Pros and Cons of Assessment

Assessment needs to be carefully selected because not everyone will perform well on any  assessment. The assessment in the comic above is ridiculous because it is obvious who can climb, but if the man said "Get to the top of that tree" then more animals would have a chance if they could cut/break the tree down or even fly to the top.

So Pros and Cons: Here we go...

1. Selected response and short answer can do a good job of assessing a variety of topics and they are easy to grade. The test can cover a wide variety of knowledge in a minimal amount of time. However, "if you want to assess how well students can choose from their store of reasoning proficiencies to solve a problem, solve a problem requiring several steps, explain their choice or reasoning process, or defend an opinion, you must use another assessment method." 

2. Extended written response requires students to think an explain the reasoning behind their thought process. The questions need to be new to the students and not a problem previously viewed or rehearsed. This type of assessment requires that more time is spent grading and the criteria can be unclear.

3. Performance assessment sounds tricky because of the complications of scoring it. It requires time to observe and score carefully and it requires an unbiased evaluator.

4. Personal communication "is a strong match to reasoning targets. Teachers can ask students questions to probe more deeply into a response." Along with the extensive record keeping, this requires a lot time for interviewing.

As I begin writing my lesson plan, I get to consider what type of assessment I should think about. I really want to use selected response for all assessments but I am going to be an English teacher and that won't work with essays. All four assessment styles will work great in my classroom. I will definitely be switching things up.