Classroom Assessment and Assessment Techniques - Essay Example

? Assessment and Assessment Techniques Formative assessment refers to a set of activities which are held on end in order to have evaluation of learning outcomes. Using formative assessment techniques, teachers may be able to get exact feedback of what has been learnt by the pupils. They can exploit the grey areas and indulge betterment in teaching processes. They can add innovations in teaching system so that student can get better attainment. Usually it is comprised of qualitative feedback of performance achieved and what was anticipated in the beginning. The difference between both of the variables permits progress in teaching interactions. Students who attend their Montessori school sessions are more critical to identify and improve. Class room assessment is a tangled task which is to be performed by the teachers however it is very much useful as it provides numerous instrumental techniques to get the students’ performance improved in varied senses. It is more critical because of admitted correlation amidst learning and assessment. It is as closer as lessons and examination. To have better results in final examination and learning objectives, students are intended to get passed through simulations so that they can be able to perform accordingly. Plan for day to day formative assessment for infant school children has been devised here. It is being justified as per contemporary practices as well based on children psychology. Planning for a formative strategic plan for infant school (or Montessori) children is very critical and difficult. It is because children in this age are unaware of communicating their views properly. On the other hand, children psychologists refer it as a simplest phase of human development because children of three to five years are in continuous learning phase. They are completely dependent upon their parents and teacher for every aspect of study and life. They are easy to mould and adjust in any milieu. However teachers find it difficult to conduct assessment sessions with them in order to take verbal feedback from them because feedback cannot be taken in direct manner. They are required to design assessment surveys and questionnaires which further elaborate the actual scenario of what they have learnt so far. Following steps are devised to outline a plan comprising day to day formative assessment strategies for infant school children. 1. Questioning Questions are asked from children in order to get their beginning points and related to performance indicators. Applicable questions are asked in chronological order from lower to higher degree of their understanding. The questions are designed according to their capabilities in simpler mode of communication. The nature of questions differ in comparative manner for all ages of children. 2. Observations After questioning, it comes the turn of observations. It provides cohesive linkers to connect and find the relationship between answered given in response to certain questions. Teacher is directed to watch the activities of children in order to observe to what extent they are implementing their learning. It is also helpful for moral training for children which was intended to make a part of syllabus. 3. Discussion It is disguised way to observe the activities and mindset of children through two way interactive discussion sessions. It is very important because it gives a chance to clearly discuss the problems which are to be addressed. In the milieu of Montessori children’s education, teachers are required to synthesize interactions among students and themselves. 4. Reviewing understanding After discussion sessions, it is advised to engage the children in such activities which can elucidate their academic understanding of what they have learnt earlier in class rooms. It basically implies to practical approach of theory taught to the pupil. It may include planned or unplanned recall events which can give a feedback to teacher regarding what was planned for class room learning. In such recall tests, a teacher may include several lessons spontaneously in these tests for example addition and multiplication and spell check etc. 5. Peer assessment activities In this step, teachers engage children in group task activities for peer assessment. It evolves a sense of competition among children. The whole class is segregated in smaller groups. After that the student are asked to test each other in group activity form. They ask questions from each other according to their extent of knowledge which they have learnt in class room. Because of such group activities, teachers can get two fold feedbacks in form of individual capabilities as well as in form of group interactive manner. This is the most crucial stage in formative assessment stages because in this stage, teachers get more opportunities to get a lucid reflection of how the learning outcomes are justified in comparison of the intended ones. Assessments for learning strategies are important to implement the above devised plan to get the feedback. These are the integral part of CPD (Continual Professional Development) process for teachers, trainers and instructors for the children who belong to infant school education. In order to successfully implement the formative assessment plan, Assessment For Learning (AFL) strategies play a role of bridge. Without these techniques, formative assessment perhaps cannot be organized as it has been made in contemporary practices. It is a continuous and reliable source of obtaining motivation and morale in classroom for students. It urges a sense of competition and constructive disagreement which further enlightens the avenues to innovations and thinking ability. The measures are taken on grass root level in order to make the things organized. As per the rules given by British constitution in the name of Early Years Foundation Stage, apart from critiques and controversies, these are the perfect way out to implement the formative assessment plan designed in several ways. In order to assess children of infant schools, it is least recommended to use red pen for the sake of marking the formal class room quizzes and assessment tools. It reduces the children’s morals and motivation towards learning and innovation, it has