Assessing The Role Of Written Response Assessments In Schools

I am a strong believer that one test defines a students. Therefore, variety is key when assessing students. When using formative assessment I use student reflections, journal entries, exit cards in addition to non verbal communication such as thumbs up or down. I also make anadotal notes on students to help assess the overall learning journey of the student. When using summative assessments, I use district assessments, state assessments, portfolios, short answer, multiple choice, and student based projects. In all forms of assessments, students are provided the appropriate accommodations. My learning goal for assessing students is to have a valid assessment that demonstrate the student’s understanding of the specific skill. It is crucial that I understand the purpose of the assessments and the content that is being taught, therefore, I often start instruction with the assessment piece in

The term ‘formative assessment’ is used to describe the activities and processes used by teachers and learners to gather information that informs future teaching and learning. Assessment becomes formative if the information gathered is used as feedback to adapt and modify teaching and learning (Black and Wiliam, 1998, p.2). There are a variety of different methods and techniques that can be used by teachers and learners that can contribute to enhancing learner progress. These include

A formative assessment provides informal feedback and information during the teaching process. This assessment measures student progress and performance thus allowing further improvement and development. It can also assess the teacher’s progress as an instructor, enabling the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

The use of formative assessment practices with ELL students are observational checklists, peer assessment, and performance skills. By having students writing a lesson plan, the roles between the teacher and the students will be changed. This is a formative assessment that engages students in distinctive ways. Students are focused on goals and objectives. It gives them confidence. They are creating a lesson. For ELLs, this is a tremendous accomplishment when done correctly, as well as when done in a collaborative classroom environment. It promotes constructive feedback. Students play an active role in formative assessment. They not only perform the task given, providing evidence of their current learning, but they are also involved in self-assessment (and sometimes peer assessment); therefore, developing and enhancing autonomy.

Assessing the children understanding is considered to be a good indicator of their learning and development process (Reys et al., 2012). Stiggins (2002) discussed the difference between the children’s assessment for learning and assessment of learning. Teachers need to be familiar with both. Assessment for learning (or as we call it the formative assessment) helps the students to learn more about different concepts and increase the opportunity to develop various skills. On the other side, assessment of learning (summative assessment) is to give the teacher an evidence of students’ achievements for purposes of accountability and reporting. For example, assessment for learning can include the teacher’s observations, in-class assignments,

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

Performance assessments are different from standardized testing because instead of students sitting for hours and answering application questions with the choices of A,B,C, or D students will physically demonstrate what they have learned.(Performance Based Assessment) Under performance assessments, students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge through such tasks as group projects, writing essays, performing experiments and giving them and showing the teachers they comprehend the subject. (Performance Based Assessment) The key factors in this process, is that performance assessments require kids to be active participants and have them comprehend how to get to the answer by demonstrating their knowledge. (Performance Based Assessment) In this way teachers will be provided “with more information about the learning needs of their students and [will be able to] modify their methods to meet these needs.”(Performance Based Assessment) This process “also allows students to assess their own progress and, therefore, be more responsible for their education.” (Performance Based Assessment) Schools and teachers can benefit from the process of performance assessments because of the academic knowledge they are able to show and perform during these types of assessments. (Pollard) The performance assessments can be a recognizable way of demonstrating how much the students

Efficient educators know and understand the importance of selecting, planning, and implementing effective assessment tools and strategies that measure student’s levels of understanding. Different types of assessments are used for a broad range of purposes that include formative, placement, diagnostic, and summative assessments. However, the main purpose is to “foster learning in all its forms” (Lefrancois, 2013, Ch. 6.1). Teachers use pre, formative, and summative assessments to determine what students know before, during, and after instruction. Each measurement is used to plan, modify, and adjust instruction to meet the needs of all learners. Although each form of assessment plays a critical role in ensuring all students succeed, educators

Formative assessment-Teachers that collect evidence about what a student still needs to comprehend and adaptions that are made to meet the student’s needs.

Assessments are vital to the educational process. They provide feedback about what the students know and what they may need to learn in order to obtain the content within a given curriculum. It provides teachers with a glimpse into the student’s readiness on a particular topic or subject. One of the six key principles of having an effective differentiated classroom is having a formative assessment that informs teachers on the effectiveness of their teaching. It also provides teachers with the readiness levels of their students and shows them exactly where the students’ readiness, interests, and learning profile needs really are (Tomlinson, 2014).

Formative assessment provides feedback to teachers and students of their current performance, achievements, strengths and weaknesses

Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting further student learning and enabling improved student learning through purposeful interaction and providing meaningful feedback. Formative assessment is specifically intended to generate feedback and feed forward on performance to improve, accelerate and enable learning (Sadler, 1998). Formative assessment can and should occur throughout a daily class, through implementation of learning and teaching strategies that lead to both oral and written feedback. The Formative assessment approach is equitable and reliable, producing some significant indicator of student developed understanding that links directly to the syllabus outcomes. This then allows the teacher or other students to respond by trying to

In order to uncover the misconceptions my students had prior to teaching a new learning target, I decided to administer short, diagnostic probes that put emphasis on explanations of their thinking and reasoning (in place of an answer-only response). I stressed that this was not graded, instead meant to help me understand their thinking so I could plan, design, and provide instruction that would be much more responsive to their needs. This was the first time I administered a formative assessment prior to a lesson.

Sufficient instructional time should be allotted to allow students to receive immediate feedback and correct answers. Consequently, teachers should implement a formative assessment schedule based upon the work of Wisehart and Pashler to prepare students for summative unit assessments. Additionally, the instructional time allotted to prolonged SOL review blocks are to be parsed out over a six-month period using a 3-week interval to optimize retention and subsequently SOL

Assessment is a tool and it has a variety of purposes or functions. Sometimes we call that the formative purpose the informative meaning for learning. The formative assessment information is used to figure out what we should be doing next and how we can adapt and improve future learning. In some cases, we need to asses because we need to figure out how well all of our students have done or mastered a particular content for grading purpose so that is the case we call the summative function of an assessment. According to Guskey (2003), assessment helps teachers to improve the quality of their teaching by identifying what works or doesn’t work in their classroom. As educators, we use formative assessment