At the beginning of this class, I knew what assessment was, and how teachers used it, but I did not know how to actually apply it and use it in a classroom. Assessment is used by teachers to track students’ progress and check their level of understanding, whether that is through formative assessment or summative assessment. I also had prior knowledge that formative assessment was usually used in the form of worksheets, activities, and hands-on learning, whereas summative was usually used at the midpoint or the end of a unit to check what students have learned.
I was placed in a grade 1 classroom for my internship in the fall, and I had the privilege of going back into the same classroom this semester as well. I not only saw a huge change in the students, but myself as well. My internship experience in the fall was the first time I had been in a classroom. I went in there so nervous yet eager to see what teaching is really like. It was a really cool experience because my co-op teacher took a more play based approach to teaching, but with that being said, I did not get to experience the typical type of assessment. She mostly did formative assessment as the children were only in grade 1 and many of them can not write or spell. I knew this going into my 3 week block, so while designing my lesson plans, I made sure that most, if not all my assessments were going to be formative. My teaching partner and I wanted to try and approach a style of summative assessment, and we had the grade 1 students fill out a book called “My Body”. We had taught them about the lungs, heart, and brain and at the end of our 3 week block we got them to fill out their little booklet. The booklet showed them a picture of the lungs, heart, and brain and below the picture they had to write the function of each. We circled the classroom to ensure students were on the right track, but warned them before they started that this booklet had to be done on their own with no help from us. I think overall it went pretty good besides the students tended to want to copy off their neighbour and would stress over not spelling a word right.
From this experience I would love to explore more and see how summative assessment can be executed in a kindergarten or grade 1 classroom. I believe that it can be done, and I wish I had the opportunity during my placement to experiment and find out. A positive from all of this, is that I now feel very comfortable with formative assessment. I feel like it not only alleviates the stress from students, but it also makes assessment fun. During my internship I came up with fun and creative ways to assess the students like creating a life size model of their bodies and placing the organs where they belong, making a live demonstration of how our lungs work, and creating little brain hats. This gave them the opportunity to be creative and demonstrate their learning and understanding.
Overall what I have learned from this class and from my internship, is that there is so much you can do for assessment that goes beyond just giving students a test. Students learn in such different ways and just because something works for one students, does not mean it works for all. It is important to set goals with your students and meet with them to go over how they will achieve those goals. Not just having one meeting with them, but doing constant check ins to make sure they are doing good and receiving the support they need to succeed. Communication is also key, nothing will get done if there is no communication. Your students have to communicate with you so that you can ensure you are meeting their needs, and you have to communicate with them to set your expectations and standards in place.
My 5 big ideas:
- Every students learns differently, and it is great to include a large variety of assessments throughout your unit plan.
- Feedback is so important, and should be delivered in a positive way when it comes to students personal work.
- Make sure to communicate the purpose behind a lesson or assessment so students understand the expectations and why they are doing it.
- Make assessments authentic and relevant to what is being taught.
- Use validity, and ensure that your assessments cover what needs to be covered and what has been taught to students.