Week 1 Reflection

    Over that past week, in Developmental Formal and Informal Assessment, I have gained knowledge regarding a lot of the processes that I took part in during school. I took a look into why testing is so vital and more importantly, how frequently I was being assessed without even realizing it. Formative assessments are when teachers test your current learning. This can take place after a lesson as well as completing a graphic organizer during a read-along. These are rarely high-stakes which means that there are less important consequences. High-stakes tests and activities are often correlated to summative assessments. Summative assessments are also something that I am familiar with. Every final exam I have taken during my recent schooling, I can relate to the aspects of summative assessments. These can include as basic as multiple choice questions to short answer questions. These are usually only taken a few times a year, which as a student seems like a good thing but it also means there is a lot more build-up for the exams. 

    A less frequent exam, meaning normally at the beginning of the unit or the school year. Diagnostic assessments are very useful tools for teachers, in order to gauge the prior learning of the students. This gives teachers the opportunity to develop a curriculum based on retouching on topics or moving forward confidently. I would strongly like to utilize this in my future classroom. This would avoid being caught off guard or backtracking in the first place. 

    These assessments play a large role in confident students as well as prepared teachers. There are situations that result in no consequences which make the students feel comfortable making mistakes and give the teacher feedback related to their curriculum and instruction development. I would favor formative assessments the most in my future classroom for the overall classroom-wide benefits.