Assessment is for STUDENTS!
Teachers continually support development.
Formative assessment is about the student’s active participation in learning and how we can continually support that development. “Assessment is not about the teacher; it’s about the student,” (Lopez, 2013, chptr. 8. para. 6). Educators ensure the students are involved in the process of learning and use assessments in order to support discovery. This supports formative assessment and promotes a higher level of learning. I agree with methods of teaching that generate a comfortable atmosphere where students gain the experience of understanding new material by the discovery process and collaboration.
DEFENDING OUR ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
Questions to ask that keep assessments relevant to
our purpose of driving student’s highest outcome:
“Why are you participating in the assessments that you use with students?
Can you share in explicit detail the value that you find in each assessment?
Do you participate in assessments that you find no value in for students?
Are you using an assessment you have no idea how to deliver, but are afraid to ask for help with?” (Lopez, 2013, chptr 8., para.8).
The educator can enrich the student learning process by identifying the purpose of assessments. The purpose of formative assessment should be to support and enhance the student’s learning experience.
The assessment should have value; in other words, what does the assessment show us? What are we measuring? If there is no useful information gathered by the assessment, then, why perform it?
Is the assessment understood or are we afraid to ask for assistance? Assessment needs to be purposeful and understood before it is delivered so that applicable strategies can be interjected into the activity and student learning promoted.
MAKE STUDENTS YOUR PARTNER IN ASSESSMENTS!
I have succeeded in partnering my students in the assessment process by giving them tools to perform a developmental skill and allowing them to discover solutions by experience. Assessment is ongoing and the student is given support by providing a variety of options that are successful and employing the support and resource of parental guidance and praise.
Lopez, D. (2013). No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools(2nd ed.). Turnaround Schools Publications.