I would assess my students for their benefit. My plan for assessing students in a perfect world would be to allow them to revise and re-do their work during the year. Students will hand in an assignment and I will be provide feedback for that assignment and allow for the student to learn from their mistakes and be able to re-do the assignments. This tactic allows for student growth.
My way of assessment is very much possible in an SOL-driven world. Not giving the students a chance to re-do their worksheets teaches them that its a one time thing and they do not need that information again. We are in an SOL-driven state so if a student doesn't get the chance to look at their work and see where they went wrong or didn't haven enough understanding to answer the assignment correctly. They are given another chance to learn what they may have missed the first time.
A challenge to this tool could be lack of student drive, I would think that students would want to correct their work for better understanding and a grade but sometimes it might not work out like that. Students may loose the hand out or assignment.
This technique is also called formative assessment which is also very beneficial as a teacher to see how you are teaching the students. As a teacher, it is necessary for you to keep track on how you are teaching, formative assessment does that, if there are a group of students who do not understand a topic then maybe, its not the students who are at fault for the grade, you are as a teacher. It gives you a second chance to teach the topic that the students are not understanding.
Formative assessment is definitely important. Using things like exit slips or post-it notes allow for a quick check on student understanding. These do not have to take very long, but can give the teacher a good idea of how the students are thinking. My former CT had a response chart with numbered pockets where students were able to put their post-it answers in. It worked really well because the students could just drop their answers as they walked by and it was easy to see who had not turned theirs in.
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