My current beliefs
regarding assessment in the elementary school classrooms are that they are much
more in-depth and advanced from when I attended school. I believe assessment is
extremely important and can be used in multiple ways. Assessment to me means more
than just testing a student based on their knowledge of the content through paper and pen testing. This is the type of assessment I can recall as a child, or having to read
for my teacher for him/her to see how well I am progressing. I believed this
type of assessment is not beneficial because testing does not always grasp a
student’s knowledge of the content. A student may be very intelligent but struggle
when it comes to testing, and I believe it is critical to incorporate other
types of assessments that can give a true representation of that student’s
understanding. I personally struggle when it comes to multiple choice testing, I would much rather prefer short answer testing, that way I am able to explain my thoughts. This is where multiple choice lacks, as it does not allow the student to explain themselves.
Assessment has expanded
and I hope continues to expand through the upcoming years to give students the
opportunity to reach their full potential to learn as they deserve. Some types of assessment that I find beneficial are participation marks throughout the class because if
the student is participating regularly it shows there is an effort in their
learning and they understand the concepts. If the student ends up scoring
poorly on another form of assessment you as a teacher can still see there is
some form of understanding during class participation that is not reflecting in
their marks. Discussion is a great way to see if students are on the right
track because if they are talking about something that is completely different
you as a teacher can direct them back to what they should be focusing on. This
is beneficial before other forms of assessment, making sure everyone has an
understanding and is on the same page before jumping into another lesson.
Another form of assessment
is through assignments, if students are able to complete assignments by
applying their knowledge they have learned and connect them to other concepts,
it shows they have a developed a deep understanding that they are capable of
transferring that knowledge and apply it to something else. Another form is
through observations. Along with discussion, seeing students interacting with
their peers, observing them during class work time or individual time can help
students share and gain new ideas. This can help build their knowledge
individually and expand their learning potential. Growing up I do not recall
completing a lot of group work or assignments, I think it is beneficial for
students to learn from one another as much as it is important for the students
to learn from the teacher and for the teacher to learn from their students.
In the younger grades such
as kindergarten to grade 2 students may not be aware of the different types of
assessments the teacher is using opposed to the higher grades such as grade 5
to grade 8 students are capable of understanding their own marks. Report cards
start to become more important in the highschool years where students need to
maintain certain grades to apply for college or university. I think students should be aware of the different forms of assessment in all grades as their learning is very important to us.
