Running head: ED 311 AND 312 REFLECTION 1

ED 311 and 312 Reflection

Hannah L. Smith

North Carolina State University

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I took ED 311 and 312 because, even though it is a required course, I wanted to gain

insight into what assessment truly is and why we use it. Assessment is something we have all

experienced to one degree or another, and it is often easy to put it in a box. At the beginning of

this course, I thought that assessments only came in the form of tests or projects that were

required to be graded. While there are some elements of assessment that include these aspects,

there is a whole new side of assessment that I have been opened up to. In fact, assessment is an

expanding topic as we figure out more ways to gauge student understanding and learning needs. I

used to believe that I got in to teaching despite the assessments. Now I am beginning to

understand that assessments are a way to enhance student learning. I want to teach because I

believe that every student has a right and responsibility to shape the future. Education is a

vehicle in which students can learn skills, formulate ideas, and grow in professionalism in order

to be the informed leaders that the 21st century world needs. Teaching is a way for me to play a

role in spreading culture, equity, and critical thinking, as well as getting to advocate for students

who simply need someone to believe in them. Being an educator is an important job, and it is one

that I intend to enjoy and be successful at. I want to help students succeed.

The top three things that I will take away from this class is about formative assessments,

feedback, and assessing mastery. Before this class, I was not completely clear about what a

formative assessment was. I though it was a limited scope of assessments, but in reality

formative assessments cover a wide variety. They can be formal, informal, verbal, written,

creative, the list goes on. They will be helpful to me in the classroom because they will help me

understand my students more and help me gauge their learning. I will be able to teach more

effectively according to the information that I am getting from the formative assessments. To go

along with this, I also have come to value feedback. Feedback is essential for students so that
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they can see their strengths and weaknesses. Feedback helps them understand how they are

responsible for their education as well, which is valuable for middle-school students to learn. It

also gives them an opportunity at improving in a tangible way. I hope that at the end of every

semester students will be able to look at their improvement throughout the semester. Finally, I

have learned the value of mastery of a subject and how it is important to only use that in

assessing grades. So often teachers grade students on their participation or homework, which

either brings a students grade down, or boosts it even though they dont know what they are

talking about. This should not be the case. Students should know the value of what they have

learned by only being assessed on their knowledge and ability to apply it, evaluate it, analyze it,

or create with it.

Two emotional themes I have experienced is relief and passion. I feel relieved that

assessment is not as scary as I thought. I know that it does not have to be a painful experience for

me or my students. It actually makes me excited to think that I will have more knowledge on

how to teach my students because of the assessments I give, especially formative. I also feel

passionate because now I understand more about what goes into a grade. I hope that I can

advocate for my students in a way that makes them feel empowered. I hope they feel like their

grade reflects their hard work and level of understanding.

I wish I had more practice in this class. It would have been helpful to seen more examples

of assessments, and to practice creating more of the assessments we talked about. This is

especially true for me when it comes to formative assessments. It would have been nice to see

them in action more. Overall, this course was helpful. It could have been more practical in the

topics we covered and how we used the material we learned. It gave me insight into assessments
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in the classroom, and changed my view on assessments from necessary but evil to helpful in

enhancing classrooms.