Chapter 15 Learning Log

What?

This week we studied Chapter 15 which talked about assessment. The book talked about different ways to assess and different types of assessments, such as formal and informal, formative and summative, etc. It also talked about the reasons why we need to assess student learning and how to be effective in doing so. The type of assessment that I found to be most useful was performance assessment. In this type of assessment, students are able to take what they have learned in class and apply that in a real-life situation. The students will gain a lot of knowledge and understanding in completing a performance assessment.

In class we discussed R.S.V.P. which stands for reliability, standardization, validity, and practicality. The reality is that it is impossible to be perfect in every one of these categories, but we do need to make sure our assessments fulfill as much of the R.S.V.P. as possible. Another thing that we talked about in class is how exercise can have a direct impact on our brain and on our learning. It can help students to be able to focus and be more engaged in what they are learning.

So What? 

Assessment is extremely important. If we don't know how to assess where our students are in the learning process within our class, it will be impossible to know what or how we need to teach. We need to know what our students have learned in order to further their education and also so we, as teachers, know what we need to do to improve our instruction. It is helpful to know what we need to look for in an assessment and what will give us the most appropriate information regarding what our students are learning.

Now What?

Through this semester, we are going to focus on assessment and we will be continually learning new and better ways to assess our students. I am really excited about this because it will definitely help me to become a more effective teacher. I am also really interested in learning more about the physical activity and how it impacts our learning. I think if you can help kids to understand how exercise can help them in many different aspects of their lives, they will be more likely to try it out. Another thing that I look forward to learning more about is how to apply the assessments to our teaching. How do we make it all fit in and how do we take the data that we've collected and apply it to our students? If we are going to assess our students' learning, we must take that information and make it useful for us.