Assessment Conversation Questions

Teacher Z*
Assessment co-ordinator and level leader at School X

What is your personal philosophy on assessment?

It is critical. Assessment forms the basis for authentic and point of
need teaching. It is important to determine a students level of
ability and to then develop a differentiated program to support their
continual progress that works along the premise of the Zone of
Proximal Development, which is about providing enough scaffolding
based on what a student knows but with enough challenging work to
extend a students learning.

What different kinds of assessment do you use?

Primarily, For, As Of assessment that allows for teachers to
determine how a childs learning has developed from the beginning
of a unit of work, during and after.

Teachers use a huge array of tests. These include observations,

questioning, conferencing, formal assessments including paper
tests, such as Q/A, multiple choice tests, computer based tests such
as On Demand.

Are these assessments chosen by the government, the

school, or personally?
They are a combination of all three. For example NAPLAN, On
Demand, RR, Benchmarks, Formal Tests by the school and
personally observations records and iPad apps by myself.

Do you have a preferred assessment style?

Yes, use a variety of tests formal and informal tests/observations,

as students learning styles all differ and talking to and conferencing,
one-to-one test observations prove to be most informative.

Why do you use it?/what do you think the best uses for it
are?
Many formal tests such as Reading RR and Benchmarks tests are
formal and are consistent by all teachers to complete. Having
agreed tests in a school is critical to ensure consistency across the
school, teachers and for families.

What role does assessment play in the classroom? Explicit?

Critical, it informs my weekly planning, formation of groups and
discussion with Year Level team & PLT as to how we can better
support our students as each year, class groups are different.

What is the purpose of assessment in your opinion?

To support teachers planning, provide others with evidence of
students current level of progress for report writing, to be
accountable to parents, government and the community and to
ensure my lessons best caters to students needs.

How do you plan for assessment?

As part of planning for each term.

Do you promote peer assessment? Why/how?

Yes, we are currently undertaking lesson studies as peer
observation. It is about developing best practise and we should
always aim to teach using best practise. Teaching is a continually
evolving profession and teachers must always look at how they can
improve their practise. After all, thats what we expect of our
students, continual growth.

*Name has been changed

Compendium