Assess Chapter Four

Reflection on Reading

Name: Tyler Duran, Sam Brisette, Rebecca McIntire, Ryan Michaud
Date: 09-26-2007
Book: Fair Isn’t Always Equal
Chapter: Four

Write a brief abstract of the chapter.
Chapter four outlined the three types of assessments that every teacher will use in their profession. It also introduced us to two types of rubrics, holistic and analytic, as well as providing information on different ways to create portfolios to show student progress and help identify areas where students need improvement and would benefit from guidance or differentiation. Portfolios also enables students to reflect on their own learning styles, their amount of knowledge learned from instruction, provide feedback to the teacher, and used as an informative tool to keep parents up-to-date on the child’s progress. The chapter provides many ways to successfully design rubrics effectively; as well as suggestions for allowing students to participate in this process.

How did you connect to the reading and briefly reflect on your thoughts.
I thought the chapter was very eye-opneing in regards to self-assessment. It broke off from the traditional forms of self-assessment that focus on students grading themselves in regards to performance tasks. It is essential that students make the assessments before the tasks; this way they can address the areas in need of improvement before a test or project. I also found the steps on how to design rubrics extremely useful. It designated what you should and should include, as well as providing various examples of different rubrics that varied in both type and usefulness. I particularly enjoyed the concept of only providing a thorough example of the highest achievement possible (in most cases, a 5) so that the student’s vision will only be focused on getting the highest possible score. I think this would be a very effective and subtle way to motivate students to learn and perform to their maximum potential.