Video Assessment in PE, Part II

-by Dean Schmeichel, Phys. Ed. Teacher

(For more information on this project, read the first blog post here)

I have now completed all of the video recordings for 300 students. There is a clip of the students participating in PE class (approximately one minute) and a conversation between each student and myself that lasts for an average of three minutes. This process was a lot of work and at times I questioned my own intelligence in taking it on.

Benefits:

1. The four minutes of total video each student receives, is far superior in multiple ways to a traditional written comment in my view: content; authentic assessment; student voice; long term student understanding and growth; students using the “language” of assessment.
2. As opposed to written comments, these interviews are done in class and actually take up less of your preparation time than a written comment. 
3. Talking to the students gives each student a chance to explain, defend and advocate for him or herself during the assessment. A surprising number of students will challenge my assessment, opinions or presumptions. 
4. I feel that I have a better understanding of each of the students who I teach after this process. It is especially valuable with the more introverted students who might not speak up during class. 
5. The action video combined with the interview gives a fairly complete “picture” of each student’s progress in PE. 

 Lessons Learned:

1. I should have followed my original plan and videotaped two students each class, each day. Due to my procrastination, I ended up having to take a bunch of video and do a bunch of interviews on multiple days, leading up to the report card deadline. It caused me unnecessary stress and probably resulted in lower quality conversations. 
2. I also should have named the videos after I uploaded them onto my computer. Such a small oversight meant that I had to spend Sunday night naming all of the files on my computer. 
3. Make sure, before beginning, that there are various ways to distribute the videos confidentially to each of the students and store the videos for record keeping. 
4. Keep in mind that although it might be the 245th conversation that I (the teacher) has had this term, it is the first conversation that particular student has had with me. I tried to keep this at the fore-front of my thinking when I was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of interviews I had left to do. 
5. Administration and colleague support is not only key, it is crucial to the success of this project. Without buy-in from the school, there is very little chance for success.