Module 6B- Assessment

In the last 20 years, this is an area that has changed in education as much as the curriculum.  When I was a child, success in school was assessed through tests and projects.  On your report card, you were given a numerical mark for each subject area, (arithmetic, language, history etc.) an average was calculated, and that was your final mark. The second half of the report, your conduct, courtesy, and attendance were also graded as excellent,  very good, good, fair, and poor,  So not only was your academic work assessed but your personality traits were also assessed.  We seem to have steered away from that now and I believe that assessing those areas has some validity as well. Especially when so much work is done in groups and assessed on the final product of the group.  When you have not demonstrated that you can work together with other people or have not learned the basis of sharing information without being too critical of others, it will affect how you problem solve later in life.  If you cannot get along with people, your group will tend to isolate you  and not ask for your opinion as much.  This will be problematic later in life in most areas of business.

In Kindergarten, we use modifiers as a way of assessing children.  The range includes, always, usually, sometimes, rarely and never.  The children are assessed on a number of learning expectations set up by the Ministry of Education and then children are tested orally on their performances in these areas of the program.  We also allow our students to write on their report card what they think they have learned the most  and what area they think they still need to work on.  I always find it interesting to hear them assess their own strengths and weaknesses which can be very different from what we observe as teachers. 

Some teachers administer a more structured programme where others have a more play centered programme.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses but I think a combination of the two is most beneficial in an inclusive atmosphere that seems to be where education is headed.  Our classroom has a hearing impaired child and an autistic child both participating and learning with some modifications.  The children have adapted very easily and will go out of their way to help these two children when they sense any change in their demeanor.  This to me is intuitive learning and will serve them well as they mature.