There are different types of assessments that are important in today's elementary classroom. Ongoing assessments should be diverse and happen all the time. The teachers must always update their knowledge about what the student experience inside and outside of school, what students can and can not do, and how they can create context for the students to become more literate and learn.
Classroom assessments include conversations with students on a daily basis, observations, and reviews of classroom work and test performances. There are other kinds of assessments such as state tests and standardized testing, which are used for high-stake purposes. Personal assessments are also used in the classroom. These include conversations, interviews, surveys, and observations.
Conversations with in the classroom provide the teacher with insight about the students. These types of conversations seem to emerge when the students are experiencing difficulty. It is our responsibility to find out the reason, why the students are stuck and experiencing difficulty.
Classroom observations complement classroom conversations. During these observations, the students respond to questions, read aloud, solve problems, do labs, translate, interpret, explain, represent, and evaluate.
Interviews are the best way to learn about students. This type of assessment allow the parents to provide useful insights about their student' literacy and approach to learning in the content areas.
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I’m very interested in the way you use the word “difficulty,” Kenterra. If I’m reading you right, I agree that there’s a space (remember the zone of proximal development?) in which teachers and students can wrestle with content and ways of learning content while experiencing both a bit of difficulty and the rewards of pushing past that difficulty together. Conversations (like our debriefings maybe?) about pros/cons of things during the day might be one way to help foster that type of discussion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that assessments should be ongoing and diverse. As we all know, students have different learninng styles. While one assessment may be perfect for one student, it may not assess the same for another. Not only that, students get bored when the same assessment is used over and over.
ReplyDeleteI like the point you made about teachers needing to be knowledgeable about what goes on with the students inside and outside of school. Teachers need to get to know their students on a personal level in order to provide all of their needs. this also allows teachers to get a better understanding of why students do the things they do.