Karmen Wade – Blog Post: 6: January/February Chapter 7: Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

Karmen Wade – Blog Post: 6: January/February

Chapter 7: Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

I chose to read chapter 7 because of a particular word that really stood out to me. The word that stands out immediately to me is assessment. As a teacher, I feel that this has become the school year of assessments! Every week there is some type of assessment the children must do, whether it be writing, reading, or math on the computer. It is almost nonstop testing for our children in schools today! The second sentence of this chapter pretty much confirmed my thoughts and feelings regarding assessments. The following sentence stood out to me by stating that “Students are taking so many tests there’s scant time left for teaching!” I know that assessment is more than testing; it is an integral and ongoing part of teaching and learning. I also understand that students learn to read and write by doing lots of reading and writing and applying skills and strategies in reading and writing, not by doing exercises on isolated literacy skills.  I also know how to assess children. I am familiar with lots of different types of assessments, and I realize that assessments are sometimes required from district administrators. However after I administer “a required assessment” what do I do when the student has completed it? The real question is what do I and other teachers do with the information from the student assessment? I know that the majority of assessments are designed to identify students’ strengths and weakness. However, the next step of assessment lies on the teacher. As a teacher it is my responsibility to use the assessment as a useful tool to guide student instruction. I could not agree more with the following statement from the text; “Assessments should bring about benefits for children, or data should not be collected at all.” (Lorrie A. Shepard.) After reading that sentence I wanted to say Amen as loud as I could!  As a teacher I am guilty of administering assessments and then not always knowing what to do with all of the data that I acquire from the assessment. Basically, I need to make sure the assessment works for me and for my student. According to chapter 7, in order to be an effective teacher I need to ask myself some important questions before administering an assessment. Starting with: “Is this a valid and useful assessment?” If it does not help the student, identify with an area of my teaching, or include any standards, than why should I take time away from teaching to administer it? The correct answer is simple, I shouldn’t!  I feel that the truth lies in the following sentence from the text, “we have no time for cumbersome assessments that yield little useful information!” The overall goal and purpose of assessing a student is to monitor the students learning, identify strengths and weaknesses and then using that data to help that individual move ahead. Assessments are not just for documentation or for assigning grades, with that being said, I know that is also part of my responsibility as a teacher to administer assessments that regularly evaluate how students are doing.
I really enjoyed reading this chapter. I love how this chapter provided guidelines and ideas for how a teacher could make assessments and evaluations more incorporated into their daily routine! I found the guidelines and teacher friendly questions to be very beneficial! I also found the information on informal reading conferences to be a wonderful eye opener. I try to have individual reading conferences with my students each week. This portion of the chapter really helped me gain ideas on how I can combine assessments with my regular reading conferences each day! I am using “A framework for an informal reading conference as a guideline while I conduct my daily/weekly reading conferences with my students.” This chapter definitely helped me focus on the bigger picture of assessments and realize the true importance of documentation and accountability for students’ success.