I have attached the learning journey in assessment that I wrote fro EDUC 421 regarding my 4 week practicum (EDUC 490). I have attached it here:
Emily Hanson Assessment Learning Journey
Since this, I have had many more experiences regarding assessment for learning. In my EDUC 491 practicum, with the help of my wonderful coaching teacher, I feel like I have really grown in my assessment for learning. I was able to conduct one-on-one pre-assessments with students to see where each student was at prior to teaching a week of 10-frame lessons for Math. This allowed me to see where they were starting before the lesson and to measure their growth during the short week of 10-frame lessons. After this week had ended, I followed up with a summative assessment of their learning and it was so incredible to see each and every students growth. This assessment was also one-on-one with individual students and therefore allowed me to be quite thorough during the assessment. I created a chart with each students name in the rows, and divided it up with 10 columns (1 for each number). I would use Power of Ten 10-frame cards (out of order) and flip them asking the students to tell me “how much is this?”. For each number identified by the student I would either write “C” for counted, “S” for sight, “St” for strategies learned in class (I.e. counting on) or I would write a small blurb if it was something unique. When comparing the 2 assessments, it was so incredible to see how many students moved on from counting each box in the 10-frame to using different strategies in class by the summative assessment. I felt truly proud of each and every student in that moment and thought that the assessment I chose for this particular week worked very well for these individual students.
Of course, being able to perform one-on-one assessment with students every week is very time consuming and likely unachievable. However, I have found that making sure that I have sticky notes or a clipboard near by work very well to help me track/document new findings in student achievement (lets face it, we forget things quite quickly… or at least, I do!).
I am still learning and am no where near close to perfecting my own assessment strategies as a new teacher. However, I am very eager to continue learning and seeking out new ways to “perfect” my own practice.
Resources:
Transforming Assessment – BC’s New Curriculum
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/node/88
BC’s K-12 Assessment System – BC’s New Curriculum
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/assessment
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Assessment for Learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiu-jY-xaPg
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Assessment Strategies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcJdZGz6ifY
Dylan Wiliam – YouTube – Formative Assessment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdVe5O7KBE
Assessment: The Bridge Between Teaching and Learning – from Voices in the Middle, Volume 21, Number 2, December 2013
https://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/VM/0212-dec2013/VM0212Assessment.pdf