"Giving a paper-and-pencil test to the entire class rarely provides much useful information; teachers learn much more as they listen to individual children read, watch individual children write, and talk with individual children about their reading and writing."
This idea is an important one. As a teacher it is important to know what and why you are assessing. Understanding this purpose will guide your assessments. As this quote says, a paper-and-pencil test may not give the teacher a full view of how their students are doing. We have to approach assessment in a way that allows us to see the context of our students actions. Not only understanding what mistakes a student is making, but maybe also why, will help us help our students be more successful.
How can a teacher find ways to administer the examples of assessments in this quote (listening to children read, children write, and etc) when we have over 20 students in our classrooms?
Man, I love your quote! In so many tests, it makes me angry because I could show all this OTHER knowledge that I know, but this one little thing escapes me. I like explaining my thinking. I think if when we have to give these types of tests, we should allow our students to support or explain their answer. I always thought if we picked the second best answer on a multiple choice, we should receive some credit because we didn't pick the obviously wrong answer!
ReplyDeleteI do agree that these little formative assessments are much better for us as teachers, but you're right, how do we do it? Hope for a lot of parent volunteers so you can have more individual time with students. I also think that center time can give you some time where you can do this. But I don't know, this is a hard question!