Trading Strategies Essay Example for Free

Trading Strategies Essay Gone are the days when purely the corporation’s fundamentals are being studied before someone invests in the stock market. The traditional way of studying corporations is to look at their earnings, assets, liabilities, etc. A fundamentally sound company is an ideal company to invest in. Today, the fundamentals of any company are still considered; in fact, most investors (especially the medium- to long-term traders) consider the fundamentals of a company as a prerequisite to any investment that they are going to execute. The fundamentals of a company tell an investor if his or her investment will be safe in the long run even if there would be minor bumps in the stock market (volatility of prices, for example). Investing in a company with sound fundamentals ensures the investor that any minor price fluctuations can be ignored as long as a long-term horizon is the perspective of the investor. Thus, even if the price of a certain stock drops, an investor would not easily pullout his or her investments because he or she believes in the company. In essence, he is an investor more than being a trader.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But it is indeed correct that fundamentalists need market technicians. Technical analysis is about charts, trends, and market behavior or psychology. It is in this study that an ideal time to enter into an investment (or to sellout your shares) can be established scientifically. A classic example of how technical analysts may help an investor is by considering the case of the recent US subprime woes. Even fundamentally sound companies in the stock market are affected by this market decline. A fundamentalist, hence, the long-term investor, has a little concern on this because he know that the company he is investing on is safe and will rebound in the long run. However, a technical analysis of prices during this period would dictate that an investor should have sold his or her shares and buy back as soon as the market goes on the uptrend mode.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I agree that both fundamentalists and market technicians need each other for them to maximize their earning opportunities.

Automatic Metadata Harvesting From Digital Content

Automatic Metadata Harvesting From Digital Content MR. RUSHABH D. DOSHI,  MR. GIRISH H MULCHANDANI Abstract: Metadata Extraction is one of the predominant research fields in information retrieval. Metadata is used to references information resources. Most metadata extraction systems are still human intensive since they require expert decision to recognize relevant metadata but this is time consuming. However automatic metadata extraction techniques are developed but mostly works with structured format. We proposed a new approach to harvesting metadata from document using NLP. As NLP stands for Natural Language Processing work on natural language that human used in day today life. Keywords:  Metadata, Extraction, NLP, Grammars I. Introduction Metadata is data that describes another data Metadata describes an information resource, or helps provide access to an information resource. A collection of such metadata elements may describe one or many information resources. For example, a library catalogue record is a collection of metadata elements, linked to the book or other item in the library collection through the call number. Information stored in the META field of an HTML Web page is metadata, associated with the information resource by being embedded within it. The key purpose of metadata is to facilitate and improve the retrieval of information. At library, college, Metadata can be used to achieve this by identifying the different characteristics of the information resource: the author, subject, title, publisher and so on. Various metadata harvesting techniques is developed to extract the data from digital libraries. NLP is a field of computer science, artificial intelligence and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human (natural) languages. As such, NLP is related to the area of human computer interaction. Recent research has increasingly focused on unsupervised andsemi-supervisedlearning algorithms. Such algorithms are able to learn from data that has not beenhand-annotatedwith the desired answers, or using a combination of annotated andnon-annotateddata. The goal of NLP evaluation is to measure one or more qualities of an algorithm or a system, in order to determine whether (or to what extent) the system answers the goals of its designers, or meets the needs of its users. II. Method In this paper we proposed automatic metadata harvesting algorithm using natural language (i.e. humans used in day today works). Our technique is rule based. So it does not require any training dataset for it. We harvest metadata based on English Grammar Terms. We identify the possible set of metadata then calculate their frequency then applying weight term based on their position or format that apply to it. