Assessment+Philosophy

The assessment of students is the most crucial and complex aspect of teaching. To be respectful and fair while assessing is a difficult task but necessary. I believe that while having a common marking plan, the levels of each and every student should be addressed within the assessment itself allowing for students to be fairy assessed on their knowledge base. **"evaluation drives instruction"** As a teacher, it is my responsibility to know the purpose of what I am teaching and have assessments that are built off of my instruction. To teach with no end in mind is not helpful to the students and will show in their assessments if the instructional and assessment topics do not coincide.
 * "Fair is not always equal"**

My favorite quote is that students “need opportunities to make mistakes as they learn and not be penalized for them.” I truly believe that this goes for traditional and modern methods of assessment and evaluation. Students need to feel safe while they are learning and know that one piece of assessment is not going to account for their overall grade in the subject.

Formative assessments are a critical piece of the assessment protocol and I have used various types of formative assessment such as checklists, mini-conferences, the thumbs up/thumbs down method, KWL charts, journals, exit questions, and self/peer evaluations. Summative assessments also serve a purpose in our evaluation practices. These are to be used to see if students have captured the outcome of the unit as a whole or whether there are gaps in their understanding. These types of assessments are good pieces of evidence for report cards.