Assessment in The Classroom 

       Standardized Testing. Two words that can instantly send any educator into a frenzy. It’s no secret that standardized testing often receives negative feedback from future and present educators of our youth. As this chapter points out, there are more and more testing requirements being enforced as the weeks go on. Something that really stuck out to me, was one of the scenarios located on the first page of the chapter where Rosa and George were given test questions and marked “incorrect” answers even though the answers they gave seemed to be better fitting than the ones that were provided. The only reason they were penalized was because their answers were different from the experiences of the person who wrote the questions. This situation is more common than you'd think and I find it extremely contradicting that throughout children’s education we encourage them to learn using context clues and experiences but we tear that skill away from them when we rely on standardized testing to be the basis of our lessons. This scenario states that Rosa and George are in the first and second grade when given this test and according to the stages of Child Development on pages 56 & 57 their age groups are just then mastering the skill of distinguishing between right from wrong. At seven & eight they are realizing the difficulty and worrying that school might be too hard, which is a very fragile realization that requires reassurance from their teachers. One of the reasons this concerns me is because of the pressure that I know standardized testing puts on children and teachers. Did anyone else have this concern when they read this scenario? One of the qualities of being a great educator is being aware of each students strengths, weaknesses, and striving to help each child to reach their full potential through encouragement and praise. I feel that because of the pressure that standardized testing puts on the classroom, it is easy to get caught up on the focus of raising test scores rather than teachers giving their full attention to each students strengths and weaknesses.

            However, while I have such strong feelings on the negatives of standardized testing, I am aware of the importance that assessing the students has on their growth. This chapter opened my eyes to some creative and insightful ways that teachers can access their students without overwhelming them.  Using authentic assessment techniques in the classroom was more appealing to me because of the diversity it has and could be altered to benefit the needs of the student. Using videos and audio recording would be a good way for students to motivate the students because it allows them to see at first hand, what they are doing correctly/incorrectly. Having conferences and checklists are also great ways to maintain routine and focus throughout time periods that incorporate collaboration not only between teacher and student, but also incorporation the students parents. Does anyone else agree that these techniques could be beneficial to the classroom development?

           Using Informal Inventories in the classroom was another strategy that got my attention, specifically portfolio assessment. To me, this seems like a great way to track student progress throughout the year in a low-pressure way that can help the teacher and student while motivating them. This strategy also would be useful to parents because it updates them and allows them to have solid information of their child’s skills. As I read this it sparked my mind to wonder what other low-pressure testing we could incorporate into our classroom, does anyone else have any ideas of ways we could do this? The further that I read in this chapter, the more that I began to realize that testing can be done as long as it is monitored and altered with each child’s development in mind.