The four categories of assessment that we have been learning about ultimately can capture basically all types of assessment that will be conducted in our future classrooms. I think it is very important to take into account what type of assessment is best fit for our learning targets, as we have been practicing this week.
Assessments seems to present pros and cons in general, so it is not surprising that both are present among the categories, as well. For example, a pro of selected response is that it is a great way to measure knowledge mastery, and it gives clear results in regard to right or wrong. It also has the capacity to cover a wide range of information regarding the knowledge topic. However, selected response, especially multiple choice, could be skewed due to the chance that students are guessing. Realistically, a student that does not know any of the material would not do well on a test by guessing, but some students may have a lucky day. Additionally, some students may know most of the test, but guess on a few answers. This does not mean they could verbally explain the material. This limits our understanding of how deep a student's knowledge truly runs. Extended written response carries many pros, in my opinion. Allowing students to expand on their reasoning, knowledge, and writing products is great, as it gives students a lot of room to express their ideas. This may be a con, though, for students who are not strong grammatically, or English language learners who do not have the skills to write in English as proficiently as their native English peers. An obvious pro to performance assessments is the display of skills, especially for students who are outgoing and perform well in front of their peers and teachers. Students who have performance anxiety, however, may do worse on an assignment due to pressure. On the other hand, I still feel like this could be a pro, as all students should gain the confidence to be able to present in front of others. If a classroom has a trustworthy learning community, students should have some tolerance of ambiguity with making mistakes. Personal communication presents pros to students who are, of course, great communicators. This is a great way to track where students are at, especially if they might struggle with an assessment like extended writing. By giving these students chances to explain and be prompted with questions, they may reveal more than meets the eye initially. A con of this assessment may be the lack of hard evidence a teacher can have. Notes must be taken in order to keep record.
As I begin my lesson, I believe that I will choose an extended written response for my assessment, as I am having third grade students employ dialogue into their personal narratives, which is a product target.
Overall, I think students should learn to be well-rounded by taking various forms of assessment. I also think that there are instances where students should have options of how they prefer to take a test. For example, on a book review project, maybe students could be given the choice to do a poster presentation, a speech, an essay, or host a classroom debate about the book topic.
On a side note, I love this Donut Stress About the Test activity for kids to build confidence!
Assessments seems to present pros and cons in general, so it is not surprising that both are present among the categories, as well. For example, a pro of selected response is that it is a great way to measure knowledge mastery, and it gives clear results in regard to right or wrong. It also has the capacity to cover a wide range of information regarding the knowledge topic. However, selected response, especially multiple choice, could be skewed due to the chance that students are guessing. Realistically, a student that does not know any of the material would not do well on a test by guessing, but some students may have a lucky day. Additionally, some students may know most of the test, but guess on a few answers. This does not mean they could verbally explain the material. This limits our understanding of how deep a student's knowledge truly runs. Extended written response carries many pros, in my opinion. Allowing students to expand on their reasoning, knowledge, and writing products is great, as it gives students a lot of room to express their ideas. This may be a con, though, for students who are not strong grammatically, or English language learners who do not have the skills to write in English as proficiently as their native English peers. An obvious pro to performance assessments is the display of skills, especially for students who are outgoing and perform well in front of their peers and teachers. Students who have performance anxiety, however, may do worse on an assignment due to pressure. On the other hand, I still feel like this could be a pro, as all students should gain the confidence to be able to present in front of others. If a classroom has a trustworthy learning community, students should have some tolerance of ambiguity with making mistakes. Personal communication presents pros to students who are, of course, great communicators. This is a great way to track where students are at, especially if they might struggle with an assessment like extended writing. By giving these students chances to explain and be prompted with questions, they may reveal more than meets the eye initially. A con of this assessment may be the lack of hard evidence a teacher can have. Notes must be taken in order to keep record.
As I begin my lesson, I believe that I will choose an extended written response for my assessment, as I am having third grade students employ dialogue into their personal narratives, which is a product target.
Overall, I think students should learn to be well-rounded by taking various forms of assessment. I also think that there are instances where students should have options of how they prefer to take a test. For example, on a book review project, maybe students could be given the choice to do a poster presentation, a speech, an essay, or host a classroom debate about the book topic.
On a side note, I love this Donut Stress About the Test activity for kids to build confidence!
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how in-depth you went in explaining your pros and cons, along with giving examples. Your assessment choice for your lesson sounds like the right choice. But as you said, our students need to be comfortable with all the assessment types. When our students are comfortable with all the assessment types, their level of stress will go down significantly. It is also vital for us to judge what the best assessment type would be for our lesson. I am not super confident with determining what I'm using to assess my students with and matching it up the assessment type. After talking with Dr. Torres about my learning target, I am using a story map, and I initially chose selected-response because the answers would be either correct or incorrect. Still, she told me I would say my assessment is the story map, and a story map is a form of performance assessment. So after that talk, I am not sure how to match both the final product with the assessment type. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Emily! I really like that you included that there should be times where students will have the options of how they prefer to take a test because that's a perfect way to help reduce some of the stress of test taking! I always liked when my teachers would switch it up and allowed us to do other assignments in place of testing because it allowed me to show my learning in other ways rather than just circling an answer. I'm someone who can feel a lot of pressure leading up to tests sometimes when I'm not as confident in my abilities in that subject, so it's nice to have an alternative to tests. Thanks for sharing!
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