I love that our first class emphasized the importance of how assessment and instruction should go hand in hand. The image of assessment and instruction being a mirror image of each other really spoke to me and gave me the visualization of assessment informing instruction. I personally grapple with the notion of assessment as I find it to be an ambiguous area of professional dialogue yet it's also an incredibly important are of teaching.
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| Bilash, O. (2009) Traingulation (Image) Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/2wmgFDM |
Assessment is comprised of three areas of focus: conversations, observations and products. There are many different tools that teachers use capture what their students know. At the start of my career, I noticed that my colleagues were very focused on looking at the products that students created. While I felt that products were an important aspect of assessment, I also recognize that the observations we can make and the conversations we can have were equally important.
I can see why teachers preferred to focus on products. Assessing in this way allows us to be standardized, organized and automatic in collecting and reporting on data. With conversations and observations I've never had an opportunity to see professionals in the older grades record this type of data in a meaningful way. I wonder if there is an efficient way to do this and would like to find a teacher to mentor me in this area.
I am also hoping to develop an understanding of assessment for, as and of learning. Previously these areas confused me and I am starting to they are an essential part of my practice as an educator. I would like to be more confident and fluent with these terms.
If we had to list them, what would be the "best practices" for assessment? As a teacher candidate, I know how valuable each and every minute in a classroom is. I want to be able to assess efficiently so that I can maximize my time engaging my students in meaningful, rich, learning experiences. Having a kindergarten background, I'm not at all familiar with the Achievement Chart. I would like to know more about what they (the performance standards) are and how we integrate them into our planning.
How can I stay organized and effective? Between balancing the curriculum, being present to students, planning, teaching and reporting, it feels like there is a lot to keep track of and organized with. I wonder if assessment is a skill that is developed over time and or is it something that I can prepare for ahead of time? I think ahead to things like report card writing. I want to be the kind of teacher that knows her students so well and has enough evidence and documentation already collected that report card writing and parent teacher interviews are not a source of stress and burden, but rather a time to connect with and collaborate with parents instead.
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| Evidence of how I documented observations and conversations in a Kindergarten classroom © J. Pereira, 2018 |
Click below to access my AER Form:
https://bit.ly/2AEUECD
Blog Post 2 - What I have learned about Assessment
While I've learned a lot, I still feel like I have so much more to explore and discover about the relationship between assessment and instruction.
Though this course, I felt like I spent a fair bit of time grappling with the relationship between assessment and instruction and only in the last couple of weeks have ideas started making sense to me. I chose to use the image of an iceberg because I think it depicts my learning journey quite accurately. My current knowledge is what has come to the surface and what I'm still learning and want to know lays below the surface.
Learning Skills and Work Habits
Learning Skills and Work Habits are fundamental skills students need to succeed in school and in life. The Growing Success document identifies 6 skills that students will be working on mastering through their education. These concepts guide how children approach their tasks in the classroom and students are evaluated on their ability to access these skills. My role, as an educator, will include explaining the importance of these skills and modelling them in my classroom. I also hope to include parents in this process because they play a key role in providing opportunities for students to practice these skills at home.
Assessment for and as Learning
I can say with confidence that I am now able to differentiate between assessment as and for learning. Both modes of assessing are great tools for teachers and when used well, illustrate how assessment and instruction go hand in hand. I found it helpful to read the growing success document, to memorize the definitions and to make connections with my observations during the structured experience days.
Prior to this course I was a little familiar with pedagogical documentation from my experiences in the kindergarten classroom. After investigating assessment further, I'm deepening my understanding of assessment by connecting formative and self assessment with pedagogical documentation. A personal goal that I will keep pursuing is to try implementing pedagogical documentation in primary and junior classrooms.
The Achievement Chart/Performance Standards
This was a completely new area of learning for me. Prior to this class, I had never needed to use the Achievement Chart. In order to become familiar with the performance standards, I used Growing Success as a platform to build my knowledge. I also accessed a few other resources as well, one being a monograph on success criteria that was published by the Peel District School Board.
