Response to : "Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning"

 
          The first question in this chapter asks, how do you know what they have learned? I find this to be a very important question that all teachers should be wondering. The ability to assess my students properly will determine how well my students do. If my assessing is inaccurate or inappropriate for the lesson, then my results can be skewed yielding inaccurate results. All of this can become overwhelming as a new teacher and finding a correct way to get the answers I need will take some researching. 

            Assessments found in this chapter are both formative and summative and are focused more on student gain. Students feel less anxiety when they are shown expectations. By providing the students with the rubric for a assignment they can plan and establish a clear idea for exceptions. A negative to this would be student reliance on word-for-word guidance instead of maybe exploring individual voice in a essay assignment. This is why I feel that It is essential to fit the assessment tool with the content, but also always having the students in mind.

          Another way to improve student perception about assessment is to allow them to become graders themselves. As discussed in this chapter, students can not only discover what things to look for, but also learn reasoning behind grading with a grading template. By providing productive assessing students will value their work and want to improve. 

             According to the Secondary Standards Based Grading and Reporting Handbook, all assessments should match the work in the classroom. Although this sounds like a no brainier, this is a eye opening reality for all classrooms that feel the pressure of assessment scores and at times can reach for higher achievement based on state expectations rather than individual classroom needs. The rubric should focus on student improvement and not so focused on reaching a funding goal. 

         Secondary Standards Based Grading and Reporting Handbook states, "When a student makes progress they feel motivated and more successful because enhancing perceived competence is motivating in and of itself". When students feel personal progression they begin to discover what they are working towards in the big picture. purpose should always focus back on the students. For example, homework which is a lot of the time perceived as a method of overwhelming the student should be another tool for students to practice what they are learning in class, these two things should ALWAYS match. By viewing assessment as a tool for student progression the anxiety for both teacher and student can be reduced. I will be focusing this system of matching along with also connecting my assessing to the common core standards.