Effective Assessment Essay

561 Words3 Pages
Topic 9: Lecture on the effective assessment Assessment! Why do we assess? To report what students are able to do at a certain point in time? This evaluative summing up of achievement refers to summative assessment or assessment of learning. There are many reasons for conducting classroom assessments – assigning grades is an obvious one. Effective assessment allows teachers to monitor students progress toward achieving learning targets, determine whether instruction is effective, detect students strengths and weaknesses, diagnose learning problems, provide feedback, motivate and engage students, and prepare them for high-stakes tests (McMillan, 2011). Effective assessment therefore enhances teaching and learning as well as allows a means for providing information on student achievement and learning needs (McMillan, 2011). What assessment provides immediate information about how students are progressing in their learning and where they are having difficulties? Formative assessment, or assessment for learning, enhances student learning and achievement and helps teachers improve instruction (Wiliam, 2005). Assessing students during class allows teachers to immediately identify misunderstandings and direct students towards reaching desired learning targets (Wiliam, 2005). There are many modes of formative assessment, both formal and informal, including observations, rich questioning, oral presentations, team projects, assignments, peer reviews and self-assessments (McMillan, 2011; Wiliam, 2005). We will discuss two important formative assessment tools specifically and how they enhance learning. Self-assessment To achieve success students need to grasp of what they are doing, how well they are doing it and, what they need to do to improve (Chappuis and Stiggins, 2002). Self-assessment tasks help students understand what good work looks like and how to
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