Assessments and Data

            This is our third week of class and I feel like we have already learned so much!  I am excited to learn even more throughout the semester.  This week in teams we were discussing all the different types of assessments and how teachers can use them in their classrooms.  I really enjoyed learning more about the formative assessments.  I believe this type of assessment will be critical in assessing all of the students at one time and for setting the pace of the classroom.  In my past lesson planning I have used the exit tickets, which is a formative assessment aspect.  I really like the exit tickets and think that it will be a great way to see where my students are individually and where the class as a whole are after a lesson.  An example of myself using a formative assessment with my students in daycare this week would be when we were going over colors.  I will walk around the room and point to different colors that are in the room, rather it be the wall, something on the bulletin board, a poster, or an object.  Each child has a turn to tell me what color they think what I am pointing to is.  Then, the other students put a thumbs up if they agree with the color said or a thumbs down if they don't agree with the color said.  This way I am able to access the students individually and see if the whole class is on the same page.  Using formative assessments in the classroom goes along with standard "Teachers use a variety of methods to assess what each student has learned."  This standard is found under the North Carolina Professional Teaching standard 4 "Teachers Facilitate Learning for their Students."  I found an article called Formative Assessment is Fundamental to Good Teaching, this was a very interesting and informative article.  This article talked about how using formative assessments in the classroom increases the involvement from students in the classroom.  This made me even more excited to use formative assessments in my lessons so that my future students are staying engaged, excited about the lesson, and their brains are constantly learning because they are involved and not bored.  The link to the article is below if you would like to check it out for yourself. Although, I was very intrigued by the formative assessments, I believe that all of the different assessments are equally important and should all be used in the classroom in order to help the students to be successful in their educational journeys.  All of the assessments work together in helping the teacher to see where the students are individually, as a class, and tells the teacher how to set the pace for the class.
           In teams this week we also discussed the importance of data from the assessments.  The data helps the teacher to make instructional decisions by determining the pace of the classroom, by changing the way he/she gives instruction, by using different teaching methods, by knowing if they need to reteach a lesson or if they can move on.  All of these task are made or changed after the teacher knows the data from the assessments and is able to reflect on them and learn from them.  Without the data from the assessments the teachers would not know how to help their students, if how they are teaching is working, or if they need to use different methods in the classroom.  Data is a huge key to helping the teachers to know how to help the students and the whole class in order to help them all to be successful.  Collecting data and learning from it goes along with the standard "Teachers analyze student learning," where it says "Collect and analyze student performance data to improve effectiveness."  This standard was found under the Standard 5 "Teachers Reflect on Their Practice."  For example, if after I assess the students learning their colors and I see that seven out of the eight students do not know the color green, then I know to incorporate more learning with the color green into their week.  For example, I could talk about animals that are green, foods that are green, and show them plants.  This would help the students to see the color more, learn more about it, and be able to connect the color with real life objects.
           For my future classroom I hope to be able to learn how to incorporate formative assessments into the lessons without students realizing that I am assessing them.  Also, I want them to still be enjoying the lesson and being engaged in the lesson, while I am assessing them at the same time.  I hope to be able to incorporate all of the assessments into my classroom so that all of my future students can be successful in their education.  I also want to learn ways to help my students to not worry so much over the EOGs or other summative assessments they may have.  Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you enjoyed it!  

Link
https://www.msdf.org/blog/2016/05/formative-assessment-fundamental-to-good-teaching/