Assessment- Routman chpt 15

As I read chapter 15 in Routman, "Evaluation as Part of Teaching," I find myself coming up way short in my own self-assessment. As Routman writes on page 558, "Unless we match our beliefs with useful and developmentally appropriate practices, we are just going through the motions." This sums up my academic year- going through the motions. I have given too many assessments that are meaningless out of habit, without ever really questioning the purpose. Therefore, in this blog, I thought I would evaluate some of my old practices, prior to this course:

Portfolios- F
I have been given portfolios of students from earlier grades, that instead of reviewing, I've given back to them and told them to take home. Also, we (my co-teacher and I) keep record of tests for back-up against parent complaints. We have not kept record of the students progress other than these files, and the students sure-as-heck had no say in what went in.

New Outlook:
Portfolios are indeed a great way for students to take pride in their work as well as monitor their own growth. Just the other day I found my own fifth grade writer's notebook. I was astounded at how mature my word choice was then as well as how creative a writer I was- and how as a teacher my own students were not as advanced. However, I question how to find the time to organize them, where to store them (I have the smallest classroom in the school), and if I don't know how to use them to evaluate student growth, how do I coach the students to use them for self-assessment?

Rubrics- B-
While I have created clear rubrics for assignment, distributed them among the students, and reviewed them as a class, I have found very few of the students' products match up to the specifications of the rubrics.

New Outlook:
As Routman writes on page 573, "They have to see and experience was "quality" looks like." Next year I'll include samples of quality work with the rubrics. Also, I'll incorporate the students' ideas so they have ownership over the activity.

Self-Assessment (teacher and student)- F
I have always been afraid of what the students would respond if I gave them opportunity to grade my teaching. So I haven't given them a say. As far as the students' self-assessment, I never knew how to incorporate their own assessment into an assignment. Do they assess their homework? Their writing? Do they assess themselves weekly or once a trimester?

New Outlook:
While I still am unclear how and where to incorporate a self-assessment portion to my instruction, I will certainly try it- both for myself and for the students. Also, something I learned at TC but never did was keep a journal for myself and reflect on each lesson. I find myself constantly crammed for time and it's always escaped me. I resolve here and now to start.

Parent Communication: B
At my school, we have to write narratives on the students' report cards. Some parents have confessed that they don't read them, and the students' teachers in the higher grades confess they don't read them to inform their practice. Writing these narratives is such a time-waster, that in order to get them all done and not consume our time at home with our families, I know teachers who have stopped instruction and shown movies to get them done (i have never done this). I do take pride in being as thorough as I can, but ultimately- what's the point?

I do have to a better job of communicating with the parents more regularly, however. Something Routman doesn't mention is in this litigious world, emailing parents or using a paper-trail sometimes ends in a legal battle. Because of this, my co-teacher and I decided to primarily depend on phone communication, which is more time-consuming and harder to actually contact the parent.

All in all, I am learning a great deal as to how to underhaul my own instruction and assessment practices. My prevailing question in this whole book has been, where do these teachers find the time to do all of this wonderful work? Don't they have homes they have to go to?

Sorry for the novel, Kelly!