1What does your
assessment look like?What practices do
you use to assess student learning.Is
evaluation and assessment different in your classroom?How?
I am in a learning support classroom for this half of student teaching working with 4th and 6th graders for academic support or one-on-one/small group instruction depending on their needs, and I also co-teach in 4th and 6th grade classrooms where some of our students are placed. For 4th grade, we are typically in the classroom for a mini lesson of some sort. For 6th grade, we mostly support math, writing, and reading, although they have accommodations for tests, so I have seen students come to our classroom to take math and social studies tests and also modifications on those tests. The assessments that I have seen have been a lot of progress monitoring for reading fluency, like timed passages and Dibels. We also use quizzes/tests or other assignments to assess learning. For instance, we graded some of their final copies of writing (using a rubric)on a province and also a planet they researched after teaching students about the writing process. However, there is also a lot of informal assessment through group discussions/observations. I think we always keep assessment in mind in my placement in order to plan with where we would like to end up from each specific lesson/instruction time and we also use evaluation to make sure all of our students are working towards their IEP goals.
I am also in a learning support classroom where I see a lot of progress monitoring being done to make sure the students are reaching the goals that are stated in their IEPs.
In my learning support class we mainly use the weekly quizzes and formative assessments collected over the corse of the week to determine a students' progress. My instruction is specifically shaped around students IEP goals. Having a small group individualzed learning environment allows this individualized support to take place.
Progress monitoring is also a big part of my learning support classroom. This helps us keep up on the IEP goals and progress, but also to make sure we are addressing all the needs of the students to make them the most successful they can be.
I am in a learning support classroom too. We also use DIBELS on a weekly bases to monitor the students’ reading skills. I like using the DIBELS because it helps to accurately track the students’ progress. Another similarity in how we assess and evaluate the students is the use of informal observations. I too use daily discussions and observations of students reading in evaluating their progress. I think it is wise to use a mixture of formal and informal assessments to get a complete picture of students’ growth.
In my classroom, there is mainly one-on-one or small group instruction. I am in a learning support classroom that serves grades 3 and 4. The students come to the classroom for support in writing, reading, and math. The assessment that is used in my classroom looks similar for both 3rd and 4th grade. There are some timed assessments when it comes to fact fluency. There is also a lot of workbook assessment that deals with SRA and the Write-In Reader. The students read a story and then answer questions in a notebook at the end of the story. Their answer are checked and graded for correctness. Some of the students take their tests from the general education classroom in the learning support classroom just as an accommodation. They may need some guidance while completing the assessment or just the quietness of the room to help them concentrate. As far as practices used to assess student learning, my cooperating teacher uses progress monitoring to make sure the students are progressing towards goals in their IEPs. She completes progress monitoring on reading and math activities such as fact fluency, reading comprehension, and reading fluency. As far as what I do to assess student learning in this type of classroom, I do a lot of informal assessment such as comprehension questions throughout reading a selected story and having the students write responses to a prompt in their vocabulary journals. This allows me to make sure the students are understanding the content that they are reading. Evaluation and assessment are somewhat different in my classroom. As I stated before, the assessment I see in my classroom is done in small groups or one-on-one situations where the students are responding to questions from a workbook, completing timed fact fluency pages, or working on an assessment from the general education classroom. As far as evaluation, I know my teacher does one-on-one evaluations to check the progress of the students to see what level they are on and what materials they need to work on in order to move to the next level or meet their goals that have been set in place for them.
In my classroom (Multiple Disabilities Room) it is mainly one on one, small group, or large group. When I do my lesson plans each of their goals change. I assess how the individual does in both group and individual setting. Also I have paraprofessionals that assess students on their tasks as well with their accommodations. I do not have content, but it is still just as important to meet their IEP goals.
My special education placement is in a 4th grade learning support classroom as well. The model we use for reading assessment is similar to the one you use where the students read a story and answer questions. Do you also use DIBELS and Daze for progress monitoring? We use these to make sure students are on track to meet their IEP goals. What type of assessments do you use in math?
I am currently student teaching in 7th and 8th grade mathematics learning support. My main use of sumative assessment is at the end of every week a quiz is given on the section learned over the course of the week. However, throughtout the week I provide many opportunities for my students to show their knowledge and skill level on the content being taught. These formative assessments come in the form of note sheets, modified worksheets, tickets out the door, and participation. Many times I have students come up to the board and walk themselve and their peers through the problem presented. Being able to talk out their thinking process as well as provide a visual for their peers is a great learning experience that all benefit from. In this instance my evaluation would be what I am observing the student do. However, my assessment would be the ticket out the door that I would present my students with. In the case of my instruction in this learning environemnt I see my assignments as assessing my students learning and the learning process as an observable means of evaluation.
I have also found that having students show their work on the board, has helped my other students further their knowledge of a concept. Especially when students are comfortable around one another, I use this a lot to see what my students know, and correct any misconceptions for the entire group.
We also use re-teaching to then assess how students do. For example, one of our students needs extra support in math. She completes rocket math everyday (where she is timed and sees how many math facts she gets correct). We also have a math notebook for her to use so we can go back and re-teach concepts she may need help with from ILS (which is a computer program that assesses students in different subjects) or that are being covered in her homeroom class. In her notebook, we also provide her with visuals to help her through multi-step math problems.
There are multiple ways that both my placements had me assess my student's progress. At my first placement (4th Grade Classroom) I would evaluate students using both formal and informal assessments. Some of my informal assessments included classroom discussions, collecting classwork, class projects. During class discussions I observe students how they describe their answers by evaluating asking myself "Did they answer the question?" to their best of their ability by using what details. I also try to choose variety of students whether they have your hand up or not. Just by observing students sometimes give you "the look" of understanding or misunderstanding. With class projects and classwork I try to provide a lot of options meaning "What is the best way my students can present their knowledge of the content?" In this placement I had a lot of writers and drawers. So I created worksheets that connected with the content through writing and drawing and assess the connections the students made with the content and how much effort was put into it. Through this it stimulated my students to ask a lot more questions and encouraged them to share what they know/learned. Which told me what I needed to review and when I can move on. Currently placed in an IU-13 Multiple Disabilities Room, their is almost nothing but assessment. Recently we just finished the PASA (The PSSA's Alternative Assessment). This process happens every quarter to see if the student has made any progress with grade level responses. Outside this assessment we assess students based on IEP goals. The students are on plans in the routine that practice their IEP goals until mastery(Ex: Feeding- Having students lift and put down utensil with a physical prompt). We will record how many times the student achieves the task, fails to achieve the task, and what we needed to do to get the student to do the task. We record this in a chart in their IEP notebooks and at the end of the week average the numbers together to see where the student is at. I really don't see any informal assessment other than when there is a problem ( a student not acting like they normally do) so we will try to have them do something to get back to that norm.
