- Is there a connection between goals and assessments
- Is there a connection between instruction and assessment
- Various types of assessments - formal and informal
- How is progress communicated to students, families and others
Friday, March 19, 2010
Sess. 7, Topic 3
Write a reflection on your observations of Standard 5 in your classroom.
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ReplyDeleteIs there a connection between goals and assessments: I am concerned about his assessments because 90% of their grade is based on formal exams. I don’t think the tests really let him know what the students understand. Often tests only show which child can remember facts. His goals are based on what the SDUSD expects them to know on their benchmarks and what the state wants them to know on their CSTs. All of his lessons are driven by these major standardized tests.
ReplyDeleteIs there a connection between instruction and assessment: He uses the first 30 minutes of class to look in depth on the skills they’ll need to be successful on their standardized testing. He does math and reading comprehension warm-up activities. His word study lessons also tie into approximately 10 skills they need to master to be successful on their standardized tests.
Various types of assessments – formal and informal: He gives a 20-question assessment after each math chapter, but he does not give the unit assessments because the district skips around. I have only seen him formally test them on math each week and he gave one spelling test – I’ve been there for 6 weeks. He assesses the other subjects by merely walking around. He does not collect homework.
How is progress communicated to students, families and others: I’m not sure if the students know where they stand in regards to their grades. He often converses with parents in the morning, but I do not know specifically what they are discussing. This week we have parent teacher conferences and he is only conferencing with 3 students out of 34. I found that surprising.
My master teacher follows her teacher's editions in Math, Open Court, Social Studies religiously. The homework is directly linked to the pages they do in their workbooks in math and Open Court. The chapter tests and assessments are directly linked to the work that has been done the previous week. Instruction is directly involved with where we are in the chapters, and we look for other engaging ways to reinforce the learning such as games and sponge activities. For the most part, assessment is ongoing. While we are doing the guided reading and math, we are checking for understanding. Additionally, in formal assessment such as benchmarks we are checking where the students are making mistakes.Progress is communicated to parents by having graded homework sent home every day and formal progress reports. In addition, the parents can conference or informally talk or email the teacher daily. Communication is accessible as many parents drop off and pick up the children right in the classroom and chat with the teacher daily.
ReplyDeleteIs there a connection between goals and assessments: My head teacher is very up front about her learning goals. She states them at the beginning, reiterates them throughout the lesson and always concludes with restating them. She is constantly altering the assessments given to her so that they reflect what she has taught.
ReplyDeleteIs there are connection between instruction and assessment: She is aware of the EL's in her classroom and consistently alters her assessments to account for the language or she ensures that the language used in her assessments is covered during instruction so students are familiar with it. She is always looking at the benchmarks and CST released questions to guide her instruction and to serve as a model for her assessments. The group of third grade teachers at my school are constantly trying to find ways to take the skills and knowledge needed for the tests, like the benchmark and the CST, and find ways to teach them through meaningful experiences. They have started to do Daily Language Review and Math Routines in the morning to cover some of the skills and information needed not adequately covered through their curriculum.
Various types of assessments: The students have journals for every subject and their entires as well as sometimes questions that are answered in the journals serve as informal, progress monitoring type, assessments. She is constantly using partner talk and then 'dipping' in to do a quick on the spot assessment of student understanding and then she uses both the book and SDUSD curriculum assessments as cumulative assessments. She doesn't often assess for prior knowledge but perhaps she did more of that at the beginning of the year. She does not use art or presentations often to assess for understanding usually it is written responses or multiple choice.
How is progress communicated to students, families, and others: Student always grade their own work in a different color pen directly after taking the exam so that they can correct their mistakes and she can use the test to clarify concepts. Parents are usually required to sign any assessment that receives a basic or below basic score so that during parent conferences there will be no surprises as to where their child stands. Others receive the scores on a as needed basis. For instance, we are meeting with the principle tomorrow to plan interventions for our at-risk students and will taking various assessments as evidence of their performance.
There is a connection between goals and assessment in the class I’m student teaching in. My master teacher did a formal assessment at the beginning of the year or so and plans her instruction to meet her students need. She works with three small groups to constantly assess if they are understanding and mastering the standard or concept at work. I see my master’s instruction and goals planned and executed with her assessment. I don’t see much formal assessment since I’ve been in this classroom, but she is always informally assessing with her hands-on work with the students.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure how progress is communicated to families or the students. I’m not involved with email or notes sent home. I did sit in during conferences and saw the communication, which seemed consistent, between the teacher and families.