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section review some related work regarding to metadata harvesting from digital content. Section gives the detailed description of proposed idea presented here. At last paper is concluded with summary. III. Related Work Existing Metadata harvesting techniques are either machine learning method or ruled based methods. . In machine learning method set of predefined template that contains dataset are given to machine to train machine. Then machine is used to harvest metadata from document based on that dataset. While in rule based method most of techniques set ruled that are used to harvest metadata from documents. In machine learning approach extracted keywords are given to the machine from training documents to learn specific models then that model are applied to new documents to extract keyword from them.Many techniques used machine learning approach such as automatic document metadata extraction using support vector machine . In rule based techniques some predefined rules are given to machine based on that machine harvest metadata from documents. Positions of word in document, specific keyword are used as category of document and etc. are examples rules that are set in various metadata harvest techniques. In some case Metadata classification is based on document types (e.g. purchase order, sales report etc.) and data context (e.g. customer name, order date etc.) [1]. Other statistical methods include word frequency [2], TF*IDF [3], wordco-occurrences[4]. Later on some techniques are used to harvest key phrase based on TF*PDF [5]. Other techniques use TDT (Topic Detection and Tracking) with aging theory to harvest metadata from news website [6]. Some techniques used DDC/RDF editor to define and harvest metadata from document and validate by thirds parties [7]. Several models are developed to harvest metadata from corpus. Now days most of techniques used models that all are depends on corpus. IV. Proposed Theory Our approach focused on harvesting a metadata from document based on English grammar. English grammar has many categories which categorized the word in statement. Grammar categories such as NOUN,VERB, ADJECTIVES, ADVERB, NOUN PHRASE, VERB PHRASE etc. each and every grammar category has a priority in statement. So our approaches to extract out the Metadata extraction based on its priority in grammar. Priority in grammar component is as follows: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, noun phrase V. Proposed Idea Figure-1  Proposed System Architecture Infigure-1we give proposed system architecture. In this architecture we does not stick steps in any order. ArticlePre-processing: articlepre-processingwhich remove irrelevant contents (i.e. tags,header-footerdetails etc.) from documents. POS Taggers: APart-Of-SpeechTagger (POS Tagger) is a piece of software that reads text in some languages and assigns parts of speech to each word (and other token), such as noun, verb, adjective, etc. Stemming: In most cases, morphological variants of words have similar semantic interpretations can be considered as equivalent for the purpose of IR applications. For this reason, a number ofso-calledstemming Algorithms, or stemmers, have been developed, which attempt to reduce a word to its stem or root form. Calculate frequency: Here each termed frequency is calculated i.e. how many occurrence of each term in document. Identify Suitable Metadata: Now metadata is extracted from word set based on their frequency, grammar and their positions. VI. Experiments Results In this study we take a corpus with 100 documents. Documents contain the news article about various categories. Here we first extract the metadata manually from each every documents. Then apply our idea to corpus. We measure our result from following parameter. Precision = No of terms identified correctly by the system / Top N terms out of total terms generated by the system. Recall = Number of keyterms identified correctly by the system / Number of keyterms identified by the authors.F-measure=F=2* ((precision* recall)/ ( precision+ recall)) Table1: Evaluation Results VII. Conclusion Future Works This method based on grammar component Our Aim to use this algorithm to identifying metadata in  bigram, trigram tetra gram. This metadata helps us to generate summary of documents. References: [1] Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar, Raghavan, Hinrich Schtze An Introduction to Information Retrieval book. [2] H. P. Luhn. A Statistical Approach to Mechanized Encoding and Searching of Literary Information. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 1957, 1(4):309-317. [3] G. Salton, C. S. Yang, C. T. Yu. A Theory of Term Importance in Automatic Text Analysis, Journal of the C.Zhang et al American society for Information Science, 1975, 26(1):33-44. [4] Y. Matsuo, M. Ishizuka. Keyword Extraction from a Single Document Using WordCo-ocuurrenceStatistical Information. International Journal on Artificial Intelligence Tools, 2004, 13(1):157-169. [5] Yan Gao Jin Liu, Peixun Ma The HOT keyphrase Extraction based on TF*PDF, IEEE conference, 2011. [6] Canhui Wang, Min Zhang, Liyun Ru, Shaoping Ma An Automatic Online News Topic Keyphrase Extraction System,IEEE conference, 2006. [7] Nor Adnan Yahaya, Rosiza Buang Automated Metadata Extraction from web sources, IEEE conference, 2006. [8] Somchai Chatvienchai Automatic metadata extraction classi_cation of spreadsheet Documents based on layout similarities, IEEE conference, 2005. [9] Dr. Jyoti Pareek, Sonal Jain KeyPhrase Extraction tool (KET) for semantic metadata annotation of Learning Materials, IEEE conference, 2009. [10] Wan Malini Wan Isa, Jamaliah Abdul Hamid, Hamidah Ibrahim, Rusli Abdullah, Mohd. Hasan Selamat, Muhamad Tau_k Abdullah and Nurul Amelina Nasharuddin Metadata Extraction with Cue Model. [11] Zhixin Guo, Hai Jin ARule-basedFramework of Metadata Extraction from Scienti_c Papers, IEEE conference. [12] Ernesto Giralt Hernndez, Joan Marc Piulachs Application of the Dublin Core format for automatic metadata generation and extraction,DC-2005:Proc. International Conference. on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications. [13] Canhui Wang, Min Zhang, Liyun Ru, Shaoping Ma An Automatic Online News Topic Keyphrase Extraction System, IEEE conference. [14] Srinivas Vadrevu, Saravanakumar Nagarajan, Fatih Gelgi, Hasan Davulcu Automated Metadata and Instance Extraction from News Web Sites,IEEE conference.

