Assessments Used in Classroom 1

Field Experience 3: Assessments I Use in My Classroom

Araceli Garcia

Introduction to Special Education

EDU 222

Dr. Rosemarie Dugi

Assessments Used in Classroom 2

Abstract

Assessments in special education are important. Assessments are used to help create the

Individualized Education Plan (IEP) goals and benchmarks, to track progress of IEP goals, to

track academic performance in comparison to children without disabilities that are the same age

as the student, and to see their overall progress at the end of the unit, semester, and school year in

class. Some assessments I use in my classroom will be a mixture of online formative assessments

and written formative assessments for writing, spelling, reading, and math. I will use one-on-one

formative and summative assessments that I handwrite progress that I later input into the online

gradebook for spelling, reading, and math, small group formative and summative assessments

that are online for math, reading, and spelling. I will also use emotional and behavior

assessments where I collect data everyday to see progress with my students’ behavior,

performance assessments that indicate what my students’ have learned academically, socially,

and functionally, and portfolio-based assessments where I collect all academic, social,

behavioral, emotional work my students’ have completed throughout the year.

Keywords: Assessments, formative, summative, performance, portfolio-based, math,

reading, spelling, writing, social, emotional, behavioral, academic, functional.

Assessments Used in Classroom 3

Field Experience 3: Assessments I Use in My Classroom

In my special education classroom, I have a handful of students who each have a handful

of disabilities that impact their education. I have to keep track of their IEP goals, their academic

performance compared to students their age without disabilities, their progress on completing

their goals, and their overall progress in my class at the end of each unit, semester, and school

year. Assessments help me get the information for each student in these areas. The school I work

for has made most of the formative and summative assessments online, however I also assess my

students one-on-one where I handwrite their results that I later input into their IEP on the

computer. Having these assessments help me know where each student is at currently. I use

portfolio-based assessments to show not only their academic work, but as well as their, social,

emotional, behavioral, and functional work. Behavior and emotional assessments I use help me

indicate how each of my students are doing with their behavior and emotional IEP goals and in

comparison to students without disabilities their age. Performance assessments I use for their

academic, behavioral, functional and social IEP goals.

Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are in-progress evaluations of each of my students’ learning that I

administer multiple times during each unit. It tells me what my students are learning and are not

learning so that I can modify instructional approaches, teaching materials, and academic support.

I use this for math, reading, spelling, writing, behavioral, emotional, social, and their functional

skills. For academics, I do one-on-one assessments where I have flash cards of numbers and

words. For identifying words, I place two cards that each have a word they are learning and ask

them to point to the word I say. If they correctly identify a word three times, they get to choose

which sensory box they can play with for two minutes before moving on to the next set of words.
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I use the same method for numbers however, the number cards have a certain number of

ladybugs on them and the student is to identify how many ladybugs are on the card by counting

the ladybugs individually. If they get the number of three cards right, they can play with any

sensory box of their choosing. Another way I do a formative assessment is when I am teaching

reading, I read a story that has a new set of words we are learning and after we read the story, the

students will have a turn to answer a question on the board that sees if they can remember what

the new word means that has the word and picture. They simply click on the word and the smart

board will tell them if it’s right or wrong. The number of words they have to choose from is the

number of chances they get. For writing, I give my students a small prompt that has a section

underneath the prompt for them to write their ideas. If my student is stuck, I will help them as

best as I can without telling them what I think they should write as I would like them to come up

with the idea themselves. I assess on sentence structure. For spelling, I ask my students’ to spell a

word one-on-one where I jot down their answers. If they get three words right, they get to choose

which sensory box to play with for two minutes. For functional skills that are in their IEP goals, I

assess on health & nutrition, housekeeping, meal prep & planning, money, personal care &

hygiene, safety & emergency, vocational skills, and traveling & transportation. I assess for some

with activities in class that are crafts, stations, worksheets and all by seeing if they apply what

they learned in class in real life. For example, under health & nutrition, I have a lesson on going

to a restaurant where we will practice in class, but also at a restaurant we go to as a class

(planning this with the restaurant beforehand) to get actual practice. This would also require

parents to inform me how their child did when going with them as well. Social, emotional, and

behavioral would have activities, crafts, and worksheets to determine what my students are and

are not learning. Social would focus on what to say to others, how to effectively communicate
Assessments Used in Classroom 5

how you feel to others, how to make conversations with others, and when to let others talk.

Emotional would focus on how to manage emotions when they are high, how to cope with

emotions, and when to ask for help when emotions are high. Behavioral would focus on how to

act when someone makes you upset or angry, when to leave the situation to calm yourself down,

learn to help others when they need help, learn to actively listen to your peers, teachers, parents,

family, and staff, learn to correct your behavior when things get tough.

Summative Assessments1

For summative assessments, I will use online for academics and written assessments for social,

behavioral, emotional, and functional. Social would assess how they are acting after learning the

skills they need to talk to others, listen to others (by not dominating conversations), start

conversations with people they do not hang out with often, and treat everyone nicely. Emotional

would assess how they are managing their emotions, what coping strategies they can use and use

them, and know to ask for help when emotions are high. Behavioral would assess that they know

how to properly respond to a situation when someone else makes them upset or angry, leave the

situation to calm themselves down, helping others when they need it, listen to teachers, staff and

parents and do what they say, and correct their behavior when things get tough. Academics

would assess that they can identify numbers, count money and numbers, identify words, spell

words, write efficiently at their level, read at their level, and answer questions about the reading.

These summative assessments will help identify what they know at the end of the unit, semester,

and school year.

Portfolio-Based Assessments.

Portfolio-based assessments would show my students’ work for academic, behavioral,

emotional, functional, and social skills. Some examples would be assignments, writing samples,
Assessments Used in Classroom 6

art projects, reading responses, assessments, teacher and staff notes that state a day where the

student improved in behavioral, emotional, functional, and social skills, and homework

assignments.

Behavioral and Emotional Assessments.

The emotional assessments will be self-assessments that my students will do to help them

recognize their emotional needs and gain control over regulating their emotions. The self-

assessment will have statements where the student will rate on a scale of zero to four and write

which number best suites themselves. The other type of emotional assessment I have is where I

assess each of the concerning emotions each student has and assess how they felt at the start if

the year, during the school year, and at the end of the year. The behavioral assessments will be

similar to the emotional assessments.

Performance Assessments.

The performance assessments I will have will be long-term projects where the student

will complete for academics, functional, social, and behavioral skills. For academics, I will have

final projects in math that coincide with a part of functional, where my students have a money

project in which they would fill out a sheet that states their expenses for their house, food,

pharmacy, phone, other expenses, and transportation. As well as total cost. Their writing final

project will be a project all about themselves. For instance an All About Me page, writing and

addressing an envelope, a letter to their previous teacher, and an end of the year paragraph

summarize what they enjoyed about class and what they hope to learn next year. For reading,

they will read scenarios about health & nutrition, effective and appropriate coping skills,

effective and appropriate social skills, housekeeping, meal prep & planning, money, personal

care & hygiene, safety & emergency, vocational skills, and traveling & transportation. Students
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will not complete every single category, only 3-4 categories where they will write answers to

questions about reading. For social, their final project will be to meet a student in another special

education classroom and exchange letters with them throughout the year to put in their portfolio.

For functional, their final project is to go to restaurant and write about a job they would like to

have. Then they will have a chance to go to a restaurant as a group (after we practice many times

both at school and at a restaurant) where they will be assessed on how they act in a restaurant

and have vocational workers come into the class to talk about their job from previous students.

As you can see, all of the projects at the end of the year are tied together.