Assessment for instruction is vital to effectively teaching reading to students. Richard Allington writes in What Really Matters in Response to Intervention that it is vital for students to have high-success reading, so they need to be reading text at the appropriate level. If assessments are not done on students then teachers do not know what level of books their students should be reading at. If students are reading text that is too hard then they are reading at a frustration level and they can’t make the gains that they need to make. Assessment of instruction is being a reflective teacher. As an effective teacher I need to be constantly evaluating what I do and how I spend my instruction time. Am I doing the things that will be most effective for meeting the needs of all of my students? Allington writes that students make the most advances when they spend more time actually reading books at their level, so I need to have my students spending more time reading and less time doing worksheets and busywork. Carol Lyons writes in Teaching Struggling Readers that every child has the potential to learn, but not all children learn in the same way. If my students are making advancement, then I need to change my instruction.
In an assessment of instruction the teacher is finding out what the students know after the instruction has taken place. In this setting the instruction is placed first with the assessment to follow. The assessment is based on the instruction. Within this idea the assessment is to foster learning through out the instructional procedures used by the teacher. In the area of assessment for instruction the assessment portion of the lesson is the focal point. The teacher will make the assessment up and then tailor the instructional section to what is on the assessment. This is how many school classrooms are ran today. The teachers are teaching to the test. The schools are so focused on what is on the ISAT that the students are missing some important concepts within their instruction. All of the teacher’s instruction is made to fit into the assessment. I believe that the teachers should follow the curriculum set for the school and then make up their assessments per topic. Also, there are many important topics, which are not covered on the ISAT in the schools. Students are missing these vitally important concepts because teachers are focusing on what some people think is important. Also, depending on the demographics of where the students are from the instructional objectives and material might be different. If we as teachers just teach to the test we might be keeping useful information from our students. I think that the instruction should be planned out before and then the assessment should follow.
Assessment for instruction the teacher is assessing how well they instructed the class. The teacher will be able to see if the students gained knowledge from the instruction or if the instruction needs to be altered. Assessment of instruciton is like the final test. During this you are assessing what the students have learned. You teach the material and then they are tested over that material. We should use Assessment for instruction to figure out where our students are and what they need to. learn. Assessment of instruction we need to use to see what our students have learned and how well we have taught our students. They both are important parts of instruction
I view assessment of instruction as a way for teachers to check themselves to see if the lessons help the students to gain new knowledge. The tests are administered after the students have been instructed and the teacher takes the students’ scores into consideration for future instruction on a particular lesson. For example if a teacher does various activities preparing students for a spelling test and at the end of the week the students are given the test. The teacher is going to use the results of the assessment to see if the instruction fit the students’ needs. Assessment for instruction is when a teacher administers a test before instruction to assist with figuring out what students may need to learn during the instruction. For example, a teacher will administer a pre-test of spelling words on Monday and use the results and place an emphasis on words that students misspelled during instruction. Assessment of instruction should when teachers are wanting to verify if their lessons worked for their particular group of children and assessment for instruction should be used when teachers are concerned about what their students must know before continuing with instruction.
Assessment of instruction is what teachers should constantly be doing; evaluating their lesson/instruction. In this procedure, teachers evaluate what should be changed after a particular lesson, as well as, what elements of the lesson should be kept the same; what worked and what didn't? This type of assessment includes formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment throughout a unit will allow the teacher to see if their instruction is working, if not it can and should be changed. Summative assessment is used at the end of a unit and the question of whether to keep, adapt, or toss a lesson can be answered.
Assessment for instruction is that that is administered to determine the type and level of instruction. Some of these assessments are what we often refer to as pretests. Pretests are administered to find out the present level of performance. This level is needed to know where to start and base the insuing instruction.
Both types of assessment are critical in becoming an effective teacher. As teachers, we must know where to begin our instruction. In addition, we must be able to make modifications to our instruction when necessary.