Bradykinesia :: Disease Medical Health Essays

Bradykinesia Perception is an intangible part of every being. It cannot be explained, defined, or nailed down the way that most scientists would like. In some ways, perception can be taught-a person's circumstance and background would cause him or her to perceive a situation in a particular way. In other ways, perception is unpredictable and ever changing. Even here, attempting to describe the indescribable, there are flaws in the last two sentences because they are based on the writer's perceptions of perception. It is too subjective for a "scientific" definition. What does it mean for a person suffering from bradykinesia? If the individual understands the condition, she will realize that the perceptions she has are not always correct. She may perceive herself to be making a fist, or spreading her fingers, but in fact she may not have accomplished this. (1) A blind and deaf person may have perceptions about the world around her. Most likely, her only correct perceptions are those perception s about herself such as: "I am moving my arm," or "I am swinging my legs." The external stimuli are ineffective in this person, whereas a person with bradykinesia can only react completely and at a normal speed to external stimuli. Because of damage to signal pathways, the internal stimuli are ineffectively activated. (1) Bradykinesia is a Greek term that means "slow movement", and it is one of the constituents of Parkinson's disease (2), although it is also associated with other diseases. For patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, it is usually the most tiring and frustrating of the associated conditions. Small muscle movement is one of the first affected areas of the body. Therefore, a common test is to ask the patient to tap her finger. Normal individuals tap their fingers at 4 or 5 Hz, someone afflicted with bradykinesia can usually manage only up to 1 Hz.(3) There is no cure for bradykinesia. Certain surgeries may help decrease the condition. Hope remains for the future while researchers continue to explore different possibilities, examining causes and treatments that will lead to a cure and to more clues about Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and other conditions with which bradykinesia is associated. (4) Not only does bradykinesia affect the speed of movement, the person's ability to complete a motion suffers. While walking, the arms no longer swing, but remain lax at the person's sides. (2) If a person suffering from bradykinesia is asked to make a fist without looking, he or she can tell that their movements are slow. Bradykinesia :: Disease Medical Health Essays Bradykinesia Perception is an intangible part of every being. It cannot be explained, defined, or nailed down the way that most scientists would like. In some ways, perception can be taught-a person's circumstance and background would cause him or her to perceive a situation in a particular way. In other ways, perception is unpredictable and ever changing. Even here, attempting to describe the indescribable, there are flaws in the last two sentences because they are based on the writer's perceptions of perception. It is too subjective for a "scientific" definition. What does it mean for a person suffering from bradykinesia? If the individual understands the condition, she will realize that the perceptions she has are not always correct. She may perceive herself to be making a fist, or spreading her fingers, but in fact she may not have accomplished this. (1) A blind and deaf person may have perceptions about the world around her. Most likely, her only correct perceptions are those perception s about herself such as: "I am moving my arm," or "I am swinging my legs." The external stimuli are ineffective in this person, whereas a person with bradykinesia can only react completely and at a normal speed to external stimuli. Because of damage to signal pathways, the internal stimuli are ineffectively activated. (1) Bradykinesia is a Greek term that means "slow movement", and it is one of the constituents of Parkinson's disease (2), although it is also associated with other diseases. For patients suffering from Parkinson's disease, it is usually the most tiring and frustrating of the associated conditions. Small muscle movement is one of the first affected areas of the body. Therefore, a common test is to ask the patient to tap her finger. Normal individuals tap their fingers at 4 or 5 Hz, someone afflicted with bradykinesia can usually manage only up to 1 Hz.(3) There is no cure for bradykinesia. Certain surgeries may help decrease the condition. Hope remains for the future while researchers continue to explore different possibilities, examining causes and treatments that will lead to a cure and to more clues about Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and other conditions with which bradykinesia is associated. (4) Not only does bradykinesia affect the speed of movement, the person's ability to complete a motion suffers. While walking, the arms no longer swing, but remain lax at the person's sides. (2) If a person suffering from bradykinesia is asked to make a fist without looking, he or she can tell that their movements are slow.

