Evaluating Health Programs

Health education programs must be evaluated continually to make sure that they are accomplishing their goals. In order to evaluate effectively many aspects of the program must be examined. To do this in a fast and efficient way, triangulation is often used. Triangulation is the method of examining the three main components of a program. The three components are: Student learning, Curriculum opportunities, and Community impact. Once each of these aspects is examined, the overall effectiveness of the program can be determined and the evaluation will be complete.
Students learning should be continuously evaluated through a variety of assessment tools and student feedback. In a health education class the three learning domains are incorporated into the curriculum. Each domain’s learning is assessed throughout each unit. Tests, quizzes, and essays are common assessments for the cognitive domain. Journals, reflection cards, and values statements are common assessment tools used to evaluate affective learning. Role plays, presentations, and projects are commonly used to assess the behavioral domain. When each student learning in each domain is examined and assessed regularly student progress can be examined and followed more closely.
Curriculum and opportunities should be evaluated on a regular basis to make sure that the curriculum is meeting school, state, and national standards. In health education the curriculum often focuses on the topics being covered and not as much on assessment. By regularly assessing the curriculum, teachers and curriculum designers can improve the curriculum and the assessment tools to create better programs. With better more effective programs student learning will increase and more standards met. Many programs leave evaluation as an afterthought and this makes quality assessment more difficult. As a program is planned and implemented, assessment and evaluation must be included so that the effectiveness of the program can be examined.
Community impact examines the costs of the program verses the benefits of the program. Health programs are often looked at as an extra expense that can be avoided by cutting the program altogether. Yet when the long term impact on health for the individual and the community are examined it is clear that everyone benefits from health programs. The skills taught and developed through health programs help the individuals throughout their entire lives. Advocacy is a skill that is taught and encouraged throughout health programs and will benefit the entire community as participants go out into the community and teach the skills that they recently learned. Being informed about physical, mental, and emotional health will impact the quality of life for all.
Using the method of triangulation will help programs to make improvements and assess it’s effectiveness on a regular basis. If an evaluation is done and one of the components of the program is not being effective then improvements can be made and the program can be fixed so that it is benefiting its learners, having effective curriculum that is assessable, and is cost effective for the community that it serves.

Easy Grade Pro is Great!

Dear Ms. Weiss,

Thank you for your in depth review of Easy Grade Pro 4.0 after reading it I realized that it would be the perfect solution for my classroom. I love that it allows you to have the seating chart and attendance in the grade book and it allows the students photos to represent where they sit, making it easy for substitutes to take attendance. I was able to enter my whole grade book into the computer in a matter of hours and it makes entering grades fast and easy. The parents have already commented that the printed grades are easy to understand and the graphs make progress easy to see. Thank you again for letting me know about this amazing product!

Sincerely,
Theresa Sime

Easy Grade Pro Looks Great!

When looking for a good software program for calculating my class grades I decided to do a search and review some programs. I found the Easy Grade Pro 4.0 website and was very impressed by the reviews. I feel that the purchase of this software would be beneficial in many ways.

This program is able to calculate grades for a variety of assessments such as participation, Tests and quizzes, Homework assignments, and projects. It calculates grades for attendance and is easily able to calculate all grades for each quarter and for the entire year. Grades are easily entered, updated, and printed, and the program is very user friendly. This program takes the stress out of tracking assessments and allows students to have printed progress reports and updates on their progress. With a glance teachers are able to assess who is missing assignments and they are better able to assist students.

The program is easily customizable and allows for teachers to enter summaries of each grade entered. Teachers are able to improve their teaching by reflecting in the summaries on the assignments that they give and are able to make improvements. It accurately calculates grades and saves many hours of time for teachers.

One downfall of this software is that you have to be a near a computer to access the grades, if the power, internet, or computer is not working then grades cannot be entered, accessed or viewed. There is the possibility of hackers gaining access to the system or viruses erasing the grades but there are measures taken to avoid this. Having a grade book that can be used as a backup will help teachers to double check that they have entered grades correctly and will allow for grades to be viewed and calculated if something was to happen to the computer.

Overall Easy Grade pro seems like a great program that will assist teachers with tracking the progress of their students.

Easy Grade Pro 4.0
http://techforeducators.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1

Assessing group work

This is for the eighth grade health education curriculum.

• Nice to meet you!
• First day of class
• Students are introduced and share past experiences, likes and dislikes, and goals for the year.


• Get to know yourself
• Second day of class
• Students will learn about how they work best, take a multiple intelligence test, and discover strengths and weaknesses.


