Personal Philosophy Of Assessment : A Middle School Language Arts Teacher

The term assessment is the process of using a wide variety of abilities and knowledge, in this case, of students. The textbook explains that the purpose of assessment in reading and writing instruction is for the students and the teachers. It is important for the students to understand their progress in literacy and learning and to evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses. Assessment in reading, for teachers, involves comprehension and appreciation for how children interact with print in authentic reading situations (Vacca p. 144). There is a multitude of different types of assessments and tools to getting the results that we know impact individual students, schools, districts, and even nationwide.

There are many forms of both formal and informal assessment tools and approaches that help teachers evaluate the language development and the progress performance of their students. Assessment approaches are the way teachers assess their students and assessment tools referred to the instruments that utilize to measure each method. Some of those tools includes: Tests, quizzes, projects, classroom performances, tasks, observations, portfolios and standardize tests. Tests and quizzes are given periodically to ensure students comprehend the subject contents. Performance tasks and projects are used to measure students’ accumulated skills and knowledge in problem-solving and critical thinking whereas observations and portfolios are evidences to show students performance and achievement over the period of time. Each of these forms of assessment is very effective when utilized and conducted at an appropriate time.

Assessment and data driven instruction are a vital part of teaching. Assessments are used frequently to guide the proceeding lessons. I am interested in learning more about the different types of assessments and the appropriate uses of each. I think it is critical as a future teacher to have many resources to back up my techniques, especially with the growing interest in data and tracking students’ progress. Gathering information about assessments will allow me to broaden my own techniques and strategies that I use in the classroom, more specifically the ways in which I grade and provide feedback on assessments so that students can use that feedback in a positive way. In my past experiences I have noticed my cooperating teachers providing grades on all assessments with no feedback because they want the students to correct their own mistakes. This may work on summative assessments but I think that there needs to be comments on formative assessments so that students know how to correct their mistakes for the end of the unit tests.

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

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

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).

The question of assessment in the "school system, individual schools, and teachers has evoked strong and sometimes violent emotions from the educational community, the general public and their legislative representatives"(Brown & Knight, 1994). Assessment based on standardized tests has been looked at very closely over the recent years, and some people have even mentioned that they be eliminated completely. Those who feel traditional methods should be replaced by alternative methods. These people feel that demonstration, exhibition, investigation, oral response, portfolio, and written response's are all examples of

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

Assessment, assessment, assessment, it is not fun and no student in their right mind would argue otherwise but testing is necessary. This one word has become the centerpiece of education not only in the United States but in the entire westernized world. Standardized testing has been used to measure teacher quality and student achievement since the mid-1800s. Within the last two decades standardized testing has taken on an important role in education in all 50 states since its mandate by President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. The use of standardized testing to measure progress, identify strengths and weaknesses, and help professionals reach competency in their careers are critical to improvement of the educational system. There are many facts about standardized achievement testing: the public wants it, other nations may do it better, and many critics offer no viable alternatives to it (Haladyna, 2006).

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.

For my author study I have chosen to research the ideas and contributions of Robert Marzano. Marzano is a well-known expert in the field of contemporary assessment. He is known for his educational research on topics including standards-based assessment and high-yield teaching strategies. Marzano has used this research to design assessment programs that have been implemented in K-12 classrooms around the country (ASCD, 2015). He has also authored several books including Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work, which I will reference in this paper. Assessment is such a crucial component of teaching. With the changes that are occurring in the field of education as standards-based instruction is implemented, it is important to learn about effective ways of assessing students that accurately demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Robert Marzano’s work helps to illuminate these important standards-based grading and reporting systems that teachers can use to help their students.

Assessments are a critical tool in monitoring the progress of English language learners at all grade levels. The main purpose of assessments is to ensure students are receiving quality teaching instruction in accordance to academic and content standards. Even though these tests are not the only resource used for testing students, they provide teachers with invaluable data to determine if the student is growing in certain academic areas. There are several types of assessment that can be used to measure a student’s progress. In this paper, various alternatives to

As a future elementary educator, I know that there are various methods for assessing students. In my opinion, assessment should vary depending on the age group being assessed. Students throughout elementary school learn in different ways and develop different levels of thinking as their learning progresses. A kindergarten student does not learn material in the same manner as a fifth grader; therefore, assessments should fit the objectives and goals of the students and also project their level of thinking and learning. I want to teach fourth or fifth grade students, so I will discuss the variety of assessments I will use, why I seek to use them, how I will incorporate them in my classroom, and weight their importance in my evaluations of

According to the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) assessments are defined as , “The use of instruments and procedures to gather data on a regular basis for such purposes as identifying learners ' needs, documenting learners ' progress, or determining how program services are meeting learners ' needs” (CAELA, 2015). Assessments are used to help instructors evaluate how effective their teaching methods are, to help students know how much information they have obtained and to inform admiration see the