EVALUATOR

" The teacher as evaluator maximizes students' learning by applying one's understanding of student individual differences and using a full range of formal and informal information gathering processes."

“Teachers are the key to improving mathematics education…. Regardless of the curriculum or the assessment process in a school district, the person in charge of adapting materials for a particular classroom and student is the teacher.” – Glenda Lappan, President’s Message, NCTM News Bulletin, October 1998 (Burns, 2000, p. 3). As a teacher it will be important for me to assess the understanding my students have of mathematics and number concepts. For this reason I have chosen a number assessment I performed on a kindergarten student for Kindergarten Methods as my first artifact. This experience allowed me to evaluate what the student already knew about numbers and basic number concepts, and to see where the student needed additional instruction. I will be able to use this assessment in my kindergarten classroom at the beginning of the year to learn what each student already knows about counting and number recognition. This will help me differentiate instruction for each student. Through differentiated instruction for students, this artifact meets INTASC Standard 3 – adapting instruction for individual needs. The assessment artifact also meets INTASC Standard 8. Through formal assessment I will have the ability to better meet the intellectual development of the learner.

The second artifact I am presenting is a test I helped create on recycling. The test was developed as a group project with two other students for my Educational Psychology and Evaluation class. Through the process of writing the test I realized the importance of focusing on Bloom’s Taxonomy in my teaching. If a topic was taught at the knowledge of comprehension level, that is the same level students should be evaluated at on a test. According to Woolfolk (2005), “If you test only at a simple but detailed level of knowledge, you may force students to choose between learning and a good grade. But when a grade reflects meaningful learning, working for a grade and working to learn become the same thing” (p. 542). Using this knowledge, I will work to incorporate higher level thinking in my classroom through synthesis and evaluation. This artifact meets INTASC Standard 8 by showing my understanding of formal assessment strategies and how to help ensure the intellectual development of the student. Through the use of various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy the artifact also meets INTASC Standard 4.

In addition to the test on recycling, I am including the rubric our group created to grade the short answer and essay portion of the test. “If clear and well-developed rubrics describe the performances expected for each assignment, and if students learn to use the rubrics to evaluate their own work, then quality, not quantity, will be at the center for grading” (Woolfolk, 2005, p. 546). It is important to have well established guidelines for projects and written work; therefore both the student and teacher will know what is expected from them. While creating the test rubric, it was necessary to know how the lesson objectives were met, and what knowledge was important to assess. The ability to create rubrics in my classroom will be of benefit to students for understanding my expectations of their work. Rubrics will also establish concrete guidelines in grading and allow me to know if the lesson objectives have been met. Through the development of a rubric, I gained a greater understanding of formative assessment and how to recognize if lesson objectives have been met by the student. This aligns with INTASC Standard 8 – assessment of student learning.

The final artifact I am including for teacher as evaluator is a writing assessment I performed on a kindergarten student. I began the assessment by obtaining a writing sample from the student, and then used the conventions of writing developmental scale in order to assess the student’s current stage of writing. The knowledge gained through the assessment allows me to understand where the student is in terms of development as a writer, and would also guide further instructional decisions. As Feldgus and Cardonick (1999) state, “Through assessment we have learned to appreciate every nuance of a child’s growth as a writer. Through assessment, we have been able to fine tune our teaching to further that growth” (p. 107). In my classroom I will use this assessment throughout the year to help determine the progress each of my students is making in their growth as a writer and use the information to help set writing goals for the student. As a result of this experience I am confident in my ability to assess the development of a student as a writer and will use that knowledge to help implement further instruction for the student, which aligns with INTASC Standard 8.

Kindergarten Number Assessment	Recycling Test
Test Rubric	Writing Assessment