Assessments are typically used to develop instruction and evaluate progress of your students. Assessments of instruction are used to evaluate your students’ understanding of material previously taught to them. It is generally given at the end of a lesson or unit and it provides teachers with a concrete evaluation of overall student performance. It indicates concepts throughout the lesson students comprehended and also shows areas which they still struggle. Assessment of instruction should be used too because it evaluates student performance of a particular skill or concept, and shows areas in which students still need more instruction. On the other hand, assessment for instruction determines the level of understanding a student has before partaking in a lesson or unit. Jeanne R. Paratore views assessment as “consequential when what you learn from the assessment informs what you're going to teach.” I could not agree more. An assessment used for instruction is typically given at the beginning of a lesson and provides the teacher with clear concepts students are either familiar or having difficulty with. This type of assessment helps the teacher develop appropriate instruction most beneficial to students. Assessments for instruction should be used because it allows a more valuable approach to student learning. Teachers are able to address specific needs of their students prior to a lesson, as oppose to: drowning them with material they have already mastered or material that may be too difficult for them at that time. Both types of assessments provide teachers and educators with necessary information and are helpful in addressing needs of every student.
Assessment for instruction is assessment to find out what the students already know and where they are currently in their learning. Assessment for instruction should be used by teachers so that they can form their instruction around the students learning and where they are at in their learning so that the instruction can be as effective as possible. If a teacher did not assess for instruction then they would not have a starting point for where they need to begin their instruction based on what the student already knows. Assessment of instruction is assessment to find out if the student is learning from the instruction itself. Also assessment of instruction is to help find out if the instructional methods being used are successful. This method is used to help teachers be sure what they are using for instruction is effective and it also shows them what they need to do different in the future. Assessment of instruction and assessment for instruction should both be used to help a teacher be as effective as possible. Assessment for instruction should be used before to help find a starting point in instruction and assessment of instruction should be used to be sure the students are learning and the teaching methods are effective. Overall both of these types of assessment are important for teachers to use so that they can be as effective as possible.
Assessment is key in teaching reading. According to Peter Afflerbach, “A robust classroom assessment program continually provides detailed information about students’ current competencies and next steps: it informs our ongoing work in the zone of proximal development while richly describing student reading.” I completely agree with his comment and think that each type of assessment mentioned in this discussion are necessary for good reading instruction to take place. Assessment of instruction happens after the fact. A skill, a lesson, a story, etc. are taught, and an assessment is given in hopes to have a clearer picture of what the students learned. This type of assessment really does have a place in the classroom because you cannot possibly determine what each of your students have learned simply by observing them. These assessments do not always need to be a multiple choice test or a fill in the blank worksheet. For example, my first graders are writing book reports to show what they’ve learned from their chosen book rather than another basil “fill in the bubble” kind of test. I’ve provided them with a rubric so that they know what to include in their report and how to achieve a good synopsis of the book. Assessment of instruction is a way for students to show what they have learned. It is also a way for teachers to see what they need to re-teach or continue working with because the students may not have mastered it yet. Assessment for instruction takes place before the skill, lesson, story, etc. are taught. This type of assessment also plays an important part in the classroom because it helps determine what does and does not need to be taught to certain students. If a child has already mastered a skill, you wouldn’t want to spend as much time teaching that compared to something the child still struggles with. For example, I recently used a Words Their Way assessment on my small reading group. The purpose of the assessment was to see if they knew their short vowel sounds by spelling certain words like trick, drum, box, and so on. I found that all 7 of my students could correctly spell the short vowel sounds that they heard, but nearly all of them had trouble with the blends. They spelled drum like “jrum” and trick like “chrik.” Therefore, I nixed my plan to continue working on short vowel sounds with them and we worked on blends for the next week until they really started showing progress in sorting, spelling, and reading words with blends. Without assessing for instruction, I may not have noticed their strengths and weaknesses when it came to short vowel sounds and blends.
