Week 6: Assessments for All Learners
You might be asking yourselves, what exactly
are assessments for? Learning! What?! They’re actually meaningful
tools that provide students with timely and meaningful feedback, informs us
about how well the students are doing, and gauges the effectiveness of our
classroom practice. It’s an ongoing process that involves monitoring of progress.
When
determining which assessments might work in different situations, there’s a few
questions we should explore such as: What we can measure, the meaning of
different modes of assessment, the weight we place on assessments, and what learner the assessment is for. That being
said, assessments must be an essential part of our role as classroom
teachers.
I’m used to
classrooms where work is assigned, handed in, receives a grade, and the cycle
goes on and on. What it should look like is: meaningful and effective feedback,
assessments for learning, not of
learning, and students should be engaged in conversations that provide them
with the support and guidance they need to be successful. These conversations
and the feedback will also provide us, the educators, with valuable information
on how well we’re influencing and supporting the learners in our classroom.
As we’ve been reading, children begin
acquiring literacy long before they start school, they learn it mostly through being involved in reading and writing. We also know that our students will have differing
learning styles, not everybody learns the same, so integrating methods that
cater to all learning abilities would be as beneficial to us as educators as
they will our students. Assessments
must be differentiated to accommodate the ability, social, cultural and
linguistic background of our students. In other words, they should be inclusive
and respectful towards learners and their needs. Your classroom’s culture,
processes, and procedures must connect with your students, since this will directly
affect them. They should be involved in the process, so allow them to be a part
of making informed decisions.
A snapshot of useful information from the
chapter:
Evaluations begin with listing of goals and objectives or standards and end with making changes to improve instruction.
Objectives are what you expect students to know or be able to do
as a result of instruction (p.54).
Here is an example of how an objective should
be written:
Students will be able
to demonstrate reading comprehension and letter knowledge through
completion of a variety of activities.
Assessing: There are several steps to assessing
such as: administering assessments & tests ➨ measuring validity & reliability of said
tests ➨measuring
student growth based on these tests ➨placing
students at the appropriate level ➨keeping
records of students and ➨monitoring
progress.
Basically, the goal is
to acquire enough information about students so that you can give them the support
they need.
Here are two examples
of common assessments:
Formative
assessment- an
ongoing assessment that takes place during learning and is used to plan
or modify instruction- tells how the student is doing.
Summative
assessment-occurs after
learning has taken place and summarizes students’ progress at the end of a unit
or a semester or at some other point in time- tells how the student has
done.
The chapter mentions that the most important instructional decision you will make is selecting the appropriate level of materials for your students. If you choose a level that is too easy, students will be bored and unchallenged. If material is too difficult, they will be discouraged, have their academic self-concepts demolished, and fail to make progress. Worst of all, they will learn to hate reading (p.99). Here's a pretty good video of teachers differentiating small groups/assessments that demonstrates this idea:
Questions
to consider:
1. Do you
remember any form of assessments when you were in elementary school or have you
personally done any? If so, which is your favorite and why?
2. When we
limit students to all do the same test, or project, we also
restrict learning through the assessment process. Can we truly
differentiate instruction while standardizing assessment?
3. Do you
believe the investment of time in preparing, administering, and scoring assessments
can pay off for both students and teachers? In what way?
The only assessment that I really remember from elementary school besides NWEA and ISTEP were the timed tests in math that everyone had to do. I have mixed feelings about those tests because yes it is a good way for everyone to be challenged in their own way. You can give one kid the timed test of multiplication while another student works on their addition. But a lot of students really don't like that test because they have to memorize facts, they aren't understanding what the numbers mean or what the place values actually mean they are just memorizing the order or the numbers so they can finish on time. The ISTEP and NWEA are not set up for any minority student to succeed. When I took it I had just gotten to the U.S. so I didn't really know a lot of English words and a lot of the problems made no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteOhhhhh the dreaded time tests- and math ones at that!! Those are the ones that make students dislike math so much, heck, that's one of the biggest reasons why I dislike it. I don't know that those really challenge you as much as they stress you out, because as you mentioned, it's all about memorization. I do like your idea of differentiating tests- giving one addition and one multiplication because we should find strategies that work the best for our students, but instead I wouldn't make it timed, and I would give students all the same category just make the problems less/more challenging. I agree, most tests out there are not made for minorities, which is just such a shame.
