Assessments

Assessments

1. Selected response and short answer 

Pros

-Great for assessing mastery of discrete elements of knowledge, such as important history facts, spelling words, and foreign language vocabulary.

-Can administer large numbers of questions per unit of testing time

-Can cover a lot of material relatively quickly.

-Easy to obtain a good sample of student knowledge 

Cons

-Limits to this format when assessing reasoning

-Cannot be used to assess the quality of products

2. Extended written response

Pros

-Assessing reasoning targets

-Assesses blocks of knowledge rather than pieces of information detached from one another. 

-Can get at a deeper level of knowledge than selected response assessments

Cons 

-Not as efficient as selected response assessments because responding to each of them takes long.

-The question has to be a novel

3. Performance assessment

Pros

-Can assess the attributes of the product itself

-Can observe and evaluate skills as they are being performed

Cons 

-Not a good choice for assessing knowledge targets

-Inefficient to assess all content knowledge 

-Can be thought of as impractical 

4. Personal communication

Pros

-Real-time sampling of students understanding during instruction

-Effective for students with special needs, ELL, or younger students, to gather accurate information.

-Strong match to reasoning targets

Cons

-Inefficient if a lot of knowledge is to be assessed

-The amount of time it takes and the record-keeping challenges it poses when assessing reasoning proficiency

-No precise reasoning behind why a program something or someone doesn't perform successfully

What role will assessment play in my lesson plan?

Assessment will play a large role in my lesson plans. I plan on using personal communication and performance assessments the most in my lesson plan because I feel like they fit the best in a P.E. classroom. I plan on using performance assessment to assess the skills and reasoning proficiency of my students when they are participating in my activities and lessons. I plan on using personal communication to connect with my students on a more personal level and also to help me become the best teacher I can be. My exit slips could having each students answer a question I ask them so that they can go or I can use it throughout the whole class period to ask specific questions. These will help me understand the thought process of my students because they can explain to me why they answered the way they did.

Reference: Stiggins, Rihard J. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right -- Using It Well. Assessment Training Institute, 2005.