Assessment and Evaluation 

I believe in assessing as I teach and teaching as I assess. This simply means that while I teach I am continuously making observations of students understand, as well giving them the appropriate feedback for them to independently improve in certain areas.

 

Who should evaluate?

• Students: to maximize learning through self-assessment and peer evaluation

• Teacher: to decide the future sequence of instruction (continue or revisit an area?)

 

When should I assess?

• Before a lesson: determine what students know to identify what I need to teach

• During a lesson: To see whether they understand and reflect upon whether something needs to be revisited before moving forward

• After a lesson: To see whether the learning goals were met or not

 

How I will Assess and Evaluate:

• Social skills

• In class discussion

• Academic testing

• Observing students individually and in groups

• Analyzing students reflections (oral and written)

• Executing lessons focusing on different intelligence areas

 

Unfortunately children believe that the purpose of marking is for the teacher to find out what they did wrong. They do not see it as being for their own benefit. I want to change that.

I will do the best that I can to change my students belief regarding marking by turning around their failures!

 

• Celebrating their success

• Having them self-assess their work

• Occasionally offering second chances

• Having them set goals for themselves

• Giving them the tools they need to succeed

• Making time for revision and improvement

• Giving them genuine and detailed feedback

• Documenting their success around the classroom

• Offering them a variety of methods to show me their learning

• Having them reflect upon their work (strengths and weaknesses)

 

If students can produce it, they can assess it. If they can assess it, they can improve it.

 

I believe it is important to have students take ownership of their education and academic growth. With this said, I value taking the time to build rubrics, checklists, quizzes and tests with my students.

 

Rubrics should be used as guidelines for the students but not to constrain creativity.

• Is the rubric fair?

• It the rubric clear?

• Does it connect to MELS competencies?

• Does the rubric support students learning?

• Does it help parents understand assessment?

 

Creating tests together!

• Have the students work in groups and write all that they know about the topic.

• Have them create questions related to what they know.

• Create a test using their questions.

 

Through this they learn to value assessment and see it as a benefit considering it offers them the opportunity to make changes and improve.

 

 

I strongly believe in assessing not only what the children have learned but how far they have progressed.

I will do this by having student portfolios! Portfolios will also be used in my classroom where I will work collaboratively with my students in deciding what kind of portfolio they would like and decide what pieces should be included.

I will create portfolios that reflect growth of students learning and overall individual development. This form of portfolio will be established within my future classroom as I will place importance on having students self-assess and reflect upon their work chosen, as well as illustrate growth by showcasing different stages of learning.

 

Overall the portfolios prove to be a great aid in connecting instruction and assessment as they are beneficial for teachers and parents. They are also an effective part of students’ learning as they value themselves as learners and assume ownership of their work through portfolio development.

 

Examples of how I assess and evaluate within my classroom can be found below.

                     

 

                   Class Observations                                                 Math and English Grade/Observation Trackers