Assessment Questions

Content standards are goals that are set two to three years prior and they are set up as benchmarks. These assessments are used to see if the student has mastered the skills that are at predetermined times throughout the year. The results of these assessments help students and teachers have an understanding of the student’s growth and what they may need to focus on more in the future.

Individual learning characteristics of children include what their prior knowledge and experiences are. What their learning skills are and their strengths in academics. Knowing their talents and interests can be helpful. Also knowing if there are any language issues and factoring in their cultural community and religious beliefs can be beneficial. Gathering information about your students prior to teaching will actually speed up the process of their learning because you will not be wasting time trying to figure out what works, you’ll know because you already did the planning.  Getting to know the children personally and building a relationship is important in a learning environment.  When children are comfortable they are confident. When they are confident they are willing and eager to explore and learn.

The information processing model of learning is when the children receive the information where it is stored in short term memory. Then the teacher must connect the information to prior knowledge thus moving it to long term memory.  Last the teacher needs to be sure to help the students to use the information in ways that help them to retrieve and connect it.

Adapting instruction is important because we want to maximize the students learning and we do not want them to be on curriculum overload, where we cover a lot of information but nothing in depth. Which will result in quantity of work, not quality of work?

Different types of assessment need to be done throughout the year in order to have an accurate evaluation of the student’s achievements and knowledge.  Individual-referenced is where the assessment compares the student’s growth with previous assessment taken by him or herself.  Another is norm – referenced where the students’ performance is compared with others. Criterion – referenced is when the knowledge is assessed with an objective through multiple choice and true false questions.

There are there stages of instructional cycle. Stage one is intended instructional outcomes, at this stage teachers know what needs to be taught according to standards. Stage two is planning, teachers plan activities and strategies that will be effective towards the child’s academic growth.  At this point assessments are planned as well. The third stage is assessments.  The assessments are used to see if the students have met the appropriate predetermined growth.

Curriculum mapping is a guide for teachers to meet the needs of the student. First they must know what have the students already learned, what they need to learn now and what are they going to learn in their future grades. This helps you to make connections in all areas of teaching that is bifacial to the children.

The lesson topic should come from standard based curriculum. It is good to focus on the specific lesson that the students have shown interest in.