Q: Describe at least 3 types of assessment practices that you as a student/learner have experienced throughout your own schooling and explain the benefits or limitations of each type of assessment.
A: As a student/learner I have experienced many forms of assessments throughout my life. One type of assessment practices that I am familiar with are pop quizzes. Although I am not fond of these, I have had many during my years of schooling. Teachers usually use these to quiz students about information that they have been learning about in class or reading on their own for homework. They then take the results and use them to see who has been paying attention, what information the students are grasping, and what still needs to be further discussed. The only limitation of these quizzes is that students do not know they are going to be given which creates a problem for the students who do not complete their homework or pay attention.
Another type of assessment that I have experienced are midterms/finals. I am not a great test taker so it goes without saying that I hate these forms of tests. The problems that I face with these assessments is that we are given a lot of information over the time period of a few months and are expected to go over and know all of that knowledge for one large test. Not only is this difficult, but most teachers don't even provide useful study guides so it puts a lot of stress onto students. From a teacher's perspective, I guess they feel that these tests are necessary to see and make sure that students are grasping the information that is being taught to them. The limitations of this form of assessment though is that a lot of students are not good at taking large tests and they are usually given during a designated week in which students have midterms/finals in their other classes as well. When this occurs, students are not able to focus on just one class and have to find themselves studying for more than one test which makes it harder to succeed on these assessments.
A third form of assessment is the SAT's. This type of test is taken while in high school and the results that you receive are very beneficial to your future, considering that colleges look at these scores when deciding if you should be admitted into their school or not. As mentioned previously, I am not a good test taker so placing me in a quiet room for 6 hours while I take different series of tests gets very boring and overwhelming. These tests are given to see how much information you have been able to retain throughout your many years of schooling. There are ways that students can study for these including SAT tutors and by buying SAT prep books or taking SAT prep courses. The only problem with these tests is that a lot of students, like myself are not good test takers so the results given do not often reflect a student's actual knowledge.
You've mostly discussed objective type tests, which, in many cases, require a student to memorize facts and spit them back on a test. As you've mentioned, many students get really frustrated with these forms of assessment. Today's employers want hirees who can "think on their feet," so we, as teachers, have the responsibility of teaching kids to actually apply what they've learned. So our assessments have to reflect some type of thinking. I'm not real familiar with the kindergarten curriculum, but I would imagine that open ended stories and questions, where the students have to reflect on the things you've presented to them might be a good way to accomplish that. Much of your assessment might be in the form of oral responses and projects. Projects are good, because kids have to actually apply the principles they have learned to something they create for themselves. That might work in kindergarten. Ask your mentor teacher.
I think that the most beneficial assessments are those that relate the questions to real world situations. I don't like when assessments just require the student to remember facts about a particular subject. I rather the students have to critical think about the subject and try and relate it to the real world. As a high school student I always did better in classes that made me critical think about a subject. The classes I did not do too good in were the ones where we just had to memorize facts and spit them back onto a piece of paper during the test. That is why I feel that assessments that have to do with real world events and critical thinking are the best ones to give students.
Q: Describe at least 3 types of assessment practices that you as a student/learner have experienced throughout your own schooling and explain the benefits or limitations of each type of assessment.
ReplyDeleteA: As a student/learner I have experienced many forms of assessments throughout my life. One type of assessment practices that I am familiar with are pop quizzes. Although I am not fond of these, I have had many during my years of schooling. Teachers usually use these to quiz students about information that they have been learning about in class or reading on their own for homework. They then take the results and use them to see who has been paying attention, what information the students are grasping, and what still needs to be further discussed. The only limitation of these quizzes is that students do not know they are going to be given which creates a problem for the students who do not complete their homework or pay attention.
Another type of assessment that I have experienced are midterms/finals. I am not a great test taker so it goes without saying that I hate these forms of tests. The problems that I face with these assessments is that we are given a lot of information over the time period of a few months and are expected to go over and know all of that knowledge for one large test. Not only is this difficult, but most teachers don't even provide useful study guides so it puts a lot of stress onto students. From a teacher's perspective, I guess they feel that these tests are necessary to see and make sure that students are grasping the information that is being taught to them. The limitations of this form of assessment though is that a lot of students are not good at taking large tests and they are usually given during a designated week in which students have midterms/finals in their other classes as well. When this occurs, students are not able to focus on just one class and have to find themselves studying for more than one test which makes it harder to succeed on these assessments.
A third form of assessment is the SAT's. This type of test is taken while in high school and the results that you receive are very beneficial to your future, considering that colleges look at these scores when deciding if you should be admitted into their school or not. As mentioned previously, I am not a good test taker so placing me in a quiet room for 6 hours while I take different series of tests gets very boring and overwhelming. These tests are given to see how much information you have been able to retain throughout your many years of schooling. There are ways that students can study for these including SAT tutors and by buying SAT prep books or taking SAT prep courses. The only problem with these tests is that a lot of students, like myself are not good test takers so the results given do not often reflect a student's actual knowledge.
What forms of assessments do you feel are most beneficial for students?
ReplyDeleteYou've mostly discussed objective type tests, which, in many cases, require a student to memorize facts and spit them back on a test. As you've mentioned, many students get really frustrated with these forms of assessment. Today's employers want hirees who can "think on their feet," so we, as teachers, have the responsibility of teaching kids to actually apply what they've learned. So our assessments have to reflect some type of thinking. I'm not real familiar with the kindergarten curriculum, but I would imagine that open ended stories and questions, where the students have to reflect on the things you've presented to them might be a good way to accomplish that. Much of your assessment might be in the form of oral responses and projects. Projects are good, because kids have to actually apply the principles they have learned to something they create for themselves. That might work in kindergarten. Ask your mentor teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most beneficial assessments are those that relate the questions to real world situations. I don't like when assessments just require the student to remember facts about a particular subject. I rather the students have to critical think about the subject and try and relate it to the real world. As a high school student I always did better in classes that made me critical think about a subject. The classes I did not do too good in were the ones where we just had to memorize facts and spit them back onto a piece of paper during the test. That is why I feel that assessments that have to do with real world events and critical thinking are the best ones to give students.
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