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Philosophy of Assessment

Rebekah Pinedo

Vanguard University

Instructional Design and Subject-Specific Pedagogy for Single Subject Teachers

Professor Rose

December 11, 2023

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The Role of Assessment

To students, assessment can be extremely anxiety inducing. It may seem like a tool to

assess the intelligence of student. Students may believe that assessments are a measure of

intelligence as opposed to their knowledge of the material. As a future English teacher,

assessments can range from the writing of an essay, a test of the texts having been read, and a

series of short answer questions. Assessments in an English classroom can consist of a variety of

forms, which may cause students to be confused about what is actually being assessed. Although

students may argue that assessments are not valuable, assessments work to measure the extent of

a students’ knowledge on the material that is being assessed.

Assessments work to measure how well a student knows the material that they are being

assessed on. In addition to this, it measures how well a student is able to think critically at the

time that the assessment is being administered. This does not measure a student’s ability to think

critically in general. Rather, it measures how well a student is able to think critically at the time

of assessment. A student’s ability to think critically can be improved over the course of time.

Assessments are simply tools that aid in a student’s learning. It helps provide guidance on what

students know at the time of assessment, and what information they need review on.

The Forms of Assessment

The two main types of assessment consist of formative and summative assessment.

Formative assessments are a more informal type of assessment. What is meant by this is that

formative assessments occurs “during instruction and is a way to assess students’ progress”

(Burden & Byrd, 2019, p. 288). Examples of formative assessments include questions, writing,

projects, performances, and tests. In my classroom, I would incorporate formative assessment

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through questioning. This would include providing students questions about the text that they are

reading in order to understand how well students are following along and understanding the text.

On the other hand, summative assessments consist of assessments that take place “after

instruction” (Burden & Byrd, 2019, p. 289). Typically, summative assessments will take place

after the conclusion of a unit. In an English class, this may mean writing an essay responding to a

text that has been read in class and being sure to include textual evidence to support the claim.

Ultimately, I view assessments as tool that measures how well students understand the

material that they are being assessed on. It is meant to gauge the students’ level of understanding

regarding the material. In addition, it provides guidance as to what students know and what they

need re-teaching on. It does not determine a student’s intelligence. It simply sets the baseline of

how students can improve from that point forward. Thus, assessments are meant to be tools that

aid in the learning of the students.

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Works Cited

Burden, P. R., & Byrd D. M. (2019). Methods for Effective Teaching: Meeting the Needs of All
Students [eBook edition]. Pearson.