Like the third chapter of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, this chapter of Understanding by Design talks about the different kinds of assessment and how each one is important in the classroom. Also like Fair Isn’t Always Equal, this chapter highlights the three main kinds of assessments from teachers, pre-assessment, formative assessment and summative assessment. The authors of this book talk a lot about how as teachers, you should have a multitude of different evidence to assess a student. Comparing student success to a photo album, the authors say that you get a much better understanding by looking at many different pieces of evidence (like an entire photo album) instead of just one test or one project that highlights the entire unit (must like one singular photograph).
This chapter also makes sure to point out some important things that teachers should remember when figuring out how to assess students. One being to provide feedback as often as possible, by providing feedback to students on their work, teachers are able to help students adjust their work if they need to, and are allowing you as a teacher to track how they take feedback and apply it to their learning. Another thing the author makes sure to talk about is the importance of self assessment, something that the other book hasn’t mentioned. By allowing students the opportunity to self assess their learning, teachers are giving them the opportunity to reflect on their learning and helps you as the teacher to find out how difficult students found the task and how well their end product matched with their original goals for the project.
Assessment is important and crucial for teachers, and by allowing many different opportunities and options for assessment, it helps create that differentiation in the classroom that is so important.
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