The
difference between Assessment for
Learning and Assessment of Learning
has been the most interesting to learn about. Assessment for Learning seems to be a new development since my school years,
so the idea is a little foreign. Yet it makes so much sense. All too often
students do poorly or drop out of school because they do not see the reason for
it. They don’t understand why they are learning things and why they are being
tested, assessed, and evaluated the way they are. If we can change this by
using Assessment for Learning the
drop out and fail rates should decrees and the comprehension and learning rates
should increase.
Not only is
Assessment for Learning better for
the students, it is also better for the teachers, parents, and administrators. When using Assessment for Learning techniques at the beginning and middle of the semester
the teacher can use the results to gain a better grasp on where the students
are in the learning process. Teachers can use the results to change their
teaching process if the students are not on the track or they can use the
results to confirm that they are doing the right thing. The administrators and
parents can use these assessment techniques to determine if disciplinary
measures need to be implemented.
It will be
very interesting to continue learning about and working with this theory as a
practicing teacher in the future. I think that Assessment for Learning techniques will prove to be very useful in
implementing change and Assessment of
Learning can continue to be used in the traditional ways to monitor
improvement.
As a
pre-service teacher, there is more to learn about than I can really conceive
of. It would be very difficult to try to research all of the techniques out
there before I become an in-service teacher. Researching the many techniques as
a group and sharing our new found information was rather helpful. The most
interesting new technique that I could apply to my chosen field would be the
dramatic re-enactment technique. This would be very useful in an English class,
especially when working with long fiction and non-fiction stories. It is said
that people understand things better when they are able to explain them, and
further understanding is achieved when they are able to teach the concept. If
the students can explain or teach the plot of a story to their peers they are
demonstrating that they have a better understanding of the story. I think that
this is not only a great Assessment for
Learning tool but it is also a great Assessment of Learning tool. It can be useful for the students to demonstrate
what they’ve learned, which can then be used by the teacher to analyze what
still needs to be covered.
Another
technique that I thought was interesting - although I don’t think it is
particularly useful in my chosen focus – was authentic assessment. I thought it
was interesting that the way we learned when I was in school was not usually
authentic, but it was disguised to look authentic (word problems). I think that
using authentic assessment would also help keep students interested in subjects
like math and science. I think this is what the Ministry is trying to implement
with the new math strands, but it is not something I completely understand
because I do not focus on math in my education. I think it is interesting that
students can now focus on one of three strands that will help them in their
future careers, but I also think this is a difficult decision for grade 9
students to make.
Something I
learned this semester that I don’t think was intentionally taught to me is that
many things in education are relative to the situation. There are no concrete
answers. Tests can be Assessment for Learning
and Assessment of Learning, depending
on how they are administered and how the students use them. How we grade
students is relative to their scenario, the school, the program, the region,
etc. How we grade the same assignment in two different classes is relative to
the classes, the students, the times administered, the weight of the
assignment, etc. So although much of the content from the classes I’ve taken
thus far was useful in my three week pre-internship, there was a lot more that
was useless at this point in time.
I find this
to be both worrisome and inspiring. On one hand I feel completely ill-equipped
to teach. I had enough knowledge to get me through three weeks, but I had to
work incredibly hard to fill in three weeks of lessons. On the other hand every
lesson that I taught can be turned around and used in a different scenario, in
a different class in the future. I hope the good lessons will remain good, but
there is no saying for sure. And the lessons that didn’t work as well as I had
hoped may be a great success in the future. So much of what we do is relative
and we need to use this to our advantage instead of fearing the uncertainty.
This idea
also means that so many of the assignments we are given are difficult to
complete. It is difficult to create lesson plans, unit plans, and assessment
strategies before I know where I’ll be teaching. I don’t know that they will
work out for me in every scenario. The most I can do is to over prepare. If I
need five lesson plans I should create ten, with several different ways to
assess each assignment given in the well thought out unit plan.
A majority
of the learning I did this semester has been practical. It has either been
practical theory, such as assessment techniques and teaching strategies, or
practice teaching in the three week block. One thing both of these experiences
have had in common is teaching me a lesson that I will need to remember every
single day: not everything I do as a teacher will be immediately relevant or
yield instantaneous results. There are times where I will work hard on
something that will seemingly fail. I need to remember every day to keep an
open mind and look at things with fresh eyes to foster success in the future.
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