Conversations about assessments and evalutions.....

Last semester, I took a course on assessments and evaluations. My biggest takeaways were the importance of:

• authentic assessments
• using assessments to drive instruction
• howing progress through portfolios and measuring knowledge using rubrics
  

Chapter 15 of the Routman book is an educator’s guide to starting discourse around aspects of the teacher’s position that can be frustrating, challenging, yet rewarding. The information in this chapter helped me to look at my previous takeaways more critically. For example, I asked myself, “How can I be a catalyst for change in my school, district, and the state?” Ultimately, I know this journey is going to be a difficult one, but I am confident that change can begin in my classroom.

This chapter has given me a foundation on how to assess myself as a teacher and how evaluate and assess how my students learn best. In addition, I learned how to accept, understand, and drive instruction and assessments in a way that will promote district, state, and federal standards. Honestly, conversations about assessment and standards were more like closed conversations…..it has always been something that teachers must do. This chapter helped me to understand why conversations about assessments, evaluations, and standards are the way they are….closed and not up for debate. I have learned that in order to change any issue in our society, we must first be willing to have a conversation about such issues.

Great Quotes from Chapter 15 titled, “Evaluation as Part of Teaching.”

• “Assessment comes from the Latin word assidere which means to sit beside someone” (557).
• “Assessments without evaluation is pointless” (558)
• “For assessment evaluation, we teachers (often with our students) need to analyze our observations and data and set new teaching directions” (560).
• “Assessments must promote learning, not just measure it” (559).
• “…Authentic [assessments]; that is, it connects to the learner’ experiences, interests, and strengths in a real context” (559).
• “I used to ask, ‘Why did you get a C?’ and my son would answer ‘I don’t know.’ Now he can talk about his own learning” (575).
• “Standards define and describe the knowledge we expect all students to learn and the skills at which they need to be proficient” (584).
• “The true measure of whether or not standards are any good is whether or not kids are leaning more” (585).
• “They [standards] don’t make sense to teachers, parents, or students”
• “One major problem [with regards to standards] is that instead of focusing on the knowledge and understanding that is most important in each discipline, there is an over focus on skills and facts in isolation” (586).
• “Doing well on a test cannot be equated with learning” (588)
• “We [teachers] don’t teach skills in isolation, but we use an assessment that asks kids to be proficient on skills exercises” (588).
• “Standardized test, if they are well constructed to assess what is truly worth knowing and understanding, can improve instruction and learning” (589)