Informal Assessment- I would use informal assessments in the special ed. classroom through observations, running records, and talking to the students. This type of assessment could be used quite frequently to determine where the student's strengths and weaknesses are.
Formal assessment- This type of standardized measure could be used to to determine where the student is as far as percentiles and standardized skills. It would help determine if the student's skills in certain areas are above or below average.
Authentic assessment- This assessment strategy could potentially be used quite often in the special ed. classroom. Observation of motor skills, counting, how they follow instruction. This type of assessment is so varied that the teacher has a variety of opportunities to utilize this method.
Norm-referenced assessment-I feel it may be difficult to use this form of assessment in special ed. because of the varying types of disabilities and varying degrees of severity of those disabilities that the children may have.
Paper-pencil assessment- This form of assessment may need to be adjusted for children with special needs, but maybe it could be used to determine the progression of the writing skills of the students that are capable of writing.
Teacher-developed assessment- I would use this form of assessment to see how much of what I have gone over in the classroom they are understanding and access their comprehension to see where maybe I as the instructor could adjust the execution of the lesson.
Jennifer, I think you make great points about the usefulness of some assessments in a special education classroom, and the need for modifications of others. I think that norm referenced tests, no matter how biased they may be, are used frequently in special education so that we can determine if students need services, and sometimes the only way to determine this is to compare them to their peers. I do like that you pointed out how many of the assessments could be used to not only assess learning, but also progress with IEP goals. Great insight.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though you hit the nail on the head about using norm-referenced assessments during instruction in the special education classroom. While Anne is correct about how frequently we use norm-referenced assessments for evaluation purposes, we often use criterion-referenced assessments in the classroom because we teach concepts to mastery -- students with disabilities usually understand larger concepts more completely when they have mastered the building blocks.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your point on authentic assessment. We use these so much! Making real-world connections in the curriculum helps our students solidify their knowledge; Excellent post!