Intro:

Assessments are a crucial part of the education and learning process. Not only do they provide

the teacher with information on how the students as individuals are grasping the material, it lets

them know what students potentially need more help. If there was no way for educators to see if

the information being presented to the students was correctly received, it would be chaos. As a

future teacher, it is essential for me to know different evaluation strategies. Standardized tests are

required by the district or state. These tests show how good or bad a school, district, or state are

doing as a whole. Both are important but when it comes down to it, the small informal

evaluations given to students is what helps teachers understand where their focus needs to go.

Formal Assessments:

I decided to complete my observation hours in a resource classroom. During my time there I was

able to communicate with the teacher and have a thorough conversations on how his classroom

runs. The school that I am doing my hours at is part of the Laveen school district. In this district

they use AIMSweb+ to implement assessments for special needs students every 2 weeks.

AIMSweb+ serves as a type of benchmark to monitor the students progress. The teacher likes

this testing because it comes with curriculum-based measurement which helps him write his

IEP’s. Another reason he likes this tool implemented district wide is because it gives parents and

teachers detailed reports on a student’s current level of performance and growth. It records all the

data and a teacher can go back and see how the student is doing. These tests take about 5-10

minutes and are administered via computer and pencil paper. Benchmark tests are also given

three times a year, Fall, Winter, and spring. These tests however are administered at grade level.

These help the resource teacher identify where his students are at when school begins in August

and what they need to work on for his IEP. With the students that need more reading help, he
uses resources like spalding for pronunciation of sounds as well as wonders reading program for

comprehension. For students that need help with math, he uses different activities. He has some

that have to do with fact families or counting money. He does these assessments by working with

a group or having them work on these things individually. He can have one doing a

multiplication sheet and the other work on writing a paragraph on a certain topic.

Informal Assessments:

Informal assessments are just as important as formal assessments. Mr.G’s has may ways he can

see if his students are progressing and reaching their goals. One thing he does is, if he is giving a

lesson on telling time, he will get a clock and set it to a certain time and have the students write

the answer on their board. He then can see which students understand the concepts and which

ones don’t. Something else he does is he uses different educational based games for reading

comprehension, literacy, and vocabulary to test the students that have trouble reading. Kagan

structures are also implemented in his classroom. Things like cooperative learning, or think pair

share, exit tickets, proximity (walking around the classroom to observe students). Technology is

often used in the classroom. iPad and chromebooks offer a lot of resources and support for these

students. Mr.G takes advantage of these resources and uses Nearpod for some assessments.

Nearpod is a platform that engages students with interactive lessons. Kahoot is also a resource

that is used and is fun for students. The ones he prefers are the educational based group games

because while he is observing how the students perform, they are also practicing the skills they

need. These assessments let him know weather or not he needs to change the student’s

educational goals or change teaching strategies. This also helps him get information for his

progress reports and parent meetings.

Checks for understanding:

The way he checks weather or not his students are understanding the concepts is precisely with

these assessments. More so the informal than the formal assessments. He usually uses the

whiteboards and asks how they got the answer they did. Asking for clarification on each students

thought process, helps him understand how to help the student.

Conclusion:

Overall assessments are a very important part of a teacher’s curriculum. I found out that if he is

giving a student services for reading, then that student receives modified grades on his/hers

report card. However, he can only give out these grades by performing these different

assessments to measure growth. I found that the different group games he does with his students

works well. I have been able to observe and lead these assessments and it is mind-blowing how

much information you learn from each student by simply watching them play these games.

Evaluations are of great importance in schools especially in special ed.