ACET, Inc. Blog

As we embark on our new year, the ACET team wanted to take a little time to reminisce about our last few weeks of 2009 and share what we did over the holidays.

Stella and her husband, Jason, were excited to spend Christmas in their new house, where they put up their very first Christmas tree. To celebrate the holidays, they had a small gathering with some of Jason’s family at home. Jason did all of the cooking and Stella cleaned – Jason is a great cook and Stella is good with dishes! Stella received lots of candy and chocolates for Christmas, which she is slowly but steadily working her way through. Stella and Jason worked off their holiday treats by shoveling out their driveway all of Christmas Day – a definite workout! Neither Stella nor Jason did anything business-related during the break, which is quite a rarity!

Kirsten and her husband, Zack, stayed in town for the holiday weekend. On the 24th they ate dinner at her parents’ house with mostly traditional Swedish food – Swedish meatballs, brown beans, and Swedish potato sausage. There was also an overabundance of sugar – cookies, chocolate, and shortbread. On Christmas Day they got together at her sister and brother-in-law’s house for prime rib and turkey, mashed potatoes, and trimmings. For New Year’s Eve, Kirsten and Zack are heading slightly north to Stacy, MN, to get together with Kirsten’s aunt, uncle, and many cousins to ring in the new year.

Heather began the holiday season with a fresh, new look – she went from blonde hair to red! She also embarked on a Christmas cookie baking spree which resulted in hundreds of tasty treats. Heather and her husband, Aaron, traveled to southeastern Wisconsin with their dog, Bocephus, and Joseph’s dog, Zelda, to celebrate Christmas. They attended five different family gatherings in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota! Heather and Aaron are looking forward to a quiet New Years celebration with friends and Heather will be making her first attempt at Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon.

Joseph flew back to California for the holidays to visit his family. The first thing he had to do when reaching the West Coast was remove his winter jacket – it was 60 degrees! He had a good time back in his hometown and got to spend quality time with the family. It did take a while to scrape the ice and snow from his car upon his return, but Joseph is glad to be back home and his dog, Zelda, is even more happy.

Cassie has another job, so she ended up working most of her holiday, but she did enjoy some well-spent time with both sides of her family. She also celebrated her boyfriend’s birthday, which included an unruly snowball fight! On New Year’s Eve, she’s attending a party at her friend’s house and ringing in the new year with friends, champagne, and yes, even karaoke.

We hope that your new year is full of health and happiness! Cheers!

Recent activity in the assessment field has seen a push toward Formative Assessments and their value to the education of students. While this topic might require a book to properly cover, I will attempt to provide one piece of what formative assessment is and how it can be used and how it might be useful.

First of all, formative assessment is an assessment for learning and not an assessment of learning. Consider the following two multiple choice items and the responses:

The two item stems are identical, but the response options are different. Let’s look at the first item’s response options. Based on a student’s choice of a correct answer, we can assume a student understands the principle of addition (6 + 2 = 8). However, if a student selects 21, -9, or Elephant, we can assume the student does not understand the principles of addition. These types of items are often called distractors. But what further information can we glean from a student’s incorrect answer in the first item? What common misconception does the student hold if they answer 21? How about -9? And what about Elephant? I don’t think we can know anything about the student other than the student does not understand how to add. This is simply an assessment of learning; it tells you if a student understands addition or not.

How about the second item’s response options? Do the incorrect responses provide any information about a common misconception that might lead to an incorrect response? You can probably already guess the answer: Yes. Consider option “b.” A response of “b” might indicate that a student understands the plus sign as a multiplication sign. Six multiplied by 2 does equal 12. For response “c” it appears the student understands the plus sign as a division sign. Six divided by 2 equals 3. Even the last response option provides some information. Six minus 2 equals four; the student likely understands a plus sign as a minus sign. This is an assessment for learning; it helps instructors/teachers to pinpoint misconceptions or a lack of knowledge in a particular area, which can then be used to correct the misconception or provide the necessary knowledge. This last point is key in that assessment is only formative if the information gained is used to further student learning.

This is one simple example how a formative assessment can provide information that is used for learning rather information that simply an assessment of learning. The feedback loop between teacher and student is essential.

What is needed to advance in the field of formative assessments is a working model of learning for the subject matter we wish to assess. A model of learning can describe the learning process itself. In our example above, research on the development of mathematical reasoning in relation to addition is needed to provide the necessary background to develop a formative assessment. Research can provide a model of learning that shows how students develop mathematical addition reasoning and a good formative assessment can assess not only a student’s progress toward development, but also the specific learning barriers they need to overcome.

Formative assessment is not only for individual classroom assessment, but can also include large scale assessment.

Joseph

This fall, my husband, Zack, and I accompanied some friends on a “Cheese and Chocolate Weekend” at some of Minnesota’s wineries and vineyards. While at one of the vineyards we discovered that Minnesota has 25 wineries and vineyards that produce a variety of white, blush, red, dessert, and fruit wines. Who knew that Minnesota had so many wineries?!

Zack and I had so much fun that we decided that, over the next couple of years, we would try to visit all 25 of Minnesota’s wineries and vineyards. So far, we’ve visited 5. Here they are:

Alexis Bailly (Hastings) – We loved their ISIS, a great ice wine.
Cannon River Winery (Cannon Falls) – We really enjoyed their Sogn Blush with Thanksgiving dinner. And although we don’t drink much red wine, we loved their Gunflint Red. Cannot wait until it is back in stock!
Falconer Vineyard (Red Wing) – We enjoyed their Chambourcin so much that we bought a bottle.
Saint Croix Valley Vineyards (Stillwater) – We actually visited this vineyard several years ago as they are located at Aamodt’s Apple Orchard, one of our favorite places to visit during the apple harvest. If you get a chance, sample the Raspberry Infusion. We find it a great compliment to dark chocolate.
Winehaven Winery (Chisago) – They have both white and red ice wines and developed their own red grape, the Chisago. Plus, they are close to one of our favorite cheese houses, Eichten’s, in Center City.

Keep posted – you never know when we’ll visit another winery!

And if you know of a great place to visit in Minnesota, please share it!

Kirsten

Good day!

We’re very excited to roll out our blog here at ACET, Inc! Please feel free to bookmark our page and check back frequently for updates on various educational resources, funding opportunities and announcements, fun tidbits on the lives of our team and more! We would also love to hear from you, our readers, so please feel free to comment as appropriate.

Thanks!