Alaska Drillings :: essays papers

Alaska Drillings Drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife refuge will not solve our nation’s energy crisis, but it will destroy one of the worlds most unique animal habitats. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would satisfy only six months' worth of the nation's oil needs while oil drilling would "destroy" a wilderness that is home to the 150,000 animals of the Porcupine animal group. Our nations natural refuges should not be turned to destruction when a solution to a problem can be found else where. In addition to not being economically productive, drilling for oil will do nothing to help energy shortages experienced throughout the United States, while still destroying one of the only habitats of its kind in the world. Despite common thought, the Alaskan refuge is not a snow covered desert. It is important to what exactly would be destroyed if the United States decides to drill for oil. The Arctic Refuge is among the most complete and undisturbed ecosystems on earth. The Arctic Refuge contains an impressive variety of arctic wildlife. The rich variety of wildlife found within the Refuge includes more than 160 bird species, 36 kinds of land mammals, 9 marine mammal species, and 36 types of fish. The reality is that opening the Arctic refuge to drilling will accomplish little except destroying one of the last pure preserves of its kind in the world. Another reason why it would be unwise to drill is because it is just not cost efficient. For the oil industry to invest, the Refuge must hold a lot of oil, and the oil must sell for a high enough price for long enough to recover costs and earn profits. We need to think of a solution that will affect us today and will alleviate our problems. In exchange for this short-term return, we would have to pay a very high long-term price, threatening one of the planet's most unique animal and plant habitats. Scientific analyses by the US Fish & Wildlife Service have concluded that drilling would severely harm the refuge's abundant populations of caribou, polar bears, musk oxen, and snow geese. Alaska Drillings :: essays papers Alaska Drillings Drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife refuge will not solve our nation’s energy crisis, but it will destroy one of the worlds most unique animal habitats. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would satisfy only six months' worth of the nation's oil needs while oil drilling would "destroy" a wilderness that is home to the 150,000 animals of the Porcupine animal group. Our nations natural refuges should not be turned to destruction when a solution to a problem can be found else where. In addition to not being economically productive, drilling for oil will do nothing to help energy shortages experienced throughout the United States, while still destroying one of the only habitats of its kind in the world. Despite common thought, the Alaskan refuge is not a snow covered desert. It is important to what exactly would be destroyed if the United States decides to drill for oil. The Arctic Refuge is among the most complete and undisturbed ecosystems on earth. The Arctic Refuge contains an impressive variety of arctic wildlife. The rich variety of wildlife found within the Refuge includes more than 160 bird species, 36 kinds of land mammals, 9 marine mammal species, and 36 types of fish. The reality is that opening the Arctic refuge to drilling will accomplish little except destroying one of the last pure preserves of its kind in the world. Another reason why it would be unwise to drill is because it is just not cost efficient. For the oil industry to invest, the Refuge must hold a lot of oil, and the oil must sell for a high enough price for long enough to recover costs and earn profits. We need to think of a solution that will affect us today and will alleviate our problems. In exchange for this short-term return, we would have to pay a very high long-term price, threatening one of the planet's most unique animal and plant habitats. Scientific analyses by the US Fish & Wildlife Service have concluded that drilling would severely harm the refuge's abundant populations of caribou, polar bears, musk oxen, and snow geese.

B.f. Skinner Essay examples -- essays research papers

B.F. Skinner Psychologist, born in Susquhanna, Pa. He studied at Harvard, teaching there (1931-6, 1947-74). A leading behaviorist, he is a proponent of operant conditioning, and the inventor of the Skinner box for facilitating experimental observations. B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of â€Å"operating† on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around the world, doing what it does. During this â€Å"operating,† the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant - which is the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant conditioning: â€Å"the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organisms tendency to repeat the behavior in the future.† Say you have a dog and he’s just playing around with his toys and such and then when you throw a toy at him and he catches it then you give him a treat. Then all of the sudden the dog is starting to catch toys and such as you throw it in the air or at his mouth. The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer, which is the treat. Then what if you decide to stop giving the dog treats, well he’ll stop his little trick which your, the owner were enjoying. This is called extinction of the operant behavior. Now, if you were to start showing the dog treats, then most likely he/she’ll want to start doing the tricks again and a little more quickly than the dog learned at first. This is because the return of the reinforcer takes place in the context of a reinforcement history that goes all the way back to the very first time the dog was reinforced for performing the tricks. Continuous reinforcement is the original scenario: Every time that the dog does the behavior (such as performing a trick), he gets a treat. The fixed ratio schedule was the first one Skinner discovered: If the dog did the trick three times, say, he gets a goodie. Or five times. Or twenty times. Or â€Å"x† times. There is a fixed ratio between behaviors and reinforcers: 3 to 1, 5 to 1, 20 to 1, etc. This is a little like â€Å"piece rate† in the clothing manufacturing industry: You get paid so much for so many shirts. Skinner also looked at variable schedules. Variable ratio means you change the â€Å"x† each ... ...e aversive stimulus of hunger? Skinner (contrary to some stereotypes that have arisen about behaviorists) doesn’t â€Å"approve† of the use of aversive stimuli -- not because of ethics, but because they don’t work well! Notice that I said earlier that Johnny will maybe stop throwing his toys, and that I perhaps will take out the garbage? That’s because whatever was reinforcing the bad behaviors hasn’t been removed, as it would’ve been in the case of extinction. This hidden reinforcer has just been â€Å"covered up† with a conflicting aversive stimulus. So, sure, sometimes the child (or me) will behave -- but it still feels good to throw those toys. All Johnny needs to do is wait till you’re out of the room, or find a way to blame it on his brother, or in some way escape the consequences, and he’s back to his old ways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B. F. Skinner made numerous contributions to the science of behavior. He strongly influenced the area of learning that he named operant conditioning. His Skinner box is now a standard apparatus for the experimental study of animal behavior. Much of his work involved the study of how reinforcement schedules influence learning and behavior.

