Assessment: The Gift of Feedback

Tonight, we talked about the importance of assessment. Today's student's are so concerned with grades...grades...grades. They are conditioned not to learn for learning but to learn for a grade. Assessment should be a tool for supporting a student in learning. It should also be used as a teacher's way of modifying how to teach tomorrow. Authentic Assessment is an ongoing assessment. Not everything is graded but all is used towards progression of the students learning. There is pre-assessment where you find out what the student already knows. Formative assessment comes in the forms of quizzes,concept maps or projects(among other things), that acts as a way of keeping track and checking up. Then there is summative assessment which could be a final/cumulative project to see what the student has learned. Most importantly, assessment should not scare the students away from learning but be seen as a tool to help them. In addition, teachers should use many different forms of assessment as a way to know their students and to better teach them.