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Assessment

William Mayoral

TED 634

National University
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Once our lessons and activities have been taught, one of the hardest job for a teacher

arises, creating a formative assessment. As teachers we need to worry about teaching

standardized tests, as well as teaching our students to think for themselves and create and pass

our own set of tests. We have all dreaded the pop quiz, or the tedious multiple choice test. For

my set of assessments I would like to create a multiple choice test that also incorporates short

answer questions, and a short class presentation that features a written guide.

Before I get to the test I would like to lay out the standards I will be using. I will be using

California State standard 2.0 Reading Comprehension (Focus on Informational Materials), 3.0

Literary Response and Analysis, and 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their

Characteristics). I chose these specific standards because they focus entirely on reading

comprehension and writing application. Hemingway’s novel “In Our Time” Is full or variations

of themes and the story develops with complexity so there is a vast variety of what I can assign

students in a test and a presentation. Student should be able to define theme, plots of the different

short stories, character development, and character relationships.

When it comes to evaluation of my assessments selected I would use the rubric given

from the National Assessment of education development. I pulled this from chapter three of our

textbook. I chose this rubric as opposed to basic, proficient, and advanced evaluation system. In

creating a multiple choice and short answer test this gives me the ability to understand how much

concrete knowledge my students have, and how they could summarize, evaluate, and describe a

given question. In creating questions I would like to create multiple choice and short answer

questions developed from our discussion on question sequences. The Bloom’s taxonomy

question system will allow me to evaluate each level of my students learning ability. Once the

test is taken this would give me a great way to evaluate my students analytically and see what
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areas my students excel in and where they may struggle. My test will be attached in a separate

document. This is a more traditional form of assessment, in contrast with my second form which

is a short presentation.

For my second form of assessment I would like my students to give a short presentation

on a assigned reading selection. Students will use their reading guides to develop their

presentation. Each student will be assigned a specific piece of text and these will be presented in

the order they occur in the book. For my general students they will create their own presentation

guide and give a short verbal presentation on what they have learned and observed. When it

comes to my gifted and talented students, they will be given the option of presenting a short

powerpoint to accompany their presentation. With my student with learning disabilities I will

create an outline to assist them completing the written portion of their presentation. This really

give me the ability to evaluate my students on their own personal learning. This will let me see

what things they really took to so that I may improve their own individual instruction for them.

When looking to our text for rationale seven areas of assessment are given, “ 1.Ability to

answer questions after reading 2. Ability to summarize what has been read 3. Ability to decide

which of two statements is aligned with an author’s views 4. Ability to guess missing words

periodically deleted from a passage 5. Ability to choose from among several pictures the one

that best represents the content of a selection 6. Ability to “retell” the information or events of

the selection 7. Ability to apply the information contained in a selection to some new problem or

situation” Sections 1,2, and four would apply to my test portion of my assessment. These would

evaluate my students ability to decipher concrete materials taught throughout the text. For the

presentation portion I would use numbers 6 and seven. This would allow me to see how my
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students apply the material which they have learned so that they can elaborate and think crucially

to provide their own commentary on what they have learned and what they think it means.

I feel that my reading guides will prepare student for their presentation part of their

assessment. This will give them context to know where they fall in line in the plot development

of the story. This will also give them a blueprint for how to construct their presentation guide.

When I say blueprint, I mean that this is the way I would like their presentation guide arranged.

They can pull from certain aspects of the reading guide, and elaborate with their own thoughts

and ideas. Assigning weekly multiple choice packets would allow students to know exactly what

the multiple choice portion of the test will consist of. This will help student learn the defined

points of instruction through constant use of these types of assignments.

Creating an assessment consists of having a great teaching strategy in place. Selecting

each form of reading and writing strategy will help our student know what is expected of them

once the assessment period arises. Having a defined outcomes and expectations will let our

students know what is expected of them. Assessments must not also be black and white, but

consist of multiple aspects to better understand our students comprehension and understanding of

a given unit.

References
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McKenna, M. C., & Robinson, R. D. (2014). Chapter 3. In Teaching through text: Reading and
writing in the content areas (pp. 35-39). Boston, MA: Pearson.