Chapter 14 Assessment

Last semester I worked a lot on developing appropriate forms assessment and different strategies that can be implemented in the classroom in order to acquire the information needed to evaluate, which developmental milestones children are at and have achieved. After reading the chapter and the other discussion posts I have come up with a few different approaches to assessing in the classroom. Informal vs. Formal Assessment: I focused on informal assessment. I believe that this type of assessment allows children to have flexibility and less pressure. A prime example was today in class after our “pop quiz”. The way it was introduced and carried out brought a lot of pressure for all of the students. This is why I feel that sometimes, informal assessment might be a better approach for teachers to gather the information they need in order to evaluate if the children are learning. One example would be to ask the children to write down one concept they have mastered throughout the lesson, and then one idea that they are still struggling in understanding. The information wouldn’t be graded but would be useful for the teacher as a supplement to guide her in planning her future lessons. Traditional vs. Authentic Assessment Because I am an early childhood major I lean more towards authentic assessment. Authentic assessment can be helpful to many students that struggle with standardized tests. It also gives teacher the opportunity to be creative on how they want the information they presented to be taught and evaluated. One example would group projects. This could lend itself for many different subject areas like Social Studies, English, etc. Two things can be evaluated with this type of learning; social skills and applied learning. This encompasses two important standards that are targeted in learning. Teacher Developed vs. Standardized Tests Personally I am not a fan of standardized tests. I was one of those students throughout my whole life that got test anxiety or would blank out. Teacher developed tests can help students like me. Even though multiple choice is not my forte, teachers are able to add on different forms of assessment. Tests that include multiple choice as well as fill in the blank, short answers, essays. There are a variety of different methods that are used by educators that can allow children to express their ideas in a way that they feel more comfortable. Paper-pencil vs. Performance Last semester when I completed my teacher-student practicum I learned that checklists are a great way to collect data and formulate assessment on particular tasks or skills that your student can or cannot do. Checklists helped me target a certain area and then I was able to adequately gather information on my students. The way I used checklists I would ask the children to do certain tasks, which I would then note if they could or couldn’t do it and then add comments about behaviors that I observed. Norm Referenced vs. Criterion Referenced I think both of these have their advantages and disadvantages. Although I do think that criterion referenced is better suited in an early childhood setting. One of the advantages of criterion referenced is that teachers are able to isolate the standards they are targeting and then are able to aim towards achieving them. During assessment part there will already basically be a guideline, which was laid out when you chose the standards focused on your lessons. However one disadvantage is that teachers are focused on achieving those targets only. It doesn’t give room for flexibility to take lessons in a different direction like with informal assessment. Norm referenced can be useful when creating a graph of your classroom’s developmental levels. This is specifically useful in early childhood because it helps teachers identify which students could be recommended for evaluation or in providing future special needs. One of the disadvantages though is that children are compared within a group rather than the national standards, which were developed according to the appropriate development that children should be at in their particular age group.