Assessment

Reflecting on my Goal for Practicum 2

My initial goal in relation to assessment was to create and facilitate meaningful and authentic assessments for my students that support learning. Initially, I planned for my day-to-day pedagogy to include documentation of assessments. I was very successful in this goal. I kept very organized on Google Drive for my own documentation as well as on Google Classroom for students and parents to be a part of! When I was consistently creating meaningful and authentic assessments in my classroom and documenting them, I found that students were engaged in their learning and their journey of the learning. In other words, students were involved in creating academic goals for the future and monitoring those goals!

Based on this practicum experience, I want to challenge myself to keep on top of this assessment learning by guiding my practice through reflection. I will use the assessments to be reflective as a teacher and use them to inform my teaching practice. As well, I will use the assessments to allow students to be reflective on their learning journey!

Below, I have included a document that I used to keep track of students who were in need of support for specific learning opportunities. I kept track of each student. Green refers to students who have completed the work to the best of their abilities and their work has been marked/handed back to them. Yellow refers to students who have completed the work but may need support in order to ensure that they are reaching their full potential and engagement in each learning experience.

Assessment Documentation

Reflecting on my Goal for Practicum 1

My initial goal in relation to assessment is to "use varied and relevant assessments to identify learner needs and adjust instruction" (TQS 3c) during my practicum. My plan for achieving this goal was to collect as many relevant assessment tools throughout the fall semester courses I am participating in as well as through my practicum 1 placement and to put these assessment tools into action during my 5-week practicum placement to understand what tools I prefer and what will help me through the rest of my career. I will measure my goal at the end of the fall semester by seeing how many assessment tools I have collected. I believe that I achieved this goal as I have collected a few meaningful ways for collecting assessment data.

Based on this practicum experience, I want to challenge myself to find more tools for summative assessment and to implement them right away in my future practicum and teaching practice.

Throughout my practicum experience, I really enjoyed collecting formative assessment through "thumbs-up or thumbs-down" when asking students how they feel about the content or task at hand. I also really enjoyed using a "traffic light" assessment tool when assessing students and having students self or peer-assess. The picture below to the left is an assessment tool that was used by myself, my mentor teacher, and another fourth-grade teacher to encourage students to self-assess on their final project of the dinosaur unit. The photo below to the right is a common way that I would assess students' learning during math. Oftentimes, I would work with small groups of students during math using the whiteboard at the front of the room, but when collective assessment data, I was always circulating throughout the classroom and taking pictures of student learning and facilitating conversations where I ask students "what does this mean". (TQS 2a-f, 3a-c, 4a-h).

005 Setting Writing Goals_ Lesson 2 .pdf

007 Goal Setting_ Formative Assessment.pdf

EDUC 2375 Effective Assessment:

Assessment Dossier Assignment

As a part of the course titled "Effective Assessment", I created a unit plan for a grade 2 ELA class with many different and effective assessment tools. The assignment demonstrates how I can effectively "create multiple and varied assessment tools that align with outcomes (TQS 3c)" and "develop learner understanding of learning goals and achievement expectations to promote self-monitoring (TQS 3a, 3c)". As well, the assignment included a 2-week lesson plan, 5 detailed lesson plans, 4 formative assessments, and 1 summative assessment for the unit! To the left is an example of one of the detailed lesson plans & assessment details!

Assessment Dossier

"Kindness is my Superpower" Assessment Tool

During my second year of the Education Program, I took a class titled "Literacy and Language Development". As a part of the class' requirements, I was able to pick a children's book and create a lesson plan that would relate to a few of the general outcomes from the Alberta English Language Arts Program of Studies.

The assessment tool I created for the lesson is a checkpoint for student participation as well as an exit slip. I chose to use a checkpoint to best understand if the students found the knowledge and book interesting. The students were given a checkmark for participating, asking or answering questions, and completing the exit slip. The exit slip allowed me to turn this 25-35 minute lesson into an opportunity for students to brainstorm their own ideas on ways to be kind. Hopefully,this lesson would ensure student learning as well as offer them a chance to reflect on their personal behaviour in terms of kindness.

Developing an assessment tool for my lesson plan was a great way for me to practice doing so and improve my "understanding of learning goals and achievement expectations"(TQS 3c) and "[create] multiple and varied assessment tools that align with [program of studies] outcomes" (TQS 3a, 3c).

Assessment Tool

"Writer's Workshop: Hooks & Leads" Assessment Tool(s)

During the second year of my education degree, I was given the opportunity to develop a lesson plan for a writing workshop for grade 2 students. Along with the creation of the lesson plan, I was able to craft two assessment tools to coincide with the lesson.

Developing these assessment tools for my writer’s workshop lesson plan allowed me to “address learning outcomes outlined in the programs of study” while also learning to understand how “short, medium and long-range planning” takes place in an elementary classroom (TQS 3a). And related to assessment, I have learned to “accurately reflect the learner outcomes within the programs of study” in my own assessment tools (TQS 3c).

The recording form was created to allow for an easy glance at each student's long-term lesson engagement for the many writer's workshops that could possibly take place in an elementary classroom. The rubric was created to allow for an in-depth assessment to be easily identified during and after the lesson takes place. The rubric also identifies if a student is achieving an excellent, proficient, adequate, or limited understanding of the given material.

Recording Form

Rubric

Looking Back on Assessment from my Courses

During my first year, I was given the opportunity to take EDUC 1233 Professional Dimensions 2 and PHYL 1310 Teaching Games for Understanding. Each class had its own understanding of what assessment is and how is performed in particular environments. While taking both classes, I noted that they were incredibly interesting to compare. And so, as a part of my journal for EDUC 1233 Professional Dimensions 2, I created a journal entry particular to comparing these classes' understanding of assessment. Below I have linked the journal entry, please check it out to see my reflection.

Journal Entry on Assessment

During my fourth semester of the education program, I was participating in a course titled "Effective Assessment". Throughout the course, I developed a further understanding of what assessment is as well as the role assessment will have in my future classrooms. A key takeaway is the understanding that we, as teachers, want students to learn and assessment can play a role in how students learn. In my future practice, I want to feel educated and be able to comfortably identify my student's needs while assessing them and their learning. Doing so will allow me to become an effective teacher.

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