Philosophy of Assessment

After writing my philosophy paper, I now have a clear picture about why and how I want to evaluate my future students.  As Fetsco and McClure (2005) state, deciding how to assess is critical, not only to gain support as a teacher, but to influence the lives of students.    I focused on comprehensive learning, observation, and constructivism, backing my own view with what current research says.  As I wrote, researched, and rethought my views about evaluation, I was developing an attitude that will help me understand others in the workforce.  Obviously, these skills I have learned will directly affect my teaching and understanding in my future classroom as I work individually with students as well as give whole group instruction.  This artifact relates to the curriculum model in that I am using a full range of formal and informal information as I develop my teaching theories and practices.

Unit Plan: I KNOW CULTURE

Developing a unit plan was my first experience understanding the diligence required to form a unit plan from lesson plans to tests to a performance project.  My group and I chose a cultural study topic, in which students would work to better understand other cultures and their own.  We were required to write out three lesson plans, one test, and one performance project.  In this unit, I worked to make a test that reflected what was taught and how much emphasis to place on each objective.  The importance of correctly evaluating was reaffirmed as I worked to create a clear rubric.  Rubrics are a tool teachers and students can use to understand the performances expected.  "If clear and well-developed rubrics describe the performances expected for each assignment, and if students learn to use the rubric to evaluate their own work, then quality, not quantity, will be at the center of grading" (Woolfolk, 2005, p. 546).                                      

As I use this project, students will learn about world cultures, specifically the Maori, Guatemalan, and Native American cultures.  This will enhance their social growth as well as their intellectual maturity as they learn how cultures interact with each other.

Through this project, I have built a solid foundation as I begin to formulate specific unit plans and evaluations of the knowledge students will gain.  I plan to use this unit plan in my future classroom and will adjust it appropriately to fit my students' needs.  This artifact includes an assessment of student learning and appropriately meets the INTASC 8 standard which states: "The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to ensure the continuous social (and) intellectual...development of the learner."

Children's Literature Analysis

During my children's literature class, I was able to read many children and adolescent books.  Through my readings, I wrote reflections about the books, including a brief summary and the importance of the book genre.  "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" was an amazing historical fiction book that transported me to the 1800's and brought history alive.  As I read and analyzed the story, I found that the book was creating a context students would love to be a part of!  The pirates, the stowaway, and the mystery all help shape what readers would find interesting and, at the same time, learn from.  Students become a part of the story and begin to identify with characters.  Through historical fiction, children "encounter the complexities of historical events, where facts from the past become living, breathing drama, significant beyond their own time" (Levstik, 1998, p. 136).  Historical fiction has a way of pulling students into history in a fresh and stimulating way, especially for those who may find history class to be a bore.  It also challenges students to think about other historical times, cultures, and ways of life many students have no idea exist.  

This was an experience that helped me grow and evaluate good literature to a great extent, an experience which identifies my competency as a professional.  I am able to evaluate books and match them with students who need to learn something from them.  I am able to take a book and open a new world to a student, a world that has always existed, but never seemed interesting before.  In the future, I will continue to read books and distribute them to my class.  I will involve paperback books for many projects, fostering a love for stories and knowledge.   

Case Study: Running Records

Observing a child for an extended amount of time was a learning experience like no other.  Through my practicum, I was able to evaluate a child through using DRA's, running records, and other guides that focus in on specific reading areas.  The child read at an average reading pace and seemed to enjoy reading a variety of books.  Through my observations, I was able to cue in that the child used a lot of visual cues from letters, specifically initial letters to form her words.  I then sought research to help explain how to best help the child and found that a focus needs to form on the middle and ending of the words.  I also explained several strategies that may help the child.  Even though case studies are among the oldest research methods, professionals continue to use them in hope of revealing things that are true for the rest of the studied population (Myers, 2004).  Case studies "investigate in depth how a teacher plans courses, for example, or how a student tries to learn specific material" (Woolfolk, 2005, p. 11).

My case study paper is an artifact that demonstrates my strength as an evaluator.  I used various assessments and artifacts showing evidence of the child's growth over time.  This also demonstrates my competency as a growing professional because I am able to evaluate a child, identify strengths and weaknesses, and move to help the child develop new strategies for better reading accuracy and comprehension through research.  I will continue to use DRA's, running records, and other assessment tools in my future classroom to help students change weaknesses to strengths.  Just as the curriculum model states, I have shown that I am aware of how students are learning, and I am able to find effective techniques to help them grow.