Chapter 15 Classroom Assessment Strategies

What:
I felt this chapter presented material that I will actually refer to as a teacher. The chapter discusses the many different ways to assess students, and what ways may be better than others in different settings or circumstances. Of coarse the two most obvious ways to assess are formal and informal. Formal being a planned assessment- such as a multiple choice test, and informal being less systematic and more spontaneous- such as walking around the room during group projects to make sure students are on task and understanding. Other assessment strategies discussed in the chapter are paper-pencil- any type of written response, performance- anything that is more real-world like and usually non-written, authentic- the ability to apply learning to real-world tasks, and traditional- assesses learning separate form real-world tasks. Many other assessment strategies are discussed in the chapter along with "Qualities of a Good Assessment." The qualities of an assessment are very important with alignment of the teacher's lesson plans, and the chapter lists what Prof. Cox calls RSVP- Reliability, Standardization, Validity, and Practicality. These characteristics are especially important in formalized assessment where it can be easy (without objective alignment) to create an unfair or unreasonable test/assessment.

So What:
Today's chapter is especially important for me, as a future teacher, in understanding why alignment is so critical when assessing students knowledge. I don't want to be the teacher that copies a test from a workbook and makes it 90% of the students grade without even reviewing what the test covers. Learning the different forms of assessment, and when/how to use them will be beneficial for my success as a teacher and beneficial for my student's learning and life success.

Now What:
I definitely see myself referring to this chapter in the future as I develop the skills necessary for planning a fair and reliable assessment. As an English teacher I know I will be able to be very creative with assessment, and I hope that I can adapt many different assessments to my classroom so that many different learning types can succeed in their own abilities.