The
articles for this week focused on two different kinds of assessment. There is
summative assessments and formative assessment. Summative assessments are
assessments of learning whereas formative assessments are for learning. Today,
we as a society focus too much on assessments of learning and not enough time
on assessments for learning. One key feature of the article Assessment Crisis: The Absence of Assessment
for Learning, is the fact that in most teacher preparation programs there
is not an emphasis on assessments for learning. I can attest to this fact and
feel ill-prepared to undertake the pressures of teaching to each individual
student through assessments.
I
feel as though I do not have the proper tools to judge work effectively in
order to make good decisions in my instructional approaches. I know that there
is a class on assessment here at UIC, but I did not have the space in my
schedule to take that class. If it were a requirement, I would obviously have
to take.
There
are many good reasons to teach for learning. By using formative assessments, we
can all have more success in the classroom. One reason for this is that it puts
students in control of their own learning if formative assessments are used
properly. In the article The Best Value
in Formative Assessment, it says that formative assessments support
learning in two ways:
1) “Teachers can adapt instruction on
the basis of evidence, making changes, and improvements that will yield immediate
benefits to students learning.”
2) “Students can use evidence of their current
progress to actively manage and adjust their own learning.”
In order to accomplish these things we
must understand how best to formatively assess our students, which we do not
learn that well, at least in my experience. The article also presents some
question that students must be able to answer from the assessment in order for
it to be for learning.
1) Where am I going?
2) Where am I now?
3) How can I close the gap?
I
also think that our society focuses too much on standardized tests instead of
testing for learning. I believe we should be balance in our approach to both types
of tests. We need to learn how to better assess for learning so that we can
better instruct our students and to teach students how to take more control of
their own learning.
My questions for you:
Do you believe that we as a society have
put enough emphasis on teaching for learning?
Do you feel prepared enough to use
formative assessments properly in your classroom? Why or Why not?
I feel as an educator we are given the tools for professional development,but not the proper tools to unlock the immense potential of assessment for learning. There needs to be a balance of assessment of learning and assessment for learning. To answer one of your questions, i feel that we as a society love the thought of assessment for learning but have not been given the proper tools to ultimately achieve the goal for assessment for learning.
ReplyDeleteHi Archie!
ReplyDeleteI really agree with Rosa's comment above. It is important that we have a BALANCE of each in the classroom and probably a little more of the assessment FOR learning. I also think that historically, our society has put a much bigger emphasis on assessing learning but today with so much new data school administrations are seeing the importance of assessing for learning and not just passing out grades.
Hi Archie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great post! As a society, we have most definitely not put enough emphasis on assessing for learning. The majority of assessments being administered on the state or federal level are summative assessments and, quite frankly, in my opinion the tests that have been developed to be a generalized "formative assessment" like the benchmark are just a waste of time. It is far more beneficial to the students and teacher to administer a formative assessment written by the teacher. This way, the teacher understands each question's learning objective and can provide immediate feedback to students.
Hey Archie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that formative assessments are a key for learning and that our society focues too much on standardized testing. Formative assessments allow us to check our students understanding and constantly evalutae ourselves as teachers. I believe standardized tests hinder our ability to connect with students and get to know their testing strengths and weaknesses.
Hi Archie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you concerning your statement that most likely, I as well am not yet at the desired level to judge work efficiently and to utilize the work as an assessment for learning effectively, I'm going to guess that we're not alone. Concerning your question about our societal pressures for assessments, from my own observations, society is only now starting to slowly get used to the idea of utilizing assessment for learning instead of learning. But this change is good as I can see many students reacting in a postive fashion to the change in assessments. As for utilizing formative assessments in my teaching, I believe that as with everyone else, I'm going to need to have some time to experiment and to better get to know how I can successfully utilize in my teaching.
Hey Archie,
ReplyDeleteI'm going to answer these great questions you raise!
1. Do you believe that we as a society have put enough emphasis on teaching for learning?
Absolutely not! I feel like students are a part of this machine that is only supposed to get us ready for college, to raise families, and to be monetary successful. I think too much is an emphasis about our futures instead of the kinds of human beings we want to be.
2. Do you feel prepared enough to use formative assessments properly in your classroom? Why or Why not?
I feel like I've only been asked to critique different types of assessment and not actually to write them. We know the types of assessments and have been assessed by them for grades in our classes, but I still feel that my questioning and assessing is inadequate for what I am expected to do. I know how to in theory, but haven't really applied enough of assessment to practice.
Good post!
Andrea