Ms. Yorke's
Standard #6: Assessment
The teacher understands and uses multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to document learner progress, and to guide the teacher’s on-going planning and instruction.
Summary: This standard ensures that I vary my means for assessment as to reach all learners and capture the many ways that students can express their understanding. It also suggests that I must use the results of the assessment to better inform my practice.
Artifact 1: Research Project
Essential Knowledge: 6 (o) Knows when and how to evaluate and report learner progress against standards.
Description: As part of students' summative assessment for scatter plots, they were required to research real data sets that they predicted to have a correlation. Students had to create a scatter plot between the two sets of quantitative data, assess the correlation of the data, insert a line of best fit, and answer questions requiring them to interpolate and extrapolate values.
Artifact 2: Assessment Plan
Performance: 6 (a) Balances the use of formative and summative assessment as appropriate to support, verify, and document learning.
Description: As part of my teacher work sample (TWS), I developed a plan for assessing student understanding and growth. The plan included a pre-assessment, a summative assessment, and multiple forms of self and formative assessment. These were used to inform my practice, monitor student growth, check for understanding, and determine proficiency.
Rationale: This is an authentic summative project relates directly to one of the nine main standards that eighth graders have to meet before going to high school. As part of the great strides being made at Madison Junior High School in proficiency based education (PBE), this project ensures that students have ownership and interest in their learning. Additionally, students maintained awareness of what standard they needed to meet and how they needed to meet it by using a rubric.
Rationale: The pre-assessment I gave guided the initial plans for my unit. I used to it to determine which learning goals students needed more instruction on. As we progressed through the unit, the multiple formative assessments allowed me to check for understanding and make any necessary changes to the unit design. It helped me determine which lessons I needed to shorten or lengthen to allow adequate instruction and practice. My summative assessment allowed me to calculate the mean growth and determine my effectiveness in getting students to reach the learning goals.