Informal assessment:
It would be the questions that I ask to the students at the beginning and while
the lecture is taking place. For example, in the area calculation objective, I
would start my class asking the students questions about background knowledge
they should already have, such as: What is perimeter? What is area? What is the
difference between these two concepts?
What else you can tell me about area? These questions allow me to have a
general idea of the level of the class.
Then, based on my conclusions, I may rearrange the lecture according to
students’ needs. Later, after some
knowledge has been build during the class, I will ask questions to ensure they
are mastering the content and how far they can go with their knowledge, such
as: Why do you think such and such? How you come out with that result? What
will happen if I change this condition? Etc. No grade is given to student for informal assessment.
Authentic assessment:
It would be a problem-solving question in which the students have to measure
the dimensions of a given irregular shape room drawing, using feet as unit;
then calculate how many square feet of wood they need to buy in order to build a
wood floor of that irregular shape room, and finally calculate how much the
wood will costs to build the floor if the price of the wood per square foot is
given. I would use the authentic
assessment on the area calculation objective because it will help me to measure
student’s knowledge of the concept of area and their skill of apply it in a
real-life situation. In this problem, they
not only need to understand what they need to calculate, but also the
measurements they need to take and what they are obtaining as answer for each
question in order to answer the following one. Authentic assessment is done
under specific time and graded.
Paper-pencil
assessment and Teacher-developed assessment: This assessment would have several
parts. It would start with a vocabulary
part using matching items (no more than ten).
It will help students break the test anxiety because normally they found
matching item easy to achieve. Then a multiple choices part where the students
have to solve short-simple problems in order to get their correct answer. It
can be thinking as a warm-up for later more complex problem. While solving short problem students have to
use tools or knowledge they will need later in order to solve the last part of
the test, bringing and refreshing that knowledge. The final part would be an open-ended problem
in which the students have to apply their knowledge to solve a real-life
problem. The last part of this
assessment overlaps with the authentic assessment, plus the teacher-developed part
overlaps with the informal assessment, since the questions are developed by the
teachers for their own classrooms. In general, I would use the paper-pencil/teacher-developed
assessment as a summative assessment because it allows me to measure students’
achievement in a standardized format, however allow to accommodation when
needed. Paper-pencil assessments are
reliable, and if they are well designed they can give content validity, plus
their practicality is undoubted.
Paper-pencil/teacher-developed assessment is timed and graded.
Criterion-references
assessment: In math a criterion-reference assessment could be the same paper-pencil/teacher-developed
assessment since it will tell me exactly what students have learn or not and
what are their deficiencies. However, a
day-to-day criterion-references assessment could be a last ten minutes exit
ticket based on a couple of problems referring the class subject that allows me
to discriminate what the students have or have not accomplished. It will help me to rearrange the following class
in order to build knowledge in their deficiencies at the same time that cover
the curriculum. The assessment will be
graded forcing students to take their work seriously.
Advantage and/or
Disadvantage of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments: I can
see a clear advantage in the criterion-referenced assessments since they are
designed to tell us if the students have or have not mastered a specific subject
or objective. If well designed, criterion-referenced
assessments can help us, as teachers, to measure and understand the level of
the students and their needs. However, one
disadvantage could be that if the criterion-referenced assessments are not well
designed they can give us wrong information about what students have
accomplished. On the other hand, I found
norm-referenced assessments less practical for us as “regular” teacher. Perhaps if I think in special educator I can
see that norm-referenced assessments can have more value, since it can be used
as a tool to gather information and understand about disability in particular
student.
