Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Assessment is an ongoing activity Marcie realized that she is still assessing students the way she was assessed. Her teachers never told them what they were supposed to learn and they were never involved in the assessment process (unless they graded each others' papers when their teacher called out the answer). The only results she really got were graded papers and report cards and those always came after a task. She doesn't remember having an assessment that helped her understand what she needed to study in order to improve. She thinks it's depressing, but she sees herself doing the same things, now that she is a teacher. Assessments are something she does at the end of teaching. What do you recommend her to do in order to make the assessment an ongoing activity rather than a final step? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I can relate. I had the same experience as a child and until I started my undergraduate degree, I didn't realize the use of assessments except to report a grade at the end of a chapter or report card. I suggest that Marcie start off by incorporating pre-assessments into her units. After she administers her first pre-assessment and analyzes it, she will see how it all help her plan out her unit by providing extra content specifically where students need it and also what she can just touch on and move on with. Next she should administer assessments (informally) by making notes of struggling students so that she can offer extra help to them. Finally at the end assessment she should see more success due to ongoing assessment because of the awareness they bring to the teacher about his/her students.