Assessment is vital when teaching students to read. Assessment allows us as teachers to see if curricular goals are being met. In the assessment of instruction, we are evaluating the instruction that we are providing to the students. It allows us to see if what we are teaching is working and see if students are learning from what we are teaching. The assessment for instruction is a way for teachers to gather prior knowledge, it can be in the form of a pretest or other type of assessment. It helps the teacher decide what area to focus on during instruction. This allows the teacher to not overload the students with information that they already know and focus on difficulties that they might be having. It is important for us to know what the students need help on and where to go with our instruction and we must also be able to assess after our instruction to see if the instruction has worked. If the instruction has been beneficial the assessment of instruction will reflect that and the goals will be being met.
I believe that assessment of instruction is similar to assessment of learning. Assessment of instruction consists of measuring what has been taught and the concepts and knowledge that the students gained from previous instruction. Assessment of instruction includes informal assessments such as comprehension checks, running records, and informal reading inventories. These forms of assessment are used to modify instruction according to the students’ performance and knowledge within a particular area. Assessment for instruction consists of assessing students prior to instruction and using this information to develop and guide instruction. I believe that this form of assessment is similar to assessment for learning. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I did not gain a great deal of knowledge about assessment for instruction. Most classes seemed to focus on assessing previous instruction to determine the effectiveness of what had been taught. As a first year teacher, this practice is something that I had to learn to do on my own. I believe that assessment for instruction is an integral part of the assessment process. It is essential to know the students’ strengths and weaknesses prior to instruction in order to guide instruction accordingly. Assessment of instruction and assessment for instruction are two differing approaches surrounding assessment. Although these approaches are somewhat different, both approaches play a vital role in providing students with the most beneficial and effective forms of instruction. R.J. Stiggins notes the difference between the two types of assessments by stating that “the crucial distinction is between assessment to determine the status of learning and assessment to promote greater learning.”
I believe that assessment for instruction is assessing the class before having taught anything to see what they know about the subject. This is like a pre-test. You give the students this assessment the first day of class and it will help you decided where and what instruction is necessary. Assessment of instruction in my opinion is when you teach the students a lesson or unit and then give them a test on this. This is assessing your instruction. You are checking to see how much they learned and if your instruction was working. I believe that assessment for instruction is the way things need to be done. In my opinion this is the more beneficial way to work your class. If all teachers would assess their class before they do any instruction you would get better picture of how well your lessons went and if your instruction is working.
I believe that assessment of instruction is when we assess our students after teaching to test their content knowledge of what was just taught. Assessment of instruction is also used to test instructional methods that are either successful or unsuccessful in the classroom, so that teachers can alter what needs to be altered or keep methods that seem to be working for the students. This gives teachers the opportunity to get a good idea of where their students are compared to where they need to be. Assessment for instruction is in my mind kind of like a pre-test. You are assessing the students to find out what they already know about a certain topic. This usually comes before a unit or chapter is started, allowing the teachers to see where they need to start teaching. Whether or not they can skip the basics that seem to already be known, or if they need to start from the beginning for the benefit of their students. I believe both types of assessment are critical for both teachers and students. They are a way to be monitoring progress which is beneficial so that teachers are not leaving anyone behind, but at the same time their are being able to alter their teaching strategies effectively.
Assessment of instruction is a way for an educator to look at what their expectations for the children are and how their instruction will get them to the next level. When it comes to reading I know the only way to turn painful readers to joyful readers is to motivate my students to read for fun. Author, Gillet mentions the importance of using motivational strategies with the children to encourage reading on their own. As an early childhood educator professional growth was stressed during my undergraduate coursework and I have wrote many reflections and journals on how I can turn a lesson around to better it for the children. This assessment of instruction has not stopped since the day I started at SIUC and will continue throughout my professional career.
I agree with Ellie that assessment for instruction is based upon pre-assessments. The pre assessment can guide your instruction to target your group of children. The pre-assessment tell the type and level of your students. How can you guide your students education when you do not know where they stand in the subject area?Both should be used throughout an educators professional career.
