In
eight the chapter talks a lot about different kinds of assessment. Such as:
Parent, Teacher, Peer, Ipsative, and real-world assessment. The chapter also
talks about how the world is going to have to change how we assess because of
how technology is changing.
One thing that really stuck out to
me was assessing without just testing. I was, and still am, someone who is
terrible at taking test. I get nervous and second-guess myself. Had I had a
different kind of assessment, say the teacher was to ask me the questions, or
my peers, or I was able to make a project, I would have done a lot better. The
teacher would also know that I knew the information even though I just bombed
the test. I thinking testing can be good on certain things, but when you put
all your value into it you cannot be getting a very good account of what is
going on. I know I am not the only one who stinks at taking tests.
Another area that stuck out to me
was the part about assessing parents’ progress. It talks about how you should
consider making a checklist for the parents. I send home a checklist of just
letting your child read to you twenty minutes a night so that we are able to
get them to the reading level they need to be on for second grade. I would say
fifty percent of my parents don’t read with their kids. I understand you may
not be able to read with them EVERY night, but you have to work with me if you
want your child to pass. I am not a miracle worker and can only do so much
during the day. I don’t think parents realize how important and influential
they are in their child’s life. It is really hard to motivate a first grader to
want to learn to read when their parent cannot read or read well.
I so agree on the parental involvement. When they complain that they are being asked to read to their children, or asked to have their children read to them- like it is an inconvenience. I just want to say, hello they are your children! Spend 20 minutes a night with them doing something personal wthout the tv on and without a cell phone stuck to your ear. The extra TLC may be all they need to be a better student. It has nothing to do with what homework we are sending home for students to do, it has to do with being there for your child and helping them grow. Unfortunately it is a bitter cycle since those parents are the ones that did not receive this type of time either, and these students probably will do the same things when they are parents.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It makes me so sad. I hate that it is a cycle.
ReplyDeleteThe type of assessment is one thing in education that most teachers do merely because it was done to them. I was a victim of this as well. I used to give my students a quiz or test and then move on to the next thing whether they got the material or not. I, however, quickly learned that most of the time to move on to the next skill I had to reteach the previous skill that they did not master. This is where I learned the value of student feedback on assessments. If a student sees where they messed up the first time then they are more apt to not make the same mistake again. If this is the case then why do we make our students take a standardized test that they see only one time and never see again? And then have the bright idea to measure the entire success of the school on those student test scores that they do not ever see again?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why we do standard tests? It sucks that they measure the success of the school on them. My mom was a teacher and she had a kid (me) who sucked at taking tests and I can guarantee my tests score hurt the school. It also stunk because I probably knew some of the answers but was so nervous during the test to get the right answer.
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