InTASC+6

"We use the general term assessment to refer to all those activities undertaken by teachers - and by their students in assessing themselves - that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. Such assessment becomes formative assessment when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching to meet student needs." - Black, P. & William, D. (6c)

// InTASC Standard 6: Assessment //

Assessments are the manner in which educators can see if their students comprehend the material that is being taught, or if additional instruction or practice is necessary before moving forward. Fortunately, assessments do not solely come in the form of written tests where students answer multiple choice questions in order to demonstrate that they know the rote facts; instead, assessments can be either informative, formative or summative; they can require the student to regurgitate knowledge they have learned or they can assess the student’s overall comprehension through tasks that require students to make connection between the material and something else. The sixth InTASC Standard, “Assessment,” states that the teacher understands the multiple forms of assessment and appropriately uses them to encourage students to grow, monitor their learning process, and guide the teacher’s future decisions 6g). To gain an understanding of each student’s needs and command of the content, teachers should incorporate some form of assessment in each lesson. Such instruction can be formal or informal. For example, after students have read the first chapter of a text, the instructor could ask the students to engage in a discussion. To assess what was learned in this lesson, the instructor could distribute exit tickets to the students that ask them questions about their understanding of certain characters or events in the story as well as what they predict will occur in the next chapter along with their reasoning. Beyond such informal assessments, instructors should ensure that each unit includes at least one summative assignment. Examples of summative assignments in English include argumentative essays, narrative essays, group presentations on how a selected text connects to a social issue, and an alternative creative book report of the student’s choosing. To summarize, it is essential to note that one of the most important aspects for teachers to remember is that the primary purpose of assessments is not to present students with a grade on their report card, but for the teacher to use the student’s scores for future lesson planning; the goal of assessments is to gain an understanding of where each student is so that the instructor can modify instruction in order to meet each student’s needs (6t). Also, whenever possible teachers should present students with forms of assessments that are not only appropriate for the topic, but that play to the student’s learning strengths. By combining the instructor's awareness for each student as an individual with the instructor’s discipline knowledge, the different types of assessment possibilities are numerous.



Artifact Description

What is this artifact?  This artifact is a validated practices project that I did on one of my 11th grade standard English classes. For the project I evaluated the student's ability to adequately select and incorporate textual citations into a paragraph. The validated practices project includes a profile of the class, the content objectives for the lessons, the assessment plan, the instruction of the content, an analysis of the data, a reflection and self-evaluation, the pre- and post-tests; the lesson plans for the two lessons used to teach the tested skill, an assessment data collection table, and samples of the student's work.  How does this artifact demonstrate evidence of my mastery of the InTASC Standard?  This artifact demonstrates my proficiency in InTASC 6: Assessment because the lessons I constructed, as well as the pre- and post-assessments that were created to assess the student's mastery of the skill, aligned with the content I was imparting to the students. Since I was evaluating the student's ability to correctly select and cite textual evidence, the pre- and post-tests I created presented students with a brief text to read. Students were then asked to select the best piece of textual evidence to support a prompt. To conclude each exam, students were to construct a paragraph that effectively incorporated a piece of textual evidence. To demonstrate consistency, the lessons I constructed focused on teaching those two skills. The increased data on each student's post-test indicated that the lessons and tests accurately taught the intended skills.  In what way did this artifact contribute to/relate to positive impact on student learning during my final internship?  In the classroom that the artifact was implemented, the student's proficiency in the designated skills rose by 40%. Additionally, the artifact provided me with measurable information on how to track student growth. The ability to measure and track the needs and strengths of students allows teachers to tailor their instruction for each class, thus providing accurate instruction for every student.  How does this artifact demonstrate the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle? This lesson demonstrates the "judging prior knowledge," "planning" and "teaching" components of the Planning-Teaching-Learning cycle because I was able to use the student's work to identify their instructional needs in order to plan future lessons and assessments. As such, this artifact demonstrates the effective use of student work by the instructor to gauge their comprehension and instructional needs in order to modify lessons, thus meeting each student's academic needs.

Click on the link below to access the Validated Practices Project artifact:

Validated Practices Project

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