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ReplyDeleteTo answer "Do you believe the investment of time in preparing, administering, and scoring assessments can pay off for both students and teachers? In what way?" I believe yes. Chapter 3 states, "We must build classroom environments in which students use assessments to understand what success looks like and how to do better the next time." With that statement it shows that when teachers are investing time preparing, administering, and scoring those assessments that students are suppose to get some beneficial self need from them. Students need to track their academic success or failure just as the teacher does. The assessments provide for both teacher and student where the student began and where the student is going. It's tracking the measuring growth which is described as "where students were at the point of initial assessment and where they are at the end of the assessment." I believe that when students realize those assessments are used as a means to get them where they need to be educationally then they will benefit from the time spent doing them. Teachers are also able to see students learning the information that is provided, and understanding the topics.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding that quote from the Chapter, it pretty much sums up the idea of why assessments are so important to a classroom as a whole. Also, when you say, "I believe that when students realize those assessments are used as a means to get them where they need to be educationally then they will benefit from the time spent doing them" I 100% agree with that notion. It's important for them to know and understand how beneficial they are for them and that they're not just being tested for nothing all the time. That's why communicating with your students and providing constant feedback is extremely important.
DeleteI remember doing a lot of different pre- assessment, formative, and summative assignment when I think back to elementary school. I did not really see all of them as a form of being tested though until I learned about the different forms and thought wow.... basically everything we did we were being tested on! I really like formative assessments because they can be done without putting stress on the student so it takes out the problem of test anxiety. I believe standardized tests definitely need to be tweaked in some way because no student is exactly the same and it is a test that put students in one box. When it comes to differentiating testing in the classroom it can be done in so many ways as long as the same content is being learned. Problems can be made easier or harder for students and we can also allow different kinds of projects for students to pick to accommodate learning styles.
ReplyDelete- Deja Shelton
DeleteYou know what, now that I think of it, a lot of the work we turned in was probably some form of assessment, but because I didn't know what an assessment was, it was all just tedious work to me. I agree, formative assessments can be done without stressing out students, but I think one of the biggest problems is not giving students feedback on their progress which doesn't leave room for academic growth and self-assessment.
To answer question one, I remember doing assessments all the time while I was in elementary school. I remember having to be tested on sight words, and skills like that. I have also done assessments in my job. I work at a learning center, and we do assessments every quarter to see where our students are and if they are getting better in certain areas. We also have a kindergarten readiness program where we test our preschoolers to see if they are prepared for kindergarten. When they have passed all the skills they need for kindergarten they get a certificate that says that they are ready for kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary school and grade school I don't really remember any assessments besides ISTEP. I don't remember much about the ISTEP assessments besides it being very long and stressful. As for high school, I remember having more summative assessments rather than formative. Personally, I rather have had formative assessments because I think I would have done better. I get really stressed out during test taking so I think formative assessments would have been more beneficial for me as well as my teacher. To answer your third question, yes I do you believe the investment of time in preparing, administering, and scoring assessments can pay off for both students and teachers. I believe this to be true because when we take the time to prepare our assessments we will be asking questions that we want our students to take away and know. If we prepare well enough we should have a test that will help us gain a great understanding of what our students know and don’t know. Scoring the assessments is helpful for the teacher by being able to see what lessons need to be gone over again. This helps the teacher see if it it is one student that is struggling or the whole class. Getting this type of information can also help the teachers teaching process.
ReplyDeleteAnswering question one, I do not remember much assessments from elementary school other than math and ISTEP. For ISTEP I remember sitting there just looking at the questions and as time was passing I was behind. I think it may be good to get a generalized idea of where that student is and what they may need more guidance on but none of the testing was my cup of tea. I think we can do a standardized assessment to see where that student may be and where they need help but to use standardized testing to in a way label their skills is not good.
