Monday, January 27, 2014

Chapter 14: Assessments Blog

Being a student myself I have found that assessing a student’s knowledge based on a written test is not always the most accurate way to see what a student knows.  This exercise was very helpful for allowing me to think of other ways that I could assess a student’s ability to learn and understand information for a class.

Informal assessment vs. formal assessment
For an informal assessment I could use the method of observations.  While students are working on an assignment in the group I could walk around the classroom and ask questions to the group to see what the students know.  I could also have students write down questions that they need help with or topics they would want to know more about.  This would be a good way to assess what they know and if they can apply it to further learning.  In contrast, a formal assessment requires students to be aware of it before hand.  If I were to conduct a formal assessment I could tell the students in the morning that they would be assessed in the afternoon over the information we were learning that day.  If we were to work on multiplication that day I could have each student come to my desk one at a time and go through a stack of multiplication cards.  I would do this while the other students were working on group work.  I would start with allowing the student three strikes for incorrect answers, but as we spent more time on multiplication facts I would only allow the student to miss one question before going back to their seat.  I would have a source of positive reinforcement for students when they made it through the entire stack of cards without missing a question.

Paper-pencil assessment vs. performance assessment
For a paper-pencil assessment I would provide each student with a dry erase board and give them a math question to solve.  When the student finishes the problem they will raise the board in the air.  Having the student’s complete a reading and explain to the class what occurred in the reading would be a way to carry out a performance assessment.

Standardized test vs. teacher-developed test
A standardized assessment would be the different exams that the state requires our students to take.  If I were to give a teacher-developed test I could make it apply to exactly what we discussed in class that day.  I could give a pre-assessment for a subject using the teacher-developed test and use the results to plan what I need to teach the students.

Criterion-referenced assessment vs. norm-referenced assessment
An example of a criterion-referenced assessment would be to provide a list of 50 math problems covering the different types of math that we cover: long division, subtraction, multiplication, and fractions.  If a student were to get all of the long division questions wrong, I would know that he or she had not mastered that topic.   An advantage to this assessment is that a teacher could easily see where a student makes the mistakes and what student’s need more help with.  A disadvantage would be that all examinations don’t always show exactly how well a student understands a topic.  A norm-referenced assessment would be giving the students the Tennessee math assessment that all students in Tennessee had to take.  An advantage to this assessment would be that you could see if your students were caught up with other students in Tennessee.  A disadvantage would be that all schools and students are different.  If a student were to score low on this test it does not mean that they do not understand the concept. 

Traditional assessment vs. authentic assessment

An example of traditional assessment would be to give the students a spelling test or a math test, similar to above assessments.  An authentic assessment is one that measures student’s knowledge and skills in the real-life.  An example of an authentic assessment would be to give students a set amount of money and place prices on objects in the classroom.  Students would practice their math skills by purchasing as many items as they could for the set amount of money that they have.  

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