Assessment-9/3

We have been learning a lot about assessment the last couple of classes. I have received a lot of assessment training in my previous education courses, but it was interesting to see it from another point of view. However, I feel like high school assessments were more focused on, so in this blog I'm going to focus the assessments more on a elementary, special education stand point.

Going off of the chart in Omrod's text, I will provide an example of an assessment along with how it will be used in the classroom.

1. Informal assessment vs. formal assessment- Both of these are crucially important in the classroom in order to track the progress your student is making. In a special education environment, data is everything. Data allows for more comprehensive IEP goals and objective, provides examples of student's work to show parents, and provides a clear look into the child's abilities. An example of an informal assessment would be asking students comprehension questions about the lesson. This provides an easy way to gauge student understanding throughout your lessons in order to allow changes in planning so mastery is achieved. A informal assessment could also be as simple as tracking a student with autism's performance on discrete trial testing.  An example of a formal assessment would be a portfolio of the students work at the end of the unit. Students would collect the work they have been completed, and data would be collected on the conceptual knowledge of the child. This type of assessment allows for end of unit data collection without the traditional exam that students with disabilities may struggle with.

2. Paper-pencil assessment vs. performance assessment- As a special educator, it is preferable to err on the side of performance assessments based on your students' abilities. Although this is not as practical as paper-pencil exams, it can be more a reliable assessment for students who may struggle with reading and writing. A performance assessment can be a lot simpler than it was shown to be in class. A good example of this is that students independently read an informational text, on their reading level, about a species of animal. The students then pretend to be zoologist and present what their animal eats, where they live, and interesting facts. This activity will clearly show the level of comprehension achieved.

3. Standardized test vs. teacher-developed assessment- Due to the differing levels of student mastery, teacher-developed assessment is more valid in a special education setting. Although it may more impracticable to spend time creating the assessment, it allows for greater accommodation and modification for your individual students. An example of teacher-developed assessment would be a small quiz given after a lesson on clouds. Since you have created the assessment, you can create it catering to most of your classroom while providing accommodations to individual student's quiz. This allows for greater teacher intervention in the assessment rather than giving the students the same generated quiz.

4. Criterion referenced vs. norm referenced assessment- In the special education environment, criterion referenced  assessments are used more frequently due to the fact that each student may be at a different level or stage in mastery than another student. It is important to use criterion referenced in order to document the students goals and successes according to the curriculum provided by the school instead. A criterion referenced assessment could be a set of questions delivered to the student after their completion of two digit addition. A student can show how they have succeeded in an area of study rather than how they are doing in comparison to their peers.

5. Traditional assessment vs. authentic assessment- Both of these assessments are important in special education. Traditional assessments are of course given to see how the student is doing academically, but authentic assessments are given frequently to help the student socially. A traditional assessment could be a student completing a performance assessment on George Washington. This assessment could be given after the student has read books and studied the historical figure. This assessment is measuring only classroom objectives and is not pertinent to the other aspects of the student's lives. An authentic assessment can be documenting the student's use of manners after a lesson of how to behave in a well mannered way. This can increase the social lives of students outside of the classroom, but their progress can be monitored in the classroom. For a summative assessment of this, students can complete a performance assessment where they use their new social skills in a mock social setting. Authentic assessments seem to be more crucial to a student with disabilities due to the fact that they may struggle with different  aspects of life outside of the classroom that students without disabilities may be accustomed to already.

It is much easier to come up with assessments during the lesson planning process. It is important that you begin with the assessment and what you want the student to achieve before you begin planning the body of the assessment, this allows for a valid assessment that will truly measure your student's progress. Although my examples of assessments may seem vague and impractical, the same string of thinking can be applied to real lesson planning which will lead to more valid and reliable assessment.