Assessments
Using assessments to generate greater success
"Assessments is not about you as the teacher, it is about your students"
If I had to reflect on this quote there are many things I would like to say. As a teacher I am a huge fan of formative assessments. I believe they are absolutely for your students. If you never give a child an assessment how do you know if that child has learned the information that you taught? Assessments help us determine if we need to re-teach whole group, small group or if in fact our students have grasped the concept that we were trying to teach. Assessments in my opinion help the students because as an educator you never just want to assume that a child has learned a new concept. You want that child to be able to apply that new concept, answer questions about it with confidence, and ultimately produce a product. For example in my classroom I am currently teaching double digit subtraction with regrouping. Today I gave my kids a worksheet where they had to apply what I taught and use it to subtract and re-group. By looking at the assessment I could automatically tell that I have a small group who have not grasped how to regroup. So I use that assessment to drive my next steps. Tomorrow we will continue to work on regrouping. That assessment helped my students because I now know we are not ready to move forward nor or we ready for a summative assessment because there is still some work to do.
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" -Albert Einstein
Defending Our Assessments Practices
Every question that was asked is essential in education. At no time should you use an assessment in your classroom that holds no value for your students. Everything that happens in the classroom should be for the students and for helping the students. Assessments should serve as a tool to help drive instruction.
"What we learn becomes a part of who we are"
Partners
I can truly say that I personally believe I have succeeded in making my students my partner in assessments. I use assessments that are engaging that keep my children involved. I use assessments that I know will truly benefit my students and help me drive instruction. Assessments to me is not just a term to "test" my students but for me to see what areas we still need to work on as a team.