InTASC Standard #6: Assessment
- The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s decision making.
Assessment is an important piece of the puzzle that is teaching. In high school especially, it seems to take a front seat to many other pieces because grades are what seem to matter most when considering the future. While this is true, I find that it’s not the tests that are the most important but the understanding that inevitably leads to good test scores. I constantly strive to let my students know where they stand in the grand scheme of the course. Therefore, I try to give them some sort of assessment each day.
The first of my two artifacts is my end of the day questionnaire. At the end of each class I like to challenge my students to see what they learned during the period. To do this, I ask several questions in different ways so that I can easily see what they understand and what topics need a little more work. In the artifact I show an example of a multiple choice type questionnaire where the students simply read the questions, were given a few seconds to think, and then I called on volunteers to answer the question for me. I think this is valuable formative assessment because not only does it allow me some insight on the students grasp of the content, but it lets the students see what kind of questions I like to ask and the specifics that I find to be the most crucial to learn.
The second artifact that deals with assessment is my end of the chapter review game day. At the end of each chapter my co-teacher uses one day to review the topics by playing a game to test each student’s knowledge. I took this idea and, with the help of some student input, tried to improve upon it. I created what is called a “Kahoot” quiz game where the students answer questions by using their cellular devices. The game logs each answer for the students and keeps a score by using correct answers and time it took to answer the question. I found this game to not only be very engaging for the students but extremely valuable assessment-wise. My artifact is the end of game spreadsheet that the website lets you download. It breaks down each students’ scores and gives me some important information I would otherwise not have access to. Assessment is a very important part of teaching and by using it correctly, student and teachers can better serve each other in the classroom.
These artifacts helped me grow as a teacher by showing me that the use of data after assessment is crucial in order to alter your classroom to better fit the needs of your students. This will in turn create a better learning environment for each student. Assessing and using the data is what separates a good teacher from a great teacher.
The first of my two artifacts is my end of the day questionnaire. At the end of each class I like to challenge my students to see what they learned during the period. To do this, I ask several questions in different ways so that I can easily see what they understand and what topics need a little more work. In the artifact I show an example of a multiple choice type questionnaire where the students simply read the questions, were given a few seconds to think, and then I called on volunteers to answer the question for me. I think this is valuable formative assessment because not only does it allow me some insight on the students grasp of the content, but it lets the students see what kind of questions I like to ask and the specifics that I find to be the most crucial to learn.
The second artifact that deals with assessment is my end of the chapter review game day. At the end of each chapter my co-teacher uses one day to review the topics by playing a game to test each student’s knowledge. I took this idea and, with the help of some student input, tried to improve upon it. I created what is called a “Kahoot” quiz game where the students answer questions by using their cellular devices. The game logs each answer for the students and keeps a score by using correct answers and time it took to answer the question. I found this game to not only be very engaging for the students but extremely valuable assessment-wise. My artifact is the end of game spreadsheet that the website lets you download. It breaks down each students’ scores and gives me some important information I would otherwise not have access to. Assessment is a very important part of teaching and by using it correctly, student and teachers can better serve each other in the classroom.
These artifacts helped me grow as a teacher by showing me that the use of data after assessment is crucial in order to alter your classroom to better fit the needs of your students. This will in turn create a better learning environment for each student. Assessing and using the data is what separates a good teacher from a great teacher.