Assessing and Evaluating Response

English teachers are lucky in the sense that they have a wide range of assessment activities and strategies that they can use to assess students learning. In “Assessing and Evaluating Students’ Learning” Chapter 13 of Teaching Literature to Adolescents, the authors address the various types of assessment methods that English teachers can use to evaluate students learning. One of the problems presented by the authors is that many teachers use “correct answer” quizzes and tests for students’ assessment. I am fortunate that I didn’t see this type of assessment in my high school classroom, because of the limited nature of these tests and the fact that tests are not conducive for really learning a subject in-depth. The authors argue that these types of tests don’t engage students in the material like other types of work can do.

The authors of the article articulated many ways that teachers can assess students without resorting to tests on the specific material. As I read the document I realized that many of the ways the authors talk about assessment are ways that I have been assessed in college English classrooms. The blog posting for example is one way that teachers can assess student engagement in the material and the way that this class is using assessment. Another way of assessing students learning that I have seen in other classrooms is the use of exit tickets. Using exit tickets were not popular while I was in high school, but now with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, and the need for student voice in the lesson, they have gained popularity.

One of the best points that I took away from this document is the importance of quality instruction and feedback from the teacher. As I read the examples of bad feedback I went back through some of the comments I have received on papers from professors. I realized that the teachers who I thought to be better teachers were giving quality feedback on my work, and the teachers who I thought to be unhelpful were giving nearly the same response on my paper as the authors of this article have for the bad example. Having more transparency in prompts and feedback (letting students know what you are looking for as the teacher and grader) is very important in helping students to know what they need to do to become successful in the classroom. I will use many of the strategies presented in this article in my future classroom.