Standard 7- Assessment

Assessment

The practitioner understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner. Assessment is a critical part of teaching and learning. It comes in many forms; formal or informal, short or long, but they are always used to determine student achievement, ability level, and can be used to gage students’ emotional and social wellbeing.  Assessments are also used to aid a teacher in decision making when planning for small and whole group instruction.

In my Kindergarten placement I used informal assessments during Reading Mastery. I would listen as students responded to the prompting as a group and identify the students that were doing well or were struggling. When I identified a student or students that were not saying the word or sound correctly I would respond to the whole group with the correct pronunciation. I would then prompt again listening for the student(s) that struggled the first time. If they responded correctly then I would move on, but circle back to the sound or word later to check again. In cases where the student(s) continued to struggle each student would have a chance to repeat after me and then have a chance to say the word or sound independently. Another way I assessed understanding and ability to form sounds was to test students individually by pointing to a sound for them to say. I used this to check if students were able to correctly pronounce sounds from the beginning of the year and new sounds we were learning. It allowed me to go back in lessons if I felt students did not have a good grasp of the new sounds or if they needed a review on sounds learned earlier.

In my fourth grade placement I used rubrics to assess assignments in the Ecosystem unit I designed. The rubrics identified the key points that were included in the assigning of the work and helped me to see easily which students needed reinforcement on the topic. Each time on of the three assignments was graded I stapled a rubric to the completed work so I could show the student the work and we could discuss where disconnect occurred. The rubrics showed them a clear picture of their performance and gave them a basis to continue to grow and build based on the information. Students that received a grade lower than a 70 percent were allowed to redo the assignment, as part of district policy, for a better grade.  Because of this policy I discussed the grades and rubrics with each student that asked and those students were also allowed to redo the assignment after talking if the student felt compelled to do so. The conversations also gave me an opportunity to take anecdotal notes about how the students responded to the grading system and how they conversed with me. I listened to see if they used school language to speak about the assignment, if they made specific points, if they talked in circles, if they were defensive, or if they were questioning to gain further understanding. Making note of this allowed me to see how well the students could speak about the assignments and also if they had the skills to speak with teachers in formal setting. These two things also told me how well each student was progressing intellectually and socially.

Population and Community Illustration Grading Rubric

Teacher will use the following checklist to make sure that students’ illustrations of population and community include the following points. (12 Points Possible)

____ 1. A picture of a group of the SAME organisms is drawn.

____ 2. The picture of the group of the same organisms is labeled as a POPULATION.

____ 3. The picture of the population contains a correct explanation of why it is a population.

____ 4.  A picture of a collection of MULTIPLE populations is drawn.

____ 5. The picture of multiple populations is labeled as a COMMUNITY.

____ 6. The picture of the community contains a correct explanation of why it is a community.

Sciencesaurus T-Chart Rubric

Teacher will use this chart in conjunction with the student self-assessment. A completed self-assessment will be worth 4 points. The teacher evaluation will be worth 6 points.

____ 1. All nine main ideas are identified and in the right column.

____ 2. Each main idea is supported with at least 2 details.

____ 3. Student followed the directions and did not write on the back of the paper, but instead used a       separate sheet of paper, if needed.

Food Web Rubric

The following checklist will be used to ensure that all students’ illustrations of food webs include the following points.   A total of 18 points are possible.

____ 1. Energy Source identified (2 pts)

____ 2. Producers identified (2 pts)

____ 3. Consumers identified (2 pts)

____ 4. Decomposers identified (2 pts)

____ 5. Includes multiple producers and consumers (2 pts)

____ 6. Shows the connections between the different producers and consumers (2 pts)

____ 7. Shows the energy flow correctly between the organisms in the food web (2 pts)

____ 8. Explains the flow and transfer of energy in the food web (4 pts)

Assessing students in multiple ways gives the teacher a snapshot of how students are growing and progressing intellectually, socially, and physically. Assessments can be used exclusively by the teacher or they can be given to students to help them assess their own performance. Each assessment serves as a gauge for the teacher in determining when to go back and review, when to move forward, or when to supplement material.