Chapter 5: Considering Evidence of Learning in Diverse Classrooms

In this chapter about assessment I learned three important principles to remember. The first is to take more than one measure of a student’s knowledge about a certain subject and if time does not allow for multiple assessments then vary the assessment format. The second principle is to match the format of the assessment to the goal you want to achieve. There are three types of knowledge, declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and dispositions and each can be measured by a different kind of assessment. So it makes sense to assess the students with the format that will most easily show the kind of knowledge you wanted them to know. The last principle is to know the purpose of assessing students. There are three types of assessment and they each serve a different purpose. Summative assessments are the end result, or the measurement of what the student learned, this is what goes on the report card. Diagnostic assessments or pre-assessments are given before the start of a unit to find out how much the students already know. Formative assessment or feed back are given throughout a unit to offer encouragement and to fix any problems or gaps in learning. This impacts me as a teacher because it offers a lot of advice about how to assess. One idea was to offer students choices of how they want to be assessed as long the rubric is generic enough to grade all the different choices the same. This will impact my students to help them learn better by me offering feedback that is clear, understandable, and timely.