• Create learning groups
• Second week of class
• The teacher will assign students to groups of three or four based on observed ability, experiences, gender, and ethnicity. Groups will be reassigned one week before the start of each new project (Research project, Poster project, and Create a video).


• Talk about group work
• Throughout the year during each project
• Students will complete reflections on their group in their journals, during discussions with their group members and in class discussions. Each quarter students will be assigned to new groups (each project has a new group) so that students work with a variety of other students throughout the year.


• Peer reflection
• After each group project throughout the year
• Students will complete a reflection of their group. They will answer the following questions: What can be improved, what worked well, struggles and successes? By combining teacher observations, student reflections, and work output the teacher is able to calculate individual student grades.


• Self reflection
• After each group project throughout the year
• Students will complete a self reflection that expresses their feelings regarding: how they improved throughout the year, what can still be improved upon, how they fit into the group dynamics and what struggles and successes they have overcome?

At the eighth grade level many students enjoy the social aspects of group work but run into problems when it becomes time to get work done as a group. Problems within groups can be caused by miscommunication, power struggles, and personal desires for how each person wants the project to turn out. The teacher can minimize many of these struggles by getting to know the students, assigning students to groups, changing the groups periodically throughout the year, helping with conflict management, and encouraging good communication within the groups.
It is crucial to stress the importance of working well with others. Some students will naturally excel at this and some will struggle but it is important to help each student to develop the skills to work well with other students in a group. Throughout their lives they will be forced to interact with people and sometimes they will have conflicts with these people. Teaching effective communication skills and the ability to compromise will help students when working in groups. Frustrations and misunderstandings should be addressed immediately and the group should make efforts within itself to fix the problem and ask for teacher assistance whenever needed. By using these techniques teachers can help students to be good group members and effective participants in collaborative projects.

4 is the new A

Dear Principle Trinket,

I am writing in regards to the new grading system found in my son, John Weiss’s, report card. He is a third grade student in your school and we are both very concerned about the lack of information the new grading system provides. It is difficult to understand what the new letter/number system means. When the system used A, B, C’s to report my son’s progress we were able to observe how he is doing compared to the other students in his class. I would like the grading system to change back so that I am better able to understand how my son is doing in school.
I look forward to hearing your explanation,

Sincerely,

Ms. Weiss



Dear Ms. Weiss,

Thank you for voicing your concerns with the new grading system. Many of the parents in the district are feeling similar confusion and are asking for clarification as well. Due to the uncertainty in comprehending the new grading system we will be having a workshop before the next parent teacher night. This workshop will explain in detail the new grading system and will help all parents to understand how it compares to the old system of grading. I hope that you will be able to attend.
The new grading system allows your child’s teacher to specifically assess progress towards meeting overall standards. The child is therefore not compared directly to other students but their learning is compared to the standards of learning for their age. By presenting students with grades in each skill area they are able to see if they are Masters, Working, Experiencing difficulties. The number system that follows the new letter grades helps to break down each skill even further. The old grading system tends to lump all abilities into one grade when in reality they may be mastering skills in one area and experiencing difficulties in another. The new system will alert parents, teachers and students, to problem areas and allow for intervention.
I hope that this letter has helped to clear up confusion with the new grading system and I strongly encourage you to attend the upcoming workshop. I strongly support communication between the school and the families who attend and would like to thank you again for voicing your concerns. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Janet Trinket

Multiple Choice Tests

Even though I have taken countless multiple choice tests and created several, I had never examined the ways that the questions are put together. After doing research on the do’s and don’ts of multiple choice tests I feel confident that I will be better at writing this type of assessment than I was before.

There are two parts contained in each multiple choice question the stem and the options.
The stem is the question being asked and the options provide choices containing the correct answer. When writing questions it is important to make sure that grammar and spelling are correct in all areas of the test. Grammar between the stem and the options should also be checked (it is helpful to read the question out loud)

Stems should be short and to the point, and be based on the material that was taught.
Options should contain one correct answer, no more than the necessary amount of options, and all options should be of similar length.

Test writers should be careful when using all of the above and none of the above as they often give the answer away and they sometimes confuse students.

Humor should not be used for serious subject matter and should be used sparingly at all times. It is nice to make students laugh and can lighten the mood of the test but it is important to use humor strategically.

By following the above guidelines a teacher should be able to create an assessment tool that tests the knowledge that was previously taught. Assessments should be used to assess learning not to trick students and create stress. As a health teacher I will use tests to assess learning and improve my teaching, as well as to help students see areas of confusion.

