Assessment Through the Student's Eyes

I really liked both what we talked about in class last week, and the article that we just read. It's a really interesting concept to look at assessment through the eyes of students rather than those of teachers or government institutions. I can't say I personally can relate to those students on a losing streak; I feel like I've been pretty lucky throughout my life in terms of doing well in school and being confident in my ability to do so. But I've definately seen students in classrooms throughout my practicums who were on losing streaks. I remember one little boy I'd work with almost every day. I believed he was a very intelligent boy; when he did his work and focused on it he grasped it quickly and got it done. But he got antsy quickly in class and lost focus, and so his unfinished work piled higher and higher. Every day the teacher would give him four or five worksheets to complete, and though he could handle them individually when he focused, altogether they just intimidated him and made him want to put less effort in. That was definately a boy on a loosing streak, and one that wasn't being assessed in way that furthered his learning. If the teacher had paid a bit more attention to his successes, and helped him realize that the focus was all he lacked, perhaps he could the whole thing around.

Personally I've always felt drawn to students I've felt are struggling in the classroom, and throughout my education I've been doing my best to pick up ways to help them. And I think the strategies that we discussed in class and read in the article will be a big help. I believe the most important part of teaching young children is getting them excited about learning, and this will carry them through the rest of their education and help establish a great future for them. It will create a winning streak.

I particularly liked the ideas about making students assess their own learning through evaluating where they went wrong in tests or papers; identifying whether careless mistakes were getting their way or whether there was something they just weren't grasping. Sometimes all a student needs is just a minor correction, and things they thought were impossible for them suddenly become clear. I know I've definately had those moments, where I was trying to work a problem and just couldn't grasp it for the life of me, even though I'd felt I'd been trying hard and knew what I'd needed to. All I needed was to talk to a someone more knowledgable to help fill the gaps, and then I fully understood where I'd been going wrong. If a teacher's goal is to help their students learn, really learn, then little efforts like these, rather than efforts to simply quantify the students, will show them what all their students are capable of.