Assessment in a Literacy 2.0 Environment

This chapter was all about assessments. It described how assessments are changing and how they are working on how to make the criteria for the assessments better. The new research supports that the new assessments should include:

1.) Be paired with instruction, learning- centered, ongoing and authentic

2.) Support the students’ self reflection and self- regulation strategies

3.) Engage the students in self, peer and teacher reviews of their online learning/ reading strategies

4.) Include multiple assessments and any alternative forms of the assessment

5.) Have an evaluation of the online learning products and processes

The new research on assessment puts a lot of great new qualities into the assessments. These five new assets supply a great online to what an assessment should be looking for.

This chapter also talks about how observation is the best way to assess a child as well.  By sitting and observing a child you can learn many things. I learned in my psychology class that this type of observation is called “Naturalistic Observation” and as a teacher you should not do anything to encourage or discourage anything the child is doing. This type of observation is nature taking its course. This is the best way to see how a child read, writes, and interacts on their own without scaffolding. Another important part talked about feedback. Feedback is important because it gives a child the advantage to know what they did right and what they need to work on. A great way to give feedback is through a rubric. I really like rubrics and think that they are important because they tell the student exactly what you want them to do. In my experience I have had some rubrics that have been very vague and I did not complete all the pieces so it is important that the teacher comes up with a detailed and precise rubric for their students.

            One of my favorite parts of this chapter was on the portfolios. I always loved bringing my portfolio home to show my parents when I was younger! However, these types of things seem to always be thrown away now a days or left at school. After reading about digital portfolios I think that this is a great idea and it gives parents a chance to save them on their computers and go back to them whenever they want. This is a great tool because now students work isn’t being thrown away by accident or lost!