Lacey Hedrick

EDF 636
Module #1 /2 Achievement, Assessment & Instruction

1. Formative assessments are used to monitor student progress. It is an effective

way to know how well and what the students are learning. It allows for ample
opportunity for re-teaching to fill in those gaps. Formative assessments can
informal and quickly completed by the teacher, like raising hands, or be more
formal and take time like a review worksheet. However summative assessments
are used to assess the students retention levels and check for mastery of
content. This type of assessment is usually done at the end of a chapter or unit,
once the teacher has taught all the material. Most of the time summative
assessments are tests, but they can also be performance assessments like
projects. Most of the summative results are using for scoring and grading but can
help the teacher better understand what the students are retaining.
2. I believe paper and pencil test is no better than a computerized test as long as
the students can use the program, type, and the computer does not hinder their
testing ability in any way. However when our school switched from pencil/paper
testing to computerized testing I found that a significant amount of students were
hinder and have an extreme amount of difficultly using the computer. I am not

sure what to make of the finial state, the assessment of actual performance. I
believe it is important to assess students on what they have learned and on what
they can reasonable achieve. I also believe there are several ways to assess
students and standardized tests are not always the best method. For example
my undergraduate college require us to have a portfolio to showcase our work
and prove we achieve the required standards to graduate. This is sometimes
more reflect of the students ability.