Assessment :(

In Chapter 7 of Daniels and Bizar's Teaching the Best Practice Way, it is stated that "standardized measurements are of little use in guiding student learning, they alter our expectations of individual kids, and they frequently lower the standard of teaching (p. 222).  While I understand that certain measurements are needed to ensure learning is taking place, it is my believe that there are other ways of assessing the learning that is taking place without the hum-drum memorization that goes into the standardized test of today.  We expect ALL students to meet certain criteria of proficiency when all kids are different and learn and apply knowledge in many different ways.  A "straight A" student may score poorly on certain standardized tests and are viewed as low performing in the eyes of the state. The reason behind the low scores could be one of many things: test anxiety, sickness, upset over home life, and just plan messed up). Individual students have many different learning styles, needs, and strengths yet standardized tests cater to just one of those learning styles.


Teachers are constantly chastised over poor student scores. These test scores are held over their heads and could be the difference between employment the next year or a pink slip.  School systems are constantly tell teachers "not to teach to the test" but many teachers are guilty of just that - teaching to the test. Is there really any other option?


In Daniels' and Bizar's Teaching The Best Practice Way, the authors go over many types of assessment tools: portfolios, conferences, anecdotal records, checklists, performance assessment rubrics, and classroom tests.  As the upcoming school year begins in August, I hope to be able to use many of these types of assessments more often. I try to keep anecdotal records on my students but as the year progresses, I find it hard to keep these records accurate. Portfolios are also very interesting and I would love to try this with my students. 


In Schell and Fisher's Teaching Social Studies- A literacy-Based Approach, the authors present several different assessment strategies found listed in Figure 9.6 on p. 237.  These strategies provide teachers will ways of assessing their students while providing students with interesting ways to show what they have learned. I use many different graphic organizers throughout the year with my first graders in all of the subject areas. They LOVE them. I also enjoyed reading about the "Hot Seat" (p. 243) and Quickdraws (p. 246). While I have used Quickdraw with my second graders, I didn't use it this past year with my first graders. I hope to be able to include this strategies during the upcoming year as well as the "Hot Seat" strategy.


Throughout our integrated unit we are doing observations during the week and rubrics for certain tasks that the students have to complete. These observations are a good way to make sure that students are focused on their tasks and the rubrics provide clear guidelines for the students to follow.  The rubrics are being used so that students will have a clear picture on what aspects they will be graded on at the end of the task.