Think of a lesson plan from your licensure area. Knowing that assessment is an integral part of teaching, explain at least four informal and formal assessments that you will use in your lesson plan to provide you with feedback and involve the students in assessing their own learning.
When I was in a Kindergarten classroom, we worked on adding and subtracting smaller numbers in one of the units of math. Throughout the combined lessons, I saw many ways of assessing. I liked the hands- on approach my mentor teacher took when teaching math. An example of formal assessment was the worksheets that the students would turn in at the end of each lesson. The lessons however did not just consist of the students filling out a worksheet. We were able to walk around and see the students manipulating cubes to show what they were adding or taking away, an example of informal assessment. My mentor also did a very good job of asking engaging questions to see where the students were. She allowed them opportunities to come up to the smart board to answer questions (they LOVED being able to use the pen), and we also made KWL charts to show what we knew and what we learned. Of course at the end of the units the children were to take tests with the teacher, and she then could record what they knew. Although, it was not until she felt that most of her students had a good grasp of the material that she tested them. I felt that it was overall a very good way of going about assessing these students, and they really learned the material.
On days when we would observe the students manipulating cubes and other materials, she would ask me if I could tell who was grasping the concepts and who was not. I found myself really being able to see who was catching on and who was having a harder time. We were able to see this just by observing and not handing them a test.
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/jwbates/Alternativeassessment.htm
I agree with many of the assessments that you talked about. I think that walking around is a great way to assess students with out them knowing we as teachers are assessing them. I think also writing on the board is a way for us to assess the students, but they are having fun what they are doing. I talked about math in my lesson as well. I think math lessons are a great way to use both informal and formal assessments.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the idea of just walking around and observing too. It's so important to just watch students work and see how confident they are in what they are doing. This gives us a great understanding of which students need help and which ones are grasping the concepts, just like you said you were able to see in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteStudents love manipulatives and smart boards! I'm so glad you shared these examples. Which of these would you apply to your classroom?
ReplyDelete