Principles and Practices: The Ultimate Guide to Effective Classroom Assessment

Mohamed A. Ansary

The University of Arizona

Introduction

As a teacher, your duty toward your class is not limited to teaching. It also includes knowing which students are weak in which subjects and finding ways to assess this. Once you are able to do this, you will find that your students respond better to your classes and that you can tailor your classes to their needs.

In this volume, you will find many teaching assessment principles and practices that may not be conventional. However, they do work. How do I know? I have been teaching classrooms for most of my career and the techniques have all been tried and tested. They also apply to kids of most ages although your technique is tailored to their ability level. Thus, whereas you would use written work in some of the exercises, younger kids may be encouraged to answer your assessment questions in picture format.

Not only do you gain the respect of your class, but they also feel that their voices are being listened to. Once you cross that teacher/student barrier in this way, the response that you get from children is always going to be more successful. You will know from the assessments where you need to place more or less emphasis. Children are all different and learn differently. It’s hard when you have a class of kids in front of you to level your teaching to fit all of them. However, when you learn assessment techniques that are effective – regardless of whether they are established or recognized – you win the battle of wits and are able to assess your class accurately.

The kids within your class deserve your best attention. Perhaps you think that you are giving them this, but the unconventional assessments shown within the pages of this book may demonstrate that you are not. I hope so because it will keep you on your toes, learning the different styles of learning and being able to cater for them. When you know how to do that, you improve your overall score values in your class and it is noticed by a school that your particular method of teaching has value. You will also find that your principal is only too happy to oblige you with extra props and the potential of outings if you explain in such a way that he will see the benefit to the children.

I hope that the book gives you sufficient information to up the ante in the classroom and helps you to bring out your gift of teaching, in such a manner that your assessments help you to give that same value to each child in your class. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses is essential and once you do, you can use this to your advantage. Remember, they are not the only ones with weaknesses and strengths. Teachers have these too and addressing them will make you a stronger teacher and a more respected one.

Chapter One:

Pre-Assessment of Backgrounds

If you know something about the kids that are in your charge, this helps you to understand why they respond to class in certain ways. Remember that children will always be influenced by their surroundings and their parents’ attitudes. Thus, if you are teaching politics and you know that the majority of the kids in your class come from Republican families, you will know that pushing the idea of democracy may be hard. However, it’s easier than you think if you take a neutral stance and teach kids the basics so that they are informed enough to form their own views. One of the mistakes that teachers do make is bringing their own beliefs into the classroom and this is something that you should avoid at all costs. If a child sees that a teacher is biased, that gives the child license to be biased too. Kids emulate what they see in the way of behavior. Thus, knowing a bit about their backgrounds is paramount because it tells you how to approach subjects that may not be of interest to them.

In a younger class, kids may be asked to introduce themselves to their fellow classmates and tell them a little about themselves. Teachers should listen attentively to these talks as they give away a lot of information. The shy kid, the kid who is going to be difficult and the kids who don’t have a lot of happiness in their lives actually come to the forefront by watching:

• Their body language
• The way they approach talking about themselves
• The way that they talk and what they talk about
• Their reluctance to answer questions

That’s all pretty basic stuff in a younger class because you can help children to change opinions and become more open minded. However, with older kids you need to be a little spontaneous and ask them things when they think the class is at an end. Thus watch your clock and a few minutes before the end of the class, pass out papers to your students to fill out when they get home, as part of their homework. These can include questions about what the student expects to get from the class you are teaching. Kids won’t be expecting a question like that when they are being asked for their opinion, but if you start out in this way, you open up avenues for children to actually tell you how they feel about the class, rather than simply sitting there like dummies keeping their thoughts to themselves.

In one instance where I asked kids to describe what they wanted out of the class, the written homework that was handed in told me so much about the kids that I was able to adjust the curriculum a little so that it took into account the fact that most of the kids were visual learners and needed that stimulation to help them to retain an interest in the subject. Typical comments would be:

• I will find all the reading material hard to understand
• I think a lot of what is taught isn’t relevant to our lives
• I hate this subject
• I would prefer to be watching TV

You have to remember that these are children being brought up in a very visual age. They may enjoy playing video games and they may enjoy studying online. However, it’s your job, as a teacher to find out if the kids are visual learners if they enjoy learning through auditory means, whether they are kinesthetic learners (those who prefer a tactile approach) and which kids in your class actually prefer to learn from written material. Gear your questions in such a manner that kids give this away in their replies.

For example:

Which do you prefer?

            Watching educational programs on TV

            Reading quietly

            Role acting situations that help you to learn

            Learning from visits to places that help the learning experience

            Using Internet research

The unorthodox question you have to ask them is what they expect to get from the class. This one helps you to see individual answers, but it will only do this if you grab the attention of the kids before you give out the questions and tell each and every one of them that they should write what is true and not be worried about what they think the teacher wants them to say. Establishing their individual right to have certain beliefs helps to get you off on a good footing with the kids and even if they are less than flattering in their answers, you should not pull them up about it, but learn to accept that their approach may be different to the standard approach. Knowing their characters helps you to decide who leads and who needs that extra help with their learning experience.