Quote: Assessing has become synonym of who's a good test taker
Comment: In several classes I have noticed that I love explaining my classmates concepts and terms and I feel like overall I have good understanding of everything. However when it comes to taking a test about the same thing that I explained to my classmates, I tend to do just as good or a little less good than them. I've never been a good test taker (in US' assessment system) and that truly frustrates me and makes me feel like it is not even worth the try sometimes because anyway I will not get the grade I truly deserve. That is why I appreciate classes in which the participation and homeworks have a heavy weight on the overall average of the class.
Question: What would you do to assist your students to get the grade that they truly deserve?
I agree that assessment is a huge issue that we need to focus on in our classroom. There will be students who are highly intelligent but don't have test-taking skills. There will also be students who don't put forth very much effort but can somehow get by on the grades they earn on the tests. In order to be sure that our students are learning and getting the grades they deserve, I think a larger amount of informal, formative assessment should be used. Students should be casually assessed throughout the unit to check for understanding. Although Summative assessments are sometimes necessary, they shouldn't have more weight than the hard work the students have put forth throughout the year.
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