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What is Assessment? Your thoughts... Determining what students know/understand. Feedback system - what teacher needs to improve upon +1 Are we teaching material correctly? Do we need to reteach? Method to monitor progress Properly demonstrate that they understand material Use multiple methods/sources to develop an understanding of what students know Challenge for both student and teacher Assessment can be informal gathering of information

LOTS of time. Multiple methods can be challenging. We get stuck in an old format...2 quizzes and a test Pacing guides - “I taught them...they need to learn it.” Needing grades for the gradebook. Pressures from cooperating teachers or administration You have 40 minutes...DON’T SCREW IT UP! IEPs...Differentiation/Accommodation
 * 1) of kids - overflowing classrooms and campuses


 * __ Master Teacher Responses __**

Multiple Choice exams are cruel and unusual forms of punishment. We should employ multiple measures to assess the whole student and their understanding. Students should bubble over with passion and be thrilled when they show what they’ve learned.

Proper assessments are crafted only after careful consideration and creation of items that adequately address individual state standards. Assessment developers should pay close attention to creating test questions and multiple choice answers that are proven valid and reliable by statistical means.

Work that can’t be faked. Work that is personal. Work that actually results in creating someone who is a better job applicant, or, God forbid, just a better person.

Assessments should be a physical exam...not an autopsy. The unintended tragedy of the last decade is the assessment/data movement. We have been administering assessment of learning instead of assessment for leaning.

Assessments are a continuous dialogue between the teacher and student about progress toward agreed upon goals.

Assessment should be used not to validate instruction and classify learners, but to drive instruction and facilitate learning.

There is nothing wrong with students showing a little passion about their work and their favorite subjects. Multiple choice exams might measure something but it’s not competence or passion.

Assessment is intensely personal for some students. You are, in a way, asking them to reveal a piece of themselves to you and they might not want to do that if they don't know they can trust you.

Assessment can be formal or informal. We probably learn the most about our students when the assessment is informal and we can see some of their thought processes and diagnose their misconceptions.

Learning does not begin and end at pre-determined, arbitrary dates. Our grading policies and class structure should reflect that. All students are unique and we should make an attempt at tapping into that unique, creative mind.

Don't ever grade the first attempt!