Essay Tests or Multiple Choice Tests

When it comes to looking at Essay Tests or Multiple Choice Tests, I believe that these two forms of assessment are great, but personally I prefer Multiple choice. Every student/person is differently and as a teacher I believe that we need to know in what type of assessment is that our students perform better. I remember when I was in High School some of my teachers gave tests based on how the student performed better, meaning every student received different tests. I personally wouldn't use that technique because that would mean having to grade different form of tests.
Test in general I believe make students nervous ( I know I get nervous) and is not a right way to assess students, because there are times when students just memorize the material but that doesn't mean that the student has learned anything.

Portfolios

When it comes to the topic of portfolios, many people think of folders filled with the work students have dont rhoughout the school year or a specific marking period. During my grammar school and high school career I can clearly remember doing a portfolio only one time and that was my senior year and it was for art class. However, it was not a portfolio that I liked because it had work that I was not happy about, work were i didn't do good because art has never been my strong point.
Portfolios, a word that after senior year for me meant a folder that had work made by me, but picked by my teacher. I did not hear or see again another portfolio uintil this past spring break while I was doing my junior field experience. I observed a second grade teacher in a school located in Union City, NJ. The first day I was there, the teacher gave me an overview/tour of the classroom and then she came to the table where she kept two 2 "boxes" and those boxes had folders, one box was labeled Math & Science and the other one Language Arts. Those folders had work done by the students and most importantly PICKED by the students. Also, those pieces of work had a paper attached to them written by the students on why that piece of work is part of their portfolio.
Students work hard on their assignments and when they are proud it should be in a place where other people can see it if needed. As a teacher, I would definetally keep a special area where their portfolios will be and the student can pick the work that should go there.

Homework

Many students have a very negative view about homework. They think that homework is boring, takes time and is not worth doing it. Some students do homework because it’s mandatory, but they do not see another reason beyond that. However, I have to admit, I am guilty of being one of those students many times. However, homework is more than a grade because it helps students remember the material covered during class. The purpose of doing homework is to learn, remember, practice the skills learned, but also do mistakes and learn from them. I feel that homework is important and I say this from personal experience. Every homework is like everything in life, if we don’t practice it, how would we ever get better, or even worse know that we actually know how to do it.
Homework is meaningful when students do it by themselves, NOT! When they copy from their classmates. Students see it easy to just copy from someone else, but they don’t see the point that they’re not learning, all they see is getting a god grade in whatever it is that the assignment being copied is, and once again I am guilty on that because I remember many times during HS when I didn’t do an assignment I would ask a friend and they would let me copy.
Homework is very important, but teachers also have to consider the amount of homework that they assign to their students. Some students hate doing homework because that is what they do all afternoon after they leave school. Some teachers just give too much homework. Yes, students need to practice the new skills, but that does not mean taking the students’ whole time off after classes are done. Students need to be constantly practicing what they learned, but they also need to rest in order to perform well in class/school the next day. Otherwise, the lack of rest has consequences in the classroom the next day. Some students go to class too tired, and they barely pay attention in class, and some even fall asleep!!!
Lastly, teachers should go over the homework. If students do their homework, but teachers do not check it, what is the point of the students doing it? And that is exactly what will go in their head once they realize the teacher will never check it. Teachers need to go over homework, so that they can let the students know their mistakes because that is the only way students are going to learn.

Rubistar

We have been introduced to this AMAZING! website rubistar and I think that whoever made it is a GENOUS!! It has helped me alot and I really think that teachers should use it. It makes it much more easier to make a rubric instead of having to do one from scratch in a microsoft program. I actually recently worked on a rubric for a lesson plan I did and it took me literally less than 1o minutes. I really like this site and I really think I will continue to use it, not only as a student but also later on in when I am out working as a teacher in a classroom. =) If its out there, lets use it and take advantage of it =)

Rubrics

Rubrics, a tool that is used by teachers to grade a student. There are some advantages to using rubrics and one of the main ones is that they (rubrics) help studentsknow what is that the teacher expects from their students in the final product of their assignments. Also I think that rubrics help students recognize their own weaknesses. Also they are a good way to grade because when an assignment is given back, students know exactly where they made a mistake and also it tells the students exactly where the grades are coming from. For example, if a teacher is going to grade an essay, he or she needs to know what he/she is looking for in this assignment. It is going to be easier and fairer, if he/she has a rubric rather than just look at an essay and give a grade. Because what happens if she/he just graded an essay, but the next essay it is of a better quality than the previous one?

When I first heard about rubrics, I had no idea what it was but as I read about it and Dr. Luongo talked about it in class (Teaching Language Arts) I have come to understood the purpose of them and appreciating them. They helped me understand what my weaknesses are and by looking at my future career as a teacher I think that Rubrics is definitely going to be used in my classroom.

Learning Targets

When I first read the topic "Learning Targets" the first thing that came to mind was, especific learning areas that should be targeted by the teacher in a lesson, and I wasn't wrong. After reading some articles and the book, I have realized that Learning targets are not only points that should be taught, but rather that MUST be taught. These targets are targets that the state gives and should be followed, because by planning a lesson is that we will be know for sure ourselfves as teachers what the point of the lesson is, because if we don't how are students know at the end of the lsson?
Also, by knowing the learning targets, it will be easier to select the appropriate assessment teachniques, and also we will know that student's performance of learning targets is also numerous and varied.

http://www.bham.wednet.edu/departments/currdept/curroff/LTIndex.htm
http://depts.washington.edu/ctltstaf/example_portfolios/williams/pages/92583.html

Fairness in Assessment

As I was doing some research on fairness in assessment, I came across a very interesting article. An article that I clearly relate to. The name if the article is "Fairness in Assessment" http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~smx/PGCHE/fairness.html which highlight the issue of whether it is fair to grade students at the same level or should the cultural background be considered as a factor that might affect the performance of the students. This article talks specifically about students whose first language is not english. Me, being a non-English native speaker, I can say that learning English was not easy. I had always liked the language, but when it came to actually learning it, I had a very hard time, especially when it came to the writing part, because when I translated sentences, it made no sense. Also, for me it was double the work as a english native speaker, because my thoughts came in spanish and in my mind I had to translate it and the even harder part was to try and make sense when I spoke, or wrote it. For me, it was not only having to become accostumed to a new language, but also to a new "world" to me.
As I read the article, many questions came to mind, questions that are so hard to answer by reading articles and readung the book, because teachers have to be fair when it comes to grading his/her students, but what happens when a students first language is not english? is the teacher supposed to be a bit of a hard grader on those that english is their first language? Another fact that is mentioned in this article is that students compare their work, and what is supposed to happen when two ro three students think that they did a very similar work, yet received different grades? So as teachers, what are we supposed to do or better yet how are we supposed to explain that we have graded them based on their english level? and my final question still is, how are we as teachers try and "seem" fully fair?