ReplyDeleteTo go off your question, do you remember any form of assessments when you were in elementary school or have you personally done any? If so, which is your favorite and why? I believe I did have a favorite assessment in elementary. I remember in elementary I like to learn are word wall words. Every week on Fridays we would take a word wall quiz. For example, the teacher would say the word and we would write them down and turn them in. I believe we had ten words. After the quiz, we would write a sentence using our word wall words for homework. I like this assessment because it helps me learn my word wall words and also how to use them in a sentence. My elementary teacher would put all the words up on a wall and will use them throughout the school year. If my teacher caught us using the word wall words in our writing or in the classrooms will get a treat.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea!! Man, I wish my teachers would have done something like this. I actually remember one teacher that would do oral spelling tests, she would say a word out loud and we would write it down. We just didn't have a word wall and it would've definitely been beneficial to also use the word in a sentence. I'm actually gonna use this idea and hope that it has a good outcome in my classroom.
Delete1. Do you remember any form of assessments when you were in elementary school or have you personally done any? If so, which is your favorite and why?
ReplyDeleteYes when i was in elementary I took the ISTEP and NWEA. I loved these assessments and i loved taking tests in general. I loved to take them because I felt I was a good tester. I always performed really well on standardized test. However, i was able to see the negative effects that standardized test have on students.One friend i went to elementary school with did horrible on tests. When i was younger I didn't understand why they did bad on the test, this friend was in the same class as me and i knew they understood the material. I now know they had test anxiety and would always perform badly on test even if they knew all the correct information. So i believe that standardized assessments hold back people who demonstrate that they know the information differently.
The assessment that I clearly remember from my elementary days were spelling tests, where the vocabulary words were on the right side and I had to fold the paper hot dog style and write down all the words that I had remembered on the left side. I didn't really have a favorite test because I hated them. I found them to be hard and I always ran out of time because I was a slow test taker.
ReplyDeleteI do believe taking time in preparing, administering, and scoring assessments can be beneficial for both parties. Taking time to thoroughly go through assessments and giving the right feedback instead of just marking things wrong can help the student look back at their work and see where they made the mistake and correct it. I believe some students may tend to shut down after seeing a bunch of red marks on their paper. From experience I know how exactly that feels thinking that no improvement can be made after the teacher marks your answer wrong and gives no type of response back telling you what you made a mistake on. By giving feedback it gives the students a good way to study and reflect off the comments given. I also agree that it gives the teachers a good way to keep track of how their students are doing on the certain material being given.
ReplyDeleteTo go off of the first question, the only assessment I can remember taking was ISTEP. I always have had anxiety over any tests that were timed. I remember my teacher writing how many more minutes we had on the board during the test and I would freak out and rush and never paid attention to what I was actually doing. The only tests that I can remember that I liked when I was younger was spelling tests, which is really ironic because I'm not the best speller. The third question that you asked, I feel like it does benefit both the student and the teacher. I was always that student who got test scores back and I would self assess myself. I remember one time in particular where I cried all the way home on the bus and told my mom that I got a low score on my math assessment. I felt so disappointed but my mom went through the test questions and helped me understand why I got them wrong and I have used that strategy ever sense to improve myself and hold that accountability. It also benefits the teacher because we can reflect our teaching on what the students know and what they are struggling with so we can help.
ReplyDeleteI feel you, time tests are not my thing either, they almost cause me to freeze and just draw a blank, it's not a fun feeling. I'm the type of person that needs to know exactly where I went wrong on an assignment so that I know how I can do better the next time. I think it's unfair for students to keep wondering why, they can't really grow from that. I understand that keeping self accountability is extremely important, but there's instances when questions that need clarified never get solutions and it's not right.
DeleteI remember doing a few assessments, I was always so nervous to do them because they were timed and I felt like I was being rushed. I had also done poorly on them before so when I had to take on every year in elementary school, I was terrified. As educators, I think it is crummy that our students are going to be given these assessments. They want all of our students to be at the same level at everything and that just isn't possible. Kids learn differently, they read at different levels, and they struggle at different things. In out classrooms I believe that we can teach a students to their fullest potential, but everyone isn't going to be the same.
