My Assessment Philosophy
I believe that assessment is one of the most important parts of instruction and should be used in the classroom everyday. That does not necessarily mean that students will have a test everyday. There are two types of assessments, formative and summative. Formative assessments are what, I believe, should be used in every lesson. These assessments include a wide variety of strategies that a teacher can use in order to get a quick understanding of whether or not students comprehend the lesson. The strategies that I like to use are exit cards, white board participation, post-it notes, class discussions, and conferencing. Formative assessments allow teachers to change their instruction in the moment. If after giving a formative assessment in a lesson and I see that most students did not grasp the concept, then I can then plan my next move. This could be either re-teaching or creating small groups to work with. Conferring with students is also very important. During independent practice conferring with students individually is the best way for me to know whether or not the student understands.
The second kind of assessment is summative. I believe summative assessments are just as important as formative assessments, but should not be given as frequently. These kinds of assessments can come in the form of tests at the end of a unit, a final paper, or a final project. These assessments allow for the teacher to see if the whole class understood the unit and can show their knowledge of that topic. If formative assessments have been done throughout the unit in every lesson, then students should not have a difficult time with summative assessments. These assessments also allow students to practice for standardized tests such as the NJ Ask or the PARCC.