Assessment Of Learning Essay

Assessment of learning refers to strategies designed to confirm what students know, demonstrate whether or not they have met curriculum outcomes or the goals of their individualized programs, or to certify proficiency and make decisions about students’ future programs or placements. It is designed to provide evidence of achievement to parents, other educators, the students themselves, and sometimes to outside groups (e. g. , employers, other educational institutions). Assessment of learning is the assessment that becomes public and results in statements or symbols about how well students are learning. It often  contributes to pivotal decisions that will affect students’ futures. It is important, then, that the underlying logic and measurement of assessment of learning be credible and defensible. TEACHERS’ ROLES IN ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING Because the consequences of assessment of learning are often far-reaching and affect students seriously, teachers have the responsibility of reporting student learning accurately and fairly, based on evidence obtained from a variety of contexts and applications. Effective assessment of learning requires that teachers provide †¢ a rationale for undertaking a particular assessment of learning at a particular  point in time †¢ clear descriptions of the intended learning †¢ processes that make it possible for students to demonstrate their competence and skill †¢ a range of alternative mechanisms for assessing the same outcomes †¢ public and defensible reference points for making judgements Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind. †¢55 The purpose of assessment that typically comes at the end of a course or unit of instruction is to determine the extent to which the instructional goals have been achieved and for grading or certification of student achievement. (Linn and Gronlund, Measurement and Assessment in Teaching ) Reflection: Think about an example of assessment of learning in your own teaching and try to develop it further as you read this chapter. 56 †¢ Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind Chapter 5 †¢ transparent approaches to interpretation †¢ descriptions of the assessment process †¢ strategies for recourse in the event of disagreement about the decisions With the help of their teachers, students can look forward to assessment of learning tasks as occasions to show their competence, as well as the depth and breadth of their learning. PLANNING ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING. The purpose of assessment of learning is to measure, certify, and report the level  of students’ learning, so that reasonable decisions can be made about students. There are many potential users of the information: †¢ teachers (who can use the information to communicate with parents about their children’s proficiency and progress) †¢ parents and students (who can use the results for making educational and vocational decisions) †¢ potential employers and post-secondary institutions (who can use the information to make decisions about hiring or acceptance) †¢ principals, district or divisional administrators, and teachers (who can use the information to review and revise programming). Assessment of learning requires the collection and interpretation of information about students’ accomplishments in important curricular areas, in ways that represent the nature and complexity of the intended learning. Because genuine learning for understanding is much more than just recognition or recall of facts or algorithms, assessment of learning tasks need to enable students to show the complexity of their understanding. Students need to be able to apply key concepts, knowledge, skills, and attitudes in ways that are authentic and consistent with current thinking in the knowledge domain. What am I  assessing? Why am I assessing? Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind †¢ 57 Assessment of Learning In assessment of learning, the methods chosen need to address the intended curriculum outcomes and the continuum of learning that is required to reach the outcomes. The methods must allow all students to show their understanding and produce sufficient information to support credible and defensible statements about the nature and quality of their learning, so that others can use the results in appropriate ways. Assessment of learning methods include not only tests and examinations, but  also a rich variety of products and demonstrations of learning—portfolios, exhibitions, performances, presentations, simulations, multimedia projects, and a variety of other written, oral, and visual methods (see Fig. 2. 2, Assessment Tool Kit, page 17). What assessment method should I use? Graduation Portfolios Graduation portfolios are a requirement for graduation from British Columbia and Yukon Senior Years schools. These portfolios comprise collections (electronic or printed) of evidence of students’ accomplishments at school, home, and in the community, including demonstrations of  their competence in skills that are not measured in examinations. Worth four credits toward graduation, the portfolios begin in Grade 10 and are completed by the end of Grade 12. The following are some goals of graduation portfolios: †¢ Students will adopt an active and reflective role in planning, managing, and assessing their learning. †¢ Students will demonstrate learning that complements intellectual development and course-based learning. †¢ Students will plan for successful transitions beyond Grade 12. Graduation portfolios are prepared at the school level and are based on specific Ministry criteria and standards. Students use the criteria and standards as guides for planning, collecting, and presenting their evidence, and for self-assessing. Teachers use the criteria and standards to assess student evidence and assign marks. There are three major components of a graduation portfolio: 1. Portfolio Core (30 percent of the mark). Students must complete requirements in the following six portfolio organizers: arts and design (respond to an art, performance, or design work); community involvement and responsibility (participate co-operatively and respectfully in a  service activity); education and career planning (complete a graduation transition plan); employability skills (complete 30 hours of work or volunteer experience); information technology (use information technology skills); personal health (complete 80 hours of moderate to intense physical activity). 