Assessment

The Assessment standard requires teachers to understand how to effectively use multiple methods of assessment to guide decision-making, monitor student progress, and engage students in self-reflection and self-monitoring. This standard is important because proper and valid assessment gives teachers invaluable insight into their students’ strengths, needs, and next steps.

Using a choice menu made assessment engaging and accessible to all students, regardless of ability level or learning style.

One way I demonstrate this standard in my pedagogy is by implementing multiple forms of assessment. For example, in my 3rd grade unit about poetry, students were given the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding in multiple ways. One of these ways was a project-based assessment that required students to create their own poetry book. It was based around a choice menu, which gave my students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of poetry in ways that best suited their ability level and their learning style.

Using SmartPals, I was able to assess and respond to my students’ understanding of vocabulary and previously taught content on a daily basis.

In field experience, I also heavily utilized formative assessment to guide my instructional decision-making and to cultivate a positive classroom environment where formative instruction is part of the daily routine. Using SmartPals, my 3rd grade students participated in a daily spiral review that supported their knowledge of the week’s vocabulary as well as content that had been covered in previous units. The SmartPals review gave students a low-stakes opportunity to practice and demonstrate the skills under review and monitor their own progress. It allowed me to easily assess students’ understanding of the concepts, and it allowed me to quickly and easily give them feedback.

Developing a pre-test allowed me to assess what my students knew about poetry, and it gave me data to evaluate my instructional effectiveness.

I also exemplify the standard by using assessment data to drive my instructional decision-making and evaluate my pedagogy. To evaluate how much my students understood about poetry, I designed a pre-test using PowerSchool. The pre-test would then be offered as a post-test after the unit so that I compare the results to evaluate my effectiveness as an educator. Because of school closures, the pre-test and post-test were not administered. However, I was able to utilize data from previous assessments to assess which reading skills needed further review during my unit.