Name: Silsila Amini

School: Al-Faisal College

1. For how many years have you been teaching? 2 years

2. How would you define the term assessment? How do you use assessment in your
classroom? I would define Assessment as an educator using a wide range of skills
and strategies to measure and evaluate an understanding of the learner's abilities,
knowledge and understanding of the topic area. I implement a variety of practices to
assess each students in my classroom. These assessment strategies include,
observations, students reflections, topic tests, homework, group work, and other
summative and formative assessments.
3. Have your assessment practices changed overtime? If so how and what was the
cause for change? I haven't been teaching for too long to see a major gradual
change overtime in assessment practices.
4. For what purpose(s) do you use assessment? To check and be aware of each
student's progress of meeting the taught outcomes and what needs to be done to
provide more support or extend students further in certain area. I also use
assessment for the purpose of monitoring and guiding my own teaching practices in
future instructions.
5. What is your understanding of reliability in assessment?
My understanding of reliability in assessment is designing assessment in a manner
that it will be able to accurately measure the each student's understanding. A
reliable assessment should also be consistent in marking regardless of multiple
teachers. It should have clear marking rubric. and evidence to show that these
markings are fair and consistent for all students.
6. What measures do you put in place to ensure reliability in your assessment task
design and marking processes? The school I teach at, is a very big school with each
grade consisting of 5-8 classes. All teachers across the grade take turns in designing
assessment tasks to match the outcomes taught. To ensure that the task is designed
accurately and precisely, our co -coordinators check the task first and then it gets
checked and approved by our curriculum coordinator who then goes through what
was taught in class and whether the task outcomes meet the learnt outcomes. If
there are any issues with the questions, the teacher who has designed the task will
make amendments until it gets approved. With each assessment, we use a marking
rubric to further facilitate the consistency in marking. Another measure we use to
ensure reliability in our assessment marking practices is clearly communicating the
marking procedures in grade meetings. We also swap test papers with other
teachers to check for consistency.
7. Have you experienced any limitations in implementing certain assessment
procedures? ( e.g. Class size, time limit etc) Yes, I certainly have. I have come across
limitations in assessment time limit many times during my last 2 years of teaching.
8. When do you prefer to use formative assessment? In daily class routines such
as obsering and taking notes of students participation during discussions as a
whole class or group activities. I also like using formative assessments
playing games where random students are picked to answer certain questions
about the topic being studies, particularly during guided reading lessons. I
also prefer using formative assessment in the form of KWL chats or concept
 maps at the beginning of each topic and student self reflections completed
after every lesson.
9. When do you prefer to use summative assessment? I prefer using summative
assessment a week or two after finishing a particular topic or skill taught in class. I
also use them in the form of term or semester exams.
10. Have you ever used student-led assessment? If so for what purpose? Did it serve
its purpose well? No I haven't, although I wish to do so.
11. Do you try to vary the types of assessments that you use? If so why? Yes, I do. This
is to ensure that I obtain an accurate picture of students understand using the
multiple-measure assessment strategy. It's also to provide opportunities for students
to show their knowledge and understand in multiple ways suitable for them as each
student is a unique learner and may have different ways of showcasing their
understanding.
12. If you had all the resources your require (time, class size, technological resources)
would there be any changes in your assessment practices? If so, what would these
changes be? To incorporate more formative assessment in daily routines.
13. Do you have any further comments about your assessment approach that you
would like to add? Hmm...I don't think so.