2. Portfolio Choice (50 percent of the mark). Students expand on the above areas, choosing additional evidence of their achievements. 3. Portfolio Presentation (20 percent of the mark). Students celebrate their learning and reflect at the end of the portfolio process. ( Portfolio Assessment and Focus Areas: A Program Guide  ) 58 †¢ Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind Chapter 5 Assessment of learning needs to be very carefully constructed so that the information upon which decisions are made is of the highest quality. Assessment of learning is designed to be summative, and to produce defensible and accurate descriptions of student competence in relation to defined outcomes and, occasionally, in relation to other students’ assessment results. Certification of students’ proficiency should be based on a rigorous, reliable, valid, and equitable process of assessment and evaluation. Reliability  Reliability in assessment of learning depends on how accurate, consistent, fair, and free from bias and distortion the assessment is. Teachers might ask themselves: †¢ Do I have enough information about the learning of this particular student to make a definitive statement? †¢ Was the information collected in a way that gives all students an equal chance to show their learning? †¢ Would another teacher arrive at the same conclusion? †¢ Would I make the same decision if I considered this information at another time or in another way? Reference Points Typically, the reference points for assessment of learning are the learning  outcomes as identified in the curriculum that make up the course of study. Assessment tasks include measures of these learning outcomes, and a student’s performance is interpreted and reported in relation to these learning outcomes. In some situations where selection decisions need to be made for limited positions (e. g. , university entrance, scholarships, employment opportunities), assessment of learning results are used to rank students. In such norm-referenced situations, what is being measured needs to be clear, and the way it is being measured needs to be transparent to anyone who might use the assessment  results. Validity Because assessment of learning results in statements about students’ proficiency in wide areas of study, assessment of learning tasks must reflect the key knowledge, concepts, skills, and dispositions set out in the curriculum, and the statements and inferences that emerge must be upheld by the evidence collected. How can I ensure quality in this assessment process? Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind †¢ 59 Assessment of Learning Record-Keeping Whichever approaches teachers choose for assessment of learning, it is their records that provide details about the quality of the measurement. Detailed records of the various components of the assessment of learning are essential, with a description of what each component measures, with what accuracy and against what criteria and reference points, and should include supporting evidence related to the outcomes as justification. When teachers keep records that are detailed and descriptive, they are in an excellent position to provide meaningful reports to parents and others. Merely a symbolic representation of a student’s accomplishments (e. g. , a letter grade or percentage) is inadequate. Reports to parents and others should identify the  intended learning that the report covers, the assessment methods used to gather the supporting information, and the criteria used to make the judgement. Feedback to Students Because assessment of learning comes most often at the end of a unit or learning cycle, feedback to students has a less obvious effect on student learning than assessment for learning and assessment as learning. Nevertheless, students do Ho w can I use the information from this assessment? Guidelines for Grading. 1. Use curriculum learning outcomes or some clustering of these (e. g. , strands) as the basis for grading. 2.Make sure that the meaning of grades comes from clear descriptions of curriculum outcomes and standards. If students achieve the outcome, they get the grade. (NO bell curves! ) 3. Base grades only on individual achievement of the targeted learning outcomes. Report effort, participation, and attitude, for example, separately, unless they are a stated curriculum outcome. Any penalties (e. g. , for late work, absences), if used, should not distort achievement or motivation. 4. Sample student performance using a variety of methods. Do not include all assessments in grades. Provide ongoing feedback on formative  performance using words, rubrics, or checklists, not grades. 5. Keep records in pencil so they can be updated easily to take into consideration more recent achievement. Provide second-chance assessment opportunities (or more). Students should receive the highest, most consistent mark, not an average mark for multiple opportunities. 6. Crunch numbers carefully, if at all. Consider using the median, mode, or statistical measures other than the mean. Weight components within the final grade to ensure that the intended importance is given to each learning outcome. 7. Make sure that each assessment meets quality standards (e.g. , there should be clear targets, clear purpose, appropriate target-method match, appropriate sampling, and absence of bias and distortion) and is properly recorded and maintained (e. g. , in portfolios, at conferences, on tracking sheets). 