Assessment Metaphors
From LiteracyTentWiki
Please add your own assessment metaphors to the list below. To learn how to add or change text, select: AleDirections
If you have drawings, graphics, or other images to illustrate metaphors, please send them as an attachment to marie.cora@hotspurpartners.com to be posted.
To go back a page, select Assessment Information
Standardized testing may not always be the "sharpest knife" in the drawer someone told me recently, but it is often the only knife in the drawer.
Pauline Mcnaughton
pmcnaughton@language.ca
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005
1) We should use the best knives we have.
2) We may need some new, better knives.
3) We should be careful not to use knives when spoons or forks would be better.
4) We should avoid using knives to hammer nails or fasten buttons (ouch).
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
Boston, MA, USA
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005
5) We should be cautious not to use "the only knife in the drawer" to cut the throat of learners in programs with just literacy level 1 learners whom *I* believe it's unrealistic to expect will increase 2 GL in one reporting period.
Nancy Hansen
sfallsliteracy@yahoo.com
Sioux Falls, SD, USA
Posted to the NIFL-Assessment Listserv July 28, 2005
A knife is really not a good metaphor for assessment. You can't measure with a knife, just slice, dice, and poke. You need a container or filter or ruler metaphor.
Here's one of my favorite Chinese sayings: Viewing the heavens through a bamboo tube, measuring the ocean with a spoon. Here we have two metaphoric references to the limits of measurement.
Assessment as a bamboo tube says to me: When you interpret the results of any assessment be aware that you are dealing with a very limited "field of view." Any one test result is an extremely narrow window on ability. Multiple measurements are always better but never the complete picture.
Assessment as a spoon says to me: Human capabilities and qualities are like the ocean. No matter how many times you dip in the spoon you will never appreciate the vastness. Spoons are too small and can only contain the amount of seawater that fits in them. Tests are like that. They measure the small constructs of ability they were designed to measure and that's it. What we call a test of reading is not really a test of everything that reading entails. It's just a test of some small part or parts of reading ability.
Regie Stites
Posted here on the ALE Wiki August 5, 2005
Assessment as a ladder is, I believe, more descriptive of the shortfalls inherent in the process. The ladder will not allow you to go easily to the top, but will allow a safe entrance to the highest levels of desired measurement. The ladder doesn't reach all the way to the top, but is better than a chair.
Arthur Rogers
Posted here Jul 20, 2006
This is an edited version of the posts above
1) Standardized testing may not always be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
2) Let's use the best knives we have, but also get some better knives.
3) Let's not use knives when spoons or forks are better.
4) Avoid using knives to hammer nails or fasten buttons (ouch).
5) Let's not use "the only knife in the drawer" to cut the throat of learners in programs with just literacy level one ( whom *I* believe it's unrealistic to expect will increase two grade levels in one reporting period.)
6) Let's train those with knives to use them properly.
7) Using a knife to eat peas or mashed potatoes is inefficient and uncouth. If you don't have forks and spoons, don't settle for using knives.
8) Utensils may help in cooking, but only if there's food to cook. (A kitchen version of my favorite farming metaphor for testing, "You don't fatten a calf by weighing it.")
9) We must understand the limitations of measurement, like viewing the heavens through a bamboo tube or measuring the ocean with a spoon
10) Assessment can be like a ladder, measuring upward movement a step at a time
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
Boston, MA, USA
Updated here April 23, 2008
More Assessment Metaphors:
Know which utensils serve what purposes – knives have their uses, but so do forks, teaspoons, soup spoons, salad forks, spatulas, etc. Some or all may be needed to follow a recipe.
You need drawers that can hold all the different utensils so that the correct ones are available as needed.
You need a kitchen that can accommodate all the drawers – remodeling might be necessary.
Laurie Bercovitz
bercovitzl@thecenterweb.org
[Assessment 1293] Re: Assessment metaphors....
Sent to the National Institute for Literacy Assessment discussion list, assessment@nifl.gov
April 22, 2008 1:11:45 PM EDT
Assessment is like an eclipse because we need to make sure we are not thinking of it as an end but rather the begininng of the next lesson or unit. They should always be building and continuing on.
Assessment can be liken to tasting a piece of cake to find out if all the correct ingredients were used. If all the right tools and resources were utilized during the teaching process, then assessment will be the proof in the eating, because it will reveal whether the right measurements of ingredients were used and that no ingredients were left out.
Queen Meheux
reginapro81@hotmail.com
posted here April 7, 2009
Assessment Metaphor
Sent to Effective Assessment in ABE/GED Classrooms discussion list
Using one standardized test to predict a student's functioning/performance level is about like a meteorologist who always uses only a barometer (one tool) which measures atmospheric pressure to analyze and to predict/forecast all forms of weather. Educators must utilize more than just one standardized assessment result to plan instruction/to prepare lessons to teach/to remediate/to focus on the skill areas that are weak, as well as detemine the learner's strengths. A successful meteorologist uses more than just a barometer to predict weather changes in conditions to accurately forecast weather for his viewers. In addition to a barometer, he utilizes Dopplar Radar as well as satellite data and an anemometer to measure the wind speed - all in conjunction to be as accurate as possible in his forecasts. Educators need to examine more than one test score, classroom performance, verbal responses, portfolio assessment, written responses, and anecdotal records to make the most accurate plans/prescriptions for student success.
Judy jcsnider@griffintech.edu posted 4/8/09 Assessment Metaphor Sent to Effective Assessment in ABE/GED Classrooms discussion list
