Reflection on Alternative Assessments 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.

There is so much to consider when talking about assessments. There are all kinds of different types of assessments. There are assessments that happen on a daily basis in the classroom and then there are the tests that everyone knows about; the state mandated assessments, map test, and some know about DIBLES tests. These are the types of tests that parents, teachers, and administrators debate about. The debate is whether or not these test are doing students any good or harming them. It is good to have data on student and school’s progress, it keeps everyone accountable however, some believe that schools are testing too much. That all this time focused on testing is actually taking away from learning time. Each type of assessment has it’s own set of challenges.

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

2.2 The strengths and limitations of a range of assessment methods in relation to the individual learner needs:

Depending upon the subject being assessed and whether it is academic (theory) or vocational (practical) an assessor will usually follow the assessment cycle. The cycle will continue until all aspects of the qualification

The assessments have been done during and after the lesson in a variety of ways; verbal response, written response, pair and group work, and making posters as a visual outcome.

There is a large variety of assessment methods available for assessing learners’ achievements. These include observation; questioning the learner; examining product evidence; discussion; witness testimony; looking at learner statements; recognising prior learning; simulated environment; skills tests; oral and written examinations; assignments; case studies and projects. Choosing the most appropriate assessment methods is vitally important, to help and support the learner and to ensure the job of the assessor is as straightforward, reliable and problem-free as possible.

My personal philosophy of assessment consists of several components. The first component is that both formative and summative assessment belong in the classroom. The second component is that, although teachers should teach what is on the STAAR tests, they should try to avoid just “teaching to the test” the entire year. I also believe that different forms of assessments should be used throughout the year. Finally, I believe that assessments should always be structured in a way that is fair to the students, and addresses all learning styles. Overall, tests belong in the classroom, but should not be the focus of instruction and should be fair for all students.

Assessment is defined as any practice or task that is used to produce information about student learning, and is categorized as either formative or summative (Wallace & White, 2014). There is a distinct difference between the various types of assessments, specifically formative and summative. Formative assessments are informal quizzes that are used to guide instruction

The assessments should be able to be reviewed at any time until the Learner has completed the qualification or part thereof. Regular reviews also give the learner the opportunity to ask about other relevant issues and give you the opportunity to improve on them for the future.

Teachers use formative, summative, and informal assessments to determine whether learning has taken place. An assessment can be done before, during and at the end of a unit. Teachers use the data collected from the performance of students to set instructional goals

Assessment is often thought of as a punitive exercise. But the purpose of assessment is to ensure that students meet specific standards of progress and to rectify learning deficits before a child falls too far behind. Assessment can also identify a child's strengths as well as his or her weaknesses. As well as comparing the child's performance with his or her peers, the teacher can assess specific learning needs, learning styles, interests, aptitudes, and other critical components of the child's developing learning personality.

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.

As an educator it is very important that a teacher uses different methods to teach the variety of different learning styles, and it is also important that the teacher uses a variety of assessment procedures. People don’t learn the same, and people don’t test the same either. I personally, am horrible when it comes to taking multiple choice and problem solving type assessments. I do better with essay and writing assessments, presentations, and teaching back what I have learned. With the understanding of how I can best be assessed myself, it will be important when I am the teacher that I use many methods to assess and grade my students work.

1) Develop a chart (matrix) of 1000−1,250 words that compares and contrasts the different types of assessments, the characteristics of each, and for what situations each is best suited. It should address the following: