Take on Assessments

When I think about my take on assessments, a lot of things come to mind. I feel that assessments are extremely important to determine the success and achievement of students both throughout the lessons and units that are being taught in the classroom. Furthermore, the way we go about assessing students’ knowledge is equally important. While summative assessments in the form of standardized testing is not going away anytime soon, students need as many hands-on experiences to be made in the classroom in order to connect the classroom concepts to the world outside of the four walls of the classroom.

The students that fill the chairs in our classrooms are unaware of the difference between formative and summative assessments. Due to students not knowing the difference between the two, it can lead to one not being able to see the relevance of all the forms of evaluation students become exposed to in the classroom. In traditional teaching techniques, educators lecture to students for most of the duration of class leaving students unenthused and less motivated to learn the new material. In addition, students have his phenomenon where they do their best to memorize the information to get through that unit test. However, when it comes down to retrieving that information for a midterm or final it becomes a struggle. Students struggle with information retrieval because students’ brains have not made the connection to the information that is needed to transfer that information from short term memory to long term memory.

Knowing this has motivated me to do my best as an educator to focus my action research on the thing that matters to me most; how my students are being taught and assessed. My goal of using my action research is to shift the attitude of one that may lack willingness and motivation to one that is open and willing to learn. However, I know that this does not happen on its own. Students need to be in a classroom environment that reflects the types of attitudes and work ethics we want to see in our students. I will accomplish this through lesson plans that, are fun, engaging, and allow for students to utilize technology to support an inquiry approached classroom. When students are able to form their own individual connections to the material, they can accomplish anything in their academics.