The Achievement Chart brings together the content standards from the Ontario Curriculum documents and links them to performance standards that are set provincially. Down the left side of the chart are the four broad categories of learning. They are Knowledge and Understanding (KU), Thinking (T), Communication (C) and Application (A). Across the top are the levels achievement noted by a number (levels 1 through 4). An interesting thing that I learned was that the province sets a standard of Level 3.
I am learning that the Achievement Chart will be a large part of my planning for both units and lessons. While my learning about assessment is new, I recognize that I want to be extremely literate in understanding the Achievement Chart. I have made this a goal for my block placement this year and am excited to see where my professional learning takes me.
Final Thoughts
I initially felt intimidated by this course at the outset. There were so many terms that I was not familiar with and so many aspects of teaching that I had not considered more thoughtfully. While some of my questions have been answered, I am just starting to uncover my understanding of others. If I am to be successful as a teacher candidate, I will need to continue to grapple with ideas of assessment, evaluation and reporting. It will be important for me to continue my inquiry into these topics and to extend my learning as much as possible before entering the field as a professional. I'm grateful for this experience.
https://bit.ly/2AEUECD
Blog Post 2 - What I have learned about Assessment
 |
| Source: https://bit.ly/2SnRo66 |
Though this course, I felt like I spent a fair bit of time grappling with the relationship between assessment and instruction and only in the last couple of weeks have ideas started making sense to me. I chose to use the image of an iceberg because I think it depicts my learning journey quite accurately. My current knowledge is what has come to the surface and what I'm still learning and want to know lays below the surface.
 |
| Source: https://bit.ly/2QsD9iS |
Learning Skills and Work Habits are fundamental skills students need to succeed in school and in life. The Growing Success document identifies 6 skills that students will be working on mastering through their education. These concepts guide how children approach their tasks in the classroom and students are evaluated on their ability to access these skills. My role, as an educator, will include explaining the importance of these skills and modelling them in my classroom. I also hope to include parents in this process because they play a key role in providing opportunities for students to practice these skills at home.
Assessment for and as Learning
I can say with confidence that I am now able to differentiate between assessment as and for learning. Both modes of assessing are great tools for teachers and when used well, illustrate how assessment and instruction go hand in hand. I found it helpful to read the growing success document, to memorize the definitions and to make connections with my observations during the structured experience days.
Prior to this course I was a little familiar with pedagogical documentation from my experiences in the kindergarten classroom. After investigating assessment further, I'm deepening my understanding of assessment by connecting formative and self assessment with pedagogical documentation. A personal goal that I will keep pursuing is to try implementing pedagogical documentation in primary and junior classrooms.
Examples from my personal archives of pedagogical documentation.
Image 1: My teaching partner engaging students in assessment as learning by asking them to describe what they were learning in the image.
Image 2: While reading a book with a student, I was making notes about his knowledge base and using that information to inform my practice.
This was a completely new area of learning for me. Prior to this class, I had never needed to use the Achievement Chart. In order to become familiar with the performance standards, I used Growing Success as a platform to build my knowledge. I also accessed a few other resources as well, one being a monograph on success criteria that was published by the Peel District School Board.
The Achievement Chart brings together the content standards from the Ontario Curriculum documents and links them to performance standards that are set provincially. Down the left side of the chart are the four broad categories of learning. They are Knowledge and Understanding (KU), Thinking (T), Communication (C) and Application (A). Across the top are the levels achievement noted by a number (levels 1 through 4). An interesting thing that I learned was that the province sets a standard of Level 3.
I am learning that the Achievement Chart will be a large part of my planning for both units and lessons. While my learning about assessment is new, I recognize that I want to be extremely literate in understanding the Achievement Chart. I have made this a goal for my block placement this year and am excited to see where my professional learning takes me.
Final Thoughts
I initially felt intimidated by this course at the outset. There were so many terms that I was not familiar with and so many aspects of teaching that I had not considered more thoughtfully. While some of my questions have been answered, I am just starting to uncover my understanding of others. If I am to be successful as a teacher candidate, I will need to continue to grapple with ideas of assessment, evaluation and reporting. It will be important for me to continue my inquiry into these topics and to extend my learning as much as possible before entering the field as a professional. I'm grateful for this experience.
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