I am in a Life Skills classroom and we just completed the PASA's, too. I also assess IEP goals and keep data similarly to what you do, too. My classroom is not an IU 13 room, but it used to be until this school year when it was taken over by the district. It sounds like they are still run similarly!
I like how you adapted assessment to meet the neds of the students in your fourth grade classroom. You recognized the types of learners that you had and created assessments that fit those learners. I try to do that with my kindergarteners. They are so concrete and succeed when drawing, illustrating, and doing hands on assessments.
I am currently in learning support for my special education placement. I have students who pull into my classroom and I also push in to other classrooms. Assessment varies greatly depending on the needs of my students and what their IEPs state. Many of my students during assessment have all of the questions read to them, so that we are just focusing on whether they know the content knowledge or not. Students are also assessed on a daily basis after each lesson by either answering questions or performing a task that uses skills they learned from the lesson. I also take part in progress monitoring not only my identified students, but about fifteen other students. The progress monitoring uses DIBELS and then I calculate their score and track their data. This is used for students who are below level in reading. We also track the students in my learning support classroom (who have their test questions read to them), to track their progress with reading. Assessment in my classroom is ongoing. It is very important to constantly assess and evaluate the students' work and progress. This allows students to be given new IEP goals, as well as for us to know when our students can be challenged.
In my special education placement, we don't tend to separately assess beyond what the general education teacher does. In our class, we do informal assessments with small white boards and online programs that track student progress. Because I teach a differentiated math class, these students are assessed differently that those in the general eudcation classroom. We also assess students based on IEP goals to make sure we are within the statutes of the law regarding special education. We often evaluate the students, also informally, to figure out where they are in their academics and how to better help them based on their individually needs within the learning support classroom.
I am in a life skills classroom in Columbia. We assess and evaluate students every day. During classroom instruction we assess students by joking with them to make sure they are paying attention. We use EdMark to assess our students. Students are evaluated through their work the whole entire week, which is then put into a book that gives a fraction of how they have improved throughout. This is called progress monitoring.
During classroom instruction, we also have to individualize assessment based on each child's individual needs. It is a very difficult and complex process which needs to be developed mentally before the lsson is actually taught. For example, my two younger children with need to say their answers by using sign language while others can verbally say their answers out loud.
I'm in a life skills classroom, too, and our assessments sound similar -- there are a few general systems we use, but each student has their own way that they are assessed! We have a student who uses sign language as well, and one challenge we are having is determining if his sign approximations are for the correct signs. Some of his sign approximations start to look similar, which is challenging! Has that been a concern in your class, too?
I find it a little hard to respond to these responses because of not being in a special education classroom. I can relate to the individual assessments which are probably a bit different than what you are working with. We will pull students one by one once a week to individually test them on reading, comprehension, and things like that. I know it is different in a special needs classroom however I believe the concept and goal is similar.
EdMark is a reading program that allows us to individualize instruction and assessment to each student. It is difficult to assess students when they each are different in so many ways. We do progress monitoring every Friday and use what we did during the week with EdMark to put into the goals for each student.
Holly I agree as well. I think the only difference is that assessment is even more individualized than general education.
In my classroom, assessment is mainly keeping track of student's data and progress on their IEP goals. Each student is graded on everything they do and it gets put into a chart so my co-op can better see when the student meets a goal. I use more informal assessment for my students than formal assessment. My students are in a life skills classroom and the real formal assessment they get (besides the PASA's) are their adapted tests from their inclusion classes. Evaluation and assessment are continnous in my classroom because students need to be making progress or showing that they are on track to meet their goals.
I am in a 5th and 6th grade math and reading learning support classroom. Daily assessments include observing students read out loud, asking students questions, and having students complete learning exercises and write in their composition books. Formal assessments consist of tests, which are the same tests given in the general education classes. The only difference is that the test questions are read out loud to the students. DIBLES are used on a weekly bases to progress monitor students’ reading skills. Fuch’s and fuch’s is used every other week to monitor students’ math skills. Therefore, I describe my classroom assessment and evaluation system as a mixture of formal and informal assessments. I find that using a mixture of assessments and evaluations helps the teacher to accurately track and monitor a student’s progress. I also think it is important to try to keep the assessments to be the same assessments used in the general education classrooms. Even though a student recieves learning support, it does not mean that the student cannot take the same assessment used in the general education classroom. My students just need the test to be read out loud to them.
Right now, I am in a middle school life skills classroom, and we use a few different methods of assessment. The students are on several different levels, and use different programs, so we have assessments for each program, including Aimsweb, EdMark, and Saxon math. In our classroom, we use Aimsweb to assess most of the students' reading fluency and comprehension, though some of the students use EdMark, too. The Aimsweb assessments are each week, and the students also complete a practice timed reading each week as well. For math, the students are given "M-COMP" and "M-CAP" tests, one for computation skills and the other for concept application skills. The assessments are administered at the appropriate level for the student, and with differing levels of support, depending on the students needs. One student does not participate in AimsWeb or the math assessments, but instead is assessed through long-term documentation of his progress on his IEP goals. All students are assessed in science and social studies through quizzes or performance tasks. Basically, each student essentially has their own unique combination of assessments. It's a lot to manage, but it seems effective!
It sounds like you manage a lot of data! Does is ever feel like all you do is assess? Sometimes I feel like I teach 20% of the time and practice/assess 80% of the time. Are the assessments you administer computer-based? Are they completed by the student individually or does a teacher have to be there to administer it?
In my classroom, middle school autism support, each student has a progress-monitoring packet, which is aligned with IEP goals. We use a simple +/- system to track correct and incorrect responses. I'm also working with the VB-MAPP assessment just so I have some practice with it, since it seems to be very popular in the autism education world. I've started entering data into the IU's progress monitoring system, and this has helped me use the assessment data to make instructional changes.