Reference:

http://www.utexas.edu/academic/diia/assessment/iar/students/plan/method/exams-mchoice-write.php

Classical Test Theory

This theory provides a formula for calculating the amount of error contained in a test. It is often assumed that tests automatically provide a true score that demonstrates an accurate assessment of a person’s knowledge. This is not true as all tests contain some amount of error. The following formula provides a way of determining if an assessment tool is reliable and how much error is contained within.

Observed score= true score + error

As a teacher I will be creating assessment tools and testing the students. This formula will allow me to see the error contained in my testing instruments. This will also allow me to reduce the amount of error in order to assess the students more effectively. By creating effective testing tools I will be able to see what information will need to be reviewed and where students are excelling and struggling.



If I create a test and then use this formula I will be able to assess the error of the instrument. This will allow me to reduce the error by pin pointing the error in the tool. I may need more specific directions, more challenging questions, changed wording on questions, a more thorough review of material, etc. in order to make the test more accurate.

If I was to give a test and notice a high rate of error I should change the test and provide students with the opportunity to take the test again. The less error that is contained within the test the more accurately the assessment of student knowledge will be.

Nutrition and Fitness Board Game

Board Game-Nutrition and Fitness Review
Name/Title: Nutrition and Fitness



Purpose: To create a board game that will assess students on their understanding of the topic of nutrition and fitness. The games that students create will be played by other students in the class as a review for the end of unit exam. This review will focus on reviewing the following topics: 1. Nutrition and Fitness terminology 2. The physical, social, mental and emotional effects of nutrition and fitness on individuals and communities 3. Ways to incorporate fitness and healthy eating into daily life.

Grade Level: 8th grade health education

Materials needed: nutrition text book, class notes, sample paper, poster board (for final), index cards, markers, crayons, scissors, glue stick.




Assignment Description:
Students will be assigned into groups of 4. Students will then pick a focus area for their game, they will choose one of three areas (listed above) and then focus on either nutrition or fitness. As a group they will review the material that will be covered in their game. The students will then sketch the game board, write directions for game play, and most importantly they will create the game questions and answers. Students will have their sketch, directions and questions reviewed by the teacher before beginning the final game.

Each game must include:
Board game with pieces
Typed directions for play
20 questions and 20 answers (minimum)

Once game boards have been created (one day to review materials and plan game, one day to create final game board, one day to introduce the game, and one day to play games) students will play the games that they created. There will be 4-6 games placed on tables around the classroom. Each group will start at a game that they did not create and all groups will rotate from one game to the next every 15 minutes. After playing each game each student will rate the game on the following criteria:
1. Were directions clear and easy to understand?
2. Were questions based on material covered in class?
3. Did this game help to review the material?
4. Reflect in a few sentences about the experience.


Administration description:
Before beginning this assignment the teacher will review the content from the three areas as it relates to Nutrition and Fitness by playing Pictionary. The teacher will then introduce the board game creation assignment and show students a sample board game. All materials will be available and students will be assigned groups and creation will begin.

Criteria for grading: total score will be out of 40 points

Ability to create a board game- 0-20
20- Content was thorough and game was well planned and game play was smooth.
15- Content was covered and game was created and able to be played.
10-Content was covered but not all content was accurate. Game board was created but was difficult to play.
5- Content was slightly covered and game was mostly created.
0- Content was not covered and game was not created.

Participation in board game day- 0-10
5- Excellent participation
4- Very good participation
3- Good participation
2- Fair participation
1- No participation

Rating and Reflecting on each game played- 0-10
Did the student complete a rating and reflection sheet for each game played and were they honest about what they liked and disliked about the activity.

essay questions

Imagine that you are a community planner who has been hired to find the causes of obesity in your community. List 3 causes and describe 1 possible solution for each. Which cause and solution would you work on first, and why (Note, your response will be evaluated on your argument and reason why.)? Proof read your essay to check for spelling and grammar errors.

This essay question will be graded using analytic assessment and will be worth a total of 10 points.
List 3 causes, 1 point each*3=3 points
Describe 1 solution for each, 1 point each*3=3 points
Solution to work on first, 2 points
Spelling and grammar 2 points, -.5 per error

Joe has been having a difficult time in mathematics class and he was recently kicked of the chess team due to his failing grade. His parents recently divorced and his only brother just moved to college. Analyze how the events in Joe’s life have impacted each side of the health triangle. Joe is feeling confused and stressed. Suggest 3 things that he could do to reduce his stress and cope with the events in his life. Proof read your essay to check for spelling and grammar errors.

