Blog 5

Prompt #5: “Reflect on your use of assessment in the classroom. On a scale of 1 – 10, ten being highest, how would you rate yourself. What are your plans for becoming a “10” if you are not there already? How are you using assessment in the classroom to guide your instruction? Describe how assessment results are used to differentiate instruction within your class.”

I would rate myself as a 3 out of 10 on my use of assessment in the classroom. On a weekly basis I provide students with a formative assessment that is aligned with our district pacing guide and math department. The rubric that our department uses is still undergoing some experimentation. Students are given a score between 0 and 4 based on their mastery of learning objectives and this translates into an equivalent score for their grade at the end of the grading period. According to my math department head, it is not sufficient just to get the right answers; students must demonstrate certain mathematical practices to receive perfect scores. While I agree on this rigorous approach to assessing our students, the standardization of this grading scale is extremely difficult. Most of my grades are adjusted based on my informal observations on student performance during the week. Whether this is an accurate representation of true mastery is still up to debate, but it is at least helping me identify student levels of understanding on a lesson-to-lesson basis.

I give my students at least two formative assessments on the same objectives. I keep the score of the best assessment for each student. While this works for some students who show improvement by the second assessment, it is the opposite for others. It makes me wonder how students are comprehending the material. Of course, if the entire class shows low performance on a particular objective, I use that as a sign that I need to reteach the objective. Still, I am behind on my pacing guide and our principal is pushing us to catch up. It's becoming harder to take up days for reteaching. 

I look at the tests of students that consistently score low on every objective. Most of these students also have IEPs, although some of them seem to have negative attitudes in my class every day. For my IEP students, I've provided alternative assessments along with the formative assessment that every student takes and give them to choice of taking one or the other. I tried to give different assessments to individual students based on their IEP goals, but it became too much of an organizational disaster. Without a paraprofessional in the room, it becomes even more difficult to even address each student's IEP goals. Some of these students remain lost for the entirety of the class, and I'm constantly thinking of ways to reach out to them and address their needs. It's going to take a lot more investment on my part, and I don't like calling parents.

I've met with several parents during parent-teacher-conferences, but I do need to start calling parents--especially those of the students who are having attitude issues in my classroom. 

I also need to find a way to help all students who are having difficulties (not just the ones who raise their hands every time during independent practice) during class. I need ideas.