INTASC Principle 8: Assessment and INTASC Principle 9: Reflective Practice

INTASC Principle 8: Assessment and INTASC Principle 9: Reflective Practice

This principle played the most important role while I was student teaching. I really wanted my students to understand the information taught in class and be able to relate the information to their own lives. I was able to do this by using formal and informal assessments to ensure that the students had a great understanding of the information and topics presented in class.

One way I was able to do this was by opening up the class every day by talking about current events. Students greatly enjoyed talking about the political events that were going on right in front of their eyes. I found that with a little time students would come into class ready to talk about the primaries, international events, and other current event topics. Students were able to relate the day to day events taking place to what they learned in the civics class. I used to think that assessments should always be formal, but my student teaching experience allowed me to understand that assessment can take many forms.

Another way I was able to informally assess students was by monitoring the group work activities implemented in almost every class. I tried to incorporate group activities in the lessons I taught. I found that students not only liked to work with one another but really learned from one another. One instance in which I was able to informally assess students was when they were grouped together completing a “wanted ad” for a lobbyist. Students were to take the position of a political interest group creating a “wanted ad” for a lobbyist. Students needed to think of the types of educational background, experience, and personal characteristics needed to be a lobbyist. While they were working in groups I walked around the room checking on their progress. If a student was stuck I tried to asking leading questions that would allow them to create their own ideas about lobbyist traits. For example, I would say “if you were going to hire an individual to represent your company and try to persuade Congressman to pass legislation that favored you, what kind of experience would you want that individual to have?” After asking leading questions like this students were able to answer with ideas such as “some kind of background in government” or “I would want them to have a law degree.” This type of informal assessment helped students to create new ideas and complete the assignment while contributing to their overall understanding of political interest groups and lobbyists.

http://www.docstoc.com/Docs/447869/Lobbyist%20Want%20Ad

I also had the opportunity to formally assess students. My mentoring teacher gave me the opportunity to create exams. I learned that when possible, tests and formal assessments should be created after the lesson has been taught. I was able to create several chapter tests as well as short quizzes that went along with the lesson I was going to teach for that day. Creating the tests allowed me to better understand assessment procedures. For example, I wanted to make sure every question was clearly stated and that the material had been discussed either in class or assigned to have been read in the book. After students completed the exam I was able to evaluate my performance as a teacher by analyzing the test scores, seeing what students understood and what they struggled with.

http://www.docstoc.com/Docs/444281/Chapter%207%20Test

http://www.docstoc.com/Docs/444280/Chap.%2011%20Test

One of the most important things I have learned from my graduate school career and my student teaching experience was reflective practice. When I first started my student teaching experience, I was concerned about my lack of teaching experience and confided in my mentoring teacher. During our planning period we often times discussed the things I did in class, and he would give me feedback on my progress. His feedback was very beneficial and allowed me to grow personally and professionally. I also had the opportunity to observe other teachers at Riverside. I found that this observation allowed me to gain new ideas and instructional strategies to use in my own class. While many of the ideas I gained from other teachers were implemented effectively, a few were not as successful as I had hoped. For these lessons I went back and looked at the planning that took place and tried to evaluate the lesson and think of things that could have been done differently.