Classroom Assessment Practices

Describe and explain the ways in which assessment practice has the potential to impact students’ learning:

Ch. 1 – What are my classroom assessment responsibilities as a teacher and how can I fulfill them in ways that maximize the success of my students? This chapter speaks to the nature of what sound assessment is, and the importance of really involving students in this process. Assessment is, of course, FOR the students. The idea that assessment is used by the students, and that teachers should “demystify” assessment and the meaning of success in their classroom is a very simple one, but one that is often forgotten in the context of high-stakes test-ridden classrooms, and schools that view letter grades as the only evidence of learning.

All work handed in by the learner, they must sign and date and confirm that it is their own work.

Earl, L. M. (2013). Assessment as Learning: Using Classroom Assessment to Maximize Student Learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

As a Middle School Language Arts teacher, I have found that assessments are a daily part of our job. Everything that my students do in the classroom ultimately ends up being assessed in some sort of way. I must admit that it can at times be overwhelming for assessments to be such a huge part of our curriculum; I understand the necessity of each one. I haven’t always been focused as intently on assessments. I really didn’t consider the importance of assessments as much. As I gained experience and knowledge I realized that assessing my students provides me with information that makes my job more successful. I believe to effectively teach my students, I must understand and implement the right assessments properly. My assessment philosophy is that to be able to ensure our students are learning and that we are teaching the right way we must include proper assessment for validation. With that being said it is very important to use different forms of assessments to gauge student performance. One of the outstanding features of studies of assessment in recent years has been the shift in the focus of attention, towards greater interest In the interactions between assessment and classroom learning and away from concentration on the properties of restricted forms of test which are only weakly linked to the learning experiences of students (Black 2015) This research supports the idea that assessments

My next goal was to explore Marzano’s position on assessments. I have incorporated and valued Marzano’s research in my previous TEAM papers because he cites a significant amount of data pertaining to the direct effects on student improvement. Therefore, I next read Robert J. Marzno’s book, Classroom Assessment & Grading that Work.

Additionally, I have also learned from the class discussion that there are other alternative assessments or assessment options in having students realize meaningful objectives about not only what they have learned from what is being taught, but also how they can investigate deeper into pursuing from the opportunities from what they have learned. One example was with the group that I participated in doing a test analysis of the Brigance Transition Skills Activities. From analyzing this set of materials, our group uncovered that this assessment (if one was to call it that) served not so much in having students demonstrate what they have learned in translating to various measurements academic achievement or status of learning comprehension so much as to have available for the instructor an organized curriculum designed to help

When teachers’ classroom assessments become an integral part of the instructional process and a central tenet in their efforts to help students learn, the benefits of assessment for both students and teachers will be boundless. The purpose of these assessments is to ascertain the student’s levels of understanding and see if there is any room for improvement and whether there are any weaknesses so as to be able to correct them. My focus is to improve my assessments to make them motivating and to enhance student learning.

I teach small groups of children in all areas of English/Language Arts. Students in this particular group are First Grade students whose area of deficiency is phonics. Specifically, classroom assessments indicate that these students struggle with digraph sound chunks. I am in the process of determining if students need intervention decoding or encoding words with digraph sounds.

According to Stiggins & Chappuis, what are the five achievement targets of assessment? Provide a definition and an example of each.

I selected In Seven Practices for Effective Learning by McTighe and O’Connor (2005) as an article in this portfolio because this article is a reference on the different types of assessments and their purposes in the classroom. In addition, this article was selected to reinforce assessment practices that enhance student learning, and these assessment practices also align with promoting mastery goals, the theme of this portfolio. Thus, as I summarize the concepts presented in this article, I reflect on my current use of the different types of assessments and how I can promote mastery within my courses by implementing McTighe and O’Connor’s (2005) practices for effective learning.

I chose to explore the link between assessment and instructional decisions by reading the article “Making the Most of Assessments to Inform Instruction,” by Victoria J. Risko and Doris Walker-Dalhouse. This article talks about assessment and instructional decisions in regards to the subject of reading. In the beginning of the article, the authors mention how assessments can influence instruction. The article states “assessments can transform instruction by providing timely information that captures students’ strengths, needs, and specific instructional history” (Risko and Walker-Dalhouse, 2010, p. 420). This quote shows how much assessment influences instruction. While the article states that assessment impacts instruction, it also mentions

While my student is reading the assigned book, I will use the assessment chart above to assess the student learning. For instance, I will observe to see if my student is employing context clues to help her determining the meaning of words and phrases as they used in a text.

In the course of this teacher evaluation procedure, I observed a classroom full of talkative high school students and Mrs. Crum, a very creative teacher, engage her students in their learning. First of all, the teacher began the class discussion by projecting several pictures of traditional Mexican dishes like enchiladas, chiles rellenos and tamales. Concurrently, she brought out a plate of fajitas as an incentive to get the students excited about the upcoming unit of study which was then given to a student. During the pre-observation conference, the teacher briefly described what I would see during my time in her classroom. However, she did not mention the “hook" she was going to use to entice students to participate.

This course has been established, consulted and endorsed by IBSA (Innovation & Business Skills Australia), through Rosalie Staggard (General Manager Industry Projects) and Tony Cusack (Industry Manager) (see attachment). Three accounting firms have been consulted and endorsed this accounting training package, they’re being Jack Tuan Ly &Co, Global Accounting & Financial Service and Tax Solutions (see attachment).