Assessment’s benefit teachers greatly and are a factor that is vital to a student’s education. Assessments are a method in which teachers use to evaluate, measure, and document the progress students have made. While assessments are usually equated with traditional testing, teachers may also use a diverse array of assessment methods to measure a student’s progress in any class. Assessments are usually created to measure specific elements of learning wither its cognitive, psychomotor or affective. Assessment may also be used to see the level of knowledge a student may already have on a concept or a skill that the teacher is planning on teaching. Assessments are also used to identify individual student weaknesses and strengths so that teachers may cater to the student by providing extra support on the concept being taught. The two common forms of assessments are formative assessments and summative assessments. A formative assessment is an in-process evaluation on students learning and is typically completed multiple times throughout a unit. This type of assessment may provide clarity on a student’s learning progress, and modifications that a teacher may need to make. A summative assessment is used to evaluate students at the end of a unit. The importance of an assessment while teaching students in the K-12 level is vital for students, parents, and teachers. The information provided by the assessments can play an important role on the teachers instruction style, pace,
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
Assessments have been used in the classroom throughout the years as feedback to educators on how effective they are at teaching and how well students are learning. Since school’s decision-making is being predicated off assessment scores, they are increasingly becoming more important. “Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding” (Edutopia, 2008, para. 1). With more and more reliance on assessments, it forces educators to take a step back and reflect on their lessons in order to ensure that all accommodations and strategies are in place to promote student success. Among those strategies, teachers must be able to “demonstrate skills at selecting, developing, applying, using, communicating, and evaluating student assessment information and student assessment practices”(Buros, 2014, pg.1). While reflecting on my own skills or competencies involving student’s assessment, I have found that my strengths lie in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessments; and choosing assessment methods appropriate for instructional decisions. On the other side, my weaknesses lie in developing valid grading procedures that incorporate assessment information. This paper will analyze these strengths and weaknesses and examine how they impact the development of assessment inside the classroom.
When a teacher introduces the idea of formative assessment to a classroom, modifications may need to be made for it to work its purpose. The teacher might need to alter their teaching method and the student will need to be open to changing their learning style to accommodate the change. If both the teacher and students can achieve this, then formative assessment will be successful (al., C. E., 2016). If unsuccessful then formative assessment can be seen by both the teacher and student in a negative light. For example, The Classroom Experiment (Barry, 2010), showcased a range of different formative assessment techniques that can be quite successful in the classroom. One technique that Dylan Wiliam posed was that the teachers give each student
Assessment is an essential part of the teaching and learning process. Assessment is most effective when there is alignment between the outcomes, the design of assessment tasks, the criteria, marking procedures and feedback provided; this referred to as constructive alignment (Potter & Kustra, 2012). The purpose of an assessment, and the modes and strategies used will depend on a number of factors. Diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment are three modes of assessment that may be used. While each of these modes of assessment has a particular purpose, the underlying purpose of all assessments is to promote student learning (Brady & Kennedy, 2012).
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
Assessment is defined as the gathering of information in order to make an informed decision (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 373; Puckett & Black, 2000, p. 9). Assessment should support learning, and be an integral part of it. Assessment should be ongoing and part of the daily routine, as opposed to something that is done to students at the end of the instruction (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 374). The assessment should support the mathematical learning that is taking place and provide valuable information not only to the teacher but the student as well (Charlesworth & Leali, 2011, p. 374). Macmillan (2012, pp 169 -170), describe assessment as either formative or summative. Formative assessment is continuous focusing on what the children are
Within my past and current educational course work and field experiences, I have explored and engaged in the use of multiple assessments to gather both formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments are for learning, they assess during learning. Summative assessments are of learning they assess what students ability to apply what they have learned. Formative assessments can be described as check points done frequently through a lesson to assess student acquisition of knowledge. Summative assessments assess student ability to apply what they have learned.
Chapter 12 of the book, Classroom Assessment, written by W. J. Popham, was titled: “Formative Assessment”. The chapter focuses on how formative assessment can be incorporated and implemented in the classroom. Formative assessment is an informal and small assessment given by the teacher. For example; a chapter test on Friday’s, spelling tests, quiz over a chapter that students read are just a few formative assessment examples. The author mentions summative assessment to “take place when educators collect test-based evidence to inform decisions about already completed instructional activities” (pg. 291). Summative assessment is the whole picture or big unit test assessing what students will know. This is often standardized testing exams. There
In life, being assessed is inescapable in most spheres of human existence. “Assessment is the process of gathering and discussing information from multiple and diverse sources in order to develop a deep understanding of what students know, understand and can do with their knowledge as a result of their educational experiences” (Huba &Freed, 2000). Examinations serve many purposes. Teachers use them to determine if learning/curriculum objectives are being achieved and the results also forms part of the process of accountability to parents. “Learner assessment is best concerned as a form of two-way communication in which feedback on the educational process or product is provided to its key stakeholders” (McAlphine,2002). There are two major
The value of assessment cannot be understated, as they are the instructor’s tool in assessing the knowledge attained by the learner. Assessment strategies can vary in significance and difficulty, as there are a plethora of strategies that an instructor can utilize to monitor the student’s level of knowledge in the subject and growth over time in the class.
It has been widely accepted that the use of formative assessment practices enhances the students’ learning. Recently, Cizek [1] referred formative assessment as a collaborative processes engaged in by educators and students for the purpose of understanding the students’ learning and conceptual organization, identification of strengths, diagnosis of weaknesses, areas for improvement, and as a source of information that teachers can use in instructional planning and students can use in deepening their understandings and improving their achievement.
Summative and formative assessments are two types of evaluations which have distinct purposes. The need for summative and formative assessing gives the targets’ evaluation a focused purpose. Therefore, exploring summative and formative assessment strategies help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a student learning outcome. Formative assessment observes the targets’ developmental learning now, therefore determining the targets’ learning level; summative assessment determines the targets future learning objectives (Yu, H., & Li, H. 2014).
Based upon my understanding of assessments, students do not always have to be assessed using paper and pencil. There are other methods that will give the student and the teacher a better gauge of what the student knows. There are several manners in which students’ knowledge can be evaluated. The normal prescriptive lesson plan that schools require teachers to teach on specific days, is no longer useful.(site, pg 22)
As an educator there are many important facets that facilitate in the success of students. Teachers are responsible for establishing rapport, educating, making observations, creating goals, and assessing the progress that students make throughout the school year. There are many advantages to being competent in the educational assessments of students. Black and William (1998) mentions the major part of assessing students is to aid in understanding and improving the quality of teaching that a student receives. Also, when assessing students the information obtained by teachers must be accurate, reliable, and honest in regards to how a student is performing.
Formative assessment strategies are used throughout a unit of study. They are linked to the instruction and focus on discovering what students know and need to know about the end goal or outcome. Teachers use formative assessment during the learning process and use the information to make adjustments to their instruction to better satisfy learner needs. Using formative assessment over the course of a unit will provide teachers with information on the learning processes of their students. Teachers can use one assessment strategy, change or adapt the instruction, and then reassess using the same strategy or a different one to determine if the instructional practice is impacting student