What Are the Purposes of Assessment?

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1.  Student Learning:  Assessment is a way for educators to measure progress, strengths, and areas of growth.  Many teachers assess their students using a pre-test, mid-term, and post-test to gauge student learning.  This may take place throughout a unit or the entire school year. 

 

2.  Improvement of Teaching:  Teachers use assessment to determine what is effective in their teaching practices; what is working and what needs improvement.  A variety of assessment tools may be used in order to determine what types of instruction are most beneficial in meeting the needs of students. 

 

3.  Communication:  Assessment should serve as a means of communication between educators, students, administrators, and parents.   Parents and students often look at assessment to see WHAT is being learned, HOW progress is being measured, and the TYPE of instruction being received.  Educators and administrators use assessment to evaluate teaching practices and to determine if there are gaps in the curriculum.   

 

4.  Program Evaluation:  Assessment can prove a good measure of one’s program, revealing evidence of the effectiveness of that program, throughout the year, assessment can offer direction to the program and modifications can be made to increase both student and instructional success. 

 

5.  Program Support:  Consistent assessment can be used to validate one’s program.  Data gained is objective and can show evidence of goals and objectives being met by both student and teacher.  With clear data presented, a strong measure of program support may follow. 

 

6.  Motivation:  Assessment shows progress.  When improvement is shown, students feel positive about their learning environment.  Documented assessment can offer proof of growth, thus enhancing students’ motivation to perform to the best of their ability. 

Do We Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's February 2006 speech at TED is incredible, thought provoking, and inspiring.  For those that have not seen it, please take 25 minutes out of your day to watch.  It makes you think about how we educate our students.  

Designing Presentations

I've been following Ben Wildeboer on Twitter for a bit.  He has provided more resources for developing and delivering effective presentations.  I'm afraid that students simply assume that the sign of an effective presentation is that it used PowerPoint.  On the contrary, the use of PowerPoint can, in fact, take away from your presentation.  Ben's collection of "Wisdom Bits" provides a number of resources for teachers, parents, and students to use when designing effective presentations.

Cell Phones in Schools

During his presentation last Tuesday, Ray McNulty told of a high school he visited where the largest category of discipline referrals was cell phone infractions.  (Cellphones were strictly forbidden in this school.)  When he asked the students about their use of phones, in addition to the chatting with and texting friends (which neither he, nor I, can excuse) the students spoke of using their phones as watches, timers, calendars, and to communicate with parents.  The most creative use, however, was one student who used the camera on her phone to take pictures of her homework assignments and class notes that were written on the whiteboard.  Those all seem like logical (and educationally justifiable) uses of relevant technology.  

Will Richardson recently blogged about a conversation he recently had with high school students in a New York City public school.  The most fascinating point to me was how anyone can "google" on their cellphone by texting a question to 46645. 

Do your kids learn differently than you? YES!

Ever wonder how your child can listen to their iPod in one ear, their cell phone in another, while they IM and study for their french test all at once?  They learn and work differently than previous generations.  They are, as Ian Jukes says, master multi-taskers.  Take a look at this blog post to learn more.