Informal versus Formal: An
idea for a formal assessment would be to give a quiz to students at the
beginning of a class to evaluate how much they understand or remember
information from the prior class session.
This may be especially ideal for a math class where it is crucial for
students to understand one set of information before they are able to move on
to more difficult tasks.
Paper-Pencil versus Performance: A paper-pencil assessment
would be useful at the end of a subject unit in class. I intend on teaching history, and so I would
want to give a written assessment with varying types of questions (i.e.
multiple choice, short answer) to my students in order to see how they
understood the information from the unit.
Traditional versus Authentic: An idea for an authentic
assessment would be to have students reflect on an event they participated
in, have them reflect on how that event can relate to their life and their
futures, then share their ideas with their classmates. For example, this could work well following a
field trip or “job shadow” assignment.
Standardized Tests versus Teacher-Developed: Standardized tests could be helpful to
use in preparation for state-wide end-of-the-year exams. State-wide testing looks at subjects like
language arts and math, so teachers of these topics could use standardized
tests to see where their students are in comparison to other students, and
could then see where they may need to give further instruction before the state
exams occur.
Criterion-referenced versus Norm-referenced: An example of a criterion-referenced
assessment could be for a chemistry teacher to test her students on the
Periodic Table of Elements, and they would lose points based on how many
elements they could not identify, etc.
Kayleigh, you make very good points about these assessment. Standardized tests - or, at least, tests that are delivered in a standardized manner, even if it's just the same test administered in every class in a grade level - are great preparation for TCAPs and other standardized assessment. Students do need coaching in how to do that. The only problem is that standardized tests are usually norm-referenced, not criterion referenced, so while you know how your students compare, you don't know where they are at in terms of what they do and don't know.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about your use of a quiz at the beginning of class as a formal assessment. Is this like a pretest?
Thank you for the feedback regarding standardized tests. There are so many different things to consider regarding those tests that it really is a lot to think about, and it seems far too easy to forget how one is different from another and how different tests can provide alternate information and results.
ReplyDeleteAs for my quiz scenario in the math situation I mentioned, this quiz could work in the following way (going along with our common reference to learning fractions):
On Monday, a teacher taught her class how to multiply fractions. The class is going to learn how to divide fractions on Tuesday, but the students must have a grasp on multiplying fractions before they can learn to divide them. To make sure the students understand multiplication, the teacher gives them a quiz at the beginning of class on Tuesday. The results of the quiz could then be used to determine if the teacher can move on to dividing, or if she needs to backtrack and review multiplication of fractions first. I hope this is a proper example of a formal assessment.
As a more personal example, I hope that when I become a teacher I have the opportunity to give my students a test, maybe on the first day of classes. This would not be a graded exam, but it would be similar to a final exam in that it is cumulative. I would use the results of this exam to see what the students do and do not know in regards to the information that will be covered in my class. With history or political science, I feel that there is room to cover some topics more than others, and if students are not as familiar with a subject, I would like to know that ahead of time so that I can really take the time to explain whatever that subject is in more depth. For example, students may know a good amount about World War II, but not World War I, therefore I would spend a little extra time on WWI information. Is this a good idea?
You're describing what we call a pretest - a test before covering a subject to see where your students are at. It would be totally appropriate to give a pretest the first week of class, but I would not recommend the first day because in high school, you have shorter periods and you will need to take that time going over your rules and procedures. But definitely during the first week - in fact, it's probably expected of you to do it :)
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