Chapter 14

As I reflect upon the question regarding information on what four informal assessments I would use in my classroom the only thing that comes to mind is “SweeTart’s”. You may wonder why in the world “SweeTart’s” would even come to mind in any question regarding what my classroom assessments are, but if you really think about what an informal assessment truly is then the oxymoron such as “SweeTart’s” will fit perfectly into your train of thought. Since informal assessments are the results of a teacher’s spontaneous reaction in their classroom setting made by the daily observation of how their students preform over day to day processes. Now if I were to ponder and imagine that I am currently in a classroom setting with my students and we have been covering a certain material for a few days then I may think up a very practical way to let the students show me how much they have learned so far on the subject material. Say we are working on gravity and acceleration . . . maybe I would surprise them with a group competition. Maybe I would break them up into four small groups and hand them supplies to make an egg parachute and cradle. . . or if we are working on thermodynamics maybe I would let them team up into groups and attempt to build a container that would “keep the heat” and the best preforming container for either project would win some type of reward whether an extra 15 minutes of free time, bonus points for the test or the chance to drop Newton’s Apple which could be set up like plinko. Maybe I could even do a pop quiz and call it the “Whiz Quiz” or even have some type of mini game show activity and call it “Archimedes Challenge”. Then again if I had all of this planned and organized would it really fall into the category of being an informal assessment? “The world may never know”


Well I am sure I have rattled on enough about informal assessments and I should really start to focus on what types of formal assessments I would use in my classroom. Since formal assessments are preplanned I will be sure that my students can clearly understand what is required of them and when these events will take place during class. I always remember one teacher I had in elementary school that always wore a pair of red suspenders on test days. Even though he told you in advance of when the test was he would make sure to wear the suspenders in order to remind you before class that it was in deed “test day”. I always remember this being a fun and interesting way to interact with the class. Since I will be working with deaf and hard of hearing students I am going to plan on offering a few different types of formal assessments. Of course I will have the regular written tests but if a student has trouble reading written English I would be available to sign the questions to those students. I also plan to have a hand’s on lab type assessment. This will not be the normal do your experiment and write down your results since some students may have issues with the written English language. I would like to set this up where students can learn to write lab papers but also present the results in a class presentation type of format. This will allow the student to sign their results in their native language. I would also like to arrange a science bowl format interaction for students to go up against their classmates on the current material. Once a week I would like to have the students pick a vocabulary word from the class material on a Monday and then on Thursday explain to the class what the term means and how it is used in our class. This will be very helpful since English will mostly be their second language and even though they have a good language base these terms will be new words that they have never been exposed to before entering my classroom.