Assessment

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.

Introduction

Multiple methods of assessment allow me to gain a deeper insight into how my students absorb what I am teaching, and how I can grow as an educator. The data collected during formative, summative, and diagnostic assessments is critical to my practice as an educator along with driving growth within my students. Students in my classroom are assessed daily, weekly, monthly, and even on a year long basis in order to be better equipped to meet their goals.

For my students assessments are not simply bubble sheet tests, they have a variety of forms to better reach the eclectic learners that I teach. My students are familiarized with goal setting, and together we use the data collected to adjust those goals, set future goals, and monitor progress along the way. The data collected through assessment is critical to my delivery as an educator. Meaning, if a lesson does not go over well with my students, I may need to revaluate either the contents of that lesson or the student practice that provided the data.

In this section I have broken down how I assess my students, monitor their progress after the assessments, and use the data we have acquired to reflect on my practices in addition to students doing their own reflections. Some of the topics mentioned include formative, summative, and diagnostic assessments along with specific examples of each that I have used in my classroom to guide instruction. Each of these assessment types provides critical data before, after, and during the time content is taught to help me monitor student growth as well as providing students with feedback about their growth and how to continue to progress in their mastery. Click below to view how I am consistently using data in my classroom to benefit my educational practices and the growth of my students.

Conclusion

I could not be an effective educator without using data to guide my decisions in the classroom for the benefit of myself and my students. Throughout my time in the classroom I have come to realize how to collect diagnostic, formative, and summative data and apply it to my teaching strategies. I have learned the importance of providing multiple forms of assessment to have a holistic understanding of my students learning and my role in their education. Analysis of this data has allowed me to better allocate my resources within the classroom in order to give my students the greatest learning experience possible.

Throughout this section I have shown how I engage my learners in their own growth to create excitement around monitoring their own progress in the classroom. The insight gained from the data collected is then used both instantly and over the long term to guide my decision making during lesson planning and reviewing strategies. By creating individual data trackers, goal setting responsibilities, a class data tracker, and various other methods of assessment I am able to design lessons that improve learning outcomes among all of my students.

Per the included artifacts, assessment in my room comes in multiple methods and is designed to produce measurable results. By providing multiple methods for my students to be assessed and monitor their progress I am able to establish and maintain high expectations for their performance each day and to encourage their involvement throughout the learning process. While I do appreciate the instant quantifiable data that is provided with multiple choice style assessments, to provide a more equitable experience for my students I am continuing to use less traditional methods to assess prior knowledge and current levels of mastery. Gradually my understanding of assessment has developed substantially over the last three years, and I am continuing to expand my resources for assessment as I grow in my teaching capabilities.