Assessment! Assessment! Assessment!

               Day Four of the adventure!

                             All About Assessments

Today in class we discussed types of assessments, how and when to use them in the classroom.

Before we get into that...What exactly is an assessment?

-My thoughts were that it was that an evaluation of how good or bad something was completed.

I was thinking of it in to narrow of a sense. Assessment is broader then that it is: Gathering data and information about students and their progress. It is valuable and measurable. It is giving feedback.

THE MORE YOU KNOW!

There are three types of assessment:

Diagnostic Assessment- Before the lesson. It usually is how a unit plan is began. This is important to do! You have to know your students prior knowledge to know where to start teaching for them to understand the material. I am sure we have done this in our everyday lives without realizing it.When you start to explain something to a friend..maybe about The Walking Dead, you tend to ask your friend "Have you seen this show?", "Do you know what it is about?" Remember this is important for teaching students effectively and efficiently. 

Formative Assessment- These assessments are ongoing. Using things such as Journal entries, Do now's, even asking questions during the lesson. This is to keep track of which students are understanding the content and which ones are not, and can be used to go back over an item with a different approach. 

Summative Assessment- This is your typical thought when you think of assessments. It's done at the end of the lesson, and it "SHOWS OFF" the students understanding of the knowledge. This can be done by the traditional Test, Essay or another "pencil to paper" form. OR and this is how I would like to do Summative assessments by projects or presentations. A student can SHOW OFF their knowledge by presenting a JogNog/ Kahoot/ Plickers quiz for the class, or using Prezi/ PowerPoint a presentation.

Now..you maybe asking yourself why do I need to assess my students? I know I am teaching the material they need to understand and the rest of it is their job! WRONG!!

This is what happens when teachers do not use their assessment skills to see where their students are at.

Authentic assessment is the kind of assessment you should strive to use. When students need to apply multiple skill sets they will remember it longer. You learn by doing! 

   Giving tests/quizzes as assessment should be used as a gift NOT as a punishment. The student's will walk away with nothing if they feel like they are being punished.

Using assessments that are community friendly will make parent teacher conferences much easier. The parents will see exactly what you have asked for and the students had this knowledge prior to their summative assessment in a form of a rubric. 

Using a rubric will help students know what is expected of them!

                                                                                                                     

Pre-assessments--whats are those?!?

There are three things that we can (pre) assess

1. Readiness

    a. Skills

    b. Content knowledge

    c. Concepts

2. Interest

    -interest surveys, centers, self-selections (what do you like to do)

3. Learning Profile

    a. Area of strengths/ weaknesses

    b. Work performance

    c. Self awareness

Pre-assessing students..sounds helpful! 

My fellow adventurers that is where my journey took me today, and I am learning so much! 

I leave you with this: Comprehension is not the same as learning. Just because I can multiply 2 and 3 doesn't mean I understand why the answer is 6. What kind of students do you want to inspire?

Until next time