Ch. 12, Assessment

One thing, as mentioned in this chapter, that I feel I'm strong at is giving assessments that are "doable" for my students. I think I'm aware/keen on what they can and can't do. Yes, I challenge them and try to broaden their thinking, but I never assess beyond their capability. My school is good at this too. They encourage us to challenge and have high expectations but also to do everything in our power to help the students succeed. If our assessments are on track and target our students' capabilities, then they have every chance to be successful. I think both my school and myself are good at conferencing with our students to see what they believe is their best testing methods. We attempt to give them input and listen to what they tell us. Another strong point for me in the area of assessment is the fact that I'm good at developing PASS-like questions. I aim to get my kids to be familiar with the types of questions they will see on PASS in May, so that's what I include in my assessments throughout the year.

One thing I'm not so good at, that I could definitely improve, is monitoring my students with things like watching for mechanical skills. Although it seems so easy, some of them aren't exactly sure how to correctly bubble in answers or where to write them. I could be a better monitor when it's test or quiz time. Another thing I could improve on is the rigor of my assessments. ALthough I think I'm good at challenging them, I could always become better at stretching their minds on assessments. It's hard for me to knowhow to challenge and stretch without being too hard. I figure this is something I will continue to improve on as I teach. I can tell my assessments are written better now than just a few years ago.

One way I could improve as an assessor is by talking more to veteran teachers and seeing some of their assessments. I could ask for their advice on challenging without being too tough. There's one teacher in our building who has excellent PASS scores every year. I could talk with her and probably glean great assessment advice from her. Obviously she must develop some solid assessments to come out with such excellent PASS scores every year.