been revealed by several children psychiatrists. For the assessment grading, teachers are sometimes devised to use traffic light grading plan. For example, there are there are three colours of traffic lights and these colors may refer as: green for actively learnt, yellow for satisfactory but still gaps for improvements while red colour denotes a lot of area has been ignored while learning. This technique makes it feasible for teachers to identify different categories of learners in class room. It may further provide an opportunity to match a student’s previous record with the immediate one. In this sense, it gives progress or improvement report of students. Peer assessment has sometimes two fold effect on children behavior because children have unpredictable behavior to show on numerous occasions. For example, it can make a child offended if a fellow asks him a hard question while another can respond productively in the same scenario. To avoid this chaos, a teacher is required to play active role as a moderator since it is the most sensitive strategy. However sometimes it is advised that it should not be practiced in class room rather it should be practiced in play grounds and picnic spots so that amusement can cover up the after effects. In the symbol usage techniques, use of smiley in different moods is also practiced widely in formative assessment. Exit cards are the simplest tool for formative assessment. For the sake of simplicity and ease, I chose exit cards for the given activity plan as devised above. It is very much usual to use this technique amongst all. It is a means of sticking the notes after solving the given problems in applied manner. The exit cards are pasted on the door of classroom while leaving. Students record their responses on these cards. It is an interesting activity to assess the students. They feel pleasure and excitement while working over this activity. However verbal questioning and group activities are integral part but written activities are crucial in order have the exact idea of students’ learning level. Disguised observation was more successful in my view, so I went for observing the children without letting them know about the assessment session. For example, I asked them to run an entertainment activity in the class room but did not let them know that it was a testing activity unlike traditional testing. I went for questioning first and then started the exit cards activity. Well, I could go for planned quiz but I intended to check the mental level and capability of children in all natural way. It provided an opportunity to check the impact of current teaching techniques I was using. I was lean to check the credibility and reliability of the method I was using for infant school children. When I told children that we were going for a competition activity in class room, children became excited immediately. They were eager to learn the rules of the game. First I took some information from them in a very unusual way so that they can be warm up for the actual activity. I had invited some other trainers for the activity as well. The stuff we required for the activity included play cards, colourful markers and some stickers. This was pretty enough to run the activity. I divided the class in to two group pink and blue. They were required to ask queries to be drawn on play cards. Both of the groups worked well. I was judging them silently. At the end, I decided to take the views of four children two were the most active whereas, the other I chose were quite lazy ones in participation. Well I did not find any deviation except personality factor. According to what I perceived, the active children belong to extrovert personality but others belong to introversions. This is how our activity went to the end. The other trainers I had invited also took views from children. Children expressed that they enjoyed the activity and they would love if such gaming activities are a part of their routine. The purpose I had intended was gone pretty much successful. Children told that they liked to write on play cards and sticking the stickers on them. A sense of competition was evolved in both of the groups however the competition went equal on both sides. EYFS is a term which is defined in children act 2006 of British government. It supports the childcare rights at educational institutions as infant school education. These learning and development requirements are only applicable to England only. The activities for formative assessment are directly related to the legitimate requirements of EYFS. It is because each institution of preschool education (which provides education before compulsory education) is required to get registered under the act of Early Years Foundation Stage in order to operate legally. Similarly they are required to conduct formative assessment to provide full value to the children in preschools. The British education system introduced the rule of EFYS to ensure creativity and innovation from preschool stages. Students are intended to provide early education and curriculum activities along. The learning and development stages requirements quests for several obligations from the childcare providers. The requirements ask for the following for a child completed five years of his or her age: Should be able to use written language by recognizing the language in play and informal language Should be able to work with phonetics and simple linguistics to stumble on more complex plausible words and clauses Should have an introductory sense of grammar such as sentence formation rules, punctuation and be able to detect miner sentence errors Should be able to answer logical questions by differentiating between several natures of sentences Should have introduction to mathematics and general knowledge in simpler manner In order to get admission in compulsory education, students are required to show their previous progress which is legitimate otherwise the role of preschools may be questionable. In order to fulfill these requirements, preschool administrators impose it on teachers to conduct class room formative assessments such that students can show enough progress as per requirements. Reference Greenstein, L. 2010. What teachers really need to know about formative assessment? Alexandria, Va.: ASCD. Read More