Week 5 Discussion #1
Assessing Students
“Assessment is not about you as a teacher; it is about your students” (p.97).
Share your perspective on Lopez’s quote and statement above.
I feel that it is a powerful statement that made me think about the assessments and assessment process we use in our Head Start Program. We often are driven by assessment deadlines but are we really using the information to help better support the children to learn, which brings to back to his concern stated in chapter 8 “What I’m concerned about is the way that some schools and districts blindly mandate assessments to our teachers in such a way that only encourages them to make the priority about getting assessment data turned in by a deadline Lopez, D. (2013).” Too many times I find myself sitting down with a children go over the curriculum and their little minds are all over the place some are sitting attentively while others don’t seem to be ready to sit. Then as I assess the children I sometime find that the children that were sitting attentively didn’t really get what was being presented but the ones that were all over the room did. Hhhhmmm. I had to go back and rethink things.
Describe how your mindset has changed or been validated.
Lopez’s statement has really made me rethink the way I have been briefly trained to assess children. We tend to assess children because it was mandated to do so and with specific deadlines sometimes I honestly have to ask myself, how can I better support the children’s learning when conducting these assessments and stay on schedule? There is a level of trust that will need to be established in order to assess these children appropriately. At the same time some of us look at the formative results in the wrong manner. We tend to look at the data as a result of our teaching. Reading through this chapter 8 has been a be help to me because now I will pay close attention to build that level of comfort from now on when assessing the children and not look at the data as a reflection of my good or bad teaching.
Consider the 4 questions Lopez lists under “Defending our Assessment Practices” (p.98). How might you use these questions in your current or anticipated practice?
Again, in my current practice I will reflect back on these questions when working with the children throughout the school year. I feel that these questions are valid questions to drive me to be more cognizant of for the success of the children. As a matter of fact I will joint down a few notes from the chapter to refer back to.
What value might it add to your practice by keeping these questions in mind?
I feel that it is going to provide the guidance to my teaching by keeping these questions in mind and to focus on where the child is to build a better foundation of teaching and learning.
In what ways have you succeeded/failed to make students your partner in assessment?
I feel that I have successfully exposed the children in the expectations of the assessments but the delivery I feel I have failed in but will utilize this discussion information and questions to also share with my co-teachers. We will be able to discuss this information and give feedback to our processes we currently use to assess our children.
Reference:
Lopez, D. (2013). No excuses university: No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools (2nd ed.) Turnaround Schools Publications.