Assessment based Instruction

I believe assessment is important and is the basis of planning for instruction, whether it is diagnostic prior to learning, formative during units or lessons, or summative to evaluate student learning. Rowan’s quote in Every Teacher’s Guide to Assessment, "After all, in the end, the problem is less the idea of testing itself, but how we design them, apply, them, and make use of their data." definitely has an impact on my assessment practices. I feel it is necessary to make sure the student acquires all aspects of the learning. Assessment should be used to bring a value for students. Within my instruction, I implement daily formative assessments which may include turn and share, quick writes, graphic organizers, online discussion responses, KahootIt, and other forms. Designing the appropriate formative assessment to match the lesson is important to assess how the learning is taught and whether the students are showing progress. In addition, I have worked on building blocks of formative assessments in checklist style leading up to the point of reviewing for a summative test. Each of these are checked off as completed and instant feedback is given. Feedback from an assessment is essential to student learning and how a teacher will ensure the content is being acquired.

Assessments are the way to find out if learning has actually taken place. Enabling us, as tutors, to see if objectives have been met.

Assessment plays a significant role in the learning experience of students. It determines their progression through their programmes and enables them to demonstrate that they have achieved the intended learning outcomes. It is assessment that provides the main basis for public recognition of achievement, through the awarding of qualifications and/or credit.

Assessment, both formative and summative, plays a significant part in the learning experience as it determines progression and enables learners to demonstrate that they have achieved their desired learning outcomes.

Assessment is carried out to ensure that learning has taken place. This is used to measures the learner’s knowledge and skills in their chosen area of learning. Assessment can be used to encourage learners to ask questions on anything they have not understood, learners at some point will have to know that they will have to prove their knowledge and understanding to the standards of the awarding body.

Assessment provides information to support the planning of effective learning experiences. By assessing my students I will understand better what they know and can do, so I can further extend their learning where they are already accomplished or I can support the areas which need work. Assessment is also useful as a diagnostic tool (McConney 2015 pp1) when it comes to learning problems and also giftedness in students, so that they can then be better provided for.

“Assessment focuses on the learners’ performance. It is about measuring achievement, both ongoing (formative) and at the end of the programme (summative).” Wallace. S (2007: 118)

Assessment is an imperative part of the learning process. According to Stiggins and Chappuis (2012), “Assessment is, in part, the process of gathering evidence of student learning to inform instructional decisions. This process can be done well or poorly.” To learn more about assessment I sat down for a one on one interview with Jim Libretti. Coach Libretti is the head coach of the freshman football team at Paradise Valley High School. Also, he is a math teacher.

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

This section of this essay critically evaluates the use of two different assessment activities used to check the learning of students. This will be done by considering the key strengths and weakness of each type of assessment will also be considered, as well as, the Validity; Reliability; Sufficiency; Authenticity and Relevance of each assessment method.

Assessment is the process of establishing the nature and quality of our students’ learning and measuring whether learning has actually taken place. Assessment is a key part of the teaching cycle because it enables us to measure achievement against set standards in order to ascertain if our trainees have acquired the skills and knowledge needed at a given stage of training, to diagnose learning needs and to select for further training. It is also the means by which we measure learning at the end of a course and certificate achievements.

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).

Assessments are a really important part of learning and are an effective strategy in helping teachers focus on the methods they are using and how successful they are on the students and how well they are learning from them and gives them the chance to develop on certain areas that may not be working well, it also gives the teachers a chance to look at individual children and their development and to see which areas they are struggling or excelling so they can determine if using different techniques on them will help them make progress as not all children or young people will learn the same some children may struggle while others the technique really helps so they have to adjust the work and activities to certain children so they all have a chance to develop and grow.

Assessment is essential in teaching throughout any subject or course in practical and theory work. First initial assessment is used to ensure students are on the correct course. Once learning starts differentiated formative assessments are carried out throughout ending with summative assessment which usually warrants a grade or a pass.

The traditional place for assessment within teaching is at the end of a topic or significant time period when the teacher wishes to know how much information students have retained. This form of assessment often takes the form of a written test that is designed to give students a grade or level.