8. Discuss and involve students in grading at the beginning and throughout the teaching and learning process. (Adapted from O’Connor, How to Grade for Learning ) Resource: Marzano, Transforming Classroom Grading 60 †¢ Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind Chapter 5 rely on their marks and on teachers’ comments as indicators of their level of  success, and to make decisions about their future learning endeavours. Differentiating Learning In assessment of learning, differentiation occurs in the assessment itself. It would make little sense to ask a near-sighted person to demonstrate driving proficiency without glasses. When the driver uses glasses, it is possible for the examiner to get an accurate picture of the driver’s ability, and to certify him or her as proficient. In much the same way, differentiation in assessment of learning requires that the necessary accommodations be in place that allow students to make the particular learning visible.  Multiple forms of assessment offer multiple pathways for making student learning transparent to the teacher. A particular curriculum outcome requirement, such as an understanding of the social studies notion of conflict, for example, might be demonstrated through visual, oral, dramatic, or written representations. As long as writing were not an explicit component of the outcome, students who have difficulties with written language, for example, would then have the same opportunity to demonstrate their learning as other students. Although assessment of learning does not always lead teachers to differentiate  instruction or resources, it has a profound effect on the placement and promotion of students and, consequently, on the nature and differentiation of the future instruction and programming that students receive. Therefore, assessment results need to be accurate and detailed enough to allow for wise recommendations. Reporting There are many possible approaches to reporting student proficiency. Reporting assessment of learning needs to be appropriate for the audiences for whom it is intended, and should provide all of the information necessary for them to make reasoned decisions. Regardless of the form of the reporting,however, it should be honest, fair, and provide sufficient detail and contextual information so that it can be clearly understood. Traditional reporting, which relies only on a student’s average score, provides little information about that student’s skill development or knowledge. One alternate mechanism, which recognizes many forms of success and provides a profile of a student’s level of performance on an emergent-proficient continuum, is the parent- student-teacher conference. This forum provides parents with a great deal of information, and reinforces students’ responsibility for their learning. The Communication System Continuum: From Symbols to Conversations (O’Connor, How to Grade for Learning ) Grades Report cards (grades and brief comments) Infrequent informal communications Parent-teacher interviews Report cards with expanded comments Frequent informal communication Student-involved conferencing Student-led conferencing Reflection: What forms do your reports of student proficiency take? How do these differ according to audience? Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind †¢ 61 Assessment of Learning An Example of Assessment of Learning  Elijah was interested in assessing student mastery of both the modern and the traditional skills required for survival in the Nunavut environment where he teaches. The overarching theme of survival is taught in the early grades and culminates at the senior level in a course delivered in Inuktitut. Students learn how to take care of themselves and others, and how to adapt what they know to the situation at hand. Survival requires not only skills and knowledge, but also a concept the Inuit people call qumiutit, or the ability in an emergency situation to pull out of stored memory information that will enable a person to cope, not panic. Traditionally, this was learned in a holistic manner, grounded in Inuit traditional guiding principles that were nurtured and developed from birth, and taught and reinforced in daily living. Throughout the term, Elijah took his students to an outdoor area to practise on-the-land survival activities, using both traditional and modern methods. He always took with him a knowledgeable Elder who could give the students the information they needed to store away in case of emergency. The students watched demonstrations of a skill a number of times. Each student then practised on his or her own, as Elijah and the Elder observed and assisted. Elijah knew that students need to have a high level of expertise in the survival skills appropriate for the northern natural environment. Elijah assessed each student on each survival skill (e. g. , making fire the traditional way, tying the knots required for the qamutik cross-pieces on a sled). What am I assessing? I am assessing each student’s performance of traditional and modern survival skills. Why am I assessing? I want to know which survival skills each s tudent has mastered and their readiness to s urvive in the natural environment. 62 †¢ Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind  Chapter 5 Elijah knew that the best way to determine if students have mastered the skills is to have them perform them. When students believed they were ready, Elijah created an opportunity for them to demonstrate the mastered skill to a group of Elders, who then (individually, then in consensus) determined if the performance was satisfactory. A student’s competence in a survival skill is often demonstrated by an end product. For example, competence in knot tying is demonstrated by a knot that serves its purpose, and competence in fire building is demonstrated by a fire that is robust. As the Elders judged each student’s performance of the skills, Elijah recorded the results. He shared the information with each student and his or her parents in a final report, as shown here. Ho w can I use the informatio n from this assessment? Now that I know which skills each of the students has mastered, I can report this information to the s tudents and their parents. I can use this information to identify a learning path for each s tudent. How can I ensure quality in this assessment process? Ensuring quality with this approach involves clear criteria: either the student performs the skill s uccessfully or does not. I need to provide adequate opportunities for the s tudent to demonstrate the skills under various conditions and at various times. What assessment method should I use? I need an approach in which students can demonstrate the traditional survival skills that they learned. The method I choose should also allow me to identify which skills they did not master. Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind †¢ 63 Assessment of Learning Shelters: †¢ emergency shelters †¢ igloo building4 †¢ qamaq5 †¢ tents Transportation needs: †¢ making the knots required for the qamutik cross pieces on a sled †¢ building a kayak/umiak. †¢ fixing a snowmobile (spark plugs, repairing track, drive belt) †¢ keeping a boat seaworthy Navigational issues: †¢ reading the land †¢ reading the sky †¢ understanding seasonal variations †¢ reading inuksuit †¢ using GPS †¢ map reading Preparation for land travel: †¢ packing a qamutiq (sled) †¢ load, balance †¢ necessities: snow knife, rope, food, water, heat source †¢ letting others know where you are going †¢ necessary tools, supplies, snowmobile parts, fuel †¢ using communication devices Food sources: †¢ plants and their nutritional properties †¢ hunting, skinning, and cutting up seal, caribou, etc. †¢ kinds of food to take on the land,  and their nutritional properties ____________________ 4. Expertise in igloo building includes understanding of types of snow, the shape and fit of blocks, and the use of a snow- knife. 5. A qamaq is a rounded house, built of scrap wood or bones, and covered with skins, cardboard, or canvas. Report on Survival Skills Student: _______________________________________________ Date: _______________________ Traditional Survival Skills Modern Survival Skills Adaptability to the Seasons Attitude Success Next Steps 1) Skills Building a fire / means of keeping warm: †¢ fuel sources †¢ getting a spark †¢ propane heaters, stoves †¢ clothing. 2) Relationship to the Seasons Assessing conditions / recognizing danger signs: †¢ seasonal changes †¢ land changes †¢ water changes †¢ wind changes †¢ weather changes Climatic changes: †¢ weather changes and how this affects the land and water †¢ knowledge of animals and their characteristics and behaviours 3) Attitudinal Influences (Having the right attitude to learn) †¢ respect for the environment (cleaning up a campsite upon leaving, dealing with the remains of an animal, not over-hunting/fishing) †¢ respect for Elders and their knowledge †¢ ability to learn from Elders 64 †¢ Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind Chapter 5. Elijah’s report identified which of the students had mastered the specified skills required to survive in the Nunavut environment. It outlined other areas (such as adaptability to the seasons and attitudinal influences) about which peers, parents, and family members would need to provide input before a comprehensive assessment could be made. The assessment also identified those students not yet ready to survive in the natural environment. But the Elders did not stop working with the students who did not reach mastery. Elders see learning as an individual path in which skills, knowledge, and attitudes are acquired along the way. If a particular skill was beyond the capability of a student, the Elders identified other areas where that person could contribute to the common good of the community, and was accepted for the gifts he or she brought to the group. In this way, the Elders helped Elijah differentiate the learning path for each of his students. SUMMARY OF PLANNING ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING Assessment for Learning Assessment as Learning Assessment of Learning Why Assess? to enable teachers to determine next steps in advancing student learning to guide and provide opportunities for each student to monitor and critically reflect on his or her learning, and  identify next steps Assess What? Each student’s progress and learning needs in relation to the curricular outcomes each student’s thinking about his or her learning, what strategies he or she uses to support or challenge that learning, and the mechanisms he or she uses to adjust and advance his or her learning What Methods? a range of methods in different modes that make students’ skills and understanding visible a range of methods in different modes that elicit students’ learning and metacognitive processes Ensuring Quality †¢ accuracy and consistency of observations and interpretations of student learning. †¢ clear, detailed learning expectations †¢ accurate, detailed notes for descriptive feedback to each student †¢ accuracy and consistency of student’s self-reflection, self-monitoring, and self-adjustment †¢ engagement of the student in considering and challenging his or her thinking †¢ students record their own learning Using the Information †¢ provide each student with accurate descriptive feedback to further his or her learning †¢ differentiate instruction by continually checking where each student is in relation to the curricular outcomes †¢ provide parents or guardians with descriptive feedback about student  learning and ideas for support. †¢ provide each student with accurate descriptive feedback that will help him or her develop independent learning habits †¢ have each student focus on the task and his or her learning (not on getting the right answer) †¢ provide each student with ideas for adjusting, rethinking, and articulating his or her learning †¢ provide the conditions for the teacher and student to discuss alternatives †¢ students report about their learning Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind. †¢ 65 Assessment of Learning to certify or inform parents or others of student’s proficiency in  relation to curriculum learning outcomes the extent to which students can apply the key concepts, knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to the curricular outcomes a range of methods in different modes that assess both product and process †¢ accuracy, consistency, and fairness of judgements based on high-quality information †¢ clear, detailed learning expectations †¢ fair and accurate summative reporting †¢ indicate each student’s level of learning †¢ provide the foundation for discussions on placement or promotion †¢ report fair, accurate, and detailed information that can be used to decide the next steps in a student’s learning.

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