Activity 6.1 Discussion 2: Review of formative and summative assessment

I haven't tried much on line assessment, but the thing that I usually struggle with when talking about individual assessment is the time element. I don't get to see my students for a very long time (we average about 45 hours for the school year!) so I am often reticent about taking out several days of class time for individual assessments. If I could have the laptop cart and had some beneficial assessments, I could possible assess one class in a two day period. The problem often seems to be that there is a lot of concentration on the subjects for online assessments, but very little on fine art or performing arts. I did find some music assessments on Quia which I am excited to try out.

"Professionally" created assessments can be more or less valuable than the assessments I create depending upon what I need. Assessments have to be valuable to both the student and the teacher. Does the assessment actually assess the essential skills? Another consideration is that an engaging assessment method will most likely garner better results because student buy in is greater. Sometimes, to serve a purpose, a teacher may have to create an assessment with pieces from several different sources.

I like rubrics because they take the mystery out of grading for both the student and the teacher. Both parties know what the expectations are and there isn't any guesswork as to how a student gets his or her grade. Rubrics do need to be planned so that they are appropriate for the learning objective.

I believe that students should do self assessments. It gives a student the chance to reflect on his or her progress and accomplishments and also creates some ownership on the student's part. I think that students could be taught how to make their own assessment and would have valuable input if asked to give input into an assessment. Students would need some guidance on the process to begin with but could eventually make their own assessments.

Use of technology in the classroom is on our performance review in our district. I personally like this. It is an integral part of our young people's lives and we should be showing them the constructive ways in which technology can be used.


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