In order to assess progress on tasks not directly linked to students' IEPs, I created a system of ranking the questions I ask (from mimicking my pointing, to higher level thinking skills). When I ask each student a leveled question, I can chart their progress, again using the +/- system.
I am in an autistic support classroom too and doing the VB-MAPP as well. I think this approach is working well with the students and I am having fun doing the whole verbal behavior approach to learning. The most challenging part is keeping track of all the data and have everything organized. What do you think of the verbal behavior approach?
Hey guys! I am also in an autistic support classroom and we use the same things! The biggest challenge I have found so far is keeping everything running smoothly with one of my students. Because the student has to get a + three times in a row to master the skill, when he has a bad day, he usually gets a -, which means he has to start over. Although he may know the word he has to tact or mand, his mood often throws him off. It is also difficult to track data when the VB MAPP moves so quickly. I don't know if your sessions go as fast as mine do, but I know with our students if you hesitate with their probes, they lose focus, so all data has to wait until the end to be recorded. It is very difficult to remember all that data until the end of their session!
I believe it is important to use both formal assessment and summative assessment in the classroom. Formal assessment allows you to see if the students understand the material you are teaching. Formal assessment also allows the teacher reflect on his or her own teaching to make sure they are teaching to the best of their ability and that all students understand the concepts that are being taught. Currently I use formative assessment in my special education placement everyday. We use the verbal behavior approach to teaching in my classroom, which includes informal assessment by seeing what students know and what we need to work on. I also use informal assessment by asking question during lessons. Specifically with one student that i teach math and reading too. I use questioning to make sure the student understands the concepts of each lesson. I think it is also important to use summative assessments in the classroom. I use summative assessments with the student i teach math and reading to. The student receives a test that i create on the math concepts we have been working on that week. This allows me to see what the student knows and what we still need to work on. Assessment also looks different for each student depending on their IEP goals. I think this is a big challenge making sure all of the student are progressing while still aligning with what their IEP states. There is a lot of data to keep track of but I think I am doing pretty well with it so far. Overall, assessment is very valuable both for the student and the teacher.
I am currently in a 7th grade learning support itinerant position. My students attend general education classes, and my teacher and I go into the classrooms to support all students. I have the opportunity to teach literature lab everyday to students which I am able to incorporate assessment. During this time I use both formal and informal assessment. An example of formal assessment would be my students are responsible for writing a short essay about the story we read as a class. They use an outline that was created to write this assignment. I also incorporate ticket out the door which allows me determine if the students understood the content covered during that period. If not, I am able to see what concept they struggled with so we can re-teach that material the next day. An example of informal assessment that I am able to use in my class is thumbs up/ thumbs down. This gives me immediate feedback about if the students are grasping the concept.
Since I spend the majority of the school day in general education classroom, my teacher and I typically do not do much project/ test assessment.
In the middle school life skills setting, there is no formal assessment. However, we do about a full hour a day of data collection that includes scoring students on the tasks written on their IEP. The majority of my students are unable to take paper tests, but almost their every move is assessed and charted and goes into their IEP. The students also do an SRA or Reading Milestones individual lesson each day. After every few lessons, they do a mastery test that looks just like another lesson except it is scored and charted. In all, the students are probably assessed about 8 times a day on different tasks.
That's interesting that an entire hour a day is spent each day collecting data. How well do the students do on the mastery tests? Are they adapted at all or do they just take longer to prepare and then take them?
In my emotional support classroom, most of our assessment in ongoing and informal. We use checklists, rubrics, but class participation is the biggest part of their assessment. This not only shows us their progress through the curriculum but behaviorally as well. The problem with this is that this data needs to be looked at on a long term basis. You don't know if the student had a bad week, 2 weeks, month which caused them to react into their escape behavior causing them to submit incomplete work. Keeping ancedotal records is key for our success in grading. As well, we provide multiple forms of assessment in each project and test to ensure the greatest success.
I am in an emotional support classroom and we do a lot of ongoing and informal assessment as well. A lot of their progress monitoring is on behavior as well. In an emotional support classroom it is important to take in account the emotions of the students when they completed assessment. In my classroom we do assessment every Friday.
It's interesting to me that your classroom values participation so much. Perhaps you just have more whole group lessons than my classroom does. Our students hardly ever have structured time where they are required to raise their hands, everything is more on a one to one basis or very small group. Do you collect data on the quantity or quality of participation. I know for our kids its just a big deal for them to offer up an idea or some form of intelligible language, so we could not collect data on their participation in relation to any curriculum.
Ashley, I do a lot of ongoing and informal assessments as well. I feel like sometimes that is all I'm doing, the majority of the time. Before my special ed placement, I had thought progressing monitoring was mostly focused on academics. However, I now know that behavior is also apart of assessing student progress both academically and behaviorally.
I have used formal and informal assessment throughout my entire student teaching experience. Most lessons do not call for a formal form of assessment until the end of the unit. Actually, the only subjects I formally assess are math, writing, spelling, and comprehension. I make sure to end each lesson with some kind of informal assessment to make sure the kiddos "got it". Sometimes this is a ticket out of the door (or to pack up their backpack), a simple question, or some worksheet/homework that needs to be turned in. These are not put into the grade book, however they give me a good idea if my students get it or what I need to teach better or again. Formal assessment comes into play at the end of a math unit, at the end of a Reading Street story, or each Friday for a spelling test. These too, are a more formal way to evaluate my students as well as evaluate myself on how I am teaching. If the majority of the students do not do well on a specific question or narrowed in topic, I know that I was doing something wrong and need to revisit the topic. When I see that students succeed, I know that I did a good job teaching the material and students also understood the concepts.
In my general education placement since I was teaching all subjects everyday, I used a variety of summative and formative assessments on a regular basis. Some were informal, such as asking questions or completing homework assignments, and some were formal, such as administering tests and grading writing pieces. In my special education placement, assessment is used in a different way. Students are assessed through their IEP goals on probe sheets that show whether or not the student is making progress with the IEP goal. For example, the ability to tact nouns. If this is an IEP goal, the probe sheets has a list of targets for the week that the student will work on until he gets the target correct three times in a row. The target is then considered "mastered" and is used sporadically throughout the rest of the year to encourage maintenance and generalization. Most of these skills are with identification, sign language, and listener responding, and some use math goals on a regular basis as well. I am also learning how to enter these assessments both on paper and through electronic form in my co-ops database she uses through the IU. I think that each teacher needs to find their own way of assessing students as they go, but both formative and summative assessments are very important each day to monitor students' performance.
