Week 3: Assignment #2

What assessments are needed to measure students' learning outcomes and how teachers can address these common core learning standards if you have students of various reading levels: 

·      Teachers should incorporate original writing and have student create their own writing samples (such as in journals), which will help develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others. I feel this can be handed in as a form of assessment that is individual for each student so no matter what level they are on, it’s their original writing which can promote creativity, collaboration, and communication and guidance and support can be administered when appropriate and shouldn’t be compared to others. It meets standards as technology can be incorporated to put together the original writing piece and it meets the standard involving writing narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. Students can present their writings to the  class which can also help assess their communication skills.

·      Another form of assessment is having students  engage affectively in a collaborative group/discussion and activities and working together to frame, analyze and synthesize information from texts assigned to them. This is great for meeting the needs of learners on various levels as collaborative learning is in place and the students can help each other and/or ability grouping can be implemented as well. Students’ work can then be synthesized and expressed in form of a presentation or other project/assignments and be handed in as assessment. Rubrics should be constructed for both individual input and group work as well. This form of assessment is meeting standards as long the students are able to draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. Students should also be able engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

·      A great form of informal assessment and  evaluating students’ comprehension is implementing group discussion and questioning and having students communicate and demonstrate their critical thinking skills. I feel assessments don’t always have be formal and be administered only through written assignments and the like. Just observing and recording students’ responses and insights can help assess their comprehension and evaluate how much of what they are reading they are interpreting correctly. This form of informal assessment is also easier to implement when having students on various reading levels in the class, as it isn’t confined to one same form or test for every student to complete. Rather, it’s individual for each student and they are all assessed on their own level. Discussions can be in smaller groups or larger teacher-led groups or even in pairs. Anecdotal records and observations should be recorded throughout.