Assessment Post 1

What I Want to Learn in Assessment 

            Assessment is such a huge part of teaching; thus, this course is very valuable and beneficial for my position as a Teacher Candidate. While assessment is not the be all and end all to becoming a successful teacher, it is a mandatory skill that upcoming teachers like myself must become comfortable and confident with. Currently, I am not very confident in the area of assessment – while I have assessed students and children in previous jobs and volunteer experiences, it has only ever been in an informal manner. Thus, I am excited to learn the professional ways in which teachers gather information about their students to properly and formally assess their learning and progression.

Evidence of student learning 

            

There are multiple areas outlined in the “Growing Success” document that interest me  – Students with Special Needs (Accommodations, Modifications and Alternative Programs), how to properly assess ELL students, as well as familiarizing and becoming confident in the policies, achievement chart and evaluation all seem very valuable in the teaching profession. While scanning this document, I was impressed with its transparency – the document states that “policies and procedures for assessment, evaluation, and reporting need to develop over time, as we learn more about how students learn,” (3) so, similar to our students, the document itself is constantly growing and evolving. Admitting that the document is only a starting point or framework to assessment, and needs to be considered in conjunction with the many factors that a student faces, was very refreshing to read. Similar to what the foundations of this document are, educators themselves must be “fair, equitable and transparent” (2) in the ways they assess and adapt these methods based on the individuality of each learner. I also appreciate that conversations and other less formal methods are now considered useful tools to assess a students’ abilities and progression – not all ways of assessment have to be structured and formal. I look forward to familiarizing myself with the document policies, as well as becoming confident in the ways I assess my students, especially using the KTCA method.

The knowledge expectations for the arts in grades 1-8 

            In my grade 7/8 placement, my Associate Teacher has been more than helpful in attempting to show me various forms of assessments – I have been introduced to the Ontario Writing Assessment (OWA), Benchmark Assessment System (BAS), and multiple projects and unit tests for various subjects. These opportunities have been very helpful as I have been able to visually see an example of assessment and clarify any questions or concerns that I have had. She also walked me through the KTCA form of assessment and had me read students’ OWA responses and grade them based on the KTCA examples for each grade. At first, this was very overwhelming, as I had no idea where the students stood academically, or how to properly grade them according to the expectations. After reading through examples and comparing grades, I eventually became comfortable with this task. However, because it is not my class and my students, I was still weary of overstepping boundaries with my marking; thus, I ensured that she had the final say in how I graded the students’ work. After this, she told me that I was “bang on” with my grading, and that I gauged a good understanding for where the students were at – this helped me feel more confident in my own abilities. Despite this, I still have a lot to learn about assessment and what is expected of me as a future educator, and I am looking forward to enhance my confidence and knowledge in this area.

Click this link to access my 8Y01 AER Strategy Form Planner

Thanks for reading! Check back in to see the progression of my assessment understanding and confidence.

 - Madeleine

References:

Teaching Tools. (2016). Assessment in inquiry based learning. Retrieved from https://teachingtools.ophea.net/supplements/inquiry-based-learning/assessment-inquiry-based-learning

Cox, Janelle. (2017). Classroom management methods to assess reading levels. Retrieved from http://www.teachhub.com/classroom-management-methods-assess-reading-levels

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2010). Growing success: assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools, first edition covering grades 1-12. Toronto, Canada: Queen's Printer