8083mod3discuss
Candyy31
RESPONSE1.docxRESPONSE 1
RE: Discussion - Module 3
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Age Group: K
What are Assessments Used For:
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) states that teachers use assessments for a purpose. Those purposes are articulated to parents and families as objectives and goals for children to obtain. Assessments can be formative, summative, informal, and formal. Professional teachers should also develop a comprehensive picture of the whole child, including the cognitive, social, physical, and language domains (NBPTS, 2012). At times, teachers may need to provide accommodations, which is when the student is taught the same material but in a different way. Or, other times, a teacher may need to make modifications for a student; this is when a teacher changes what a student is taught or expected to learn (Differences Between Accommodations and Modifications, n.d.).
Running records are a formative assessment that teachers use to observe students' reading behaviors. This assessment is meant to be given often to observe students' cognitive thinking while reading and assess a student's language (Briceno & Klien, 2019). Teachers take notes while a student is reading and then analyze the data to determine the next steps and strategies to be taught during a guided reading lesson (Stegman, 2015). Running records are quick formative assessments teachers can take informally to help guide instruction. This assessment can be used to share with families the students reading level and how parents and families can support their children when they read at home.
Running records can be accommodated to meet the needs of dual language learners. For example, teachers can offer sufficient processing time as children read. Teachers can modify running records by not counting miscues like leaving off word endings or counting errors for words that are mispronounced due to language differences. Dual language learners will have background knowledge from their native language that needs to be accounted for (Wida, 2013).
The Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS) is a performance-based assessment given to Georgia kindergarten students that align with Georgia state content standards. This assessment is meant to provide teachers ongoing diagnostic information about a kindergarten student developing skills in cognitive, social-emotional, language, and physical domains. Throughout the year, the teacher will assess the student by offering performance-based tasks and determine if the child is demonstrating, not yet demonstrating, emerging, or exceeding standards. Throughout the year, the test is formative as it allows teachers to know where to target instructions and how to plan interventions for student success. The test is summative at the end of the year, letting teachers know if students met state standards. Teachers use GKIDS information to inform parents and caregivers of students' development and identify areas of concern.
The GKIDS assessment can be accommodated to meet the needs of students with disabilities by offering one on one assessment practices, which is essential when meeting with kindergarten students with special needs. The assessment can also be given in a separate location to help students focus or pay attention to the teacher as questions are being asked.
Authentic assessments are another way to assess kindergarten students' knowledge. These assessments are an alternative to paper-pencil assessments (Petre, 2014). Alternative assessments like project-based learning are a great way to motivate students to show what they have learned. These assessments can be in the form of posters, story baskets to retell, and many other creative alternative ways for exceptional students to share what they know. Teachers can communicate with parents about upcoming projects and give families learning objectives and outcomes for what students should know.
Briceño, A., & Klein, A. F. (2019). A Second Lens on Formative Reading Assessment With
Multilingual Students. Reading Teacher, 72(5), 611–621. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1774
Differences Between Accommodations and Modifications. (n.d.). https://www.azdisabilitylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Differences-between-Accommodations-and-Modifications.pdf
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood
generalist standards (3rd ed.). http://boardcertifiedteachers.org/sites/default/files/EC-GEN.pdf
PETRE, A.-L. (2014). Stimulating Learning Motivation of Early Education and Primary School
Students through Alternative Methods of Assessment. Journal Plus Education / Educatia Plus, 10(2), 303–312.
Stegman, B. (2015). Formative Assessment: 7 Tips to Make Running Records Manageable and
Useful. George Lucas Educational Foundation. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/make- running-records-manageable-useful-bridget-stegman
Wida. (2013, March 13). WIDA Blog: Running Records and ELLs: Miscue Analysis. WIDA Blog. http://widaatwcer.blogspot.com/2013/03/running-records-and-ells-miscue-analysis.html
RESPONSE2
Kelli Barnes
RE: Discussion - Module 3
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Individual Assessments
Age Group- 2nd grade-8yr.
As the education system has evolved over decades of reform, assessments have become a prominent fixture that continue to mold instruction and inform teachers. Regrettably, assessments have become a tool of comparison and a meter to rank children that has highlighted the proliferation of data(Sellar, 2015). While the pool of assessments can be vast and driven by data, we as educators must utilize these tools with purpose and intention, just as the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards recommend (NBPTS, 2012). For this week's assignment, I will focus on the students in 2nd grade that are at the age of 8. These students are introduced to multiple facets of assessments that include cognitive, social, and linguistic development.
