Reading the article "Formative Assessment" by Colin J. Marsh got me to thinking more about that particular topic. In theory, it seems to have a lot of promise in figuring out the best way to plan a lesson or unit, so that the students will learn as much as possible because, through these assessments, background knowledge can be assessed and activities can also be assessed to see if they are being well received. The best option, in my opinion, would be to proceed what is referred to in the article on page 26 as the "purest form of formative assessment." If used as an actual instrument to improve the learning process and self-assessment for both students and teachers, then I think that the whole idea could prove very useful, although I'd suggest making sure that students understand the purpose of these activities, otherwise the results could prove to be inaccurate and it might upset the students if they think that this assessment could prove harmful to them.
The thing that I like most about these types of assessments is that it offers the opportunity to really teach to what the students in question truly don't know. I remember too many times in school being bored because we were relearning something that had been learned in a previous year. Sometimes that type of repetition is helpful, but often times it is boring and insulting to the students. That's not to say that it's wrong to recover old ground, but it would likely be better to try and focus on the holes in the students' knowledge, assuming that there are holes. Or, if there are concerns that a lesson might not have been well received, it's probably better to discover just how much the students took from the lesson so that a whole lesson is not wasted recovering ground that has already been dealt with solidly.
It is unfortunate to think that these assessments are often not being utilized as well as they could be, assuming that they're used at all, but, as the article that we read points out, more research on the topic might help and simply staying educated on the topic so that we can make good use of this technique. This website has some more information on the topic as does this one.
Assessments are an interesting and challenging topic. On the one hand, we need a way to measure what our students have learned and what we need to re-teach. However, there is so much emphasis placed on standardized testing and assessment it can take some of the fun out of teaching. We are told not to "teach to the test" but we also have to make sure we have covered everything that will be on the assessment or the students won't do well. This definitely an area I want to learn more about.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, pre-assessment can give us so much information about what our students know and how to interpret the text. On another day, for example, I asked my students to read a poem and answer questions from the text. Later when I collected the pre-assessment, I've found many of them read between the lines or could not understand the hidden meaning of the poem. With such an evidence, I decided to teach a lesson about inferences, which was what they needed. The result of the assessment is a great source to guide us in planning on a lesson plan. If the majority of students have already obtain the knowledge, we may decide whether the lesson to be a review or a small group lesson. If the majority of students do not know the concept,we can refer to the assessment and see if the students have developed a certain concept.
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