Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning

I really enjoyed this reading. Not only did this reading talk about ways that could help a teacher teach their students, but it also talked about ways to further help the students. I especially liked that this article provided examples of ways to better evaluate students and gave the alternatives to multiple choice tests or as they called it, “Alternatives to ‘Correct Answer’ Tests.” This is important because I know that as a student I hated those. They always made me second guess myself and I never felt confident taking them unless I had studied like crazy. However, this article provides numerous ways to replace them and give students a chance to truly show their understanding.

Another thing that really stuck out to me in this reading was the section that provided numerous ways to grading students. I really liked the one that involved student self-assessment. I feel as though having students assess themselves can go a long way in helping them become better writers, or presenters, or whatever the activity/assignment is.Something that goes along the lines of self-assessment that was also mentioned in this reading was in the section “Determining Student Learning in Your Classroom.” This section talked about exit memos being a way for teachers to better understand what the students are learning. I completely agree with this. Personally, I hate asking questions in class in fear of sounding dumb to my peers, however with exit memos it can give students a chance to say what they understood or did not understand in confidence making them more likely to share.

I really enjoyed this reading. I must say, I have yet to come across a piece of reading in this class that I have not found the least bit informative and worth holding on to. I will for sure be using this in the future for when I become a teacher and need to begin assessing my own students.