Standard 8

Assessment and Evaluation. Candidates know, understand and use formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuing intellectual, social and physical development of the learner.

Supporting Explanation

Candidates understand the characteristics, uses, advantages and limitations of different types of assessments for evaluating student learning. They select, construct and use formal and informal assessment strategies and instruments appropriate to the learning expectations being evaluated to make instructional decisions based on this information. They actively solicit and use information about students’ learning needs and progress from parents, other colleagues and the students themselves. Candidates develop and maintain useful records of student work and progress and responsibly communicate student progress to students, parents and other colleagues.

What? (Evidence) 

• DRL: Our Country's History
• Earth Week thematic unit
   

So What? (Reflection

    I feel as though both summative and formative assessments are important. Summative assessment is useful to measure the student’s mastery of a unit or year, but formative assessment also has many benefits. Formative assessment measures a student’s progress toward the goal and relates to real world situations. Formative assessment is vital in guiding a teacher’s instruction. It allows for meaningful assessment. While summative assessment is important, I feel as though formative assessment is more vital in increasing student achievement. In the DRL, I provided the students with multiple forms of assessment including knowledge ratings, selective reading guide, semantic future analysis, and a rubric. During the Earth Week thematic unit, I assessed the students using a rubric and a flipchart. 
 

Now What? (Direction)

    I think that it is important to understand the different forms of assessment. While there will always be summative assessments in the form of chapter tests and standardized testing, I would like to add more forms of formative assessment. One of the forms of formative assessment that I plan to implement into my own classroom is portfolios. They are important for tracking student progress and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the students. They also provide a meaningful collection for parent conferences. I also plan to implement conferences into my assessment options. This assessment is important because it helps you to understand a student’s disposition toward the topic and allow students to be assessed in a more casual form. This is especially useful when teaching younger grades.