According to Tomlinson & McTighe (2006), three phases of the assessment continuum are pre-assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment. Effective teachers anticipate student differences, and plan units of study, using assessment, in a proactive, rather than reactive manner. The authors assert, pre-assessment should never be graded, since students have not been exposed to the unit of study, but should be used to guide instruction (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). Although there are many great forms of pre-assessment, I am currently most interested in student questionnaires. Commonly referred to as preference surveys, I love the idea of creating an assessment where I can easily incorporate the topic of study in a non-threatening manner.Research indicates, the objective of formative assessment, is to provide students with constructive feedback, in order to guide youngsters towards developing their knowledge further (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). Finally, when working with summative assessments, effective teachers are able to see how students' knowledge has developed from before the unit of study, to the end of the unit of study(Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). My questions for you are, do you believe assessments are important in the classroom? How do you use any of the aforementioned assessments? Or, how do you see yourself implementing assessment in the classroom?
It is important to mention, although assessments are intended on guiding instruction, and monitoring student practice, they are only effective when implemented accurately. Meaning, if I were to provide students with pre-assessment questionnaires, but did not accurately review responses for understanding and guidance on units of study, the pre-assessment was not implemented correctly. However, when implemented accurately, where a teacher takes the time to analyze and reflect on student responses teachers and students will reap the greatest rewards, in the form of exemplary learning.
In closing, I ask you to ponder this quote while connecting it to the marginalization of students: Work that is not sufficiently demanding provokes boredom and prompts youngsters to disengage from the learning process (National Research Council, 1999).
When assessments are implemented correctly, meaningful, appropriate lessons will be created for students. Therefore, marginalization of our students will be less likely to occur. Let's get assessment right. We owe it to our students to put in our greatest assessment and lesson planning efforts, so all learners have the opportunity to realize their fullest potential. Fight On!