Traditionally teachers have operated under the former practice of assessment of instruction. In this practice, instructional material is presented in whatever method or approach, then students are evaluated as to their level of performance against a pre-determined (sometimes arbitrary) standard. Students are assigned a letter grade. Those with high grades are praised for their attention and intellect, while those with lower grades are assumed to have some kind of deficit for not acquiring the material in the first place. After letter grades are assigned the teacher moves on to new content. Those who can keep up academically do; those who fall behind are given remedial work if they’re lucky. More often they’re left to continually fail. Assessment for instruction operates under different goals. In this practice, material is presented using whatever method the teacher chooses and students are given an assessment of their level of mastery. Unlike the former, where results from the assessment play no part in determining the approach, or even the material itself, to be presented next; results in this practice dictate not only what material the teacher should present, but also how that material should be best presented to ensure students master the material. Throughout my observations I have seen numerous accounts of the former and very little of the latter. Teachers who I have observed seem to view assessment as an end to itself. “Jonny got a B on his math test. He’s 86% proficient. Good enough. Time to move on to the next chapter.” It seems as long as students aren’t failing their instruction is sufficient and students are learning. Teachers who rely exclusively on letter grades to document students’ “learning” may be missing key deficits in current performance (their own as well as that of their students) that may over time become serious challenges to overcome. Those who believe in assessment for instruction see these assessments as means to an end. That is, learning of a concept doesn’t come to a halt at the end of a chapter or unit. Rather assessments provide teachers with clear evidence on what concepts should be revisited, which ones students have mastered, and what methods work best for presenting these concepts. In short, assessment for instruction provides teachers, and students, a real-time diagnostic tool each can use for feedback and correction of current performance.
Assessment for instruction is vital to effectively teaching reading to students. Richard Allington writes in What Really Matters in Response to Intervention that it is vital for students to have high-success reading, so they need to be reading text at the appropriate level. If assessments are not done on students then teachers do not know what level of books their students should be reading at. If students are reading text that is too hard then they are reading at a frustration level and they can’t make the gains that they need to make.
ReplyDeleteAssessment of instruction is being a reflective teacher. As an effective teacher I need to be constantly evaluating what I do and how I spend my instruction time. Am I doing the things that will be most effective for meeting the needs of all of my students? Allington writes that students make the most advances when they spend more time actually reading books at their level, so I need to have my students spending more time reading and less time doing worksheets and busywork. Carol Lyons writes in Teaching Struggling Readers that every child has the potential to learn, but not all children learn in the same way. If my students are making advancement, then I need to change my instruction.
In an assessment of instruction the teacher is finding out what the students know after the instruction has taken place. In this setting the instruction is placed first with the assessment to follow. The assessment is based on the instruction. Within this idea the assessment is to foster learning through out the instructional procedures used by the teacher. In the area of assessment for instruction the assessment portion of the lesson is the focal point. The teacher will make the assessment up and then tailor the instructional section to what is on the assessment. This is how many school classrooms are ran today. The teachers are teaching to the test. The schools are so focused on what is on the ISAT that the students are missing some important concepts within their instruction. All of the teacher’s instruction is made to fit into the assessment.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the teachers should follow the curriculum set for the school and then make up their assessments per topic. Also, there are many important topics, which are not covered on the ISAT in the schools. Students are missing these vitally important concepts because teachers are focusing on what some people think is important. Also, depending on the demographics of where the students are from the instructional objectives and material might be different. If we as teachers just teach to the test we might be keeping useful information from our students. I think that the instruction should be planned out before and then the assessment should follow.
