Reflecting on Assessment & Accountability and Assessment

As I reflect on the two videos, Assessment & Accountability,

and Assessment, I can see the value of assessment in the
classroom as important towards promoting student
understanding of the instruction. As I listened to the videos
several quotes stood out to me that spoke to the need for
teachers to be able to understand how well their students are
performing and how their students performance impacts
their teaching strategies.

Assessment:
Quote: 2:45 Judith Langer Envisionment building teachers have a variety of assessments that they can
do in their classrooms with their students. Some of them look traditional and some of them dont.
Some of them are paper and pencil, some of them involve discussion, some of them involve art and
drama. All of them focus on the ways in which the students are thinking in their classrooms. All of
them try to give the teachers, and also their students, a window on how much more complex, how
much more advanced their students should be coming in ways of interpreting texts. In ways of dealing
with the ideas, in ways of developing multiple perspectives, in ways of, um, going beyond the text to
make some, um, critical views available to themselves about the literature theyre reading in life.
This quote is important because it speaks to diversity in assessment. It speaks to the fact that there is
more than one way to assess a student. It brings clarity to the need for teachers to understand their
students. By doing so, they will be able to gauge how their students respond to testing and the best
method of performing the assessment.
Even thou this video speaks to teachers working together to find ways to help students become more
engaged in literature the strategies are applicable to other disciplines of learning. In my student
teaching assignment there is a summative assessment my CT and I give to the students every Friday. It
requires the use of pencil and paper as well as verbal skills. Also, throughout the week we look to
formative assessments daily through pencil and paper exercises, observation in small group, whole
group, partner, and/or individual activity. Because we recognize that each student learns differently as
well as can respond differently to the various means of testing, we adjust for them when planning how to
assess our students (e.g., instead of pencil and paper the student will verbally provide the answer during
the assessment, or instead of writing the answer the student may choose to draw or show you how they
arrived at their answer). We also recognize the importance of keeping at the forefront, when assessing a
student that there are multiple ways in which to do so.
Quote: 16:27 One of my favorite forms of assessment in portfolio, um and, and I probably have
oversimplified the process.

This quote is important because portfolios provide the teacher with a way to acknowledge and document
the childs progress. It provides for uniqueness of each child and the contents can focus on each childs
specific interactions with his or her environment, materials, peers, and teachers. Portfolios allow for a
three way interaction between the student, teacher, and parents by using this authentic method of
assessment. It showcases the students work, the good and the ones that provide areas of opportunities
for improvement. It not only includes samples from the teacher but the student can provide samples to
put in their portfolio as well. Why is this important? Imagine looking into a mirror and really seeing
what you look like. Well, this is what a portfolio allows the student to see. It allows the student to look
at their work and reflect on how it can be improved on or to see what they accomplished with each piece
of work they view.
The use of portfolios in the classroom allows for reflecting on, does the student truly understand the
lesson and then to make adjustments to the lesson as needed. The portfolio also gives a visual on how
best to assess the students through formative, summative, or by using an authentic form of assessment.
The use of portfolios as a means of assessing a student allows for the teacher been open-minded enough
to explore alternate means of assessments to fit the individual students needs.
Quote: 54:21 The main thing is that you focus on the kinds of thinking that you want the students to
do. The ways in which you want their minds to develop. The ways you want their understanding of
literature and the knowledge and skills that they need to do this, to develop across the year.
This is important because in order to plan for an assessment we have to understand our instructional
outcome then plan how we want to assess our students accordingly. It is important that we know what
we want our students to take away from the lesson, only then can we make a plan to determine if our
teaching accomplishes our instructional intent.
Through planning and preparation the instructional outcome is set. Based on the instructional outcome
been met through planned assessment, the lesson is adjusted accordingly to meet the students ongoing
learning needs.
Assessment and Accountability:
Quote: 4:20 If youre not a good readerIf you cant read with understanding, and if you cant write
down complicated thoughts; not only are you not going to be able to perform well on Language Arts
tests, youre not going to perform well on Math, Science, or Social Studies tests, either, in this world.
This is important because reading is everything. If you can read you can accomplish anything with effort.
Reading goes hand in hand with understanding and mastering other subjects such as math, science, and
social studies. Why? The children will have to understand if you can read you can accomplish anything.
If you cant read you are handicapped which will prevent them from been able to understand other
subject areas because the ability to read is required in order to do so.
The ability to read is considered as number one important in my classroom. My student teaching is in a
kindergarten class. This been said, the opportunity is there for me to catch the young learners during

their formative years to instill the love of reading. By instilling this love of reading, the childrens ability
to learn will have a head start through their reading literacy having a jump start.
Quote: 13:04 The students should have access to the rubric, so, ideally, the teacher has led the class in
a discussion, where they said, Okay, if our benchmark is, um, that youll be able to determine the
important information when you read, uh, what are some things that you, uh, would want to see in a
paper of a student who was doing those things?
This is important because providing the rubric gives the students a cheat sheet to use to accomplish
the expectations of the lesson objective. A rubric should provide a step by step process of the teachers
expectation. This been said, providing a rubric is important for the success of a teachers instructional
outcome in todays classroom as applicable.
In my kindergarten class we provide models for the children to follow to allow for their inability to read
and comprehend what they have read. The model allows the students to understand the expectation of
the lesson outcome presented during the instructions. By following the model given the students are
able to meet the instructional outcome through modelling the example provided for them to follow just
as a rubric would have done.