Assessing and Evaluating Student Learning

Assessing and evaluating is big part of the teachers job. Most students worry about assessment because it ends up being their grade. There are many forms of assessment and I think its best to use all of them. Students should take tests, write in journals, write essays, have discussions, etc.

The chapter from "Assessing and Evaluating Student Learning" looks down on testing. It talks about how testing is information driven and doesn't let students formulate their own responses. Testing should not be the main focus of assessment, yet it is still important for students to memorize some facts. Testing could be harmful when students ask "is that going to be on the test" and not care about anything else. Students should be able to know how to use the information and not just memorize it.

One of the sections I had a problem with was "Evaluating Classroom Discussions". Class discussions are really important, yet I don't like the criteria this section gives. Some students are shy and will not talk as much. As long as everyone is respectful and has some participation in a discussion then everyone should get all the points. There were some things I did like in this section. I found it interesting to assign students roles. I think it would work really good in small groups. Each student can have a different role so that everyone can participate and have different perspectives.

Feedback is really important and sometimes teachers don't have enough time to give each student feedback. Peer-conferences has students give each other feedback. At first it is important for the teacher to teach students how to give effective feedback. A lot of times students do learn best from each other because they can relate the most.  A students might have had the same problem his peer did, so he can explain how he overcame that problem. With this comes a lot of problems because students could easily get distracted and start talking about something off topic. The teacher needs to walk around the classroom and make sure everyone is doing what they are suppose to.

The reason why the teacher should use different types of assessment is because it gives students a chance to practice their strengths and weaknesses. Some students might do very well on tests while someone else might be really good at writing essays.