SAUNDERS MASTERS PORTFOLIO 1

Assessment and Student Learning Framing Statement

6. The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in

their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s and learner’s

decision making.

Assessment, in its simplest form, is a means to find out what students know. Teachers

should use assessments to “determine whether their students are achieving the standards, to

decide whether to revisit critical knowledge and skills, to alter or enhance instruction when

necessary, and continue to assess and reteach, as needed, until all students have achieved the

standards” (Taylor & Nolen, 2008, p. 3). With an overall shift from content-centered lesson to

student-centered lessons, assessment has also become student-centered. The goal is to enable all

students to achieve the standards, no matter their pace. Taylor and Nolen assert that “assessment

and grading must focus on whether students achieve standards rather than when they achieve

standards” (Taylor & Nolen, 2008, p. 3).

In order to be in tune with what students know and where they need to go next, multiple

assessments should be applied to each unit of study. Pre-assessments are used to determine what

students’ prior knowledge is. Formative assessments, used throughout the unit of study, tell the

teacher what is being understood and what needs to be retaught. Summative assessments are

cumulative and give the student a chance to express his new, synthesized knowledge. In this

teacher work sample, I worked with first grade students to gain new writing skills. Pre-,

formative, and summative assessments were used. The most valuable assessments were the
SAUNDERS MASTERS PORTFOLIO 2

formative assessments. They enabled me to see exactly what my students understood. I was able

to adapt my lesson plans and respond to the needs of my students. Since a third of my first grade

students did not show evidence of having gained the ability to write a sentence that included a

descriptive word, I executed a quick reteach to the whole class using samples from other

students, and then conferenced with the students who needed additional help. When

conferencing, I worked with them to complete the task orally, then in written form. Formative

assessments are key to improving lesson plans and helping students meet standards (Black &

William, 1998).

Important formative assessment tool is observation, discussion, and student written work

(Black & William, 1998). General observation can help teachers determine if the class in general

is meeting curriculum goals and narrowing observations down to one student helps learn about

that student’s background and prior knowledge as well as what the student has learned and needs

to do next (Owocki & Goodman, 2002). Observation and discussion have been especially helpful

to me when working with first and second graders.

When developing assessments, specificity and precision are essential. The achievement

goals should be perfectly clear to the teacher and students. In the writing lessons described in the

teacher work sample, I created clearly written performance criteria (observable characteristics of

student performances) in the form of rubrics. Rubrics are a valuable assessment tool in which

performance criteria are described in written form at different levels of performance (Taylor &

Nolen, 2008). In a well-written rubric, goals can be modeled after SMART goals: specific,

measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. These qualifiers help the teacher know exactly

what to look for and help the student know exactly what to aim for. It breaks the learning process

down into specific goals that can be reached, rather than asking students to complete a vague,
SAUNDERS MASTERS PORTFOLIO 3

overarching project. Additionally, a good rubric qualifies the levels of attainment. Phrases like

“goal not met yet”, “goal partially met”, and “goal met” help students to know how much further

they need to go. (I particularly like to use the word yet in my rubrics, helping students to keep a

growth mindset.) The language used in a rubric should be extremely specific and clear. As Taylor

& Nolen (2008) point out, “...students should not have to read your mind to get good grades” (p.

163).

Assessment activities must be appropriate for what the teacher wants to find out. While

an assessment of knowledge may be a good formative assessment during the course of a unit of

study, it is more important to find out if student understanding and skills have progressed. An

effective assessment for student understanding does not simply ask students to regurgitate the

information they have been given in the course of a unit of study. Newly learned processes and

abilities should be tested in new contexts to ensure that they are thoroughly understood. The

assessment itself should be part of the learning process. It should synthesize the new information

and skills that have been added throughout the unit. A good assessment is an “assessment of

learning, assessment for learning, [and] assessment as learning” (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011, p.

70).

Another important pillar of effective assessment practices is to make sure that the

assessments work for the student (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011). The activity, whether it be a test, a

written paper, drawings, puzzles, or games, needs to be accessible to the student. The basis of

this is understanding each student and their abilities, backgrounds, and needs. Creating

assessment activities that are appropriate for the students using them is an example of meeting

the students where they are. Without this important aspect, results from assessments cannot

ascertain what students know or help teachers determine what those students need next. In the
SAUNDERS MASTERS PORTFOLIO 4

Teacher Work Sample I referred to above, I used a series of worksheets to move students from

the brainstorming phase to their final written work. The worksheets were designed to be visually

clear about what steps the students needed to take to create a finished product. The use of clear,

empty boxes helped break down the writing process into manageable steps. This helped the

students build their writing skills and internalize the writing process. It also helped me to

determine which part of the processes they were able to do and which they needed further

instruction on.

While assessment used to be used as an auditing tool to determine how much content

students had retained, good teachers now understand them to actually be a tool to help students

improve (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011). As such, assessment is best when it is student centered and

emphasizes understanding and growth and helps point which direction they should continue in.

When assessments are viewed and used by teachers as tools to improve student performance and

adapt their own lessons, students meet standards at their own pace and are able to learn and

grow.
SAUNDERS MASTERS PORTFOLIO 5

References

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom

assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 139-148.

Owocki, G. & Goodman, Y. (2002). Kidwatching: Documenting children’s literacy development.

New Hampshire: Heinemann.

Taylor, C. S. & Nolen, S. B. (2008). Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in

real classrooms. New Jersey: Pearson.

Sousa, D. & Tomlinson, C.A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience supports

the learner-friendly classroom. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.