Reflection Post 8

Description
This week's focus was on assessing students.

Analysis
 Evaluation is used for many different reasons. Evaluations or assessments can show student progress and offer feedback and information for teachers, students, and parents (Slavin, 2012). Assessments can be formative or summative. Formative assessments are used to determine how well a student is grasping a concept and what still needs to be covered. Summative assessments are used at the end of unit to determine mastery of content(Slavin, 2012). There are two types of questions-selected response and constructed response. Selected response questions are multiple choice, true or false, and matching questions. The constructed response questions are fill-in-the-blank, short essay, and long essay questions. Constructed response questions tend to be telling of a student's ability because they have to supply their own answer instead of choosing from the provided possible answers. Performance assessments are another option for evaluating student knowledge. Performance assessments have students demonstrate skills in a real life situation. In order for evaluations to be beneficial for students, the grades should have clear expectations and feedback should be quick (Slavin, 2012).

Reflection 
Reading this chapter made me realize that I use formative assessments constantly throughout my lessons. The normally happen as discussion questions when students have to share ideas and explanations. I also use exit slips at the end of math lesson to determine how I should group students for math rotations. My classroom could not run without the use of formative assessments. I begin the year by telling my students that not all assessments will be for a 'report card grade'. I tell them that the point of the assessments are to help me be a better teacher for them. I also realized this week that I prefer constructed response questions over selected response. I believe these types of questions show the true ability of students because they are forced to use their own knowledge.

Reference:
Slavin, R. E. (2012). Educational psychology: Theory and practice (10th ed.).  Boston, MA: Pearson Education.