Wednesday Words
We will look at the words that define us.
If you have kids or have spent anytime in the world of education you have heard about assessments. Sometimes it seems like we assess more than we teach! That being said there are multiple ways to assess learning.
Informal assessments are those assessments that are not actual tests. For example if I was working with three year olds and I wanted to know if they knew their colors I could formally ask them to name all the colors OR I could informally find out while playing blocks or completing art as I asked them to hand me a specific color or tell me which colors they were using.
Obviously the younger the children are the more informally we are assessing them. As they age we tend to move toward more paper and pencil assessments (anyone heard of No Child Left Behind?).
I find that watching what your children are doing and saying provides a wonderful amount of information on what they have learned. As you play and otherwise engage with your students take a moment to note what you have observed. Making notes will allow you to support your claims when speaking with parents, teachers, and administrators about the progress of the child.
Do you use informal assessments? What tools do you use when documenting?
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.