Week+8

**Chapter 5**
====I feel assessment is a touchy subject these days because of the negative effects it has had for so many years. I am still not certain as to how much I can go through with the idea of not giving any tests to my students, when I become a teacher. In my internship, my cooperating teacher has to give benchmarks that are from the school. These type of tests make me feel that as much as I choose not to give tests to my class, I will not be able to. Circumstances such as this one let me know that it is important to learn how to run tests in a way that will help me become a better teacher. Chapter five was a very good chapter because it provided the information I most needed about the use of tests in order for the students, and me, to advance. “Data gathered from listening to a pair of children work on a simple activity or an extended project provide significantly greater insight into students’ thinking than almost any written test we could devise.” (page 80). This is from “Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. Even though it is really hard to keep track of all of the students‘ success, teachers have to plan a time to have centers or group work so that you can walk around and take notes on each student. In order to decrease stress, teachers can make short and simple rubrics that include the objectives of the lesson and document how the students are doing. A basic rubric should just count up to four points, because it will be easier to write down on post-it’s the score the students received when the teacher is observing. I love the idea of journaling, because I had never thought that it would work until I got to my internship. My cooperating teacher uses them and I have seen how the children respond to her questions. I truly see the advantages of having the students write in their journals. I feel that their attitudes come out because they feel their journal writings to be private and not something that will be read out to the whole class. Lastly, the part of the chapter that I felt the most important is the test-taking strategies. Like I mentioned earlier, there will be some tests that students and teachers can not avoid. Therefore, it is really good to prepare students on how to take tests and be as relaxed as they can be! ====