ski Christine CI 407 Cohort 4 Assessment Letter Rationale

8/2/2019 ski Christine CI 407 Cohort 4 Assessment Letter Rationale

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Christine Pawlowski

Janice SherbertCI 407

February 24, 2012

Assessment Letter Rationale

Assessment is something that happens in every classroom every day. Each time I teach a

lesson, I am informally assessing whether or not the students comprehend the material well

enough to move on to the next days lessons. Of course, in my classroom there will be both

informal and formal assessing, but I believe that assessment should drive instruction. Based off

of assessing the students, I should know what I need to teach or reteach the following day, whichmostly seems to be through informal assessment. However, aside from the standardized tests I

must administer, I want formal assessment to be as meaningful to the students as possible and

want to incorporate short answer and essays into my assessments whenever possible so students

can demonstrate their knowledge instead of playing a guessing game with answer choices.

Sadly, it seems that in our society, test scores are hyped up and emphasized more than

thorough content knowledge. However, the reason assessment is given is to evaluate whether ornot students are comprehending the material effectively and whether or not we are doing our jobs

as teachers to adequately prepare them for the next step. The process involved in assessing thestudents is teaching the skill, giving the students multiples modalities and opportunities topractice and use the skill, then assessing whether or not they are competent when it comes to

applying the skill. For example, if I were to teach multiplication, I would demonstrate the skill.

Then I would give the students multiple chances to use that knowledge, i.e. games, sheets,flashcards. Then I would assess their knowledge: multiplication time tests or oral tests to see if

they have been practicing.

Every time I get in front of a group of students, I informally assess them by asking them

questions in which they all respond; I take a few responses, or give them a short task to completeto see if they comprehended what I taught. It is incredibly important to informally assess studentsbecause it helps me know whether or not they are ready for me to move on to the next lesson or

if I need to review or explicitly reteach what they do not understand. Informal assessment drives

my instruction.

The state test used for third grade is the ISAT. The issues surrounding this test is that inthird grade, though it seems to be discouraged by almost every educator, teachers feel that they

must teach for this test. ISAT is a norm-referenced test (Borich), but students are not being

compared to their classmates, they are being compared to a norm set by the state or nation

agency. It does not really help teachers or students to determine what the students need to knowand where they need more practice. A better test for teachers to use would be a criterion-

referenced test (Borich) because it helps the teacher determine whether or not the students need

more instruction or an alternative instructional strategy. I wish there were only criterion-referenced testing in school. Teachers should be aware that ISAT is really nothing more than

stressful and that every teacher feels the ISAT time crunch and whether or not they have

adequately prepared their students for the multiple tasks the test requires them to demonstrate

thorough knowledge on. However, teachers should focus on the task, not their feelings about it

(Borich).


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As mentioned earlier, I will determine my students strengths mostly by informal

assessment. However, in math, social studies, and reading comprehension there will be formalassessment to see if the students are competent in our unit areas. All of these tests will be graded

by me and recorded in my grade book. Warm-up worksheets and extra practice will be graded,

but students will receive full credit if I can see they tried their hardest, even if they did not

answer every item correctly. However, no matter if I am assessing formally or informally,Brenda Weaver states, The most effective teaching is based on identifying performance

objectives, instructing according to these objectives, and then assessing these performance

objectives. Moreover, for any objectives not attained, intervention activities to re-teach theseobjectives are necessary (Weaver). Formal assessment will only be given when students have

had multiple opportunities to demonstrate and practice their newly learned skills.

Homework is especially important for success at this age because as a teacher I can see if

the students are paying attention during the day and able to apply what they learn in school at

home, where there is not a teacher to directly guide them through their work. There may beparental involvement, which is greatly encouraged, but I will still be able to tell if the students

work at home matches their work at school and assess their skills accordingly. For pretty big

homework assignments, I will require a parent or guardian signature that the child completed thetask, mostly on their own. Also to aid this, I will evaluate their work in school to see if it matches

how they are completing their homework. As Carol Gioia mentioned in her article, Why

Teachers Give Homework, the importance of giving homework is that there is not alwaysenough class time for a comprehensive review of all the material. Sometimes, students need to

do homework to prepare for the next days lesson when time does not allow for this. Studentsalso need to practice newly learned knowledge and the teacher can better judge what has been

comprehended by her or his teaching methods (Gioia, 2008). Third grade is the Gumby yearwhere students need to become responsible for their learning and transition into upper

elementary. This is the transitional year where students move from learning to read to reading to

learn. Homework will especially help perfect this skill.

Communication with parents will also be formal and informal. I plan on walking my

students out of the door every day and meeting their parents. I will have an open door policywhere parents can contact me whenever and feel free to come into the classroom and watch my

teaching if it will help them aid their child at home, and schedule a conference with me whenever

they need one. My phone number and email will be on every weekly newsletter so parents canalways contact me. However, there will be formal communication when the situation calls for it,

such as an incident report or a parent-teacher conference. I also plan on conducting weekly

conferences with the students during work periods to assess how they think they are doing andeither giving them supplemental material to extend their learning or supportive material to help

reinforce their learning, depending on their needs. I will work hard to make students feel as

though they can come talk to me whenever they need to about their classroom and academicconcerns.

An important aspect of student learning is self-directed learning. This requires someindependence of the student from the teacher in order to acquire higher-order thinking skills and

actively engaging the students in the learning process. Students construct their own

understanding and meaning to help them reason, problem solve, and think critically about the

content (Borich). I will facilitate the development of students self-directed learning by providing


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information on how and when to use mental strategies for learning, explicitly illustrate how to

use these strategies and think through real world problems, encourage my students to becomeactively involved in the subject matter by going beyond the information given, and gradually

shifting the responsibility of learning to my students through practice exercises, question and

answer dialogues, and/or engaging discussions with higher order thinking (Borich). Via these

mediums, students will be encouraged to become accurate assessors and evaluators of theirprogress. Assessment will have many forms in my classroom and always drive my instruction.

Some helpful websites and resources for Assessment (for parents, students, and teachers) are:

1. Borich, G.Effect Teaching Methods Research-based Practice. 7th. Boston: PearsonEducation, Inc., 2011.

2. Gioia, C. (2008, April 1). Why teachers give homework. Retrieved fromhttp://www.helium.com/items/966021-why-teachers-give-homework

3. Weaver, B. (n.d.). Formal versus informal assessments. Retrieved fromhttp://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessment

4. ISAT facts5. Illinois Interactive Report Card
http://www.helium.com/items/966021-why-teachers-give-homeworkhttp://www.helium.com/items/966021-why-teachers-give-homeworkhttp://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessmenthttp://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessmenthttp://www.sd103.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=449:isat-faq&catid=86:assessment&Itemid=144http://www.sd103.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=449:isat-faq&catid=86:assessment&Itemid=144http://iirc.niu.edu/Tests.aspx?isathttp://iirc.niu.edu/Tests.aspx?isathttp://iirc.niu.edu/Tests.aspx?isathttp://www.sd103.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=449:isat-faq&catid=86:assessment&Itemid=144http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/formal-versus-informal-assessmenthttp://www.helium.com/items/966021-why-teachers-give-homework

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