UbD Chapter 5 Response

I found this chapter to be especially helpful in allowing me to think about the goals of assessment and how those goals are best met.  I will definitely keep the three assessment principles in mind when deciding how I will assess my future students.  Because I absolutely loathe the idea of “high stakes” testing (as I’m certain most teachers do), I agree that it is extremely important to “consider photo albums versus snapshots” when it comes to assessment.  While I understand that imposition of high stakes tests is sometimes beyond the control of teachers, it is comforting to know that the assessment practices we use within the confines of our own classrooms do not have to follow the model of standardized testing.  Since I will be teaching English, I would like to avoid testing as much as possible and still feel that I will be able to readily and accurately assess my students through series of more open-ended and “natural” measures, such as journals, essays, presentations, and observations (this is not to say that such measures would be difficult to use in a math or science classroom, either).  Also, when I am teaching a unit, I certainly want to incorporate differing methods of assessment versus relying on the same method over and over again.  Not only does using different methods of assessment keep learning more interesting for the students, it also “increases the opportunity for students to work to their strengths” as mentioned on page 63.  When deciding which forms of assessments to use at what point in the unit, I will be sure to focus first on the goals of the unit, as stated in assessment principle number two, and to keep in mind that form always follows function, using a successive combination of diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments.