Assessing Learning

    Chapter five of Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary School: Communities, Connections, and Citizenship, is about evaluating student learning.

    Assessments and evaluations are an essential part of successful teaching. Assessments are meant to provide feedback, determine what students know, identify what students may learn next, provide teachers with information about the instruction, and allow students to reflect on their learning. As teachers, we need to ensure that the assessments are fair to the students. 

    There are two parts to assessment, and they are reliability and validity. Reliability is "... the idea that an assessment will consistently measure student achievement" (Lyman et al., 2015); this is the idea that we want to see consistent results. Validity is whether the assessment is assessing what it is supposed to be assessing. 

    To get the purpose of an assessment, you would use either a formative or summative assessment. Formative assessments. Gather students' data about how close they may be to mastering a specific goal. Summative assessments evaluate levels of performance. 

    There are also authentic assessments, which are assessments that require students show understanding. 

    Lyman et al. state, "evaluation are how the teacher determines the extent to which the student has achieved or mastered the goals, outcomes, and objectives" (2015). So, after assessing the students, you would want to evaluate the results and collect data for future instruction. 

    Grading happens after the data from an assessment has been collected. Report cards are an example of a grading system that would allow the teacher to track students learning. Reporting is also another step in this process because the teacher then shares the students' progress with their guardians. 

    When students finish an assessment, teachers must grade and evaluate it. But, teachers must not forget that they should celebrate when a students master objectives. 

    References
Lyman, L., Foyle, H. C., Waters, S., & Lyman, A. L. (2015). Teaching Social Studies in the 
    Elementary School: Communities, Connections, and Citizenship. National Social Science Press.