Assessment

In the Thinking like an Assessor article I read about the backwards design program and how it is important to make sure you have a specific reason for the assignment. With the case about the kindergarten teacher who had the students make a poster of 100 things for 100th day she did not make the children count in any column or row to show they can actually count 100 things. After reading this I am worried a little bit about making sure everything has an academic purpose. It sounds obvious but I am worried that something like this might slip through the cracks during my first year of teaching. Having students make a poster of 100 things seems like a great assessment until the question is asked of how do you know for sure that students can count to 100 and understand the concept of bundling and regrouping.

That is why I liked the three basic question section. I think these are great questions to ask yourself when you are coming up with tasks or assessments. I think these questions could be helpful when creating new curriculum. In the article it says it is “important to consider the general types of performances that are implied,” “What specific characteristics in student responses, products, or performances should we examine,” and “Does the proposed evidence enable us to infer a student’s knowledge, skill, or understanding?” All of these questions help narrow down exactly what you are looking for in assessment and how you are going to go about assessing these things. While I think I have a good idea of what I am looking for on assessment I think these are good questions to keep in mind when coming up with assessments. I will try to keep them in mind when I come up with a task in the future.