ReplyDeleteI want to start off by answering one of your questions, Do you remember any form of assessments when you were in elementary school or have you personally done any? If so, which is your favorite and why? I remember several assessments like the ISTEP or taking the timed math tests we had to do. I never liked any of the assessments I ever got especially when it involved math because thats always has been my weakest subject. I also have test anxiety so overall the assessments weren't a good experience for me at all. The only one I can remember that I was okay with was the NWEA, just because I liked reading a lot so it made me confident while taking the test. I feel like as teachers we shouldn't put so much pressure on kids with tests like these. We make these tests into a huge life or death matter and we should try t help students with anxiety and make sure we can help them learn instead of just learning for the test.
ReplyDelete1. Do you remember any form of assessments when you were in elementary school or have you personally done any? If so, which is your favorite and why?
ReplyDeleteBesides the ISTEP, I remember the Benchmark testing. This was a test we took online monthly to test our reading skills. I hated them because they were on the computer. The Benchmark was the first test I had ever taken online. I am not a good test taker in general but especially when it's something pressuring. It was pressuring because it would give you a score at the end of which books you could check out at the library. Other students would compare scores and call you either really smart or stupid. I also remember the timed math tests which for whatever reason really worked for me. I loved them but I think that's because I am competitive. I wanted the reward at the end and I especially wanted to finish before everyone else.
Let me just say, I like how your blog flowed and how you provided a snapshot of the chapter. I agree with your experience in having assignments in classrooms typically assigned, handed out and graded. To think about it, that was how most of my assignments were middle school through high school. Which bring me to answer your first question. Reflecting on my elementary school experience, the most common forms of assessments I remember are the timed tests. I dreaded these. Most of the time, I was too focused on making my numbers look neat (which is something teachers were picky on) that I ran out of time in the end. It made me anxious to see all the questions and we were expected to answer them in a short amount of time. Another assessment that I remember would having fill-in-the-answer assessments. Sure, teachers thought this was a good form to see what students really knew but in reality, we focused more on memorizing how to spell the word rather than knowing what it meant. My favorite form of assessment would have to be Think-Pair-Share. I enjoyed doing this activity because it allowed me to discuss with my partners and gain a better understanding on the topic based on what my peers and I had to say.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your third question, I feel like yes the graded assessments can lay off to a student that is doing well in the class but it can also discourage a student that isn’t. It’s pretty much 50/50. BUT if am educator (like us) are giving helpful feedback on how to improve, then the student wouldn’t feel as bad as just looking at the bad grade that they have received. For the teachers, I feel that it is kind of important to give assessments to our students to see how well they are doing in that certain subject but at the same time, we can do that through other activities such as group discussions or worksheets in class. With this being said, I remember doing little assessments in school but never have I ever received any type of feedback on them. I’ve never thought about doing that myself as a future educator and this blog has helped me think through how that could positively effect my classroom.
ReplyDelete3. Do you believe the investment of time in preparing, administering, and scoring assessments can pay off for both students and teachers? In what way?
ReplyDeleteI think that it can pay off, but I think that it depends on what type of assessment you are doing. If the assessment is based purely off memorization, I don't really think that it has a benefit. But if the student can engage in critical thinking, can make connections, and can show off what they have learned as a result of your lessons, then I think that is worth it. We really have to be careful to keep up the motivations of our students so that they want to do assessments, and don't feel like they are these big, scary things that they dread.
I understand the need for assessments and always wondered about different forms of collecting the data to determine whether students grasp the content and concepts being taught. Your assessment chart was very helpful in giving different options to testing. Growing up I remember doing some of those activities throughout my educational career. I remember creating journals for science class, writing essays or papers for language arts, and collaborating with peers to come up with a historical scene for social studies. I never knew that I was being assessed when I was participating in these activities.. This is helpful for people with test anxiety. It is a way to let them engage and truly show you what they've learned throughout the unit/class.
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ReplyDeleteIn elementary school, I remember having to take spelling tests and number fact tests. Honestly, I didn't really like them unless they were in the form of a competition. I do believe that you can differentiate instruction while sticking to standardized tests. While students learn in multiple ways, you can also teach in multiple ways. This gives students a chance to understand material in different ways so they can do well on standardized tests. I think the cons of standardized tests outweigh the pros. They are not a good assessment for students or teachers.
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