Philosophy of Assessment

Assessments are an important part of classroom instruction and are useful in increasing learning. There are many different types. Each is used at different times, and each serves a different purpose. The main forms of assessment are formative and summative. Formative assessments, sometimes called progress-monitoring assessments, can be used throughout instruction to help gauge student understanding of the materials and decide when and if to adjust instruction. They allow a teacher to see what concepts the students are grasping and what they need to reteach. These assessments can come in many formats. For example, formative assessments can be as informal as monitoring student progress with a thumbs-up or thumbs down during instruction or as formal as a quiz. Ideally, this method of checking on student progress is utilized all throughout the day. Summative assessments are used at the end of a learning unit to measure how much the student actually learned. These should check to see if the learning standards have been achieved.

Some other types of assessments are entry-level assessments, peer assessments, and self-assessments. Entry-level assessments are those given prior to instruction. These are useful in determining the skills and knowledge the student already possesses. This type of assessment can provide understanding of an individual student’s strengths and weaknesses. They can also be used to compare with results from formative and summative assessments to see how much learning growth occurred. Peer assessments involved students evaluating one another’s work, usually based on a set of criteria, and providing feedback. Self-assessments are assessments that ask the students to individually reflect on their own performance. This type of assessment should, like peer-assessment, usually be based on some set of criteria. Both peer- and self-assessment work best when criteria for success have been explicitly shared with students and the teacher has modeled the feedback process. It is also helpful to use samples that demonstrate the success criteria.

My philosophy is that first and foremost, assessments support students because they guide the planning of instruction. Entry-level assessments provide the teacher with a starting point for instructional planning for both whole-group instruction as well as differentiated instruction. Formative assessments will alert the teacher to what kinds of connections the students are making through the instructional materials and activities. I feel that these kinds of assessments hold the teacher accountable. For example, if, based on formative assessments, I find that students have not grasped a concept that I have instructed, then I know that it is my responsibility to reteach that concept. Summative assessments hold the student accountable. Since these occur at the end of a learning unit, and if that learning has been monitored by a teacher who has adjusted instruction based on ongoing formative assessments, the summative assessment should be a reflection of the work of the individual student. Additionally, it is the teacher’s responsibility to make sure that criteria for success are well-defined and communicated to students.

The connection between assessments and the objective or standard being taught becomes incredibly important. Teachers are responsible for guiding instruction and checking for learning in their classrooms. Thus, they hold the responsibility of ensuring that an assessment they use is accurately measuring student achievement as it relates to the learning objective. For example, if an entire math lesson is working with three-digit numbers, the assessment should not suddenly only concentrate on two-digit numbers or, conversely, four-digit numbers. This will impact my lesson planning because to be effective in my classroom, I will need to remember that instructional content and assessments do not exist in a vacuum. I like the teaching framework Understanding by Design which encourages a backward approach to lesson planning. In this framework, the lesson planning begins by first identifying desired results, next determining how that can be effectively measured, and then planning the learning experience as the last step. I also feel it is important to use multiple means of assessment. Some students will thrive demonstrating learning through a performance task like an oral presentation. Others may do better demonstrating their understanding through a written report. Still, others may perform better with multiple choice. As such, these and many other assessment strategies should be used to play to students’ assets.

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Writing Rubric

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Self-Assessment Rubric