Week 3 Assignment IP&T 301

1. Formative assessments determine a student's progress during the learning process. Some examples of this form of assessment are worksheets, quizzes, observing the students, and asking questions. Formative assessments seem to have more informal forms of assessment. Summative assessments determine a student's progress at the end of a unit. Some examples of this form of assessment are tests, quizzes, papers, and student portfolios. Formative and summative assessments are meant to go hand in hand to help the teacher help her students. I personally feel that a formative assessment can later become a summative assessment. For example, you could give a quiz on a subject towards the middle of a unit to see what they are grasping or what they already know. Then, you can use it later to see if they truly grasped the concepts after you taught them.

2. A standardized aptitude test determines a student's capacity to learn (her future potential). Whereas, a standardized achievement test assesses a student's current knowledge. It's very interesting to think if these tests are criterion-referenced or norm-referenced tests, because often they can be both. Often the standardized achievement tests look at things from a criterion reference but then from a norm-referenced when the scores are compared to other students in the nation.

3. I personally feel that Alexandria should be a little concerned but not too much. There really are a lot of factors and influences that go into assessment. I personally have had experiences with the ACT where the environment in which the test was administered was less desirable. As a result, I had a hard time focusing on the test and didn't have much of a chance to really show what I knew. The other thing too is that the percentile compares student's work with the work of other students and can often overestimate the differences between them.

4. In my classroom, I am really going to try to use both formative and summative assessments. I never realized that there can be such a variety in assessments and how they are scored. I will do the research into a test before I actually us it. As a parent, I'm going to be mindful of how percentile and the many different ways standardized testing works. Sometimes I think parents get caught up in what percentile their child is in, and that isn't fair to your child. Also, it would be useful to use assessment practices to help me understand how my child is truly understanding the world around him or her. This can be done through more informal assessments like observation and asking questions.