Evaluating Learning (WW#8)

Wow, after reading this weeks reading materials, it is becoming more clear to me how key components of teaching fit together. One of the first questions addressed in chapter 14 is "was the evaluation based on course objectives?' This makes complete sense! If your objectives for what you want your students to learn are identified at the beginning of the course or unit then it seems only logical to design assessments based off of those objectives. Sometimes I feel that I get caught up in being creative with my assessment that I lose focus of what I am truly testing my students on what I expected them to learn. This seems like a no brainer; however, I think appropriate and effective assessment can be hard to design and implement.

In our assignments and instruction we have learned how to design instruction to meet the needs of students with IEPs and ELLs. We have also observed classrooms with these students in them. What we haven't done is learned about how we should assess these students. I have always wondered how teachers might do this fairly and accurately. The article "Grading Exceptional Learners" focused on this exact concern. This article was especially helpful in breaking evaluation into steps of how go about grading. I will be honest that I often worry about how I will assess students with special needs appropriately. There are a wide variety of learners and the same assessment or evaluation is not always applicable for all of our students.

This validates the importance of developing accommodations and adaptations for learners with special needs. These modifications allow us to align our objectives for students with special needs with the way we evaluate and grade them. Just as I mentioned before, it only makes sense to assess our students on the objectives and standards we have set for them.

Below is a link to website I found resourceful on a variety of topics for teaching students with learning disabilities. If you look on pages 23 and 45, they provide a little more clarity on these topics and provide some excellent resources: 
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/specialed/docs/learning_disabilities_guide.pdf


It is important that we create fair assessments for all of our students. One of the best ways to ensure you are grading fairly is by developing a rubric. This helps provide clarity for your students of your expectations for them. It also helps you to make sure that you are assessing your students fairly. I know as a student I always appreciated when my teacher provided a rubric because it helped me go about completing the task that included all necessary components. These tools are important to consider if we accurately wish to see our students grow and succeed in our classes.