Meeting Standard Five ~ Assessment 

The student teacher demonstrates knowledge of a variety of approaches to assessment and evaluation. Assessment is seen as integral to the curriculum and instruction process and employs a repertoire of formal and informal methods. “Traditional” tests and essays, as well as performances, exhibitions, and portfolios which allow students to demonstrate what they know in a variety of media and technology are used. Students are also given various opportunities to self-assess progress and their classroom work is guided by known criteria and standards developed by the student teacher with the class (or with the class’ knowledge). A focus on continuous student improvement in skills and content knowledge is emphasized and grading reflects that objective.

During my time student teaching, I got to get my feet wet with a variety of approaches to assessment and evaluation.  The staple of the class under my mentor teacher was quizzes either on Socrative or written physically on paper.  I wanted to try those approaches but also branch out a bit.   For the first couple of sections from To Be a Slave, we did short answer and multiple-choice quizzes as formative assessments.   However, I wanted to get students building and flexing their oral and creative skills.  As an assessment for the station work I had students create posters and do very brief presentations on the information they had learned (Artifact One). 

For our work around oppression, I thought it was important to draw on what students already knew and were thinking about in terms of what oppression was.  So, I created a diagnostic assessment that asked students to visually represent oppression based on the dictionary definition (Artifact Two). Not only did these visual representations give me an idea of how students conceptualized oppression, they also became excellent instructional tools. In my lesson on oppression, I had students analyze the images of their peers and make sense of different interpretations of oppression before we discussed what it was.  After I taught the different aspects of oppression (Power, Violence, Exploitation, Discrimination), I had students extrapolate examples from our primary text to demonstrate understanding of these.

Finally, the summative assessment for the unit was for students to discuss how those who were enslaved resisted internalized oppression.  Students were given the opportunity to write an essay, narrative or poem and they were required to discuss some of the beliefs of slave masters and those who were enslaved and also describe the process of who slaves challenged the ideas and beliefs of slave masters.  This assessment measure ultimately allowed students to answer the unit’s essential question of “How did the institution of slavery oppress Black Americans in the United States and how did Black Americans resist this oppression?”