All assessment is a perpetual work in progress.
~Linda Suske
~Linda Suske
Standard 8
Assessment of Student Learning - The teacher understands, uses, and interprets formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and advance student performance and to determine program effectiveness.
Reflection
Assessments come in all shapes and sizes. Frequently assessments are viewed as only tests, but many times questioning within the classroom could be categorized as assessment. The first artifact discusses this because it explains two kinds of assessments: ongoing assessment and on-demand assessment. Many times teachers do not consider ongoing assessment an assessment tool until they consider that they are testing students’ knowledge and a program’s effectiveness. I found the idea of informal or ongoing assessment especially evident in my observation within Mrs. Harvey’s classroom. Throughout every lesson she teaches she asks for what she terms “meaningful responses”. These take many shapes but focus on analyzing students’ performance over time. Sometimes these assessments are as simply as pair-sharing with a partner an answer to a problem. Other times these are more in depth and typically written.
My second artifact then is my own model of a rubric that I based upon a similar set of expectations that were set forth in her classroom. It was helpful because I was allowed the freedom to make my own rubric, while at the same time informed by standard expectations in the classroom. One thing though, that I found interesting about assessment is whether or not you choose to grade holistically. If you do, then typically the focus is more shifted to the overall piece instead of mechanics or conventions. This I felt like originally was how I liked to grade. After grading this way though, I found that sometimes the overall mechanical or conventional errors were sometimes distracting enough to detract from the overall piece. If I were to do this again then, I would put a small section that focused on these pieces as well. In order to demonstrate my assessment, I have provided three examples of students’ work: a lower range, middle, and higher range.
My last artifact is an informal assessment I conducted in which students were asked to name one thing that they learned during the vocabulary lesson that I had taught. This, I feel was helpful in determining students’ understanding. Again, I would implement some changes if I were to do this part of the lesson again. Likely, I would make a student repeat the task because some students were confused on what the question was, as is demonstrated by some of the student work provided. Others did quite well, summarizing difficult vocabulary words. Throughout all my assessments, I believe that I have learned that assessments are helpful regardless of the form in which they come.
My second artifact then is my own model of a rubric that I based upon a similar set of expectations that were set forth in her classroom. It was helpful because I was allowed the freedom to make my own rubric, while at the same time informed by standard expectations in the classroom. One thing though, that I found interesting about assessment is whether or not you choose to grade holistically. If you do, then typically the focus is more shifted to the overall piece instead of mechanics or conventions. This I felt like originally was how I liked to grade. After grading this way though, I found that sometimes the overall mechanical or conventional errors were sometimes distracting enough to detract from the overall piece. If I were to do this again then, I would put a small section that focused on these pieces as well. In order to demonstrate my assessment, I have provided three examples of students’ work: a lower range, middle, and higher range.
My last artifact is an informal assessment I conducted in which students were asked to name one thing that they learned during the vocabulary lesson that I had taught. This, I feel was helpful in determining students’ understanding. Again, I would implement some changes if I were to do this part of the lesson again. Likely, I would make a student repeat the task because some students were confused on what the question was, as is demonstrated by some of the student work provided. Others did quite well, summarizing difficult vocabulary words. Throughout all my assessments, I believe that I have learned that assessments are helpful regardless of the form in which they come.
Different Kinds of Assessment
assessment.pdf | |
File Size: | 1354 kb |
File Type: |
Formula Assessment, rubric generated for student work on tall tales lesson plan and student work
rubric_assessment.pdf | |
File Size: | 4958 kb |
File Type: |
Informal Assessment, Exit Ticket
informal_assessment.pdf | |
File Size: | 1681 kb |
File Type: |