Assessments

In a subject like science or math, we tend to work more with the quantitative versus qualitative measures of student "success".  My class is broken into three assessment types; Tests and Quizzes, Lab Experiments, and Homework Assignments.  Tests and quizzes are fairly self-explanatory; this summative assessment is similar to assessments given by the state and other testing companies that administer the SATs, AP's and ACT tests.  In many ways this is how I assess my teaching.  These tests show a "final product" for student understanding after a lesson or unit and can give insight into my teaching practices.  The homework assigned is designed to instill prior knowledge in students before they listen to a PowerPoint presentation or complete a class or lab activity.  This prior knowledge helps students have a foundation from which to build upon in classroom discussions and work.  I "grade" these homework packets (stamped during class and collected at the end of the unit) based on completeness, effort, and ability.  Some students have such a difficult time retaining papers in their binder that I will give them a couple "extra credit" points based on receiving back 100% of the pagers i have handed out to them.  This assessment is slightly more formative and informal, with room to praise students improvement rather than ability.  The final part of my assessment of students' learning is based on lab activities.  These activities allow for students to self-differentiate, with students playing to their individual strengths.  The lab work that is turned in and graded is parried against how well students were able to work together in their groups and come to a collective level of learning and understanding.  Lab experiments go badly sometimes and I find these activities to be more about interpreting science and research rather than memorizing information and fact.  This is also a somewhat more qualitative measure with room to track students' improvements as well as their understanding.  A strategy that comes from our textbook that I thought was fairly novel for a science class is to debate an issue or topic.  Science is viewed by many as "The Answer", and many forget that science is constantly changing and our understanding of the world around us improved.  Having students research and generate talking-points can play to the more interpersonal learners and those that enjoy the competition of debating.  Tomlinson states that students think about, apply and even expand on understanding fundamental to a topic.  This higher learning is truly what we want for all our students and by challenging students to a task that is unfamiliar to most science classrooms may be both exciting and educational to students.