Standard 5: Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning Focus: Assess student learning 5.1.1 Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning
Throughout my practicum, I was able assess students learning using a variety of strategies. This shows I am meeting standard 5.1.1. The evidence I have collected to show this includes work samples and mentor feedback.
During my practicum, I was able to learn about and utilise a range of assessment strategies. I gave students summative assessments which involved assessing student’s skills at the end of a lesson sequence. This experienced allowed me to see the collaborative planning involved, how it was conducted and allowed myself to learn how to control a class and conduct a summative assessment task. This allowed me to see the importance of assessing student’s independent skills, which can be difficult in year 1.
I also used formative assessment through discussion, ‘what did you learn’ cards and their work. Discussions allowed me to see who was understanding the concepts as I was teaching. This allowed me to see who I needed to spend more time in during the independent part of the lesson, and allowed me to give students verbal feedback. One effective strategy I used was where all students answered questions on their whiteboards and then some were able to explain their answer. This allowed me to see who was understanding the concepts. I also used ‘what did you learn’ cards where students had to write or draw about what they learnt in the lesson. This enabled me to assess if the lesson was overall successful in teaching the appropriate outcomes. I also provided students with written feedback while marking their writing. They had a checklist at the top of their page where I would tick if they achieved each goal, and they were then given a target to work on. This written feedback gave them a focus to work on for their next piece of writing. I also was able to observe report writing as I was involved in reading many reports and editing them. This was valuable as I was given an insight into the content included in reports.
Mentor feedback states that I demonstrated the ability to give verbal and written feedback to students in order to improve their learning. I demonstrated a range of assessment strategies over my practicum through observing others, collaborative meetings and then my own experiences. This showed me the importance of both summative and formative assessment as it occurs in a variety of ways which can be formal and informal. My experience of practicum demonstrated the importance of assessing students learning using a variety of strategies. It also showed me how teachers are consistently assessing and the evaluating their own teaching. This allowed teachers to reflect on their own practice and make modifications to future lessons where required.
Standard 5.1.1 Evidence
During my practicum experience, I conducted a summative assessment of the students informative writing skills. Below is work samples from the assessment and my mentor teachers feedback on how I conducted the assessment.
Another summative assessment I conducted was an assessment of students narrative writing. Below are work samples and mentor feedback from the narrative assessment.
During my practicum experience I also conducted formative assessments. Below shows work samples of formative assessment task; which include an assessment of students problem solving skills which are developed through 'problem a day' and a formative assessment from particular lessons, to assess what students learnt from the lesson.
Problem a day assessment on quarters.
End of lesson assessment using 'what did you learn' cards. Students are able to either write and/or draw their answer. This allows students to show what they learnt in a variety of ways, while also providing differentiation for students who have difficulty with writing.
Mentor feedback shows that during my practicum experience I was able to develop my knowledge of assessment strategies. Feedback shows that I was able to demonstrate a range of assessment strategies over my practicum.