Types of Assessment
Assessment “AS” Learning
Assessment AS learning focuses on developing student’s ability to be their “own best assessors” (Ministry of Education, 2010) Assessment as learning takes place during or following a lesson. Assessment as learning is for the benefit of the students and helps students take responsibility for their learning. Examples of assessment as learning include peer and self-assessment and 3 stars and a wish.
Assessment as Learning Examples.
Finding and drawing patterns within the classroom
How the assessment was used:
1. To assess students ability to identify and record patterns that they observe.
2. To observe the student’s behaviour to determine if they are well behaved enough to look for patterns around the school.
Before the class began, I outlined the expectations informed students that we are working on patterns so that we will be experts by the time we complete our final project. During the class, I called a class meeting and showed the class examples of exemplars and models to have students think about their work and ways that they could improve it. During the meeting, we talked about what makes a pattern, the different types of patterns and their pattern structure. I challenged the students to find the most intricate patterns they could. The lesson acted as a diagnostic of patterning as well as classroom behaviour. Based on the students’ excellent behaviour within the classroom and their knowledge of patterns it was determined that students could find patterns throughout the school for their next lesson.
Why the assessment was used:
I chose this example because students were required to reflect on their knowledge of patterns in order to find patterns and complete their books. The booklets I created for the students had many pages allowing students to independently explore and search for patterns. Having many examples also made it easier to gauge students’ understanding.
What information did the student reflect on:
After the students finished illustrating their books several students were invited to the front of the classroom to share their books. Students reflected on the patterns found by their peers, The pattern core of their peer’s patterns as well as the number of different patterns that exist within the classroom.
What were the student’s next steps?
Using the information and experience they acquired to search for patterns throughout the school during a subsequent lesson.
Assessment “FOR” Learning
Assessment “FOR” learning is conducted for the teacher’s behalf. It occurs before learning in the case of diagnostic assessment. Examples of diagnostic assessment include looking at report cards from a previous term, interviews and pre-tests. Formative assessment “FOR” learning gauges students’ understanding during leaning and may happen multiple times within a lesson. Examples include student conferences, think-pair-share and the teacher’s observation notes.
Assessment “FOR” Learning Examples
Odd and Even Diagnostic
Failures are often the greatest learning experiences, which I why I decided to include my even and odd number diagnostic assessment. I set up a dice game where the grade 1 students would work in partners, they would roll dice, and one partner would say if it were an odd number while the other partner would report the odd dice rolls. During the introduction to the lesson, students raised their hands to show that they knew the difference between odd and even. In hindsight, I should have asked more diagnostic questions to better gauge understanding. During the activity, it was obvious that most of the students did not understand the difference between even and odd. The type of assessment I conducted was a diagnostic assessment in the form of an interview. Interviews were conducted with every student present, and I found that only two students could correctly identify odd vs even numbers as well as explain how they know. The chart above represents the result of the interviews.
Assessment “OF” Learning
Evaluation or assessment “of” learning generally takes place at the end of the learning process. Evaluation is a summative assessment. It is used in the classroom to assess a student’s work. During evaluation, work is graded against a learning standard or benchmark. The results may be shared with students, parents, teachers and others. It is important that the grading standard is both transparent and defensible as the graded results are often used in the generation of report card scores. Standardized testing is another example of evaluation.
Assessment “of” learning examples
Non-standard measurement
How the assessment was used:
To assess students ability to select an appropriate unit of measure.
Why the assessment was used:
The booklets I created for the students had many pages allowing them to independently explore and search for patterns. Having many examples also made it easier to gauge students’ understanding.
What information did the student reflect on:
After the students finished illustrating their books several students were invited to the front of the classroom to share their books. Students reflected on the patterns found by their peers, The pattern core of their peer’s patterns as well as the number of different patterns that exist within the classroom.
What were the student’s next steps?
Using the information and experience they acquired to search for patterns throughout the school during a subsequent lesson.
For the Non-standard measurement culminating task students traced their bodies onto cardboard with the help of their grade 6 partners. Without the assistance of their partners, the grade ones measured parts of their bodies using non-standard objects and created a chart showing their height, width and other attributes. The grade 1’s where also to include a legend correlating the unit of measure to the item used for measuring. The sample provided is an example of a 4 as it includes measurements with units as well as a legend. This particular student also included halves in their measurement a subject that we have not yet covered.
My Developing Philosophy of Assessment
My developing philosophy of assessment is that assessment is a central component within an effective learning environment. Assessment is deeply connected to curriculum and classroom management. Within my classroom, I envision assessment being used diagnostically to identify the classes’ overall level of knowledge and to assess the needs of individual learners. As a new teacher, I believe that ongoing assessment is an important tool not only to gauge student understanding but also to gauge my success as an instructor. Through assessment, I can track the effectiveness of the lessons that I am teaching and find ways to improve my instruction and increase student understanding.