Standard 7 - Assessment – The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student 6 growth, and evaluating student outcomes. The teacher makes decisions driven by data about curricular and instructional effectiveness and adjusts practices to meet the needs of each student.
This assignment helped me to understand the importance of assessment. I created a test on a chapter in the text book and recorded and analyzed the scores of ten students. Viewing these scores helped me see what my students struggled with as a whole and individually. This helped me to assess my way of teaching and the way I wrote my test. As an educator, it is my responsibility to discover what my students are struggling with, and how I can help them to improve. Assessing scores will help me to learn what I need to adjust in my teaching strategies. As written in the Illinois teaching standards, "the competent teacher uses assessment results to determine student performance levels, identify learning targets, select appropriate research-based instructional strategies, and implement instruction to enhance learning outcomes; (7J)". This assignment helped me to use the test results to determine my students' understanding of the class material and what they need work on as individuals and as a group.
I completed this assessment project in my second student teaching placement. I taught my sixth grade ELA class a lesson on plot, and then assessed their understanding with a homework assignment. I documented the data and created visual tables to display the students' performance. The assessment results showed that the majority of the class reached 100% mastery and there were very few students who did not reach the objective. After organizing and analyzing the results to look for patterns, I chose three focus students to give them feedback on their results. I was required to discuss the results with one student with an IEP or 504. I recorded my feedback with these focus students as part of the assignment.
Standard 7 says that, "The competent teacher understands and uses appropriate formative and summative assessments for determining student needs, monitoring student progress, measuring student 6 growth, and evaluating student outcomes." I chose this assignment as an artifact because it aligns with the concepts of this standard. Assessments give teachers the opportunity to evaluate what students do well, and what they are struggling with. Without assessing student work, there would be no data to assist in creating future plans for students.
This assignment was a great opportunity to practice the assessment process. I really got to see the effectiveness of my teaching through this assessment. I also had the chance to practice giving students feedback and help them learn from their mistakes or progress.