In my current student teaching placement, I am in an emotional support classroom so a lot of assessment takes place in small groups. Students are in small groups for reading and math. The reading and math groups are both broken up by grade levels. Every Friday for each reading group I do Oral Reading Fluency assessment with students in grades first and second. Students in Kindergarten I do letter identification and sounds with them. In math at the end of each week students take an assessment reviewing the concepts taught that week. This allows myself and my co-operating teacher to progress monitor students. We are able to see their areas of struggles and their strengths.
We also do all our assessments in small group. In math however, we do push in so the students are still in a small group but in the general ed classroom. We also do progress monitoring every Friday. I have first graders and even a second grader that I have to do letter identification with. One of my first graders has trouble with number identification and you have to often remind her to go back and correct her numbers. I have noticed that she writes her fours so they look like h. She is one that we have to often do letter identification with.
In both placements, I have used formal and informal assessment, as well as, summative and formative assessment. A majority of assessment took place through class participation throughout instruction every day. Assessment also took place in one on one or small group instruction. Students also receive quizzes, tests, and worksheets to hand in to assess student performance, as well as, to allow myself to see what material I need to reteach. The use of a variety of assessments is extremely beneficial. I am able to gain assessment through multiple avenues and prove the accuracy of the data I have collected. We also use evaluation in the classroom. However, more specifically in my special education placement to align with the IEP goals of each of our students.
Since we are learning support many of our assessments are the same as in the general ed classroom but taken in a smaller group. We have also modified test for the students. When we modify a test we make sure it tests the same skill but does not require as much mental strain on the students. For example if the question asks how much is 6 quarters, we might modify it to say how much is 4 quarters. We also progress monitor our students every Friday. This includes an ORF, a comprehension check list and sometimes a math probe.
My assessments for both general education and special education, change from day-to-day. Similar to most of my peers, in the general ed classroom I was able to implement both formative and summative assessments. However, in the special ed classroom most of my assessments are summative. I think this is because I am hoping to see where my students need more instruction. Now, this is not to say that I do no use formative assessment at all in special ed, because I do use it sometimes. For instance, I was just teaching about there, their, and they're. I noticed the kids were able to explain the difference between the three, but not use them in sentences. So, I incorporated more activities for them to use the three theres in sentences. I TRY and reflect on my lessons daily to see where I can improve, this would be my form of self-assessment. We ask our students to self-assess, therefore it is only fair if I practice what I preach. It is also a great way to reflect on what went well and when needs to be changed. Assessments can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom and I feel as though I have used them in all different ways. From homework to tests at the end of a unit.
In my general ed. placement I used both formative and summative assessments. I feel like I used more summative assessments in my general education placement than my current special ed. placement. The students in my general ed. placement would learn something and then have a big test at the end of the unit which is the model that I am used to. I designed a summative assessment for my unit on landforms. In my special ed. placement the way they do the summative assessment is in chunks. For example with our math assessment on geometry it was split into sections such as symmetry, polygons, angles etc. Instead of waiting to give the summative assessment at the end of the geometry unit we give certain problems for students to do in their test after we go over a topic. So if we go over symmetry for two days at the end of the second day we would hand the students their test and mark the questions they must answer that have to do with symmetry. I had never thought of administering a summative assessment this way, but it works really well for the group of students we have right now. They get really stressed about tests, so splitting a huge test into smaller chunks relieves that stress. In my special education placement I feel that we do a lot more progress monitoring than I did in my general education placement. We use Daze and DIBELS to progress monitor, and students complete math fact sheets to progress monitor for students IEP goals. We use tickets out the door a lot to assess students, but we also use observations and discussion to assess student understanding.
I use both formative and summative assessment techniques in my current placement. Even in kindergarten, we attempt to assess students understanding through a variety of different ways. Formatively, I use questioning techniques and worksheets to make sure that students understand and grasp the concept. Kindergarteners are very concrete learners and any way possible for them to draw or illustrate their learning is a wonderful outlet to achieve assessment. We use summative assessments here and there, but not too often. We have used a smartboard multiple choice test, which was pretty successful for students. It is difficult in kindergarten to give tests at the end of a unit due to the fact that reading levels are low. Come to think of it, almost every subject taught is ongoing, other than science/social studies. Summative testing would have to be adapted for this specific grade level. What I have seen is summative testing for report cards. Students are called one-on-one to go over literacy and mathematics skills at the end of the marking period. Every day, we get to see how students are growing with kidwriting. Students write in their writing journals. It is a great way to see improvement and it definitely a great way to assess students’ growth. It even acts as a portfolio. It is apparent that assessment techniques are used daily in classrooms; however, the extent of assessment varies from grade level to grade level.
I am in a Diagnostic Kindergarten classroom. Diagnostic Kindergarten is where students are placed when first diagnosed with a disability or in the process of being diagnosed. Most of the teaching that occurs within the classroom is direct instruction and done in small groups. In regards to assessment there is a lot of data collection and progress monitoring. Progress monitoring is done by looking at the student’s IEP goals and keeping a chart; in order to track whether the student meets his/her goal and how often. I have also administered probes. Also, all of the students’ work is collected and assessed to see areas of progress and areas of weaknesses. As for other assessments that occur in the classroom we complete the required assessments from IU13, such as the DIBELS and Math Comp (computation skills and concept application skills). Due to the various ability levels there are a number of different assessments we do to progress monitor each individual student. I constantly feel like I am collecting data and assessing my students.
Assessment in my classroom takes place in many forms. Often times the form is dependent upon the lesson, the subject, and what I am trying to assess. I use both formative and summative types of assessment in my classroom. Formative assessments often take place in the form of a ticket out the door, a small quiz, or verbal prompts. Summative assessments usually take place in the form of tests, projects, and/or quizzes. I have also had experience in assessing student learning through things like DIBELS and other forms of literacy assessments.