Running records are a vital source of information for students in this age group. This type of formative assessment is mostly used in reading. Students are able to read aloud while the teacher is able to record errors or self-corrections. In addition, the student is given the opportunity to answer comprehension questions that relate to the story just read. This assessment caters to cognitive ability and content knowledge, while building social development during the comprehension conversations with the teacher. Furthermore, this formative assessment can guide he teacher and show the students strengths and areas for improvements, while giving the teacher insight for ELL students in the classroom (Afflerbach, et al, 1995). To modify this lesson for ELL students, the teacher could use letter or picture cards to help bridge the language gap. Although this assessment is very informative and can provide substantial data for all learners, it can be time consuming.
Summative assessments, such as end-of-unit quizes, are often used as a gage for understanding These assessments provide great cognitive ability and prior content knowledge for the teacher to influence instruction. However, these typical paper and pencil quizzes or tests do not allow much growth for social development. On the other hand informal assessments, such as journaling, can provide a more developmentally appropriate stance on assessing a student's capabilities in the classroom (Guss, 2013). Journaling, where students could record specific things they learned from a lesson or things they had difficulties with can provide the teacher with more insight while promoting less anxiety during an assessment. In addition, the teacher could assess the student's writing, cognitive ability, and prior content knowledge with this assessment. While developmentally appropriate and more engaging, students that have difficultly with writing would not be as successful with this type of assessment. To modify the lesson for students with disabilities, the teacher could dictate what the student has learned.
The most common formal assessment is an end-of course or end-of-year grading tool that covers all subject areas and content taught throughout the entire year. The formal assessment that is used in my district would be a MAPS testing tool. This is a computer based assessment that allows students to show growth and academic achievement at the end of the year. It covers ELA, Reading, and Math and measures cognitive ability and content knowledge across different content areas. However, because it is computer based, it can be quite time consuming and stressful on students, due to content. Although, there are some cons to the MAPS assessment, it is very reliable and provides substantial valid data. In addition, this assessment does provide time and question modifications to reduce anxiety. This data is used to drive instruction, help teachers focus on weak areas for students, and inform upcoming teachers of student's strengths and weaknesses.
Assessments have been and will continue to be a vital component of education. While some assessments are better than others, we as educators have to remain vigilant on utilizing developmentally appropriate assessments for all students. For this particular age group, the assessments discussed are purposeful and intentionally given by teachers. They foster multiple developmental domains and provide teachers with data to drive instruction. Furthermore, some are designed and implemented by teachers that improve the authentication (Perry, et al, 2020). Information from these assessments can be utilized by teachers for classroom instruction, lesson modification, differentiation for students, and to inform upcoming teachers of a student's strengths and weaknesses. Assessments such as MAPS and summative assessments can also inform families of child's growth and development in 2nd grade, which is essential when building a community of learning. Lastly, accommodations for students is essential, but we as teachers must remember that while we support and accommodate those students with needs, often time modifying an assessment to better suit a student's abilities is our initial step.
Afflerbach, P., Parker, E. L., Armengol, R., Brooke, L. B., Carper, K. R., Cronin, S. M., Denman, A. C., Irwin, P., McGunnigle, J., Pardini, T., & Kurtz, N. P. (1995). Reading Assessment: Teachers’ Choices in Classroom Assessment. The Reading Teacher, 48(7), 622–624. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20201513
Guss, S. S., Horm, D. M., Lang, E., Krehbiel, S. M., Petty, J. A., Austin, K., ... & Holloway, S. (2013). Using classroom quality assessments to inform teacher decisions. YC Young Children, 68(3),16.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). (2012). Early childhood
Nancy E. Perry, Simon Lisaingo, Nikki Yee, Natasha Parent, Xinke Wan, Krista Muis. (2020) Collaborating with teachers to design and implement assessments for self-regulated learning in the context of authentic classroom writing tasks . Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 27:4, pages 416-44
Sam Sellar. (2015) A feel for numbers: affect, data an d education policy . Critical Studies in Education 56:1, pages 131-146.
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