There are a variety of assessment tools that can be used in the classroom. Assessments are used to see what and how the student, or a group of students, is learning. I use the information gathered from the assessments during Parent Teacher Conferences to talk to families and caregivers about their child’s learning journey. These are the assessment tools I mainly use:

OBSERVATIONS & TAKING NOTES

One form of assessment I will use is observations and taking notes of these observations. The observations will all be objective, and then I will use the notes to see how the students are doing. These observations will serve as ongoing assessments and will be done on a daily basis. This form of assessing will allow me to track the student’s learning and growth throughout the different learning centers in our classroom. This assessment technique can be used for both individuals and groups.

JOURNALS

Another form of assessment I will use is journaling. The students will each have their own journal where they can keep track of the growth of the plants in our classroom. I will check the journals weekly to track student’s learning. Since the journal will consist mostly of drawings, I will also ask the students to describe what they have added in their journals. These journals will help me assess how the students are keeping track of their plant’s growth as well as the different senses they might be using to conduct their observations.

PORTFOLIOS

Creating a portfolio for each student is another way to assess the student’s growth throughout the school year. Each month, I will gather work samples to include in the student’s portfolio. The work samples will include small descriptions that will be given directly by the students. This form of assessment is a way for me to have an overall assessment of the student across all units taught. The work samples could be shared with the families/caregivers during Parent Teacher Conferences and then could be given to the families/caregivers at the end of the school year.

TEACHING STRATEGIES GOLD

Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) is an authentic assessment tool that I will be using with my students. With this assessment tool, I get to use my observations of the students throughout the different domains like Social-Emotional, Physical, Language, Cognitive, Literacy, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, and The Arts. Within each of the previously mentioned domains, there are different objectives. For each objective, there are one or more dimensions. Using my observations and notes, I am able to assess what level my students are in using the color bands given on TSG. The color bands represent the different age groups. I will use this form of assessment three times in the school year: November, February and May.