Chapter 5:Assessment

Assessment does have many meanings and each one is important. The chapter mentions that assessment should be child centered. This includes showing how the students have grown and progressed as English language learners. This is an important step. Teachers need to praise the students for their accomplishments. This will also help them to exceed in other areas as time progresses. I also feel that teachers should use a combination of formal and informal assessment in their classroom. An example of formal assessment is observations and an example of informal assessment is testing. You cannot base everything strictly on one of them, you need both. For example some students don't test very well but they excel in another area. I also agree with the idea of student assessment and parent involvement. It's important for students to help others and learn from others. Children also do better when their parents are involved in their schooling. I feel parents should have an open invitation to the classroom for conferences or to help out. I did my sophomore field at a school in Union in a first grade classroom. A parent volunteered her time once a week to come in and work with the children who were absent and behind in work so that they were able to catch up with their classmates. I thought that was a very useful strategy. Portfolios, student logs/journals, and tape recordings are also very useful assessment tools. They tools actually show growth and change over time that can be shown to the students as well as the parents. As teachers we are all working on putting together a portfolio ourselves so I'm sure that we have seen growth and change in our own work over time. I know that I have.