Assessment
InTASC Standard #6
The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher's and learner's decision making.
Introduction
In my classroom, I use a variety of assessments to monitor my students' learning and invest students in their own growth. Assessments also allow me to ensure I have responsive teaching that best supports each individual student. I use a combination of formative, summative, and application-based assessments to support, verify, and document learning. Formative assessments include Do Now, exit tickets, and weekly quizzes which provide data to analyze patterns and gaps in learning that guide instruction and provide meaningful feedback to all learners. Most influential are the Do Now activities which are designed to provide students with a structure that guides learners in examining their own thinking and learning as well as that of others. Summative assessments are opportunities where I can work collaboratively with other teachers, leaders, and content specialists to examine the test and data that helps best understand how to plan future instruction and ensure our assessments are standards-aligned in order to appropriately prepare our students for high-stakes testing. Finally, application-based assessments provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of ways. This type of practical learning is important to demonstrate the relevance of content for students. From these assessments, I am able to create a plan that supports all diverse learners.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my classroom is grounded on the use of multiple forms of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher's and learner's decision making. Each assessment is intentionally chosen to aid in my monitoring of student progress and my ability to use the data to inform my practice and guide my instructional decisions. Throughout this section, there is evidence of assessments collected and their corresponding action step. From the use of diagnostic and formative assessments each day with the Do Now and Exit Ticket, I am able to make response adjustments to planning that support student's learning. A large scope lens from summative assessments has created the opportunity to identify students strengths and weaknesses on standards. From these assessments, I alter my fluency work, homework, and reteach lessons so students are able to have another at-bat with the conceptual understanding necessary for high-stakes testing. In these sections, I have demonstrated my own best practices to invest students in their own growth and make my instruction responsive.