This essay question will be graded using analytic assessment and will be worth a total of 10 points.
Describe effects on triangle, 1 point each*3=3 points
3 suggestions, 1 point each*3=3 points
Spelling and grammar 2 points, -.5 per error

Story Time

Once upon a time there was a student named Radimus who was going into first grade. He loved school when he was in kindergarten and woke up early each morning excited to see his friends and participate in all the activities. Although he loved his classmates and the daily routine he was behind all of his peers in reading, writing, math and memorization. He had begun to notice and was starting to loose confidence as he watched his friends move on to harder books.

His teacher, Ms. Smith, was worried but she had confidence that he would catch up with his friends. At the beginning of first grade he was unable to identify most letters and numbers. He had also forgotten many of the skills taught the previous year. His teacher had recently heard about “Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence” (RG, May 18, 2009) and decided to test him to see his strengths and weaknesses. After the assessment it was found that Radimus “was highest in kinesthetic and interpersonal” (TS, May 18, 2009) and his lowest scores were in linguistic and mathematical. This confirmed Ms. Smith’s suspicions. She decided to do “research to understand these learning styles in order to address them effectively” (LK, May 16, 2009).

A plan was devised to include more “poems, music, essays, pieces of art” (DH, May 18, 2009) and other types of activities that would help him and his classmates to learn the information in a variety of ways, thus reinforcing the information. She did research on the concept of universal design which helps teachers adapt the classroom to reach diverse learners “and it also really helps those with disabilities (fulfills IDEA)” (MH, May 19, 2009). Ms. Smith thought that this new teaching method would benefit all of her students so she began to use it with her class. After a few months Radimus was still behind his peers in linguistic and mathematical skills but the new classroom routine gave him confidence and he was helping his peers to improve on their weaknesses and learn from their strengths. All the students were improving in all skill areas and helping each other to improve learning.

Concepts in Teaching

I feel that the most beneficial teaching concepts that we examined are universal design and alternative assessment. Universal design creates lessons that can be used by all students despite differences in ability. It assesses students in a large variety of ways and encourages discussion, understanding and peer teaching. The lessons are designed around student interests and allows for students to be active participants in the learning process. Alternative assessment is used as an alternative to standardized testing and traditional assessment. It is based on the same standards as traditional assessment but uses other assessment types, such as presentations, projects, and skits.



Although many teachers believe that this type of classroom design and assessment are better for student learning, Educational reform and the No Child Left Behind Act have pushed the use of Norm referenced testing, Criterion referenced, and traditional assessment. These forms are only able to assess student learning by asking questions, students may know more than what is asked but have no way of demonstrating the use of additional knowledge.



At the current time students are assessed in a standardized way that groups all students and assesses everyone based on the same criteria. This is not an accurate or beneficial way to assess learning. The concept of multiple intelligence demonstrates the need to have multiple teaching styles and forms of assessment in order to reach each student and assess learning. The traditional way of teaching and assessing does not take student diversity into account.

Multiple Intelligence

Each student is entirely unique from all other students. They have their own cultural histories, experiences, and learning styles. Many school curriculums are designed to fit students into the curriculum instead of designing the curriculum to fit the uniqueness of students. Multiple Intelligence teaching takes each individual’s strengths and weaknesses into account and presents all eight intelligences to be used by all students. This method of instruction encourages students to use their strengths and to develop and strengthen their weaknesses.

I struggled throughout my years in primary and secondary education. The way that I was taught was not conducive to my learning style. I am strongest in intrapersonal and interpersonal as well as special/visual. Linguistic, mathematical and musical intelligence are my weakest areas and I struggled to read and do math in my head. I have always had problems with interpreting information and expressing what is in my head. It was hard to keep up in school. I was have always been active and keep myself busy doing many things at once so sitting at a desk being lectured did not increase my learning. I loved science labs, group projects and any activity that let me move and use my hands. In college it took many years to decide what my career should be and I had a hard time with the amount of reading that was assigned. I am a very slow reader and get distracted very easily so I try to allow more time for assignments that involve reading and writing. It has been a struggle and I never imagined that I would graduate from high school let alone Graduate School.



I have spent a long time in the education system and sometimes I feel trapped by the way things are done. Students are all expected to fit into the same curriculum and produce the same answer/project/etc. even though they are each so different from one another. I enjoy the concept of multiple intelligence because it fits with student centered learning which is how I plan to teach. As a student teacher I tried to incorporate activities that met the needs of all learners and felt that I really struggled for a variety of reasons. I lacked the experience and the teacher that I was with was very set in her teaching style. She allowed me to be creative but would often veto my ideas and lessons. I hope to succeed when I have my own classroom. I feel that multiple intelligence is crucial in education because it recognizes the differences in all people and caters to many learning styles. It helps students to advocate for their own learning, to depend on each other and to be active participants in their education.

