Classroom Reflection Essay

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.

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.

As a practicing teaching, it is responsibility to create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment for students. Whilst on professional experience at a local school in Cairns, I taught a series of lessons (artefact 4) for a year 8 Health and Physical Education class. In order to effectively teach each lesson, I had to manage the classroom activities and challenging behaviours. I used the ten micro-skills for classroom management to not only manage students’ behaviour but also ensure inclusive student participation and engagement.

The first article that I viewed was on Edutopia and it was titled Why Formative Assessments Matter. This article was a very helpful in that it was a review of what formative assessments are, why they are used, and when and how you use them. The middle part, why they are used, it reinforces that they are used for, to inform, not to punish. This is important to remember as we are assessing and planning instruction for students each day. Learning and showing what you have learned should never feel like a punishment. At the end of the article, in the last section, there were suggestions on ways to formatively assess students in a way that would not feel as though they are being punished. Instead, they are enjoying showing what they have learned. The last tip in this article was to watch, look, and listen. It is important to remember that to formatively assess students you must constantly

In December of 2013, I was told that I was not considered for the full-time temporary faculty position in political science on South Campus by Dr. Sonia Nieves because I was not able to teach international relations even though I have graduate level coursework in international relations and Political Science degrees do not specify a focus. I later found out that, this requirement was false and inconsistent with Broward College’s Faculty Credentialing Manual and that Dr. Nieves hired an adjunct faculty member from another campus who had the same degree as me. This left me in the middle of December with no classes for the upcoming spring term despite my ability and record to fill my classes and outstanding reviews by students and supervisors. Dr. Neves also mentioned to me, on several occasions, that it was always a major scheduling “hassle” to be forced to find a downstairs classroom in order to accommodate my ADA needs.

As a part of the instructional process, a formative assessment is very important. It is generally incorporated into the basic practices of the classroom, and provides information that teachers can use in order to adjust the learning and teaching "in real time" (Adey, 2005; Leung, 2007; McClain & Cobb, 2001). In other words, teachers see what they need to do right away, because they are engaged in what the students are learning and how the students are responding to that learning. Because of that, formative assessments are good at helping both students and teachers stay informed about the understanding students are having regarding a particular lesson (Clarke, 2001). Because that information is provided so quickly, changes can be made if there are problems. Teachers do not have to wait until a test or other milestone indicates that there are issues with which the students are struggling, and that is very good news for the teachers and for the students who need help and support.

Recently, whenever I hear current teachers discussing about assessing students, ‘Formative Assessment’ is sure to be highlighted. Nowadays this method (formative assessment) is becoming popular among schools and is being applied widely in schools including my own school. Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) identified in the few past decades, formative assessment has turned out to be the main goal for teachers and educational systems. On the foundation of Loughland and Kilpatrick (2015) findings and from my experience in the field of teaching, I found out nowadays teachers and school stakeholders strongly feel that formative assessment is the best method to assess in order to enhance students’ learning. For these evident reasons, I am interested in finding

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

The first thing to learn about formative assessment from the video "Unpacking Formative Assessment" is that it is a complex process, consisting of five major strategies, such as fixing and adjusting learning intentions, questioning, providing regular feedback, activating self, and activating peers. Another major learning form the video related to the formative assessment process is the importance of setting individual goals for students as they tend to think in different directions. Another important thing that I learned is that the majorities of teachers tend to spend their time designing methods and strategies of formative assessment and do not take into consideration the fact the formative assessment is not the most important aspect of learning

Formative assessments are unique in that they can be quick, do not necessarily have to be graded, and can be used as an ongoing way to check for understanding (Swearengin, 2002). I keep these considerations in mind when I implement quick exit tickets, ungraded activities, and various types of questioning. I check for understanding because it identifies the students that are struggling and the content that is posing problems for many individuals. In my opinion, many teachers have become too concerned with grades, rather than checks for understanding, and often forget that formative assessments do not have to create more work for the teacher. In fact, they assist the teacher in modifying and improving his or her instruction so that student achievement will increase (Wiggins, 2006).

Formative feedback is an instructional technique to inform the student of their progress and what the next steps to learning look like. Formative assessments are used to collect the evidence, which will measure student growth and provide valuable information to both the teacher and the student. As the unit progresses formative assessments should be used to make instructional decisions to meet student’s needs. The collection of formative data provides a clear picture of the student’s ability and can be used to directly respond to the students needs (Rea-Dickins, Gardner, 2000). Though formative feedback and formative assessment are essential to the learning process it is often left to the side, as a forgotten piece of the puzzle. To carry

The author, Margaret Heritage, is the assistant director for professional development at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles. In this article, Heritage defines formative assessment as a continuous process of gathering evidence of learning.  She continues by stating that formative assessment can typically be enforced within the room with three broad strategies: on-the-fly, planned for, and curriculum embedded. She suggests that four core elements comprise formative assessment: (a) identifying the “gap,” (b) feedback, (c) student involvement, and (d) learning progressions.  She additionally suggests that teachers must have specific knowledge and skills so as

Throughout the duration of the course, one recurring theme was the significance of formative assessment and how it can be used as a platform to guide the students in the process of learning. Yorke (2003) explains that formative assessment is the key towards improving a student’s intellectual development and is constructive towards learning. He continues on by stating that this is acknowledged but “it is not well understood across higher education”. I do agree with this, that Formative assessment is continuous method which is effective in defining if a lesson is outstanding or not and how constructive feedback is useful for both the students and the teachers, one thing which is very significant about formative assessment is that it can be both

Without a doubt the lessons and exercises on time management were the most meaningful to me. They brought insight into why I seemed to be constantly working yet still never really got anything I wanted to accomplish throughout the day finished. I realized the majority of the activities I had been spending the most time on didn’t reflect my values of hard work and self discipline and long term academic goals to be successful in college. This motivated to completely change the way I managed my time by effectively striking a balance between my maintenance, committed, and free time.

Students will be assessed by a teacher centered informal questioning period prior to each day’s lesson to observe their grasp of the content materials of the prior lesson. Teacher will also use journal entries and exit slips as formative assessments as well.