Assessment A Child And Adolescent The Term `` Made Me...

As a child and adolescent the term â€Å"assessment† made me cringe inside. Now, as a future educator my perspective on this topic has completely changed. Over time, assessment has developed a negative connotation among many individuals. However, I think we as educators are to blame for this. Student’s attitudes about tests reflect the teacher’s attitude in many cases. We need to make it exciting for children, which is how I intend to approach testing because this is a way for students to demonstrate what they know and have learned throughout school. Assessments are important and stand to be a useful tool for multiple reasons. Primarily, it helps educators make decisions about what to teach students. Tests provide information about what†¦show more content†¦These should not be graded and should be used solely for the purpose of knowing what you need to teach, which needs to be made clear to students. This type of assessment is appropriate before covering any type of new material that has not been taught yet. One of my favorite pieces about pre-assessments is that you can tailor them to any learner and support multiple intelligences. Students can demonstrate their knowledge through writing, drawing, discussions, concept maps, performing, and etc. I plan to use the strategies that are most applicable to my students. For example, most elementary children love to draw and color so this is an effective way to assess them without any added stress or anxiety that arises with the stigma of an assessment. Also, while teaching summer school I used chart paper and had my students tell me everything they knew about tornadoes, which helped address the various misconceptions the students had. Ultimately, pre-tests should let students express themselves in varying methods and allow for that differentiation to take place that Howard Gardner promotes. The next type of test that is useful for educators and students themselves is formative assessment. As these happen all throughout the school year, this t ype of test provides students with continual feedback and gives them an idea of where they are in terms of understanding the content and developing as a learner. Thus, the depth of feedback