What’s the most difficult part of teaching? Trying to decide what item of luxury to buy next with the paycheck? That kid that just doesn’t care? Differentiation? Overcoming the language barrier? Parents? The list could go on and many of these are valid answers, but one that comes up frequently for me is assessment. What is the best method of assessment? Is there a best method? Growing up, the only assessments I really remembered were the basic tests…multiple choice, short answer, matching, fill in the blank, essay. Well for me that was just fine. I had one heck of a short term memory, I could cram with the best of them, I could B.S. my way through an essay, and, overall, I was just a good test taker. Could I do well on those same tests 6 months later? A year? Did those facts really mean anything to me or my life? The answer to these questions is probably not. School always seemed to be about facts and memorization. As I’ve mentioned before, things have changed. In a lot of ways, I think the purpose and focus of education has changed.
What’s more important, that you know that Ancient Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period occurred from 1786-1558 BC or that, much like other ancient societies, they had needs that were met by their environment which is similar to the needs we still have today. The focus now is more on skills that will help students with lifelong learning and with fitting into society. The end product is no longer the most important thing. It is often the steps leading up to that final product that are more important. It is because of these facts that along with other changes, we must also change our methods of assessment.
For starters, assessments can no longer just come at the end of a unit. Formative assessments need to be done frequently to see how progress is towards the necessary skills. These can be as simple as warm-up questions, or having students write down any questions they have. Then assessments need to be made as an activity is going on such as observations done by the teacher. Finally assessments at the end of the unit need to be something students can learn from rather than just saying something is right or wrong. This can be a good time to use self-assessment or peer assessments along with rubrics. Ideally there will be further time to redo the activity or a similar activity in an effort to improve.
Now this seems like all a teacher will be doing is assessment. This is why I put this as one of the most difficult parts of teaching. It’s rather difficult to figure out not only what type of assessment to do at what time, but then what do you do with the assessments when they’re done. Like anything, it’s good to have a lot of weapons to use, and it’s really all about balance, but is there ever enough time? Time…another difficult part of teaching!