Assessment for instruction the teacher is assessing how well they instructed the class. The teacher will be able to see if the students gained knowledge from the instruction or if the instruction needs to be altered. Assessment of instruciton is like the final test. During this you are assessing what the students have learned. You teach the material and then they are tested over that material. We should use Assessment for instruction to figure out where our students are and what they need to. learn. Assessment of instruction we need to use to see what our students have learned and how well we have taught our students. They both are important parts of instruction
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI view assessment of instruction as a way for teachers to check themselves to see if the lessons help the students to gain new knowledge. The tests are administered after the students have been instructed and the teacher takes the students’ scores into consideration for future instruction on a particular lesson. For example if a teacher does various activities preparing students for a spelling test and at the end of the week the students are given the test. The teacher is going to use the results of the assessment to see if the instruction fit the students’ needs. Assessment for instruction is when a teacher administers a test before instruction to assist with figuring out what students may need to learn during the instruction. For example, a teacher will administer a pre-test of spelling words on Monday and use the results and place an emphasis on words that students misspelled during instruction. Assessment of instruction should when teachers are wanting to verify if their lessons worked for their particular group of children and assessment for instruction should be used when teachers are concerned about what their students must know before continuing with instruction.
ReplyDeleteAssessment of instruction is what teachers should constantly be doing; evaluating their lesson/instruction. In this procedure, teachers evaluate what should be changed after a particular lesson, as well as, what elements of the lesson should be kept the same; what worked and what didn't? This type of assessment includes formative and summative assessment. Formative assessment throughout a unit will allow the teacher to see if their instruction is working, if not it can and should be changed. Summative assessment is used at the end of a unit and the question of whether to keep, adapt, or toss a lesson can be answered.
ReplyDeleteAssessment for instruction is that that is administered to determine the type and level of instruction. Some of these assessments are what we often refer to as pretests. Pretests are administered to find out the present level of performance. This level is needed to know where to start and base the insuing instruction.
Both types of assessment are critical in becoming an effective teacher. As teachers, we must know where to begin our instruction. In addition, we must be able to make modifications to our instruction when necessary.
Assessments are typically used to develop instruction and evaluate progress of your students. Assessments of instruction are used to evaluate your students’ understanding of material previously taught to them. It is generally given at the end of a lesson or unit and it provides teachers with a concrete evaluation of overall student performance. It indicates concepts throughout the lesson students comprehended and also shows areas which they still struggle. Assessment of instruction should be used too because it evaluates student performance of a particular skill or concept, and shows areas in which students still need more instruction. On the other hand, assessment for instruction determines the level of understanding a student has before partaking in a lesson or unit. Jeanne R. Paratore views assessment as “consequential when what you learn from the assessment informs what you're going to teach.” I could not agree more. An assessment used for instruction is typically given at the beginning of a lesson and provides the teacher with clear concepts students are either familiar or having difficulty with. This type of assessment helps the teacher develop appropriate instruction most beneficial to students. Assessments for instruction should be used because it allows a more valuable approach to student learning. Teachers are able to address specific needs of their students prior to a lesson, as oppose to: drowning them with material they have already mastered or material that may be too difficult for them at that time. Both types of assessments provide teachers and educators with necessary information and are helpful in addressing needs of every student.
ReplyDeleteAssessment for instruction is assessment to find out what the students already know and where they are currently in their learning. Assessment for instruction should be used by teachers so that they can form their instruction around the students learning and where they are at in their learning so that the instruction can be as effective as possible. If a teacher did not assess for instruction then they would not have a starting point for where they need to begin their instruction based on what the student already knows.
ReplyDeleteAssessment of instruction is assessment to find out if the student is learning from the instruction itself. Also assessment of instruction is to help find out if the instructional methods being used are successful. This method is used to help teachers be sure what they are using for instruction is effective and it also shows them what they need to do different in the future.
Assessment of instruction and assessment for instruction should both be used to help a teacher be as effective as possible. Assessment for instruction should be used before to help find a starting point in instruction and assessment of instruction should be used to be sure the students are learning and the teaching methods are effective. Overall both of these types of assessment are important for teachers to use so that they can be as effective as possible.
