A Narrative Assessment Curriculum For Students

Ch. 2 – Who are the various users of assessment and its results? What specific instructional decisions can be made based on assessment results? Why must we build balanced assessment systems to support the instructional programs we offer students? This chapter nails down the purpose of assessing, which is gathering information to inform teachers of students of their instruction and learning, respectively. In this way, assessment is individualized to each student and classroom, and because all students/classes are different, it should inform the teachers of what is working or not working in the classroom, which should then influence some sort of change to instruction. This chapter also talks about the different levels of assessment – from the individuals

What started your desire to read? I bet that it was not some government issued reading program. How bad, did those programs bore you in school? It was different for me. Have you ever heard of the accelerated reading program? Well, the accelerated reading program began my love with reading.

Alfie Kohn discussed many fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades such as, portfolios or narratives. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning, this causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases,

I managed to fail a few of my test due to failing to study the day before. My teacher where outraged and kept me for tutoring to try and bring my grades up. That was a tough time for me back then since I was always bullied at school. I was so ashamed in myself that set a goal to get commended in one of my 5th grade STAAR test. I began to focus more on subjects I was most confused in such as math. I came to every day tutoring was held, and I managed to arrive early in the morning to work on homework that was due late. Weeks and weeks of doing homework and sleep deprivation only managed to get me to a 70-82 in the weekly tests given during the time. I soon began

Being at the Chief’s Academy has been a great experience for me. I have learned many things during my time here that I will take back to my unit and apply to my day-to- day work. In the following paragraphs I will talk about three things specifically. The first thing I will take back will be my dedication to working out and my overall fitness. I will take what I have learned about fitness and share it with my subordinates. Secondly, in relation to the generations class, I will think about how people are different and how they come from different places and how I need to adjust my self to those differences. Lastly, I will take what I have learned about coaching and use that to better understand my people by listening and asking thought provoking questions. Even though I have learned many things, these are the three that I believe I will

As the famous Eleanor Roosevelt Once said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” This is very true to my story. When I was little I thought that I would always go to my charter school, LCCS until I graduated to high school. I never thought that I would change schools, that thought never entered my mind until I heard about the Advanced Enrichment Program. Then all my visions of what it would be like to stay at LCCS were thrown out the window and I transferred all my effort into preparing to take the test to get in. This the story of how I tried my best to get in, even though I thought I couldn’t do it.

Michael Thomsen argues against the A-F grading system in his essay “The Case Against Grades.” Thomsen even goes as far to say that the A-F grading system is to blame for the difficulty in reforming American education (1). He supports his conclusion with a few thought-provoking studies and statistics, but overall there are holes in his argument and he does not offer a realistic alternative. Thus, I disagree with Thomsen’s conclusion as I think that the A-F grading system is currently the best method for the United States to use.

As technology evolves, the traditional style writing classrooms should do so as well. Students are used to the typical routine, in which an instructor lecture and hands out assignments. However, is that really the most effective way of teaching for all students? Teachers neglect the fact that not all students learn the same way. In learning this, I propose some changes that could be made in order to increase learning effectively such as; the choice of physical work verses online work, communications and feedback to students, and essays.

Later that day, after the worst day of school ever was over, Isabella climbed into her car and headed to the coffee shop. She ordered her coffee and so did Samantha. The two girls then went and sat down.

The scourge of seven seas that is education is the nationwide practice of grading. The initial purpose of the practice known as grading was to measure a student's level of success involving taught subjects. However, over time it has evolved into a different animal altogether and has sparked controversy in the minds of those under its influence. In one essay titled, “A Young Person's Guide to the Grading System,” Professor Jerry Farber states his thoughts on the imperfect practice. Within the paragraphs, he outlines the effects of the grading system on students and a possible solution to the situation. Over the course of the essay, I agree with his explanation of the effects that grades have on the student's’ mind,

I enjoyed and gained a lot of insight after reading the article, “Every Assessment Tells a Story.” The author, Fred Ende, found a great humorous way of assessing students who may get test anxiety by creating story assessments. While reading the article, I was very interested in how I can incorporate this into my classroom. I can see how things teachers have to do, like make assessments do not have to become a process that is not fun or mundane. You can mix your creativity into it and make it more fun for not only you but also for your students. By taking charge of these assessments and adding in your creativity it produces more productivity for students and engages them in different ways.

Things really came around for me when I realized during the beginning of my junior year that my grades weren’t where I wanted them to be, so I made a conscious decision to be a better version of myself. I stopped being indifferent about school and put the same amount of effort I applied in sports to my everyday studies. Constantly improving my test and quiz scores just like my shooting percentage in basketball and my batting average in baseball. I took the same lesson my mom taught me and applied it to where it matters the most, in school.

I love the experience, the process, and the idea behind narrative assessments. I think it is a beautiful ways of communicating with the students and their families. Using narrative assessments, children are not a letter grade, or a number; they are strengths, weaknesses, interests, personalities, and quirks. I plan on communicating with parents on a weekly to monthly basis via email. I would love to model this narrative assessment style by keeping a constant conversation going between the child’s care givers, and me (the teacher). This way parents could voice their concerns, and I could voice my concerns and we could collaborate to make their child’s education fit the child’s needs. IN addition, both parents and I could share the student’s achievements inside or out of school, and build background to child’s interests and us it when educating them. I hope that I will use narrative assessments in my class, even though they are time consuming, because they appear to be an effective part of a

The text I have produced is a narrative, which has been transformed from a picture book. The components of my text, which differ from the original one, consist of the description of each object, and character included, the absence of images, and pictures, the invented introduction, and ending, the altered dialogue, and the use of transitional phrases. I decided to maintain the intended audience of the original picture book by targeting children between the ages of five to ten. I believed that the best way to represent this specific genre was to turn the text into a narrative, as it would allow my young audience to develop the capabilities of picturing each character, and scene by analysing the adjectives used within my narrative. My use of words was in fact, quite simple, and easily understandable. There was never a precise time, or place in the story of the original book, which I personally think was introduced to allow the readers to utilise their creativity, to imagine how the setting would appear.

Over the past few years, the traditional grading system of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s have slowly faded away only to be replaced by the insufficient “Standards-Based Grading”. While some schools are adopting this unorthodox grading system, several others still continue to follow the traditional “A-F” grading system. Many believe that the standards-based grading system does not work well with all students and doesn’t accurately grade them. Standards-based grading is a fairly new system of grading where the student is evaluated on his or her ability to complete an assignment and master the concept, not by what they get right or wrong on each individual assignment. This has been very confusing to those who are unfamiliar with standards-based