I am in a learning support classroom for this half of student teaching working with 4th and 6th graders for academic support or one-on-one/small group instruction depending on their needs, and I also co-teach in 4th and 6th grade classrooms where some of our students are placed. For 4th grade, we are typically in the classroom for a mini lesson of some sort. For 6th grade, we mostly support math, writing, and reading, although they have accommodations for tests, so I have seen students come to our classroom to take math and social studies tests and also modifications on those tests. The assessments that I have seen have been a lot of progress monitoring for reading fluency, like timed passages and Dibels. We also use quizzes/tests or other assignments to assess learning. For instance, we graded some of their final copies of writing (using a rubric)on a province and also a planet they researched after teaching students about the writing process. However, there is also a lot of informal assessment through group discussions/observations. I think we always keep assessment in mind in my placement in order to plan with where we would like to end up from each specific lesson/instruction time and we also use evaluation to make sure all of our students are working towards their IEP goals.
ReplyDeleteI am also in a learning support classroom where I see a lot of progress monitoring being done to make sure the students are reaching the goals that are stated in their IEPs.
DeleteIn my learning support class we mainly use the weekly quizzes and formative assessments collected over the corse of the week to determine a students' progress. My instruction is specifically shaped around students IEP goals. Having a small group individualzed learning environment allows this individualized support to take place.
DeleteProgress monitoring is also a big part of my learning support classroom. This helps us keep up on the IEP goals and progress, but also to make sure we are addressing all the needs of the students to make them the most successful they can be.
DeleteI am in a learning support classroom too. We also use DIBELS on a weekly bases to monitor the students’ reading skills. I like using the DIBELS because it helps to accurately track the students’ progress. Another similarity in how we assess and evaluate the students is the use of informal observations. I too use daily discussions and observations of students reading in evaluating their progress. I think it is wise to use a mixture of formal and informal assessments to get a complete picture of students’ growth.
DeleteIn my classroom, there is mainly one-on-one or small group instruction. I am in a learning support classroom that serves grades 3 and 4. The students come to the classroom for support in writing, reading, and math. The assessment that is used in my classroom looks similar for both 3rd and 4th grade. There are some timed assessments when it comes to fact fluency. There is also a lot of workbook assessment that deals with SRA and the Write-In Reader. The students read a story and then answer questions in a notebook at the end of the story. Their answer are checked and graded for correctness. Some of the students take their tests from the general education classroom in the learning support classroom just as an accommodation. They may need some guidance while completing the assessment or just the quietness of the room to help them concentrate. As far as practices used to assess student learning, my cooperating teacher uses progress monitoring to make sure the students are progressing towards goals in their IEPs. She completes progress monitoring on reading and math activities such as fact fluency, reading comprehension, and reading fluency. As far as what I do to assess student learning in this type of classroom, I do a lot of informal assessment such as comprehension questions throughout reading a selected story and having the students write responses to a prompt in their vocabulary journals. This allows me to make sure the students are understanding the content that they are reading. Evaluation and assessment are somewhat different in my classroom. As I stated before, the assessment I see in my classroom is done in small groups or one-on-one situations where the students are responding to questions from a workbook, completing timed fact fluency pages, or working on an assessment from the general education classroom. As far as evaluation, I know my teacher does one-on-one evaluations to check the progress of the students to see what level they are on and what materials they need to work on in order to move to the next level or meet their goals that have been set in place for them.
ReplyDeleteIn my classroom (Multiple Disabilities Room) it is mainly one on one, small group, or large group. When I do my lesson plans each of their goals change. I assess how the individual does in both group and individual setting. Also I have paraprofessionals that assess students on their tasks as well with their accommodations. I do not have content, but it is still just as important to meet their IEP goals.
DeleteMy special education placement is in a 4th grade learning support classroom as well. The model we use for reading assessment is similar to the one you use where the students read a story and answer questions. Do you also use DIBELS and Daze for progress monitoring? We use these to make sure students are on track to meet their IEP goals. What type of assessments do you use in math?
DeleteI am currently student teaching in 7th and 8th grade mathematics learning support. My main use of sumative assessment is at the end of every week a quiz is given on the section learned over the course of the week. However, throughtout the week I provide many opportunities for my students to show their knowledge and skill level on the content being taught. These formative assessments come in the form of note sheets, modified worksheets, tickets out the door, and participation. Many times I have students come up to the board and walk themselve and their peers through the problem presented. Being able to talk out their thinking process as well as provide a visual for their peers is a great learning experience that all benefit from. In this instance my evaluation would be what I am observing the student do. However, my assessment would be the ticket out the door that I would present my students with. In the case of my instruction in this learning environemnt I see my assignments as assessing my students learning and the learning process as an observable means of evaluation.
ReplyDeleteI have also found that having students show their work on the board, has helped my other students further their knowledge of a concept. Especially when students are comfortable around one another, I use this a lot to see what my students know, and correct any misconceptions for the entire group.
DeleteWe also use re-teaching to then assess how students do. For example, one of our students needs extra support in math. She completes rocket math everyday (where she is timed and sees how many math facts she gets correct). We also have a math notebook for her to use so we can go back and re-teach concepts she may need help with from ILS (which is a computer program that assesses students in different subjects) or that are being covered in her homeroom class. In her notebook, we also provide her with visuals to help her through multi-step math problems.
DeleteThere are multiple ways that both my placements had me assess my student's progress. At my first placement (4th Grade Classroom) I would evaluate students using both formal and informal assessments. Some of my informal assessments included classroom discussions, collecting classwork, class projects. During class discussions I observe students how they describe their answers by evaluating asking myself "Did they answer the question?" to their best of their ability by using what details. I also try to choose variety of students whether they have your hand up or not. Just by observing students sometimes give you "the look" of understanding or misunderstanding. With class projects and classwork I try to provide a lot of options meaning "What is the best way my students can present their knowledge of the content?" In this placement I had a lot of writers and drawers. So I created worksheets that connected with the content through writing and drawing and assess the connections the students made with the content and how much effort was put into it. Through this it stimulated my students to ask a lot more questions and encouraged them to share what they know/learned. Which told me what I needed to review and when I can move on.
ReplyDeleteCurrently placed in an IU-13 Multiple Disabilities Room, their is almost nothing but assessment. Recently we just finished the PASA (The PSSA's Alternative Assessment). This process happens every quarter to see if the student has made any progress with grade level responses. Outside this assessment we assess students based on IEP goals. The students are on plans in the routine that practice their IEP goals until mastery(Ex: Feeding- Having students lift and put down utensil with a physical prompt). We will record how many times the student achieves the task, fails to achieve the task, and what we needed to do to get the student to do the task. We record this in a chart in their IEP notebooks and at the end of the week average the numbers together to see where the student is at. I really don't see any informal assessment other than when there is a problem ( a student not acting like they normally do) so we will try to have them do something to get back to that norm.
