Table of Contents
Introduction
For as long as education has been around instruction given by the teacher is one of the main components that is related to the student learning. This goes with building a relationship with the students. Standard based instruction helps guide the teachers planning of the lesson plan and what has to be though throughout the year. The assessment’s that the teachers give in order to tell whether the students understand the curriculum that is given is also very important. There is six types of assessment methods that teachers can use in order to see where the students can learn effectively. First one is, Diagnostic Assessment (as Pre-Assessment) second one, Formative Assessment third one, Summative Assessment fourth one is Norm-Referenced Assessment fifth one, Criterion-Referenced Assessment last but not least Interim/Benchmark Assessment.
Importance of Instruction
In contrast, instruction describes the means teachers employ in an attempt to promote students’ achievement of the curricular ends being sought (Popham, 2014). Everyday someone is being told to do something whether it be your parents telling you to clean your room, boss telling you to do your work a certain way, teachers teaching you how to understand that criteria that is given, these are all forms of instruction. According to oxford dictionary the actual definition of instruction is a detailed information telling how something should be done, operated or assembled.
In the education field instruction is so important when it comes to teaching. As a teacher it is very critical to know that every student is unique in their own distinguished way when it comes to learning the curriculum. A teacher should always keep in mind that they contain the power of instruction with the management of the classroom environment. As the teacher you are responsible for what the students take in from the lesson that is being thought. It is important that teachers’ directions relating to academic activity and behavior are clear, precise and effective (Rhalmi, 2010). With that being said is if the teacher is given the students an activity it will all go down the drain and would be disappointing if the students do not understand the instructions of the activity.
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Sometimes depending on the student, they might fail to understand the instructions that are being given. Having students who do not understand the criteria would possibly fail to do the task. Not understanding the directions and or instructions will have the student and teacher feeling frustrated and this is not a good feeling for any learning and teaching process. As a teacher there is a solution to how to give better teaching instructions. In order for a teacher to give better instructions they have to always remember these two general rules the first one is to keep the instructions as simple as possible, the second one is that the instructions given must be logical.
According to Mohammed Rhalmi before giving instructions you always have to ask yourself: what is the information that you are trying to convey? What the students know in order to complete the activity successfully? Which information do they need first? Which comes second? What materials are needed for the students to do the task. And last but not least are they going row or individually, as a group or just have one partner? The success of learning the criteria given by the teacher relies on the importance of instructions.
As a full-time student and this being my last year of learning I would say that growing up I had some pretty good teachers maybe like 2 or 3 bad teachers in my whole life. What I did learn from my precious educators when given instructions is that the instructions were always easy to understand and if they were difficult to understand, I didn’t hesitate to seek help. As a student I noticed how the spoken instructions weren’t everything, body language was a big factor as well. My teacher in 5th grade would always give the instructions with a demonstration so that way the class would understand with actions.
Importance of Assessment
According to Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross the classroom assessment is based on seven important assumptions: first one is the quality of student learning directly, although not exclusively, related to the quality of teaching. Therefore, one of the most promising ways to improve learning is to improve teaching. The second one is to improve their effectiveness, teachers need first to make their goals and objectives explicit and them to get specific, comprehensible feedback on the extent to which they are achieving those goals and objectives. The third one is to improve their learning, students need to receiver appropriate and focused feedback early and often; they also need to learn how to assess their own learning.
The fourth one is the type of assessment most likely to improve teaching and learning is that conducted by faculty to answer questions they themselves have formulated in response to issues or problems in their own teaching. The fifth one is systematic inquiry and intellectual challenged are powerful sources of motivation growth, and renewal for college teachers, and classroom assessment can provide such challenge. The sixth one is classroom assessment does not require specialized training; it can be carried out by dedicated teachers from all disciplines.
The seventh one is by collaborating with colleagues and actively involving students in Classroom Assessment efforts, faculty (and students) enhance learning and personal satisfaction. Basically, teachers assess the students only to see what the student’s strength and weaknesses is, to see the students’ progress, give the students grade, and determine if the instructions that were given were being followed or learned.
I personally believe that assessment of student learning is important because it is needed for improvement and is also needed for accountability.
I would say that these assessments are more beneficial for the educators rather that the students in my opinion. Reason I say this is because when I was a high school student I must confess that taking these assessment tests never once did I feel like it benefitted me in anyway. I was the type of student that had good grades but because of my assignments, papers, classwork, homework, etc, but when it came to testing, I would just bomb the test. Then again, every student is different and have different ways on how to in take the knowledge that is given by the teacher. There are many assessment methods that can help give the right feedback from both the educator and student.
Diagnostic Assessment
According to former teacher Joelle Brummitt her definition of Diagnostic Assessment is, a form of pre-assessment that allows a teacher to determine students Individual strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, and skills prior to instruction. This is only used by educators when the students are having a troubled time learning the criteria that is given. This diagnostic assessment is also for the teacher’s guide lesson and curriculum planning. This assessment is basically a form of baseline to work from.
Formative Assessment
According to assistant director for professional development at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA defined Formative Assessment not as a test nor a high-stakes standardized assessment, but as a process of feedback in which a teacher learns about a student’s current level of understanding to determine the next learning steps for that student (Heritage, 2007.) Another way to look at this is that this assessment evaluates the students’ performance during instruction and happens throughout the process.
Summative Assessment
According to Carnegie Mellon University the goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of the instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. This assessment method basically measures a student’s performance once the educator has given the instructions.
Norm-Referenced Assessment
This type of assessment is the standardized tests that are basically designed to compare and contrast the test scores of each test taker they go by rank. According to edglossary.org norm-referenced tests report whether test takers performed better or worse than a hypothetical average student, which is determined by comparing scored against the performance results of a statistically selected group of test takers, typically of the same age or grade level, who have already taken the exam (2015.) in other words comparing a student’s performance against another student or even group.
Criterion-Referenced Assessment
According to edglossary.org the definition of Criterion-Referenced test results is often based on the number of correct answers provided by students and scored might be expressed as a percentage of the total possible number of correct answers (2015.) In other words, this assessment is to measures a student’s performance against a goal and standard.
Interim/Benchmark Assessment
An interim assessment is administered at different intervals between instruction, the data from interim assessments can be used for several purposes – all of them intended to deliver instructionally useful information to teachers, students, principles, district administrators and parents (Hicks, 2013.) This assessment measure student progress, where students start and their achievement over time also focuses on patters when it comes to learning for certain students or group of students.
Real Life Scenario
In this life scenario there is this 7th grade teacher named Josh Grajeda who is teaching at a middle school in Oxnard, CA called Fremont Intermediate Middle School where the assessment level of the Interim/Benchmark assessment scores are usually range from proficient to advance. Mr. Grajeda wanted to try something different since every year he gives the same test in the beginning and end of the class year. This year he decided to give the test in the middle of the school year so that at the end the scored of the student improve. The assessment methods he decided to use other than Interim/Benchmark is Norm-Referenced Assessment and it was effective because Josh is trying to compare the students’ performance. Summative assessment is effective because it is used by Josh since he is trying to measure the students’ performance based on the instructions, he has been giving the students throughout the school year. Considering the methods, I used I would not suggest making any changes.
