Assessing Learning
It is incredibly crucial that teachers continue to assess the amount of knowledge their students have learned. Without a firm awareness of what our students know, it is difficult to plan curriculum that will best serve to teach them new information. There are three main types of assessment that I focus on in the classroom: pre-assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment. Pre-assessments check what knowledge students possess before beginning a new unit or activity, formative assessments check to ensure that students are learning as they go, and summative assessments reflect on an activity or unit and check for total knowledge gained.
I use pre-assessments before beginning a new unit or activity as this is a helpful way for me to know exactly what prior knowledge students have on the topic already. It would be pointless to teach students something that they all already know, and it would be fruitless to teach students a new topic if they don’t have the necessary background or context to learn it. One example of a pre-assessment that I will frequently use is a K-W-L. This requires students to present any prior knowledge they have about a topic, and brainstorm questions about things they want to learn during this unit of study/on this topic/etc.. Afterward, they fill out what they learned. The hope is that the things they learned throughout the chapter/unit answer the questions they originally had. Another common pre-assessment that I will use is a survey on a topic. For example, when I started teaching world history, I had students fill out a geography survey so that I knew how much they collectively knew about geography.
Formative assessments are arguably the most important of the three. They ensure that students are learning new information as we go. This allows me to reflect on my instruction and potentially come back to anything the students might have missed. Without formative assessments, it would be easy to teach a whole unit only to find out that your students gained nothing from it. Common formative assessments that I use are: exit tickets, which require students to reflect on and answer the day’s essential question(s), note-checks, which ensure students are taking notes that are high quality and valuable, and a variety of activity handouts. I utilize each of these formative assessments to check that my students have achieved the day’s learning goals.
Finally, summative assessments are used at the end of a unit or activity, and reflect back on the sum of knowledge gained. Summative assessments are useful for checking if students understand the bigger picture, or maybe if students are able to answer a unit question. I typically use two types of summative assessments: projects and exams. Projects are typically better for checking if students achieved the skill goals of a unit. For example, when we practiced propaganda analysis during our WWI unit, I had students analyze propaganda. Exams are effective because they check if the students have achieved the academic content goals of the unit, through the use of a more direct question/answer method. I often give exams that are a mixture of multiple choice, matching, short answer, and essay responses.
In conclusion, assessing student learning is a crucial part of ensuring that teachers are doing their jobs well. A combination of pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments will give a teacher an in-depth picture of where their students are at with both content and skill goals.
I use pre-assessments before beginning a new unit or activity as this is a helpful way for me to know exactly what prior knowledge students have on the topic already. It would be pointless to teach students something that they all already know, and it would be fruitless to teach students a new topic if they don’t have the necessary background or context to learn it. One example of a pre-assessment that I will frequently use is a K-W-L. This requires students to present any prior knowledge they have about a topic, and brainstorm questions about things they want to learn during this unit of study/on this topic/etc.. Afterward, they fill out what they learned. The hope is that the things they learned throughout the chapter/unit answer the questions they originally had. Another common pre-assessment that I will use is a survey on a topic. For example, when I started teaching world history, I had students fill out a geography survey so that I knew how much they collectively knew about geography.
Formative assessments are arguably the most important of the three. They ensure that students are learning new information as we go. This allows me to reflect on my instruction and potentially come back to anything the students might have missed. Without formative assessments, it would be easy to teach a whole unit only to find out that your students gained nothing from it. Common formative assessments that I use are: exit tickets, which require students to reflect on and answer the day’s essential question(s), note-checks, which ensure students are taking notes that are high quality and valuable, and a variety of activity handouts. I utilize each of these formative assessments to check that my students have achieved the day’s learning goals.
Finally, summative assessments are used at the end of a unit or activity, and reflect back on the sum of knowledge gained. Summative assessments are useful for checking if students understand the bigger picture, or maybe if students are able to answer a unit question. I typically use two types of summative assessments: projects and exams. Projects are typically better for checking if students achieved the skill goals of a unit. For example, when we practiced propaganda analysis during our WWI unit, I had students analyze propaganda. Exams are effective because they check if the students have achieved the academic content goals of the unit, through the use of a more direct question/answer method. I often give exams that are a mixture of multiple choice, matching, short answer, and essay responses.
In conclusion, assessing student learning is a crucial part of ensuring that teachers are doing their jobs well. A combination of pre-assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments will give a teacher an in-depth picture of where their students are at with both content and skill goals.