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

Main Character and Setting Assessment: I am effective at using assessments in my instruction. I used this exit ticket to monitor student understanding of the main character and setting. This assessment helped me understand better what they got out of the lesson and what I could have taught better. They all had a solid grasp of what the main character was. Some of them struggled a little more with what the setting was. I also knew my kindergartners love drawing so I had them draw a picture of the main character and setting to enhance their learning. Time: 36:56-41:53

Artifact 3d-2

Plurals Assessment: In this exit ticket I had the students write either -es or -s to make a word plural. The assessment helped me understand what the students got out of the lesson and to gauge whether or not they needed an additional activity or explanation to grasp the required content. The students who did the exit ticket seemed to understand the concepts I taught. Two of my students did not complete the exit ticket. This may have been because they were struggling with attention or because they did not fully grasp the material. These assessments helped me more fully be able to understand where my students are at and how I could improve in guiding them in their learning.