Not only will testing after lessons occur in my classroom. I will be assessing while teaching. Formative assessment will help me to make decisions during lesson planning. I will see which content I need to go back and re-teach or what content I can spend less time on because my students have mastered it early.
I don't really like summative assessment (the assessment done for a grade) but I will have no choice but to give chapter and unit tests. If I can make them myself I think I won't have such an aversion to them. I think I will give the tests from the book a chance, but if I see that they are not working for my class I will start to make them myself. I of course, will as my administration first, to make sure they do not have a problem with it. If I can also get my grade level team on board that would be great. The test will be made across the grade level and will work for all students. So many tests are biased towards white students of a higher socioeconomic status and that just is not ok. I will make tests that cater to all students.
When it comes to things that need a rubric I will be making my own. Many rubrics grade things that you are not looking at, such as spelling and errors when you are grading math or social studies. While those are important things, I am more concerned with mastery of the content, not how well they spelled words or if they missed a period or capital letter. Some rubrics make me laugh and I refuse to use one that I did not make myself.
This view can change today, next year or at the end of my career but for right now I believe this whole-heartedly and will hopefully do things this way in my own classroom.
I don't really like summative assessment (the assessment done for a grade) but I will have no choice but to give chapter and unit tests. If I can make them myself I think I won't have such an aversion to them. I think I will give the tests from the book a chance, but if I see that they are not working for my class I will start to make them myself. I of course, will as my administration first, to make sure they do not have a problem with it. If I can also get my grade level team on board that would be great. The test will be made across the grade level and will work for all students. So many tests are biased towards white students of a higher socioeconomic status and that just is not ok. I will make tests that cater to all students.
When it comes to things that need a rubric I will be making my own. Many rubrics grade things that you are not looking at, such as spelling and errors when you are grading math or social studies. While those are important things, I am more concerned with mastery of the content, not how well they spelled words or if they missed a period or capital letter. Some rubrics make me laugh and I refuse to use one that I did not make myself.
This view can change today, next year or at the end of my career but for right now I believe this whole-heartedly and will hopefully do things this way in my own classroom.