Saturday, June 27, 2009

CHP 14- Assessment

How am I using assessment in my classroom? Am I making regular checks of my assessment practices to ensure that I am being fair to all my students? Am I utilizing other teachers as fairness checks? What can I do to make the assessments in my classroom more effective?
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3 comments:

  1. csipesJune 29, 2009 at 6:32 AM

    I like to use the time before school as morning work time. During this time, I often have the students complete and turn in 2-3 problems in any subject area that I want to assess how well they are grasping the material. This assessment is not used as a grade but is solely for my own use (diagnosis). I know if I can move on, need to reteach the information again in a new way, or work with a small group of students who need the extra help. I have found these formative assessments to be very beneficial in leading me in the direction I should go, and let students know how well they are doing. I also use homework to help assess where my students are. I don’t typically take grades on homework unless it would be some sort of project. I consider homework to be a practice time for understanding the concepts and improving student ability. Since I would not want to be taught a concept and then be given a quiz the next day, I don’t do it in my class. I also like to listen to my students when they read in pairs and alone. This again lets me know how well each student is doing and who needs extra one on one time reading with me or my aide. As for graded assessments, I use tests, quizzes, writing rubrics, and my own knowledge of how well a student understands the material. Sometimes I have kids rework a test after we have worked together again. My objective is to make sure each child can do the work. If they don’t learn the basics of first grade, I am afraid that they will continue to fall behind in the upcoming years. As a first grade teacher, I need to work on assessing in a larger variety of ways. Over time I intend to come up with alternate assessments that I am comfortable using. This would be effective for me and my students.

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  2. BrieJune 30, 2009 at 11:26 PM

    I use both formal and informal assessments, but mainly formal. I create most of the formal assessments myself. These come in the form of tests, quizzes, and rubrics. One way I try to eliminate bias when grading is to cover up the student's name so that I don't grade the work based on the child's ability or work habits. This has been helpful to me. As for other teachers, I will ask them how they would grade a particular assignment, especially if it is one that all four of us would teach. But even if it isn't, I will ask my colleagues how they would grade an assignment, again to eliminate bias and ensure that I am being fair to all students. In order to make my assessments more effective, I need to use other kinds such as perfomance assessments and demonstrations. Because of Garnder's theory of multiple intelligences, it makes sense to believe that some students may be better at "acting out" their knowledge or by doing some sort of artistic project. I plan to use more of those kinds of assessments in the future.

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  3. K. GushrowskiJuly 1, 2009 at 6:33 PM

    I'm currently working with my district to write formative, summative, and quarterly common assessments that all of the 7th grade math teachers will use. I'm sure this next year is going to be a 'work in progress' with lots of adjustments being made to the common assessments. I use assessments to help me make further instructional decisions on my curriculum's content and delivery.

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