Assessment is key in teaching reading. According to Peter Afflerbach, “A robust classroom assessment program continually provides detailed information about students’ current competencies and next steps: it informs our ongoing work in the zone of proximal development while richly describing student reading.” I completely agree with his comment and think that each type of assessment mentioned in this discussion are necessary for good reading instruction to take place.
ReplyDeleteAssessment of instruction happens after the fact. A skill, a lesson, a story, etc. are taught, and an assessment is given in hopes to have a clearer picture of what the students learned. This type of assessment really does have a place in the classroom because you cannot possibly determine what each of your students have learned simply by observing them. These assessments do not always need to be a multiple choice test or a fill in the blank worksheet. For example, my first graders are writing book reports to show what they’ve learned from their chosen book rather than another basil “fill in the bubble” kind of test. I’ve provided them with a rubric so that they know what to include in their report and how to achieve a good synopsis of the book. Assessment of instruction is a way for students to show what they have learned. It is also a way for teachers to see what they need to re-teach or continue working with because the students may not have mastered it yet.
Assessment for instruction takes place before the skill, lesson, story, etc. are taught. This type of assessment also plays an important part in the classroom because it helps determine what does and does not need to be taught to certain students. If a child has already mastered a skill, you wouldn’t want to spend as much time teaching that compared to something the child still struggles with. For example, I recently used a Words Their Way assessment on my small reading group. The purpose of the assessment was to see if they knew their short vowel sounds by spelling certain words like trick, drum, box, and so on. I found that all 7 of my students could correctly spell the short vowel sounds that they heard, but nearly all of them had trouble with the blends. They spelled drum like “jrum” and trick like “chrik.” Therefore, I nixed my plan to continue working on short vowel sounds with them and we worked on blends for the next week until they really started showing progress in sorting, spelling, and reading words with blends. Without assessing for instruction, I may not have noticed their strengths and weaknesses when it came to short vowel sounds and blends.
Assessment is vital when teaching students to read. Assessment allows us as teachers to see if curricular goals are being met. In the assessment of instruction, we are evaluating the instruction that we are providing to the students. It allows us to see if what we are teaching is working and see if students are learning from what we are teaching. The assessment for instruction is a way for teachers to gather prior knowledge, it can be in the form of a pretest or other type of assessment. It helps the teacher decide what area to focus on during instruction. This allows the teacher to not overload the students with information that they already know and focus on difficulties that they might be having. It is important for us to know what the students need help on and where to go with our instruction and we must also be able to assess after our instruction to see if the instruction has worked. If the instruction has been beneficial the assessment of instruction will reflect that and the goals will be being met.
ReplyDeleteI believe that assessment of instruction is similar to assessment of learning. Assessment of instruction consists of measuring what has been taught and the concepts and knowledge that the students gained from previous instruction. Assessment of instruction includes informal assessments such as comprehension checks, running records, and informal reading inventories. These forms of assessment are used to modify instruction according to the students’ performance and knowledge within a particular area.
ReplyDeleteAssessment for instruction consists of assessing students prior to instruction and using this information to develop and guide instruction. I believe that this form of assessment is similar to assessment for learning. Throughout my undergraduate studies, I did not gain a great deal of knowledge about assessment for instruction. Most classes seemed to focus on assessing previous instruction to determine the effectiveness of what had been taught. As a first year teacher, this practice is something that I had to learn to do on my own. I believe that assessment for instruction is an integral part of the assessment process. It is essential to know the students’ strengths and weaknesses prior to instruction in order to guide instruction accordingly.
Assessment of instruction and assessment for instruction are two differing approaches surrounding assessment. Although these approaches are somewhat different, both approaches play a vital role in providing students with the most beneficial and effective forms of instruction. R.J. Stiggins notes the difference between the two types of assessments by stating that “the crucial distinction is between assessment to determine the status of learning and assessment to promote greater learning.”
