Everyday Assessments

The Importance of Everyday Assessments By J. Myron Atkin and Janet E. Coffey In this article the authors believe that there are positive results from doing daily classroom assessments, an... See More

The Importance of Everyday Assessments By J. Myron Atkin and Janet E. Coffey In this article the authors believe that there are positive results from doing daily classroom assessments, and that science gets overlooked in this subject area. It gets overlooked because of the accountability that educators have to deal with by showing some form of measurement for a grade or for the public. Everyday assessments do not have to be just in the form of tests or quizzes, but can also be by student conversations, observations, lab investigations, projects, explanations or the questions that the students are asking. Students need to get immediate feedback from the assessments but when we give them a worksheet, it takes time to get that back to them. I feel too often that we are pressured to have a certain amount of grades for each student to show the parents how their children are doing in a subject area. There needs to be more focus on how students are learning and not so much on what is their grade. After reading all the information on all the different ways we can assess our students, I feel that classrooms would be more inviting if they could investigate, question and participate actively instead of worksheets, therefore, the students would be facilitating their own learning. The most difficult part is to have a philosophy and an understanding with students to know what your expectations are and what their learning goals are.

It makes sense, and is worth the time!

I have recently started following the advice in this book chapter, and I am starting to think that Everyday Assessment MAY just be the missing link from having the students explore/explain ... See More

I have recently started following the advice in this book chapter, and I am starting to think that Everyday Assessment MAY just be the missing link from having the students explore/explain ... and be able to explain again a few days/weeks/months later! Our mile-wide, inch deep curriculum tries its best to cover every aspect of Chemistry in two semesters... last year I did not 'waste' time on everyday assessment, as I was trying to impart information at a dizzying rate. I worked hard, but reflecting on the year I realized I needed to work SMARTER. Having I read this book chapter, I resolved to try using short 'exit slips' INSIDE the lesson, EVERY DAY, getting students to self-grade in red pen immediately after the quiz so they had instant feedback and THEY could see what they did not understand, so they could take responsibility to ask the questions and get clarification..... Don't groan if you are doing this automatically, or it is old news for you - I am not College of Ed so this was a brand new Ah-Ha! moment for me! I am grateful to this book chapter for giving me Scientific reasons to try something I was reluctant to do; it nudged me to consider spending time on DAILY semi-formal assessments. I am seeing the results in the classroom :-)