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Features of formative assessment
Features of formative assessment
Features of formative assessment
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Features of formative assessment
Features of formative assessment
Features of formative assessment
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Recommended: Features of formative assessment
In Tovani’s Chapter 8, “What Do I Do with All These Sticky Notes?” Assessment That Drives Instruction, the focus is on assessment methods in the classroom. Tovani starts off by introducing a story about her students’ curiosity regarding tests, and she responds by explaining what she expects from her class. Moreover, the chapter explains an educator’s outlook on tests and how they are applied. Aside from the views, the process for selecting assessments is also mentioned.
By doing so, we can rely on assessments that allow students to practice and apply material in order to foster retention and mastery (Ravitch 261). Ravitch discusses Finland and how they completely reformed their educational system into a structure that has students take zero standardized tests until they reach the college application process, a method that was enacted to promote teacher accountability and place a stronger emphasis on the noncognitive aspects of individual development. A component of the basis for the argument, Ravitch states, is that while standardized testing may be effective when it is administered fairly, it often impairs students’ abilities to critically analyze information and leaves them practicing how to guess the “right answer.” Addressing this issue is a responsibility that falls on administrators and policymakers; they must be held accountable and required to make changes that best meet the constantly evolving needs of the students. In this case, completely modifying the concept of standardized testing is a necessity.
The current form of teacher accountability, is well known, but has little support. The system we have adapted to, judges our teachers and views them as simple minded. Tucker points out in the report, Fixing Our National Accountability Problems, that having standardized tests judging our teachers is not giving students a better education. Nocera uses Tucker’s quote: “There is no
Assessments are a teacher’s tool that builds a profile on student’s growth and are the “tell-tell” detectors that provide the with teacher information on a student who may need additional services in and beyond the
They might well master what they are supposed to learn, but that’s not education”(68). The standardized system evaluates the students' performance does actually evaluate what the student was able to learn which makes it as whole just a test that one needs to
From studying education, I have noticed how many school districts teach based upon what the students will be tested over. As a future educator, I feel as if a standardized test cannot determine what a student is capable of. The individuals creating the test often don’t realize that many students suffer from test anxiety, in fear of failing the test and what is more fearful is how the school districts pressure the teachers to stress to the students the importance of passing the test. Also, in this chapter Boaler describes assessment for learning as having three components clear communication about what students have learned, a way to help students understand where they are on their journey to mastery and where they still need to improve, and information on ways to get from where students are currently to where they need to be to meet success criteria. This chapter offered several strategies that will help students have a better grasp of where they are in the learning process and that will help them develop and maintain a growth mindset.
Smarter Balanced Assessment: Pro or Con? Smarter Balanced Assessment, who is it truly assessing, the teachers or the students? Smarter Balanced testing contributes to the teacher’s performance, but is it beneficial or does it have unintended consequences? Students are ultimately grading the teachers by taking these tests and they are not even aware of it. The disadvantages may outweigh the benefits for this topic, but teachers must look past the disadvantages and do what they were meant to do, teach.
In the experiments, there were three different categories. The first category was military and used certain experiments to make the army stronger. The second category was treatments for illnesses and injuries. The last category was medical experiments and Dr. Mengele was one of the worst doctors doing the tests (“Nazi Experiments”ushmm). Most of the disgusting experiments were mostly located in Auschwitz or Birkenau.
Meredith Broussard explains how standardized testing does not prove a child’s general knowledge nor creative in-depth thinking by stating, “Standardized tests are not based on general knowledge... they are based on specific knowledge contained in specific sets of books: the textbooks created by the test makers” (Broussard). Miner also states that standardized testing, “... leads to a dumbed-down curriculum that values rote memorization over in-depth thinking, exacerbates inequities for low-income students and students of color, and undermines true accountability among schools, parents, and community” (Miner). The assessment of a child should encourage a child to want to learn for the sake of learning. Alternative assessments could address a child’s development and learning process. These evaluations can determine why children are more likely to read behind grade level, instead of highlighting their inabilities.
There are also much better ways to test a student’s capability to learn; a 2006 Center on Education Policy conducted a study and found that a curriculum that follows state standards and uses the test data as feedback led to higher scores than those that prioritized test-taking skills. When teachers are more focused on teaching material rather than test strategies, their students benefit from it (“Do Standardized Tests Show an Accurate View of Students’ Abilities?”). Several alternative methods to state assessments for measuring a student’s academic success include comparing high school graduation rates and the number of dropouts, offering advanced placement courses, and looking at the percentage of the former students that are admitted to colleges. State assessments are more harmful than helpful to students; they are a large cause of test anxiety and a majority of teachers can never fully prepare their students. Although state assessments are an easy way to be able to see the growth of students, that does not mean that they are the best
Assessment: Describe some approaches to ELA assessment used in your classroom. Use specific examples. How do these align with assessment principles in chapter 5 and/or chapter 10? My introduction to assessment during this practicum took place during my first two sessions.
I agree with guiding principles of the Leadership Group, but I believe the cost is overbearing. Along with that, I believe the most beneficial and insightful assessment would be from a veteran educator, who has been in the field for numerous years and has lots of experience. In the article, it mentions the “potential bias in assessments,” which suggests the educators of the courses are biased towards wanting the candidate succeed. My outlook on this is that the educators of the candidate understand and know the candidate the best. Furthermore, the educators would know if the candidate would fail or succeed due to attitude and strive the candidate brought to the classroom along with knowing the candidate for multiple
Classroom assessment and grading practices have the potential not only to measure and report learning but also to promote it. Indeed, recent research has documented the benefits of regular use of diagnostic and formative assessments as feedback for learning (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam,
There needs to be perimeters to help the prevention of killing an animal that is endangered, threatened, or vulnerable or it is not the season to kill that species. The topic should be acknowledged and made known to people that live both near and far away from the animals that are endangered, vulnerable, or threatened. Poaching is an action that is harmful and endangering to the environment and there should be several ways to educate people about the effects of killing an animal, how the effects of killing an endangered, vulnerable, or threatened animal can have on the environment, and using the animal for anything besides the practical purpose of food, should be seen as cruel and not be permitted. A gigantic part of the problem of poaching, is that the poachers do not think or know of the consequences that the death of the animal has on the ecosystem.
I incorporate this learned experience daily and learn through each success and discovered area of improvement. Addressing my students needs using a variety of assessment tools has been a beneficial practice to help guide instruction. Students have different learning styles and their strengths and weaknesses are not always apparent using the same methods of assessment. Utilizing formative, standards(goal)-based, anecdotal, observational and benchmarks has driven my instructional programs. The combination of different assessments provides me with a multi-dynamic perspective of my students allowing me to better understand their strengths, weakness and academic needs.