practice and assessment, and students were eager… Read the Rest»

Wednesday, January 16th at 3:30 PM ET- Customized Assessment With the Mixer If you missed our past Mixer-themed webinars, we’ve got you covered in this hour-long look at our newest tool. Designed to let you create and remix your own BrainPOP quizzes, the Mixer makes it possible to tailor assessment for all your students’ needs. We’ll share ideas and best practices so you can start mixing it up with this valuable teaching resource.

BrainPOP Educators continue to submit interesting quizzes using the BrainPOP Mixer™ tool.   One of our recent favorites is from @jodonnell from Raymond W. Kershaw Elementary School in New Jersey, who created a “famous scientist” quiz prompting students to match an individual scientist with his or her invention or discovery.  What a cool way to use a multiple choice!  For additional creative ideas to use the mixer, check out these other user stories, or share some of your own in the Mixer user group!

With the large scale adoption of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics, the education world is preparing for impending assessments beginning in 2014.  The 2014 assessments are being developed by two organizations: PARCC, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers  and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.  The exact formats for the assessments are currently undetermined as the organizations work with various stakeholders to create them.  However, we do know that the assessments will continue to include “selective response” or multiple choice and open-ended, “constructive response” questions that require students to share processes and demonstrate understanding in ways rarely measured before on standardized tests. Fortunately, BrainPOP’s Mixer™ tool allows you to find or create your own “open response” questions, perfect for capturing “evidence based” answers that are more difficult to assess via standard multiple choice.  Using the Mixer, you can explore pre-written open-ended questions by clicking the filter and selecting “open-ended,” or write your own.  Either way,  the open-ended question format can elicit higher order thinking from your students – the kind that will be assessed on the future tests. Looking for good question prompts? Take a look at the FYI section on each of our topic pages. Full of high-interest… Read the Rest»

Wednesday, September 19th at 4:00 PM ET- Assessment with BrainPOP and Acuity We welcome Laura Agrusti of McGraw Hill/CTB as she joins Andrew Gardner, Senior Manager of BrainPOP Educators, for an overview of our collaboration with CTB. They’ll discuss how to use the results of Acuity assessments to differentiate instruction and assign targeted BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. movies and quizzes. You’ll see how to gain a better understanding of students’ individual needs through the use of Acuity resources.

Monday June 4th,  2012 3:30 pm EDT Join Michelle Metcalf, Acuity Product Manager, and Andrew Gardner, Senior Manager of BrainPOP Educators, to discuss the new collaboration between CTB and BrainPOP. Students can now receive targeted BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. movies and quizzes based on the results of Acuity assessments. Additionally, the results of students’ performance on quizzes are available from within Acuity, providing teachers with additional data points to better understand the individualized needs of their students. Hosted by Acuity via WebEx. Requires telephone and internet connection. BrainPOP will not be providing attendance certificates for this webinar. Log On (password: brainpop)  

Wednesday, May 23 7:30PM ET: Video Games in Teaching – Lessons Learned Join Marjee Chmiel, instructional technology specialist at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA and a former game designer, as she shares tried and tested tips for successfully integrating video games into classrooms. You’ll walk away with practical ideas for where to find quality online games, a solid understanding of the value and drawback of games, tips for evaluating games, and ideas for assessment.