Raegan Shaw, Blog Post #6, Ch. 7 Make Assessment Instruction's Working Partner

When I found this chapter in the book, I was so relieved.  Out of all the things I struggle with as a first year teacher, I feel that assessment is absolutely the most confusing and frustrating.  I have been blessed with many Social Studies and ELA resources, as far as formal assessments are concerned, but not many informal assessments.  Of course, I have a grasp on how my students understand things on a daily basis through their facial expressions, willingness (or lack there of) to answer my questions or respond to my prompts, and an occasional entrance or exit slip, yet I still feel like I do not use enough written informal evaluation before my formal evaluations.  I want to meet my students where they are at and raise them up where need be, yet I struggle to find the confidence or resources to do so, sometimes.  This chapter has helped me see a light at the end of the tunnel.

When this chapter suggested that teachers make evaluation a "daily routine," I assumed that this meant the formal evaluations that I had been lacking, but in reality, it discussed how teachers make assessments as they are teaching instead of after, necessarily.  What it boiled down to, when I was done reading the section, is conferences with the students.  It both shocked and embarrassed me when I thought of my own practice from this year and realized how little I have had individual, instead of whole class, conferences with my students this year.  Often, it is hard enough to find time for conferences with my homeroom; the fact that I have two other classes that revolve in and out of my room, daily, doesn't make it any easier.  I wish that I had already found the time this year to make deeper connections to each and every student.  Of course, there is a big handful of them that I have made these connections with, but I should always strive for more.  It is not too late for me, though.  This chapter has given me more initiative to seek out the specific students who really need my help--those of which I have not yet conferenced with yet, fully.

One final thing that I found interesting was the questions that are recommended for teachers to ask during conferencing. Discussing students' strengths and goals with them seems to prove to be very successful in student learning.  When I think of conferencing, I simply think of book talk; it is so much more than that.  I think that if I take time to spend with each student and set an individual goal with them all, they will be more likely to meet that goal than ever before.  All students crave learning and structure in some way; as teachers, it is our job to find out what way that is.  Conferencing helps us get beneath that hard shell and help the students understand themselves more as learners.