This text focuses on different types of assessment and explores a different perspective of classroom assessments. This chapter addresses teacher-based strategies, assessment as inquiry and test-based strategies, all being different forms of assessments. The chapter also highlights the themes of assessment which is what will be my focus of discussion in this blog post. There are three themes of classroom assessments: notion of assessment as inquiry, development, and progress monitoring.
Notion of assessment as inquiry refers to the idea of a teacher becoming a researcher and making adjustments according to her students. The chapter says something along the lines of, "it is easy to come up with a test that all the students will fail; it is more difficult to find ways to discover what students are capable of." This means that the teacher has to get to know his/her students and make adjustments according to their needs and what level they are currently placed at. I believe that this approach may be if not THE, one of the, most important ideologies that an educator should follow. If a teacher never gets to know her students and their individual needs, he/she will never know if they are understanding or learning anything at all. If a teacher is unaware of a child's needs and learning level, it is literally like trying to teach a dog how to meow. You are teaching the wrong thing to the wrong person. This concept is crucial to a teacher's career; it can honestly make or break a teacher and IF it is followed and practiced it can change students' lives forever.
The next theme of assessment is undoubtedly interlocked with the first; development varies and not only only by age or grade, but by each and every individual. The average class varies in student development; they are likely to span two or more years. This means that as a fourth grade teacher, you may have a student in your classroom that is at a second grade level and another student that is at a fifth or sixth grade level. Regardless, you have to make adjustments to meet both their needs. That is what being a teacher is all about; you are not catering to a fourth grade class; you are catering to a class filled with all types of fourth graders, whether it be different races, ages, cultures, developmental levels, special needs, ELL. YOU still need to fit each and every one of their needs. This thought alone is overwhelming and quite intimidating, but very well doable and, therefore, exciting.
The third theme is progress monitoring; this too is intertwined with knowing your students individually. A teacher should keep records for each student in class, whether it is written-down grades, mental notes/observations, anecdotal notes, portfolios, etc. A teacher should have some type of record for each one of his/her students demonstrating their progress throughout the year. Every teacher approaches this in a different way, but no matter what is done this monitoring of progress HAS to be done. If a teacher is not keeping track of his/her students' progress he/she is not doing his/her job. That is the whole point of teaching, so that these children move forward in their academic life and grow as individuals of our society.
All of these themes of assessment are points that teachers, should not only consider, but live by basically. These points are crucial to be a successful educator and they need to be done in order to be and stay effective. Overall, I found this chapter to be extremely informative and helpful.
Marylin, I thought it was interesting that the text stated how challenging it was to create a test that will reveal individual students' capabilities. Of course, you need to know your students well in order to come up with a test to find out exactly what they are capable of. I think an easy way we as teachers can do this is to equip tests with a few "extra" problems that won't count towards the final grade of the assignment. Make the problems within this extra section challenging but encourage students to try their best to complete them. From reviewing this section, you could find out what students are capable of handling tougher work.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn, I enjoyed this blog post because when it come to assessment I feel very strongly about certain things. I feel like the word 'assessment" should not automatically be thought of as a test. There are so many other ways other than multiple choice and true and false to monitor our students. I feel like many teachers are still stuck in this "choose A,B, C, or D" type of assessment. Reflecting on my elementary school experience alot of my teachers assessed me by using graded worksheet and tests. I am not saying that we should never use this type of assessment, but rather not make it a habit. As a teacher i want to use many other methods to assess my students. I want to know who they really are, not just as an "A student" or a "C student."
ReplyDelete