Chapert14

Informal assessment: It would be the questions that I ask to the students at the beginning and while the lecture is taking place. For example, in the area calculation objective, I would start my class asking the students questions about background knowledge they should already have, such as: What is perimeter? What is area? What is the difference between these two concepts?  What else you can tell me about area? These questions allow me to have a general idea of the level of the class.  Then, based on my conclusions, I may rearrange the lecture according to students’ needs.  Later, after some knowledge has been build during the class, I will ask questions to ensure they are mastering the content and how far they can go with their knowledge, such as: Why do you think such and such? How you come out with that result? What will happen if I change this condition? Etc.  No grade is given to student for informal assessment.

Authentic assessment: It would be a problem-solving question in which the students have to measure the dimensions of a given irregular shape room drawing, using feet as unit; then calculate how many square feet of wood they need to buy in order to build a wood floor of that irregular shape room, and finally calculate how much the wood will costs to build the floor if the price of the wood per square foot is given.  I would use the authentic assessment on the area calculation objective because it will help me to measure student’s knowledge of the concept of area and their skill of apply it in a real-life situation.  In this problem, they not only need to understand what they need to calculate, but also the measurements they need to take and what they are obtaining as answer for each question in order to answer the following one. Authentic assessment is done under specific time and graded.

Paper-pencil assessment and Teacher-developed assessment:  This assessment would have several parts.  It would start with a vocabulary part using matching items (no more than ten).  It will help students break the test anxiety because normally they found matching item easy to achieve. Then a multiple choices part where the students have to solve short-simple problems in order to get their correct answer. It can be thinking as a warm-up for later more complex problem.  While solving short problem students have to use tools or knowledge they will need later in order to solve the last part of the test, bringing and refreshing that knowledge.  The final part would be an open-ended problem in which the students have to apply their knowledge to solve a real-life problem.  The last part of this assessment overlaps with the authentic assessment, plus the teacher-developed part overlaps with the informal assessment, since the questions are developed by the teachers for their own classrooms. In general, I would use the paper-pencil/teacher-developed assessment as a summative assessment because it allows me to measure students’ achievement in a standardized format, however allow to accommodation when needed.  Paper-pencil assessments are reliable, and if they are well designed they can give content validity, plus their practicality is undoubted.  Paper-pencil/teacher-developed assessment is timed and graded.

Criterion-references assessment: In math a criterion-reference assessment could be the same paper-pencil/teacher-developed assessment since it will tell me exactly what students have learn or not and what are their deficiencies.  However, a day-to-day criterion-references assessment could be a last ten minutes exit ticket based on a couple of problems referring the class subject that allows me to discriminate what the students have or have not accomplished.  It will help me to rearrange the following class in order to build knowledge in their deficiencies at the same time that cover the curriculum.  The assessment will be graded forcing students to take their work seriously.

Advantage and/or Disadvantage of norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessments: I can see a clear advantage in the criterion-referenced assessments since they are designed to tell us if the students have or have not mastered a specific subject or objective.  If well designed, criterion-referenced assessments can help us, as teachers, to measure and understand the level of the students and their needs.  However, one disadvantage could be that if the criterion-referenced assessments are not well designed they can give us wrong information about what students have accomplished.  On the other hand, I found norm-referenced assessments less practical for us as “regular” teacher.  Perhaps if I think in special educator I can see that norm-referenced assessments can have more value, since it can be used as a tool to gather information and understand about disability in particular student.