3-1 | Assessment

The candidate understands how to use multiple measures to monitor and assess
individual student learning, engage learners in self-assessment, and use data to make
decisions.

The candidate should complete a reflective essay illustrating appropriate use of

assessment utilized in teaching. Three artifacts are to be submitted and may include
Unit Plans, Student Feedback, Assessments, and Student Work.

The candidate understands how to use multiple measures to monitor and assess individual
student learning, engage learners in self-assessment, and use data to make decisions. The
candidate should complete a reflective essay illustrating appropriate use of assessment
utilized in teaching. Three artifacts are to be submitted and may include Unit Plans,
Student Feedback, Assessments, and Student Work.

To ensure that an idea is being clearly communicated by the teacher and internalized by
the students, it is necessary to use varied assessment measures to find out what the
student is retaining from the class period, and how deeply they understand that topic.
Questions that require content recollection can be a good measure of what has been
memorized, ones which ask students to explain how they would answer a certain question
demonstrate the test-taker’s proficiency in procedural understanding, and questions that
require students to identify the reason why those steps are taken are all important to gage
a student’s comprehensive understanding of a given topic.

In teaching my unit plan for an ensemble at the high school level, I planned four total
assessments which could help me to see how well students grasped the information being
shared. Each one built on the skills I expected to be demonstrated, and clearly included
questions which required students to demonstrate understanding in foundational skills to
help me to better guide their future learning in support of the unit’s objectives. As a
secondary measure, the assessments caused the students to tune in to what was being
taught in case to make sure they were prepared. Each assessment had both a higher
success rate as well as submission rate. The formative assessments I gave the students
required recollection as well as procedural comprehension. The final assessment gaged the
student’s fluency in application of the skills we’ve practiced, for the sake of guiding
continued instruction on the topic.

Artifacts

● Key Signatures 1 Unit Plan

○ Formative Assessment 1
■ My first formative assessment for the unit was fairly simple and
actually asked students to identify the correct key signatures for the
first three keys we studied. My goal was to assess their progress on
the way to internalizing all 7 of the key signatures which this unit
covered, however upon return to this unit, I’d use the first formative
assessment to gage student development regarding the underlying
skills necessary to actually understand the concept (more than just
memorization of three key signatures).
■ Formative 1

○ Formative Assessment 2
■ The second assessment in the unit gauged more prerequisite
understanding in order to help me to cue in on where there were
actual gaps in understanding for the students.
■ Formative 2

○ Summative Assessment (Student Work)

■ The summative assessment returned back to the broad goal of the
unit: that students could build key signatures, and a major scale. The
next time I approach this unit, I intend to give students more practice
with the skills before presenting the final assessment. I feel this one
has a gap in opportunity for students to internalize the skill enough to
actually ​apply​ it successfully (consistently), though they may possess
the background understanding.
■ Summative