MI has been difficult for many teachers to incorporate into their classrooms because assessing the different learning styles is different then the traditional tests which focus on linguistic and mathematical learners. Creating a curriculum that incorporates MI will automatically create a form of assessment for each lesson. All objectives for each lesson will be measurable because that is one rule for writing objectives. Therefore the real problem is facing the standardized tests that have become part of the school routine. The culture around teaching and learning must change in order to truly teach students to be independent free thinkers. This change will take place classroom by classroom and teacher by teacher. It is already happening but it will take time and effort.

After learning more about Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy I decided to look at the Affective Domain in more detail. When students are emotionally involved in what they are learning they are more likely to remember the information and skills as well as incorporate the new learning into their lives.

The affective domain is often represented in the form of a hierarchical triangle, similar to the cognitive domain. This domain was developed by Bloom but was not broken down until later by David Krathwohl. I found a very well written essay titled, Writing Instructional Objectives, written by Kathy V. Waller. This essay would be very useful when writing effective objectives.

The following picture shows the affective domain triangle. This domain emphasizes attitudes and emotions. I feel that this domain is often underrepresented in schools and students are often unable to express the emotions that they feel. There is so much negativity in the world and I feel that teaching that focuses on the affective domain may be able change this pattern.



When writing effective objectives they must be specific, observable and measurable. It can be very helpful to use the ABCD's of objective writing which checks for the objective for Audience, Behavior, Condition, and Degree. Every objective should also contain an action verb as objectives are used to tell the audience what is expected of them. A list of verbs used in affective objectives can be found in the above essay.

The cognitive domain is often the main focus when teaching but in Health Education and Physical Education the other two domains, Affective and psychomotor, should be included more often. When emotions are felt the material will have its greatest impact.

Standards, Goals, and Objectives

I have been looking at standards and writing goals and objectives since becoming a Health Education major, yet I would still have trouble now and then writing objectives. I would create an objective for my students and then realize that it was immeasurable or that it was not actually connected to the goals that I had set for the students.

Reading more about how each is created helped me to visualize the hierarchy that is involved. Standards are overarching statements of what should be learned by all such as the National or State standards for all students. Goals are more specific and discuss the ideas. These relate to the standards and combine parts of the standards into them. Goals can be for the school, classroom or individual student but they are generalized statements of what will be completed. The objectives are even more specific and state what each student will be doing. They are made up of four parts; Audience, Behavior, Conditions, and Degree. Seeing objective writing broken down into the four parts really helped me to write effective objectives.

Using Standards, Goals and Objectives will help me as a teacher to pinpoint what I want students to walk away knowing and the skills that they should master. By including these into lessons the lessons are more direct and will have better results. They will be thought through and assessment of the objectives will be possible. Helping students to set their own standards, goals, and objectives can help them to complete what they start and always reach for the next level of skill and understanding.

National and State Health Education Standards

Standards are in place as a guide to educators that assist in the development of curriculum that promotes skill development. I examined used and examined the National standards in the past and have found them to be very similar to New York State and Florida Standards. They give a base of expectations and skills that will benefit students greatly.

As a health educator it is crucial for me to recognize the mission of the communities that I will work in. It is important to understand the needs of a community and of the students. People must want change before change can take place in a lasting way. Understanding the community standards for education is a good guide for addressing the community’s needs and expectations effectively. As I begin to actively search for a teaching job I will make sure to research the standards for the community, state, and nation. This will provide me with insight and allow me to be a more effective teacher.

When comparing national standards to state standards it is easy to spot the similarities. There are common skills and themes throughout such as the development of general health knowledge and the skills to find that knowledge, behavior modification skills, and the concept that anyone can influence others to improve their lifestyle behaviors. The state standards that I have examined have more benchmarks (similar to performance indicators) and are more specific (they give examples and suggestions for use).

When skills are standardized it provides a method for large scale behavior change. When assessing student’s knowledge and skills it is important to compare them to the standards that are used in that school as a goal for learning. When developing assessment tools and lessons that will need to be assessed, one of the first steps in the process is exploring the standards of the community.

Skill development is so important at all ages and I feel that more should be done with younger students. Both Florida and New York address the need for health education at the K-6 level, but many schools do not include it as a part of the curriculum. With an increased emphasis on core subjects, such as reading, many programs have been removed from the curriculum to make more time for passing standardized tests. I feel that health education should be emphasized even more due to its lifelong effects on the physical, social and emotional aspects of healthy life.

References:

National Standards

Florida Standards