3d: Using Assessment in Instruction

Assessment of student learning plays an important new role in teaching: no longer signaling the end of instruction, it is now recognized to be an integral part of instruction. While assessment of learning has always been and will continue to be an important aspect of teaching (it’s important for teachers to know whether students have learned what teachers intend), assessment for learning has increasingly come to play an important role in classroom practice. And in order to assess student learning for the purposes of instruction, teachers must have a “finger on the pulse” of a lesson, monitoring student understanding and, where feedback is appropriate, offering it to students.

A teacher’s actions in monitoring student learning, while they may superficially look the same as those used in monitoring student behavior, have a fundamentally different purpose. When monitoring behavior, teachers are alert to students who may be passing notes or bothering their neighbors; when monitoring student learning, teachers look carefully at what students are writing, or listen carefully to the questions students ask, in order to gauge whether they require additional activity or explanation to grasp the content. In each case, the teacher may be circulating in the room, but his or her purpose in doing so is quite different in the two situations.

Similarly, on the surface, questions asked of students for the purpose of monitoring learning are fundamentally different from those used to build understanding; in the former, the questions seek to reveal students’ misconceptions, whereas in the latter, the questions are designed to explore relationships or deepen understanding. Indeed, for the purpose of monitoring, many teachers create questions specifically to elicit the extent of student understanding and use additional techniques (such as exit tickets) to determine the degree of understanding of every student in the class. Teachers at high levels of performance in this component, then, demonstrate the ability to encourage students and actually teach them the necessary skills of monitoring their own learning against clear standards.

But as important as monitoring student learning and providing feedback to students are, however, they are greatly strengthened by a teacher’s skill in making mid-course corrections when needed, seizing on a “teachable moment,” or enlisting students’ particular interests to enrich an explanation.

Danielson, C. 2013

Artifact 3d-1

In this lesson, I created an exit ticket that the students had to do before they could move on to something else. I told them that I wanted them to be accountable for their learning and made sure they were paying attention during the lesson. It taught me to recognize who was listening and also to see who was listening but didn't seem to fully understand it. Having an assessment during the lesson or at the end helps the students to stay focused and have them more in tune with their learning. This is something I hope to be good at with my future students.

Artifact 3d-2

This was a study I worked on with a group about a girl where we could assess her skills and see what she knew and what she doesn't. This was ways we analyzed her results and assessments. We came up with plans to figure out what we needed to do and how we could best help the kids. The assessments help us see what the students are learning based on our instruction. I have found while teaching, your mind during your lesson is all over the place. It has lots of things going on and the blank stares on the faces make you question if your students understand what you just said. Something that has helped me to analyze and asses during a lesson while teaching so you can either reexplain or fully understand.