5 belief statements about how you will approach assessment in your teaching practice.

My Five Belief Statements:

Assessing learning before, during, and after instructional time:

With this I will inquire what my students may already know about a subject or topic.
This way I can identify any alternative conceptions they may have and shape my lessons to
address them as well as teach enriching new content for them to explore. I could give students a
preassessment or create an anchor chart for what students know, want to know, and what they
have learned (KWL) at the end. During my instruction I can do check on learnings and ask
developing questions that will address what students have learned so far. This will help me
determine early on what teaching styles are working for what students and how I can adapt
myself to better benefit them throughout the lesson. At the end of instruction time, I can revisit
the KWL chart and fill in what my students had learned. I could do a post assessment in which
they would answer questions based off the lesson to see what was retained and what was not
fully grasped. This way we can revisit the information and develop a better strategy about
teaching it to students so they can retain it.

Creating assessments (formative and summative):

In my classroom I would focus mostly on formative assessments. This way students are
given the feedback and opportunities to develop and expand their learning. I want my students
to have every opportunity possible to succeed. Formative assessment will help both myself and
my students to better understand learning styles and teaching styles that fit everyone. I want to
create as many opportunities for my students to learn, so that whenever summative assessments
come around, they are calm and collective and ready to take on the final assessment. As teachers
we are supposed to assess students to help them learn more. Formative assessment practices
occur during learning and delivers information to learners to help them see how to do better the
next time. As the assessor, we can gather data from assessments to certify that students have met
certain learning requirements using summative assessments (Chappuis, Commodore, & Stiggins,
2017).
Final Assessments: EOG and other standardized tests:

In my class I do not want my students to stress over EOG’s or other standardized tests
because they do not define who they are. As long as my students progress in my class I ill be
happy. I want to see that they have learned something and that they can keep developing over
time to be the best they can be. I do not want to stress over them and do a lot of practice exams
for it because there is no research saying that practice standardized testing will benefit students
and raise their scores.

The cycle of assessment:

Assessment is for everyone to see how the students are progressing, including
themselves. Assessment is started by teachers to see where students are currently and what
needs need to be met during the year and how I may go about doing that. “A student’s self-
assessment is an important aspect of successful differentiation. It provides invaluable feedback
and helps students and their teachers set individual goals” (Wormeli, 2006). When my students
are learning I can assess them and communicate with them the results and how we can work the
progress them or how we can change teaching styles to better adapt their needs. This leads to a
final assessment of that subject in which I could share with administration and parents so they
can see how the students are progressing over the year. This progression is shared with the
community to bring in funding to the school because communities want to fund schools that are
teaching students and progressing them effectively.

Bias in assessing students:

In my classroom I want students to have every opportunity to succeed and to do their

best. I think understanding different cultures and heritages and actually taking time to inform
myself and to get to know my students on personal levels will really help me eliminate bases in
assessing students. Crushing stereotypes will also help to take away those biases. I want every
child in my class to have and equitable education, not an equal one. I want to assess students one
on one so I can gain some insight on their progression and be able to help them whether it be
more teacher intervention or with the help of small groups where they can help build and develop
each other.
 Citations

Chappuis, S., Commodore, C., & Stiggins, R. J. (2017). Balanced assessment systems:
leadership, quality, and the role of classroom assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin,
a SAGE Publishing Company.

Wormeli, R. (2006). Fair isn’t always equal: assessment and grading in the differentiated
classroom. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.