I believe that assessment for instruction is assessing the class before having taught anything to see what they know about the subject. This is like a pre-test. You give the students this assessment the first day of class and it will help you decided where and what instruction is necessary. Assessment of instruction in my opinion is when you teach the students a lesson or unit and then give them a test on this. This is assessing your instruction. You are checking to see how much they learned and if your instruction was working. I believe that assessment for instruction is the way things need to be done. In my opinion this is the more beneficial way to work your class. If all teachers would assess their class before they do any instruction you would get better picture of how well your lessons went and if your instruction is working.
ReplyDeleteI believe that assessment of instruction is when we assess our students after teaching to test their content knowledge of what was just taught. Assessment of instruction is also used to test instructional methods that are either successful or unsuccessful in the classroom, so that teachers can alter what needs to be altered or keep methods that seem to be working for the students. This gives teachers the opportunity to get a good idea of where their students are compared to where they need to be. Assessment for instruction is in my mind kind of like a pre-test. You are assessing the students to find out what they already know about a certain topic. This usually comes before a unit or chapter is started, allowing the teachers to see where they need to start teaching. Whether or not they can skip the basics that seem to already be known, or if they need to start from the beginning for the benefit of their students. I believe both types of assessment are critical for both teachers and students. They are a way to be monitoring progress which is beneficial so that teachers are not leaving anyone behind, but at the same time their are being able to alter their teaching strategies effectively.
ReplyDeleteAssessment of instruction is a way for an educator to look at what their expectations for the children are and how their instruction will get them to the next level. When it comes to reading I know the only way to turn painful readers to joyful readers is to motivate my students to read for fun. Author, Gillet mentions the importance of using motivational strategies with the children to encourage reading on their own. As an early childhood educator professional growth was stressed during my undergraduate coursework and I have wrote many reflections and journals on how I can turn a lesson around to better it for the children. This assessment of instruction has not stopped since the day I started at SIUC and will continue throughout my professional career.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ellie that assessment for instruction is based upon pre-assessments. The pre assessment can guide your instruction to target your group of children. The pre-assessment tell the type and level of your students. How can you guide your students education when you do not know where they stand in the subject area?Both should be used throughout an educators professional career.
Traditionally teachers have operated under the former practice of assessment of instruction. In this practice, instructional material is presented in whatever method or approach, then students are evaluated as to their level of performance against a pre-determined (sometimes arbitrary) standard. Students are assigned a letter grade. Those with high grades are praised for their attention and intellect, while those with lower grades are assumed to have some kind of deficit for not acquiring the material in the first place. After letter grades are assigned the teacher moves on to new content. Those who can keep up academically do; those who fall behind are given remedial work if they’re lucky. More often they’re left to continually fail.
ReplyDeleteAssessment for instruction operates under different goals. In this practice, material is presented using whatever method the teacher chooses and students are given an assessment of their level of mastery. Unlike the former, where results from the assessment play no part in determining the approach, or even the material itself, to be presented next; results in this practice dictate not only what material the teacher should present, but also how that material should be best presented to ensure students master the material.
Throughout my observations I have seen numerous accounts of the former and very little of the latter. Teachers who I have observed seem to view assessment as an end to itself. “Jonny got a B on his math test. He’s 86% proficient. Good enough. Time to move on to the next chapter.” It seems as long as students aren’t failing their instruction is sufficient and students are learning. Teachers who rely exclusively on letter grades to document students’ “learning” may be missing key deficits in current performance (their own as well as that of their students) that may over time become serious challenges to overcome.
Those who believe in assessment for instruction see these assessments as means to an end. That is, learning of a concept doesn’t come to a halt at the end of a chapter or unit. Rather assessments provide teachers with clear evidence on what concepts should be revisited, which ones students have mastered, and what methods work best for presenting these concepts. In short, assessment for instruction provides teachers, and students, a real-time diagnostic tool each can use for feedback and correction of current performance.