My Assessment Experience

Introduction

Welcome to my blog on assessment evaluation and reporting. I am a teacher Candidate at Brock University and am currently enrolled in a course that explains the importance of assessment in the elementary school system. Over the semester in this course we will be learning the purpose of assessment as well as what the responsibilities that we take as teachers when assessing students. This blog will keep you updated on my reflection of the importance of assessment and the beliefs that I have based on my past experiences. The blog will also explain how this course impacts my belief in assessment.

Past Experience

            In elementary and high school assessment always created a sense of fear inside me. The evaluation of my work and the mark that I would be given caused me to be nervous about if the work that I had completed would be good enough. During elementary my experiences with assessment were not as bad as teachers seemed to have more connection with me as I was in their class for an extended period of time. This time in their class created a relationship where the teacher was more willing to provide feedback while assessing my work. The feedback that was given to me caused some of the fears of not being good enough to reside as they gave me a way to improve on my work. The fear of assessment was highly present in high school as the relationship was not created with teachers that you would only see once a day for a single class. The assessment that was given usually was just a percentage mark without any feedback on which I can improve on. My assessment experience was one in which I was fearful that I was not going to receive a good mark and have negative feedback from my teachers.

Current beliefs about assessment in elementary classrooms

            My current belief about assessment in elementary school classrooms is that it needs to be modified to take in account the work that students put in. In the current system students are assessed on the final project and not the work that they have done to get to this product. By only evaluating the product that is produced the work that they have done to get there is not considered if the answer is wrong. Assessment should include the work that is done so that students are able to get marks for the work that they put in to get to the final solution.

            I also believe that assessment should provide positive feedback that students are able to benefit from. Students that receive feedback on their work should be given the chance to put that feedback into action. By giving the students a chance to improve on the work they do by giving them an assignment that can use similar concepts will allow the students to improve on the feedback. Feedback should be an important part of the assessment process in elementary school. Giving feedback to students can be an example of what is expected of them in future assignments.

A look ahead

            Looking ahead to the rest of the semester I look forward to learning more about assessment. By learning about assessment I hope that I will be able to improve on aspects of assessment that I believe need to be changed. Learning about assessment evaluation and reporting will inform me as to what students need in order to enhance their education.