Assessment

Assessing the Past

In my younger and more vulnerable years - specifically elementary and high school - I found assessment to be a subject that created a sense of foreboding. Whenever Report Card season crept up, an undeniable increase in anxiety seem to arise. As a high achiever and a confirmed perfectionist, Report Cards represented the totality of my need to be successful. Although I performed very well academically, I always managed to feel nervous about my grades. What if I got a B instead of an A? Did it mean I was losing my intelligence, slipping from my high standards in the previous grade?

I took the letters and numbers far too seriously, believing that they determined my value as a person. Looking back on my younger self, I realize that I allowed these assessments to establish a sense of personal worth for myself. As a pre-service teacher, I now know that assessment is not meant to be looked at as a rating or score that indicates whether a student is intelligent or not. Assessment is not a one way ticket to either success or failure, but rather a map indicating the best direction for a student to work towards.

Potter, Chris. (2012, November 27) Crossroads [digital image]. Retrieved from: www.ccpixs.com

With regards to elementary school classrooms, I believe that assessment is a useful tool for determining a student's strengths. It can also be used to illustrate areas in which students could use further instruction. I hope that when I am teaching and administering assessment to students, I will be able to convey this concept to my class. I do not want my students to believe the marks that I give them determine their value in the classroom. Instead, I would like for my students to look at their scores on report cards and see a map, enabling them to identify areas where they can keep up their good work, and areas where they can come to me for extra guidance. I also want them to know that it is their effort that defines who they are as students, not their letter grades or percentages. In my classroom, there will be no division between "smart" and "dumb" students. My students will recognize the worth of their peers' efforts, and learn to value their own undertakings as well.

Growing Success

Four weeks ago, if you had asked me about "Growing Success", I may have mistaken the book for a gardener's manual. Yet in the past few weeks I have become exceedingly familiar with the document, and its decidedly non-horticultural contents. 

Growing Success. (2010, January). "Growing Tree" [digital image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1t6pCt5

Growing Success immediately became recognizable as a crucial handbook for student teachers thanks to its handy breakdown of 7 key principles of teaching. 

The first principle, transparency, reminds me to assess and evaluate students in ways that are fair and equitable. Using standards outlined in the Ontario Curriculum expectations, I can assess student learning based on the Achievement Chart categories (Knowledge/Understanding, Thinking, Communication, and Application) and the four levels of performance standards (Levels 1-4). 

The second principle states that teachers must support all students. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to provide Accommodations and Modifications to students who are non-native English speakers, students with exceptionalities, students who identify as FNMI, etc.

Growing Success also highlights the need for teachers to use practices and procedures that are carefully planned to relate to Curriculum Expectations and Learning Goals. I have learned to value the art of "backwards design", so that I can ensure I am collecting evidence of learning that relates to goals identified by the Ontario Curriculum. 

Another principle outlined is the importance of using procedures and practices that are clearly communicated to parents. Growing Success emphasizes the notion of a collaborative learning relationship that extends beyond that of the student and teacher relationship to involve the parents as well. My aim is to ensure that parents are never shocked by the report cards that I send home. Both the student and their parents should have a clear sense of the student's progress in my classroom. This will help the student to know how to better reach their learning goals, and it increases the encouragement and support students receive from their families.

The practices and procedures that I use as a teacher must also be ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time, according to the fifth principle outlined in Growing Success. I need to offer a variety of assessment strategies which gather information from conversation, observation, and products, rather than just relying on scores from tests and quizzes. This will allow the data I gather to be more well-rounded because it allows students to demonstrate their learning in various ways.

I have also learned to provide ongoing descriptive feedback. Timely, clear, specific and meaningful feedback will allow me to illustrate to students how they can focus their efforts on improving. Learning is a conversation. My students will not be able to progress if I fail to communicate with them.

Finally, Growing Success has impacted my belief that teachers must use policies and procedures that develop students' self-assessment skills. Teachers may fall into the trap of believing that they are solely responsible for assessment in the classroom, but this seventh policy reminds me otherwise. Students must be able to access their own learning, set specific goals, and determine the next steps for their learning. If I provide effective assessment, my students will be able to self-monitor and learn with independence. As a teacher, I am not the source of the learning, but rather the facilitator. My students, following the gradual release of responsibility, will become self-assessors (this is known as "assessment as learning"). 

Speaking of assessment, Growing Success has enlightened me to the three forms of assessment that can take place within the classroom.

Assessment for Learning describes the process of gathering and examining evidence for use by students and their teachers in order to decide where the students are in their learning, where they need to go next, and what the best way to get there will be.

Assessment as Learning focuses on tasks or activities that allow students to use assess to further their own learning. It allows students to become self-aware, understand their own strengths and weaknesses in learning.

Assessment of Learning involves summative assessment; the measurement, recording or reporting on of a student's level of achievement in regards to specific learning expectations. 

Thanks to Growing Success, I am familiar with 7 Fundamental Principles that will guide my practice and help me lead my students toward a more successful learning. 

Curated Resources