My master teacher compares the on-going assessments to the end-result goals throughout the week. She uses various tools to conduct informal assessments, including whole-class response on individual white boards, thumbs up/thumbs down for understanding concepts, individual student response, and collections of brief writing samples/rough drafts to check for proper application of new concepts. I’ve noticed many times when students are not “all on the same page” of learning and meeting the end-result goals, she will re-teach the lesson to the whole class or pull out a few students for a mini follow-up lesson. My master teacher will also collect math homework and check for understanding. If some struggled with their homework, they will work with her later in the day during workshop time. Parents will also receive a note stapled to their math sheet notifying them if their child is having a challenging time learning a new math concept or memorizing their multiplication tables. The parents need to sign the notice and return it the next day.
ReplyDeleteFriday is the typical formal assessment day (aka ”Test Day”). The class has Spelling, Vocabulary, Comprehension, weekly Bible verse and Latin tests in the morning. If a student receives anything lower than 75%, that student’s parents need to sign the test and return it the next day.
If students continue to struggle, the teacher notifies the parents via email or phone call. They may set up a parent-teacher conference if they see it as necessary for helping the student. Our school also offers after-school tutoring and homework club for those who need extra help.
Is there a connection between goals and assessments? There is a strong connection between goals and assessments. The formal assessments provided by the district are driven by the content standards. My teacher chooses to use both formal and informal assessments in her classroom. She also has adapted some of the formal assessments from the district to use for progress monitoring. My teacher pretty much has the California content standards memorized for her grade level and those standards are the basis for the assessments she uses.
ReplyDeleteIs there a connection between instruction and assessment? There is a strong connection between instruction and assessment. The teacher knows that instruction drives assessment and it is evident in the classroom. She uses assessments to determine what types of lessons and activities she will conduct during small instructional group time as well as whole group instruction. She studies the beginning of the year formal assessments to determine where her students are starting from so she can continue from there. The end of year assessments are shared with the first grade teachers so that they will know where their new students are at in terms of skills.
Various types of assessments – The teacher uses both formal and informal assessments in the classroom. She will use the formal assessments provided by the District at the beginning, middle, and end of the year. She does frequent informal progress monitoring assessments throughout the year such as journal and narrative writing. During math she will dictate word problems and have students use white boards so she can assess their learning. She will walk around and observe them then jot down notes (anecdotal records
How is progress communicated to students, families – She communicates through progress reports and she usually will spend a good amount of time making additional comments to share with the parents. She keeps portfolios and scrapbooks to share during parent conferences.
The connection between goals and assessment is critical in the classroom. The learning goals are validated by assessments. Assessments in my class are not always formal; I use other methods such as games, one-on-ones, etc. to check for understanding when at all possible. The link between instruction and assessment is that instruction is driven by assessment. Although one plans and executes what we think is the perfect lesson, it never fails, some kids need to hear the material more than once or in a different way. Progress is communicated to my students usually via a one-on-one progress report. Here I try to keep it positive and go over grades, attitudes and growth in areas of weakness. I also take this opportunity to give my students my vote of confidence regarding their behavior and efforts.
ReplyDeleteThere is a definite connection between goals and assessments in my assigned classroom. My mentor teacher is very clear about communicating the goals with her students at the beginning of the lesson and keeps reminding them of the goals throughout the duration of the lesson.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a definite connection between instruction and assessment. My mentor teacher has taught me to look through chapter tests to see what types of questions are asked so that I can spend more time focusing on that concept in class. The majority of assessing is done formally through tests. I believe the district requires that tests make up 75% of a student's grade and the rest comes from classwork or homework assignments. So far, I have not seen my mentor send progress reports home between report cards so parents can see how their child is doing. However, I know that the students who are failing or in danger of failing get reports sent home regularly along with lists of assignments that not turned in or have to be corrected.
This is a connection between goals and assessments as well as instruction and assessments in this classroom. My master teacher works to not waste any instructional time and focuses in on the skills her students need to acquire, not only to do well on standardized assessments but to succeed in building a strong base for acquiring future knowledge. The assessments used are a variety of formal and informal. There is constant monitoring taking place during whole group instruction through means such as lapboard activities and the monitoring is extended through individual completion of worksheets and whatnot. She then occasionally pulls a handful of students out when they don't appear to be getting the concept to do small group work. She uses this as a way to hone in on what the actual problem is and where the disconnect lies. Finally, the students take an assortment of formal assessments, mainly mandated by the district, primarily in the area of Language Arts. From these assessments progress is communicated to families generally on a week to week basis- again, just in the student's mastery of Language Arts. A little note is sent home every Thursday informing parents of the student's progress thus far and what they need to be working on with the student.
ReplyDelete