Unit 4.5

What are the pros and cons of the four different kinds of assessments in general? (For example, performance assessments can lead to poor data with a student with performance anxiety, just as a test can have the same impact for a student who struggles with test anxiety).  

With the four types of assessment, each has their own pros and cons specific to students and the types of activities that you are teaching. Performance assessments are not great for knowledge mastery, but is great for reasoning proficiency, performance skills, and the ability to create products. Written response are good assessments for creating products, reasoning proficiency, and knowledge mastery, but not a great assessment for performance skills. Selected response assessments are good for knowledge mastery and reasoning proficiency, but are not great for assessing creating products or performance skills. Personal communication assessments can work for knowledge mastery, but will take time to use properly. Personal communication targets can also lead to good assessments in performance skills, and reasoning proficiency, but not in creating products. 

As you begin writing your lesson plan, what role will assessment play?  

Assessments will play a very important role in my lesson plans moving forward, because they are part of reflecting on what I am doing well as a teacher and what I need to work on. When writing and creating several lesson plans, I think that assessments play a big part as well because not every lesson is going to hit every target, but you can create several lessons that work together to meet all of them. This is what I plan on doing, and using them as building blocks working together to meet all of my targets and assessments.