Academic Standards blog 1

The question to be asked is "How do I assess the learning and progress of my students." Overall, standards are in place for every state for all grades of education. Initially, a group of people must get to together to determine what the students need to know. Next, they need to perform the work(by completing an assignment) on their own and determine the level at which they want their students to excel. Thirdly, the team of volunteers must determine if what they have completed actually fits into the standards and then create a scoring guide for the particular assignment they have completed. Grades are decided by using student work and last the team must determine if the assigment was riddled with problems and double check that it fits with the standards determined at the beginning. Once the standards are verified and the assignment has been determined, it is always a necessity to determine the level at which the student understands the material. Weekly tests are a great way of determining knowledge content but this can often lead to boredom and monotony in the classroom. Formative and summative assessments must be used and the student must be assessed EVERY time an assignment is issued to the student. This should be for all levels of learning - not just elementary. Tests can be given in the form of multiple-choice items and performance-assessment taks that ask a student to perform a particular goal. An interesting point made in this section of the website was to be sure to not use fill in the blanks when trying to determine reading and writing. In order to determine the writing skills of a student, they must write. Also, another interesting point was made in asking the students to read a story and color or design a poster. This is a reading strategy taught to many students in the middle grade years. According to the website, using crayons to draw a photo of what the student has read is 4th grade work. I tend to disagree. How do I, as a teacher, ensure that my students are "seeing the movie in their head" as they read? Comprehension of material a student reads is the first step in reading and writing skills, in my opinion.