Understanding the value of assessments
Assessment is the process of determining
if a student has learned the material the teacher presented. The two primary forms of assessment are formative assessment
and summative assessment.
Formative assessment is the process
by which students reflect back to teachers what they have learned and then teachers reinforce that learning with additional
material. It gives teachers an opportunity to determine the depth of learning and whether material needs to be revisited.
Oral questioning, written quizzes and other forms of feedback are part of formative assessment. I created a trivia game
much like the TV game show Jeopardy that made review for a test about American history fun. The competitive nature of the
game engaged students and they did remarkably well.
Summative assessment is the snapshot
of student learning at a particular place in time. Generally, exams and papers are thought of as summative assessments. High
stakes testing is also summative since it does sum up where a student is in relation to his or her peers at a given time.
Both summative and formative assessment
has value in that it creates a way for students to let teachers know what they know. They also provide for a way for teachers
and students to be accountable to one another and their schools for the learning that happens in the classroom.
Assessing student learning using a variety of techniques
In the typical classroom, students
will take tests and quizzes for assessment purposes. Many classrooms make use of rubrics to prepare students to meet
project requirements and then use those rubrics to provide feedback. In the "Creating a New Nation" unit that I created for
my 7th grade social studies class, I decided that not only should I assess their projects, but they should assess each others'
projects as well. In addition, I have also asked students to complete a self-assessment rubric score card. Not
surprisingly, more than one student said they had never been asked to complete a self-assessment before. I believe that students
need to be asked to self-assess their own learning more often to encourage metacognition and also to give them an opportunity
to reflect on their own educational goals. It can only make them better students.
