Assessment

Teachers must have the skills to determine where a student stands. Using formal and informal assessments can assist teachers in directing where a lesson needs to go, and the types of questions that need to be asked throughout the lesson.

Informal assessments are the most helpful mainly because it is a direct and instant assessment. Asking higher order questions during a lesson will help know what students are comprehending and what areas still need to be addressed. A running record with a student takes 5-10 minutes and is a great way to informally assess their reading fluency or comprehension. Having a classroom blog or daily journal is a great way to see what students are learning based on a teacher's lessons. Practicing the concepts as a whole group is a way to lighten a student's stress as opposed to giving them a worksheet and telling them it's for a grade. The most informative assessment is a one-on-one with the student because it becomes clear what a student knows and needs improvement on. Examples of assessment materials are the QRI or Dominie.

Formal assessments include tests, projects, posters, experiements etc. All of these are good tools to assess students on units or chapters. Tests are about a sure thing as taxes and are necessary in today's world. But hopefully the amount of them taken will decrease in the future.

In my classroom, I plan on including a variety of assessments because many students can't always show what they've learned through a test. And the classroom is a more enjoyable atmosphere with student projects and posters all over the room.

My Assessment Profile