How does this teacher manage assessment?
As a student, teachers always told me assessments were there to find out what we really know. Some teachers even explained that they used the results from our assessments to decide if they had taught the information thoroughly enough and if they need to revisit any topics. Even though I knew all of that, I often felt like assessments were a means to a grade. In Mrs. Shumway's class, assessments are given, however, even though spelling and math tests are scored, the students do not even consider grades for most assessments given in her class. They are motivated to do their best because they want to learn and prove they have learned. She handles them very well.
Assessment takes many different forms in her class. They take spelling or math tests that are labeled tests and the students understand that. She also gives assessments that are not so easily detectable. During lessons she will verbally quiz the class or play large or small group games to make sure the students understand what they should. She also gives individual, one-on-one tests on a regular basis, often with the help of parent volunteers. For example, last week the students were expected by that time in the year to have mastered a certain group of sight words. I called each student back individually and they read me a list of the sight words. I marked on a separate sheet of paper the ones they got right, the ones they missed, and the ones they got right but didn't know by sight. She uses these assessments to find out what her students really know and decide how to better help them understand. Assessments in her class take on more forms than just a written test, which is something I would like to implement in my classroom.
