katieK+Journal+1

Katelyn Kelly Assessment Journal # 1 February 9, 2009 EDC 452 The assessment I observed was taking place on my first day back in the classroom from winter break. The assessment was called a benchmark test. The benchmark test is provided through the reading and writing program that the school participates with. The particular unit the students were being assessed on was nature. Each student took this assessment individually and they were allowed as much time as they needed to complete the assessment. The context of the assessment was made up of having the students read a passage about nature then answer questions from the passage. The questions were testing the student’s vocabulary, comprehension, and how they could interpret facts from the passage. The structure of the assessment was reading and then answering questions in a multiple choice selection. The student’s choused from a possible four responses in the multiple choice part. Also, the student’s did have one writing prompt to compare their lives with a situation from the passage. In the third grade the expectation was to write at least three to five sentences to explain the question being asked. After reading the test myself, I found that the test structure set up the answers with two very similar answers; with one being correct; and the other two were mainly facts from the passage. In total, the students read two passages about a page and a half long then answered about ten questions from the passages. After the reading was complete the test then went on to test for skills. One of the question asked between which two words would you find a certain word in a dictionary. The assessment also asked the meaning of a word that was in a sentence. This assessment reminded me a lot like the reading and writing standard tests that are given to see where the students and school are placed.
 * Context and Structure: **

After the assessment was through, I corrected the multiplication part of the test. Looking at the assessment as a class, I felt that class had a very high assessment rate. On average out of about thirty questions a student would only get about five questions wrong. Yes, some students did perform greater, but some other students did also perform low. After I was finished correcting the multiple choice part of the test, the teacher would then took the test and corrected the writing part. She did offer for me to correct it, but I felt that I did not know enough about what the assessment was looking for in the student’s response. I watched the teacher and then read through a great response, an on average response, and a below average response. This will help me next time when correcting a writing assessment. After the teacher corrected the writing, the next step was to mark down what questions the students got wrong and total. The school wants the teachers to do this because this travels with the student from grade to grade to watch for reading declines and their comprehension level. The teacher then can compare the results with the assessment from the year before to make sure they are staying the same or advancing and not declining. The student usually will complete at least three of this type of assessment throughout the year. When reflecting on this particular assessment I have pros and cons about it. I will start with the positive aspects of the assessment. First, I did find the reading then answering questions about the passage that was read to be useful because the students will find this type of assessment for the rest of their lives. Second, I found the writing prompts to be a higher level of thinking and it help the students connect to the passage. Thirdly, the assessment was not that long and it took the students on average thirty to forty-five minutes to complete. On the contrary side, the first negative aspect was that not every student is on the same reading level. In the third grade, there is below level, on level, and advanced. To give students this assessment that should fall on level is going to be too hard for the below level group, whereas the advanced group will find it to be an easy assessment. To fix this problem I would want the assessment to have three different levels to test for the student at their level. I would find this more appealing to the student’s needs and it could assess at the student’s level. During the test, I took a student in the hallway because he was below level reader and he read the passage to me out loud. I could not help him with interpreting the passage, I could help him sound out a word or say it for him. This student was more towards the forty-five minutes and I could see the frustration level rising in him. Also, another negative aspect is having multiple choices to have the students answer questions. If the student guessed for their answer they still have a one out of four shot to answer correctly. I find that the students like when the questions are multiple choice, but this is deciding their comprehension level. If the test maybe include some short answer or to simple write out the answer the teacher would really see who comprehends the material. This assessment could have also scared some of the students with the length and the importance of it. I know that no assessment is a great assessment; however I know that the assessment should be fair for all students to perform their best at their level. Would I use a test like this in my classroom? The answer to that question would probably be yes because in this case the school requires that the students take this test. Along with the test, I might along have my own assessment for another day where the students could read a passage on their level and write out responses to questions. Also, as a classroom teacher I might have broke down the test throughout a day. To test for fifteen minutes in the morning, then test later in the day for another fifteen minutes. This would give the students a break and have them not stress over how much material they need to finish. As a classroom teacher assessment will come with the years of experience and the materials you have to teach. For right now, I would use this assessment in my classroom.
 * Implementation and Results**:
 * Reflection: **

Section 2