I am in a Life Skills classroom and we just completed the PASA's, too. I also assess IEP goals and keep data similarly to what you do, too. My classroom is not an IU 13 room, but it used to be until this school year when it was taken over by the district. It sounds like they are still run similarly!
DeleteI like how you adapted assessment to meet the neds of the students in your fourth grade classroom. You recognized the types of learners that you had and created assessments that fit those learners. I try to do that with my kindergarteners. They are so concrete and succeed when drawing, illustrating, and doing hands on assessments.
DeleteI am currently in learning support for my special education placement. I have students who pull into my classroom and I also push in to other classrooms. Assessment varies greatly depending on the needs of my students and what their IEPs state. Many of my students during assessment have all of the questions read to them, so that we are just focusing on whether they know the content knowledge or not. Students are also assessed on a daily basis after each lesson by either answering questions or performing a task that uses skills they learned from the lesson. I also take part in progress monitoring not only my identified students, but about fifteen other students. The progress monitoring uses DIBELS and then I calculate their score and track their data. This is used for students who are below level in reading. We also track the students in my learning support classroom (who have their test questions read to them), to track their progress with reading. Assessment in my classroom is ongoing. It is very important to constantly assess and evaluate the students' work and progress. This allows students to be given new IEP goals, as well as for us to know when our students can be challenged.
ReplyDeleteIn my special education placement, we don't tend to separately assess beyond what the general education teacher does. In our class, we do informal assessments with small white boards and online programs that track student progress. Because I teach a differentiated math class, these students are assessed differently that those in the general eudcation classroom. We also assess students based on IEP goals to make sure we are within the statutes of the law regarding special education. We often evaluate the students, also informally, to figure out where they are in their academics and how to better help them based on their individually needs within the learning support classroom.
ReplyDeleteWhat online program do you use out of curiousity?
DeleteMoby Max, TenMarks, and FastMath
DeleteI am in a life skills classroom in Columbia. We assess and evaluate students every day. During classroom instruction we assess students by joking with them to make sure they are paying attention. We use EdMark to assess our students. Students are evaluated through their work the whole entire week, which is then put into a book that gives a fraction of how they have improved throughout. This is called progress monitoring.
ReplyDeleteDuring classroom instruction, we also have to individualize assessment based on each child's individual needs. It is a very difficult and complex process which needs to be developed mentally before the lsson is actually taught. For example, my two younger children with need to say their answers by using sign language while others can verbally say their answers out loud.
I'm in a life skills classroom, too, and our assessments sound similar -- there are a few general systems we use, but each student has their own way that they are assessed! We have a student who uses sign language as well, and one challenge we are having is determining if his sign approximations are for the correct signs. Some of his sign approximations start to look similar, which is challenging! Has that been a concern in your class, too?
DeleteSammy, what exactly is EdMark? I've never heard of that assessment tool before.
DeleteI find it a little hard to respond to these responses because of not being in a special education classroom. I can relate to the individual assessments which are probably a bit different than what you are working with. We will pull students one by one once a week to individually test them on reading, comprehension, and things like that. I know it is different in a special needs classroom however I believe the concept and goal is similar.
DeleteEdMark is a reading program that allows us to individualize instruction and assessment to each student. It is difficult to assess students when they each are different in so many ways. We do progress monitoring every Friday and use what we did during the week with EdMark to put into the goals for each student.
DeleteHolly I agree as well. I think the only difference is that assessment is even more individualized than general education.
In my classroom, assessment is mainly keeping track of student's data and progress on their IEP goals. Each student is graded on everything they do and it gets put into a chart so my co-op can better see when the student meets a goal. I use more informal assessment for my students than formal assessment. My students are in a life skills classroom and the real formal assessment they get (besides the PASA's) are their adapted tests from their inclusion classes. Evaluation and assessment are continnous in my classroom because students need to be making progress or showing that they are on track to meet their goals.
ReplyDeleteI am in a 5th and 6th grade math and reading learning support classroom. Daily assessments include observing students read out loud, asking students questions, and having students complete learning exercises and write in their composition books. Formal assessments consist of tests, which are the same tests given in the general education classes. The only difference is that the test questions are read out loud to the students. DIBLES are used on a weekly bases to progress monitor students’ reading skills. Fuch’s and fuch’s is used every other week to monitor students’ math skills. Therefore, I describe my classroom assessment and evaluation system as a mixture of formal and informal assessments. I find that using a mixture of assessments and evaluations helps the teacher to accurately track and monitor a student’s progress. I also think it is important to try to keep the assessments to be the same assessments used in the general education classrooms. Even though a student recieves learning support, it does not mean that the student cannot take the same assessment used in the general education classroom. My students just need the test to be read out loud to them.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am in a middle school life skills classroom, and we use a few different methods of assessment. The students are on several different levels, and use different programs, so we have assessments for each program, including Aimsweb, EdMark, and Saxon math. In our classroom, we use Aimsweb to assess most of the students' reading fluency and comprehension, though some of the students use EdMark, too. The Aimsweb assessments are each week, and the students also complete a practice timed reading each week as well. For math, the students are given "M-COMP" and "M-CAP" tests, one for computation skills and the other for concept application skills. The assessments are administered at the appropriate level for the student, and with differing levels of support, depending on the students needs. One student does not participate in AimsWeb or the math assessments, but instead is assessed through long-term documentation of his progress on his IEP goals. All students are assessed in science and social studies through quizzes or performance tasks. Basically, each student essentially has their own unique combination of assessments. It's a lot to manage, but it seems effective!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you manage a lot of data! Does is ever feel like all you do is assess? Sometimes I feel like I teach 20% of the time and practice/assess 80% of the time. Are the assessments you administer computer-based? Are they completed by the student individually or does a teacher have to be there to administer it?
DeleteIn my classroom, middle school autism support, each student has a progress-monitoring packet, which is aligned with IEP goals. We use a simple +/- system to track correct and incorrect responses. I'm also working with the VB-MAPP assessment just so I have some practice with it, since it seems to be very popular in the autism education world. I've started entering data into the IU's progress monitoring system, and this has helped me use the assessment data to make instructional changes.
