Chapter 4 dicussses the importance of assessment and various types of assessment. Assessments need to be ongoing and evaluated to help guide instruction to determine if students are learning or if reteaching is needed. The different forms of assessment discussed include informal assessments such as conversations and observations and formal assessments such as classroom, state, and standardized tests. A good assessment of overall performance is a portfolio. Portfolios show things that tests and conversations don't. Portfolios can show student growth from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. When portfolios are used students can see their growth and development. I think that portfolios are a good motivational skill for students because when students think they can't do something they can see just how far they have came.
Another topic dicussed in this chapter was the reading interest inventory and attitude survey. I believe that teachers need to know how their students feel about a particular content area as well as what they are interested in. When teachers use this information effectively they can make the learning environment student friendly. I am looking forward to using a student interest inventory to get to know my student and help my student learn during my tutoring sessions. I also see why we had to write a literacy autobiography for this class. It was your way of seeing how we felt about literature and our past experiences. You will probably use this information to help plan your lessons and understand your student betters.
The last part of chapter four discussed how to interpret standardized test. Standardized test results are the foundation of No Child Left Behind regulations. Schools, teachers, and students have to reach their Adequate Yearly Progress goal or funding is lost, teachers are fired, or schools are closed. I honesty think standardized testing is a double edge sword. If a poor school has low scores they lose more funding when they do not make the grade. Why wouldn't they give more money to help improve the learning environment to schools that are functioning poorly. Closing schools and firing teachers is not going to solve the problems the our education system faces.
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Katie, I also hate the fact that low performing schools recieve less funding. This makes no sense to me! If a school is performing poorly, shouldn't more funding be available for them to improve their instruction? Money can't solve everything, but it can help a school out tremendously. Perhaps the reason certain schools perform so poorly is because they have low funding. How will they ever succeed if that money keeps lowering every year because of low test results? I think that low performing schools should be given more funding, then monitored to assess whether or not funding was an issue. If no advancements are made within an allotted time period, then further action should be taken. Otherwise, the poor will continue to get poorer and those students will suffer because of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd you can tweak reading interest inventories and attitude surveys throughout the year (i.e., “What is something new you’ve discovered you’re interested in? How can you find out more about this topic?”)
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about No Child Left Behind. How is closing a school or firing the much needed teachers going to help the students? Wouldn't the goals for these schools be to improve their education system?
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