I use assessment every week in math because that is what is in alignment with our Beyond Textbooks calendar, but I don't do very well as far as assessing reading skills. We use "Accelerated Reader" in our school, and the students have goals they are supposed to reach by the end of each quarter, but my students squander the "SSR" time they are given and I think only 3 from my class were able to attend the AR celebration because the rest had not met their goals in the last quarter. It seems like we are SO CONCERNED with getting the students "up" in math that language arts are kind of swept by the wayside. I have been good about keeping up with spelling and vocabulary assessments, and the students go to another class for writing, but as far as things like dictionary skills or main ideas in a paragraph or point of view go, I have been remiss.
I'm hoping I do all right as far as informal assessments go. I have "arrangements" with a few students, and they are given modified work because they felt really overwhelmed with "regular" work I was giving everyone. I often stroll around the room, or have the "tutoring table" in back, where I sit as students do their independent work and I can help those that think they need it. That has been largely successful in helping students turn in homework, because they didn't understand the material, so of course they weren't going to attempt it at home! My informal assessments are used so I know which students are struggling with which concepts, but unfortunately, my "higher" students are often neglected. They finish their work and turn it in, but instead of having several enrichment assignments for them to work on, I encourage them to read. I guess that is a sort of enrichment, but when it's during math time, it feels like cheating!
In our school, we use the weekly formative assessments to develop "re-teach" groups in our grade. For instance, the students who earned the highest scores (4/5) will go to "enrichment", because they demonstrated mastery of the skills. Students who get 0-3 on the test go to different teachers' rooms to get more help with the area that was tested. After a week of "reteach", we give the students a re-test on the material, and adjust scores accordingly, assuming the student does better the second time around. Sometimes they do much better, and sometimes it is about the same score, but at least very rarely is the score worse than it was the first time around! Unfortunately, we do not really have anything for students if they fail the second time around, because we are required to keep on moving through the material, so we can't just stay back for a couple of students. These students normally do go to "math remediation" class for a portion of the day, but they seem to be far behind in so many skills that the remediation is far behind even the grade level where students are SUPPOSED to be, so it doesn't seem like it is a lot of help. I'm not going to get on my soapbox about it, but that is what assessments are used for in our class and grade.
I guess I do what I'm "supposed" to, but I hesitate to rate myself real high as far as assessment goes, because it isn't always used as I've thought it's meant to be used. Maybe I'm a 6 or 7. I plan on using assessments to REALLY help the students in my class to get to a "10".
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