ReplyDeleteIn order to assess progress on tasks not directly linked to students' IEPs, I created a system of ranking the questions I ask (from mimicking my pointing, to higher level thinking skills). When I ask each student a leveled question, I can chart their progress, again using the +/- system.
I am in an autistic support classroom too and doing the VB-MAPP as well. I think this approach is working well with the students and I am having fun doing the whole verbal behavior approach to learning. The most challenging part is keeping track of all the data and have everything organized. What do you think of the verbal behavior approach?
DeleteHey guys! I am also in an autistic support classroom and we use the same things! The biggest challenge I have found so far is keeping everything running smoothly with one of my students. Because the student has to get a + three times in a row to master the skill, when he has a bad day, he usually gets a -, which means he has to start over. Although he may know the word he has to tact or mand, his mood often throws him off. It is also difficult to track data when the VB MAPP moves so quickly. I don't know if your sessions go as fast as mine do, but I know with our students if you hesitate with their probes, they lose focus, so all data has to wait until the end to be recorded. It is very difficult to remember all that data until the end of their session!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is important to use both formal assessment and summative assessment in the classroom. Formal assessment allows you to see if the students understand the material you are teaching. Formal assessment also allows the teacher reflect on his or her own teaching to make sure they are teaching to the best of their ability and that all students understand the concepts that are being taught. Currently I use formative assessment in my special education placement everyday. We use the verbal behavior approach to teaching in my classroom, which includes informal assessment by seeing what students know and what we need to work on. I also use informal assessment by asking question during lessons. Specifically with one student that i teach math and reading too. I use questioning to make sure the student understands the concepts of each lesson. I think it is also important to use summative assessments in the classroom. I use summative assessments with the student i teach math and reading to. The student receives a test that i create on the math concepts we have been working on that week. This allows me to see what the student knows and what we still need to work on. Assessment also looks different for each student depending on their IEP goals. I think this is a big challenge making sure all of the student are progressing while still aligning with what their IEP states. There is a lot of data to keep track of but I think I am doing pretty well with it so far. Overall, assessment is very valuable both for the student and the teacher.
ReplyDeleteWhich method has worked better for you so far, the summative or formative assessment?
DeleteI am currently in a 7th grade learning support itinerant position. My students attend general education classes, and my teacher and I go into the classrooms to support all students. I have the opportunity to teach literature lab everyday to students which I am able to incorporate assessment. During this time I use both formal and informal assessment. An example of formal assessment would be my students are responsible for writing a short essay about the story we read as a class. They use an outline that was created to write this assignment. I also incorporate ticket out the door which allows me determine if the students understood the content covered during that period. If not, I am able to see what concept they struggled with so we can re-teach that material the next day. An example of informal assessment that I am able to use in my class is thumbs up/ thumbs down. This gives me immediate feedback about if the students are grasping the concept.
ReplyDeleteSince I spend the majority of the school day in general education classroom, my teacher and I typically do not do much project/ test assessment.
In the middle school life skills setting, there is no formal assessment. However, we do about a full hour a day of data collection that includes scoring students on the tasks written on their IEP. The majority of my students are unable to take paper tests, but almost their every move is assessed and charted and goes into their IEP. The students also do an SRA or Reading Milestones individual lesson each day. After every few lessons, they do a mastery test that looks just like another lesson except it is scored and charted. In all, the students are probably assessed about 8 times a day on different tasks.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting that an entire hour a day is spent each day collecting data. How well do the students do on the mastery tests? Are they adapted at all or do they just take longer to prepare and then take them?
DeleteIn my emotional support classroom, most of our assessment in ongoing and informal. We use checklists, rubrics, but class participation is the biggest part of their assessment. This not only shows us their progress through the curriculum but behaviorally as well. The problem with this is that this data needs to be looked at on a long term basis. You don't know if the student had a bad week, 2 weeks, month which caused them to react into their escape behavior causing them to submit incomplete work. Keeping ancedotal records is key for our success in grading. As well, we provide multiple forms of assessment in each project and test to ensure the greatest success.
ReplyDeleteI am in an emotional support classroom and we do a lot of ongoing and informal assessment as well. A lot of their progress monitoring is on behavior as well. In an emotional support classroom it is important to take in account the emotions of the students when they completed assessment. In my classroom we do assessment every Friday.
DeleteIt's interesting to me that your classroom values participation so much. Perhaps you just have more whole group lessons than my classroom does. Our students hardly ever have structured time where they are required to raise their hands, everything is more on a one to one basis or very small group. Do you collect data on the quantity or quality of participation. I know for our kids its just a big deal for them to offer up an idea or some form of intelligible language, so we could not collect data on their participation in relation to any curriculum.
DeleteAshley, I do a lot of ongoing and informal assessments as well. I feel like sometimes that is all I'm doing, the majority of the time. Before my special ed placement, I had thought progressing monitoring was mostly focused on academics. However, I now know that behavior is also apart of assessing student progress both academically and behaviorally.
DeleteI have used formal and informal assessment throughout my entire student teaching experience. Most lessons do not call for a formal form of assessment until the end of the unit. Actually, the only subjects I formally assess are math, writing, spelling, and comprehension. I make sure to end each lesson with some kind of informal assessment to make sure the kiddos "got it". Sometimes this is a ticket out of the door (or to pack up their backpack), a simple question, or some worksheet/homework that needs to be turned in. These are not put into the grade book, however they give me a good idea if my students get it or what I need to teach better or again. Formal assessment comes into play at the end of a math unit, at the end of a Reading Street story, or each Friday for a spelling test. These too, are a more formal way to evaluate my students as well as evaluate myself on how I am teaching. If the majority of the students do not do well on a specific question or narrowed in topic, I know that I was doing something wrong and need to revisit the topic. When I see that students succeed, I know that I did a good job teaching the material and students also understood the concepts.
ReplyDeleteIn my general education placement since I was teaching all subjects everyday, I used a variety of summative and formative assessments on a regular basis. Some were informal, such as asking questions or completing homework assignments, and some were formal, such as administering tests and grading writing pieces. In my special education placement, assessment is used in a different way. Students are assessed through their IEP goals on probe sheets that show whether or not the student is making progress with the IEP goal. For example, the ability to tact nouns. If this is an IEP goal, the probe sheets has a list of targets for the week that the student will work on until he gets the target correct three times in a row. The target is then considered "mastered" and is used sporadically throughout the rest of the year to encourage maintenance and generalization. Most of these skills are with identification, sign language, and listener responding, and some use math goals on a regular basis as well. I am also learning how to enter these assessments both on paper and through electronic form in my co-ops database she uses through the IU. I think that each teacher needs to find their own way of assessing students as they go, but both formative and summative assessments are very important each day to monitor students' performance.
