Assessment

 

















Assessment is one of the most important things that any classroom teacher does. Assessment is what drives instruction. The goal of assessment is to see where your students are and what they do and do not know or understand. It is also important to use for evaluation purposes. Evaluating your teaching, if the majority of the class did poorly on an assignment it is important to reflect and modify where needed when teaching again. There are two types of assessment: Informal and formal. Informal assessment consists of everyday classroom work, it is non-standardized and more individualized for your students. The most important thing about informal assessment is that it takes place during teaching and learning not after! Informal assessments can simply be students having a conversation with one another and the teacher observing. It can also include journal entries and learning games. When grading informal assessments the purpose is to improve your performance (teaching). Formal assessment consists of standardize structured tests. It takes place after learning and is a comprehensive assessment of what your students learned. These assessments could be large projects, papers, or an end of the unit comprehensive exam. When you grade a formative assessment the purpose is to evaluate your teaching. There are many different ways to assess your students. One of the most traditional ways, being paper and pencil. These can include peer quizzes, graphic organizers, standardized tests, and many more! Something that I did not know before reading this presentation was that paper and pencil tests are easily objectified as assessments that only test memorized knowledge and lower-level thinking. Moving forward I am going to make sure that I do not give assessments that could fall into that category! Another type of assessment that is used is performance-based assessments. These assessments can consist of individual or group projects. When using standardized assessments it is important to set clear guidelines and expectations for your students. Assessment is not something to take lightly in your classroom and should be used to drive instruction not an end result.