Week Seven Reflections: Classroom Assessment: Minute By Minute, Day By Day

Classroom Assessment: Minute By Minute, Day By Day (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson William)  is an excellent resource for every teacher. It  reminds one of the importance of assessing and the best methods of conducting it.

As a kindergarten teacher, I have been trained to use various assessments to gauge student learning and inform instruction. I use both formal and informal assessments. At times I feel I am assessing too much. But upon reflection, I came to the conclusion that my students are comfortable with my style of assessment if they think it is a fun activity to "play" school and "play" at assessing during their free center time.  I also looked back on the reasons I assessed and how I used the results. I found my observations made me a better teacher to the individual student as everyone was at or near achieving their learning goals while still enjoying the learning process since I was able to reach them through their own learning styles. I feel I am using assessments to improve student achievement, to adapt my instruction, and support learning. With years of experience I have been able to integrate assessing into my classroom instruction and conducting them has almost become second nature.