Assessment Purpose KWL Chart

Assessment Purpose KWL Chart

Purpose of Assessment	K What you know about a teacher’s role/responsibility	W What you want to know about a teacher’s role/responsibility (questions you might have)	L What you have learned about a teacher’s role/responsibility (to be completed by Week Four)
Evaluate	Teachers play major roles in evaluation. Firstly, they provide the students with feedback on the work once assessment has been completed. This is usually referred to as assessment for learning. Secondly, assessment for learning, involves aiding children in setting goals.	Teachers play a role of evaluating and reporting progress made by the students in form of marks, grade or any other means of assessment. However, numerous issues have arisen on the validity and reliability of some of the assessments provided. How can one deal with these doubts in order to choose an evaluation means that will be most appropriate?
Diagnose a Delay	An educator should be able to diagnose a development delay or disability in a child. Since preschool teachers and childcare  providers may be first in realizing a child may have special needs, they  will not only play a role in the identification of such difficulties but also with connecting families with  the available systems that address children’s’ disability and developmental-related needs (Reynolds, 1982).	Effective diagnosis of delays involves various stages such as understanding disabilities and developmental delays, legal issues, approaching families among others. How should teacher handle each of these stages?
Determine Placement	As a teacher, one should comprehend the differences that exist between modifications and accommodations in the school setting. Furthermore, he will provide help in determining the most appropriate and effective placement for students deemed special.	For proper practicing, teachers must be well aware of such modifications. However, what do these accommodations entail?
Program Planning	Every teacher should possess a program plan to implement teaching and learning.	What guidelines should one choose in developing a program plan? In addition to this, what should be contained in the plans?
Research	Research is an important tool in teaching.  Various resources can be used to provide knowledge on learning, teaching and leadership. Research enables teachers to maximizing the richness and depth of a student’s educational experience.	Research on teaching requires both methodological skills as well as knowledge on the involved domain.  Most teachers possess the experience and knowledge but lack rigorous skills required in research. What are some of these skills and how can teachers improve their research through their use?

Some purposes of assessments are beneficial to young children while others are detrimental (Wortham, 2012). One of the merits it holds is that assessment helps to improve the manner in which teaching and interactions occur in childhood programs.  For instance, a program may learn that children cannot hold pencils correctly thus start focusing on activities where they can practice drawing and writing (Gonzalez-Mena, 1998). Secondly, assessment can help in identifying children who have special needs. It might provide information necessary in referring them to a specialist.

However, assessments also hold certain disadvantages one of them being how the data obtained will be interpreted. Results from tests may be used to compare similar children that are in similar circumstances. Such comparison is very difficult to achieve. Another demerit is that most assessments concentrate on forecasting achievement in kindergarten. This may not be the most important variable required since it lacks a developmental and holistic approach (Gonzalez-Mena, 1998).

References

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (1998). Foundations: Early childhood education in a diverse society.     Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Reynolds, C. (1982). The problem of bias in psychological assessment. In C.R. Reynolds & T.B. Gutkin (Eds.), The handbook of school psychology. New York: Wiley.

Wortham, S. C. (2012).  An Overview of assessment in Early Childhood. In J. W. Johnston & J.   Peters             (Eds.) Assessment in Early Childhood Education (p. 21). Pearson Learning Solutions: Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. Retrieved March 12,          2014 from VitalBook file.