ReplyDeleteIn my current student teaching placement, I am in an emotional support classroom so a lot of assessment takes place in small groups. Students are in small groups for reading and math. The reading and math groups are both broken up by grade levels. Every Friday for each reading group I do Oral Reading Fluency assessment with students in grades first and second. Students in Kindergarten I do letter identification and sounds with them. In math at the end of each week students take an assessment reviewing the concepts taught that week. This allows myself and my co-operating teacher to progress monitor students. We are able to see their areas of struggles and their strengths.
ReplyDeleteWe also do all our assessments in small group. In math however, we do push in so the students are still in a small group but in the general ed classroom. We also do progress monitoring every Friday. I have first graders and even a second grader that I have to do letter identification with. One of my first graders has trouble with number identification and you have to often remind her to go back and correct her numbers. I have noticed that she writes her fours so they look like h. She is one that we have to often do letter identification with.
DeleteIn both placements, I have used formal and informal assessment, as well as, summative and formative assessment. A majority of assessment took place through class participation throughout instruction every day. Assessment also took place in one on one or small group instruction. Students also receive quizzes, tests, and worksheets to hand in to assess student performance, as well as, to allow myself to see what material I need to reteach. The use of a variety of assessments is extremely beneficial. I am able to gain assessment through multiple avenues and prove the accuracy of the data I have collected. We also use evaluation in the classroom. However, more specifically in my special education placement to align with the IEP goals of each of our students.
ReplyDeleteSince we are learning support many of our assessments are the same as in the general ed classroom but taken in a smaller group. We have also modified test for the students. When we modify a test we make sure it tests the same skill but does not require as much mental strain on the students. For example if the question asks how much is 6 quarters, we might modify it to say how much is 4 quarters. We also progress monitor our students every Friday. This includes an ORF, a comprehension check list and sometimes a math probe.
ReplyDeleteMy assessments for both general education and special education, change from day-to-day. Similar to most of my peers, in the general ed classroom I was able to implement both formative and summative assessments. However, in the special ed classroom most of my assessments are summative. I think this is because I am hoping to see where my students need more instruction. Now, this is not to say that I do no use formative assessment at all in special ed, because I do use it sometimes. For instance, I was just teaching about there, their, and they're. I noticed the kids were able to explain the difference between the three, but not use them in sentences. So, I incorporated more activities for them to use the three theres in sentences. I TRY and reflect on my lessons daily to see where I can improve, this would be my form of self-assessment. We ask our students to self-assess, therefore it is only fair if I practice what I preach. It is also a great way to reflect on what went well and when needs to be changed. Assessments can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom and I feel as though I have used them in all different ways. From homework to tests at the end of a unit.
ReplyDeleteIn my general ed. placement I used both formative and summative assessments. I feel like I used more summative assessments in my general education placement than my current special ed. placement. The students in my general ed. placement would learn something and then have a big test at the end of the unit which is the model that I am used to. I designed a summative assessment for my unit on landforms. In my special ed. placement the way they do the summative assessment is in chunks. For example with our math assessment on geometry it was split into sections such as symmetry, polygons, angles etc. Instead of waiting to give the summative assessment at the end of the geometry unit we give certain problems for students to do in their test after we go over a topic. So if we go over symmetry for two days at the end of the second day we would hand the students their test and mark the questions they must answer that have to do with symmetry. I had never thought of administering a summative assessment this way, but it works really well for the group of students we have right now. They get really stressed about tests, so splitting a huge test into smaller chunks relieves that stress. In my special education placement I feel that we do a lot more progress monitoring than I did in my general education placement. We use Daze and DIBELS to progress monitor, and students complete math fact sheets to progress monitor for students IEP goals. We use tickets out the door a lot to assess students, but we also use observations and discussion to assess student understanding.
ReplyDeleteI use both formative and summative assessment techniques in my current placement. Even in kindergarten, we attempt to assess students understanding through a variety of different ways. Formatively, I use questioning techniques and worksheets to make sure that students understand and grasp the concept. Kindergarteners are very concrete learners and any way possible for them to draw or illustrate their learning is a wonderful outlet to achieve assessment. We use summative assessments here and there, but not too often. We have used a smartboard multiple choice test, which was pretty successful for students. It is difficult in kindergarten to give tests at the end of a unit due to the fact that reading levels are low. Come to think of it, almost every subject taught is ongoing, other than science/social studies. Summative testing would have to be adapted for this specific grade level. What I have seen is summative testing for report cards. Students are called one-on-one to go over literacy and mathematics skills at the end of the marking period. Every day, we get to see how students are growing with kidwriting. Students write in their writing journals. It is a great way to see improvement and it definitely a great way to assess students’ growth. It even acts as a portfolio. It is apparent that assessment techniques are used daily in classrooms; however, the extent of assessment varies from grade level to grade level.
ReplyDeleteI am in a Diagnostic Kindergarten classroom. Diagnostic Kindergarten is where students are placed when first diagnosed with a disability or in the process of being diagnosed. Most of the teaching that occurs within the classroom is direct instruction and done in small groups. In regards to assessment there is a lot of data collection and progress monitoring. Progress monitoring is done by looking at the student’s IEP goals and keeping a chart; in order to track whether the student meets his/her goal and how often. I have also administered probes. Also, all of the students’ work is collected and assessed to see areas of progress and areas of weaknesses. As for other assessments that occur in the classroom we complete the required assessments from IU13, such as the DIBELS and Math Comp (computation skills and concept application skills). Due to the various ability levels there are a number of different assessments we do to progress monitor each individual student. I constantly feel like I am collecting data and assessing my students.
ReplyDeleteAssessment in my classroom takes place in many forms. Often times the form is dependent upon the lesson, the subject, and what I am trying to assess. I use both formative and summative types of assessment in my classroom. Formative assessments often take place in the form of a ticket out the door, a small quiz, or verbal prompts. Summative assessments usually take place in the form of tests, projects, and/or quizzes. I have also had experience in assessing student learning through things like DIBELS and other forms of literacy assessments.
ReplyDelete