The Role of Assessment in my Classroom

Assessment is a necessary and valuable tool used in the classroom to support and
shape learning. Assessment can be a very powerful and beneficial for both the teacher
and students. As an educator, it is important to provide students with multiple
opportunities to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge. Therefore, I will
keep my students motivated to learn by providing them with varied choices in the
classroom. Students can truly benefit from various types of assessments in the
classroom such as pre-assessment, formative, and summative assessment.
Pre-diagnostic assessments, including pre-assessment, should be used initially at
the beginning of the school year. It is significant to also use pre-assessment at the
beginning of each unit. This type of assessment will allow me to know the strengths and
weaknesses of students. The information gathered will allow me as a teacher to
understand each student on a personal level. Knowing this information about students,
allows me to re-construct my teaching towards student learners.
If students are to be successful, it is important to discuss the learning objectives
with the students at the beginning of lessons and/or units. This allows the students to
see what is expected of them and to see what they are going to be experiencing. I believe
that it is important for students to know the learning objectives because it can reduce
anxiety and can assist students to be prepared for their learning in the classroom.
Once I have had the opportunity to complete pre-diagnostic assessments discuss
the learning objectives to students, it is important to implement formative assessment.
I think that formative assessment is the most important assessment tool that can be
used because it since allows the teacher to monitor the students progress. Formative
assessment is informal and can be completed on a daily basis in a variety of different
ways including observations, exit slips, questioning, think-pair-shares and self and/or
peer assessments. As a teacher, I feel as though checking for understanding is essential
to do. This will allow me to re-structure my teaching towards the needs of the students
with the goal of allowing them to all be successful. Summative assessments allow the
students to demonstrate what they know at the end of a unit. Students should be able to
express their knowledge in multiple ways, including presentations, group projects, and
choice assignments.
The three types of assessment that I think are also important to utilize as a
teacher are assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning.
Assessment for learning is meant to enhance students motivation in the classroom. As
a teacher, it is important to meet the needs of all your students with the intentions of
helping students to be successful. It is important that the outcomes are expressed to the
students in order for them to know what is expected of them. As a teacher, I would use
project-based learning to assess my students self-discovery within a topic of choice.

Assessment as learning focuses specifically on the students ability to develop awareness

of how they learn. I feel as though it is important to model and teach students skills
related to self-assessment by setting personal goals. This will allow me to be able to
monitor students progress. Assessment of learning focuses on informing students,
parents, and teacher of the students progress. This benefits the students by informing
them about their learning but will also benefit the teacher about their teaching and how
it can be re-constructed to meet the needs of the students.
Assessment should be a fair. Assessment tools needs to be differentiated in order
to meet the diverse needs of all students. To provide a fair means of assessment, it is
important to give the students the opportunity to show what they know in a way that
best suits them. By effectively using a variety of assessment methods, through preassessment, formative and summative assessments, students can demonstrate their
knowledge and level of understanding allowing teachers to develop their lesson plans
based on the diverse needs of students in the classroom.
As a teacher, all students should experience success to maintain motivation to
learn in my classroom. As I gain more experience, I believe that my philosophy of
assessment will develop further. I will establish a safe and welcoming environment for
all students which will allow the students to be assessed fairly. As a teacher, I want to
provide students with the opportunity to be successful and to be themselves in my
classroom. I want the students to experience assessment in a positive light.

References
Manitoba Education. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/
k12/assess/role.html
Rethinking Classroom Assessment with Purpose in Mind: Assessment for learning,
Assessment as learning, Assessment of learning. (2006).