Assessment and accountability is one of the most significant practices for successful teaching. I will use a combination of summative, formative and diagnostic assessment techniques to gauge students. It is important to use a range of assessment techniques and modes to give students a variety of opportunities to demonstrate their understanding. Assessment also plays an important role in identifying students with special needs or learning difficulties. I will effectively assess curriculum by planning “backwards” from long-term desired results through a three-stage design process (Desired Results, Evidence, Learning Plan). As supported by McTighe (2012), implementing a Backward Design approach assists me to assess, provide feedback and report on student learning, whilst developing and deepening student understanding. This process enables students to make meaning of learning via “big ideas” and transferring learning. I will create and deliver assessment tasks reflecting authenticity, validity, reliability and flexibility. I will ensure that I provide each student with a fair assessment, one that provides all students with an equal opportunity to demonstrate achievement and yield scores that are comparably valid from one person to another (MacMillan, 2007). Finally, I will give consistent and relevant feedback during a task to highlight what the students have learnt and how they can improve further performance. 

During Professional Experience in a Year Four class, I was required to develop a summative assessment task to determine the students’ understanding of the Chemical and Physical Sciences strand of the Science Curriculum (5.1). The class consisted of seventeen girls in a private, single sex girl’s school situated in Brisbane. The students were of eight years old and varied in learning abilities, including one child who was born with a hearing impairment. She had undergone an operation to insert two cochlear implants into both ears to increase her hearing ability. During the development of the assessment task, I considered the special needs of this particular student to ensure she had an equal chance at demonstrating her understanding (5.3). The “Egg Drop” experiment provided the class with a hands-on, investigative experience for students to apply their knowledge and understanding of materials, the properties they possess, and applying forces.  The task was designed to extend the class’ thought process from the first Science assessment, which required the students to construct a protective container for the egg to survive over a two-day period. 

Artefact One (Focus areas- 5.1) is evidence of my ability to utilise assessment strategies to assess student learning. I incorporated the Backward Design approach to develop the summative assessment task. I began by establishing the desired results or goals for the class by outlining the relevant Science Curriculum strands (i.e. Chemical and Physical Sciences). I designed two activities within the assessment task that would allow the students to demonstrate the desired understanding. The student’s were required to (1) design and construct a container that would successfully protect a raw egg from breaking when dropped, and (2) create a poster detailing all aspects of the investigation. Finally, a range of activities to scaffold the assessment strategies were identified an implemented to support student’s understanding. These activities focused on developing skills such as design and construction of appropriate materials, predicting and comparing, self-reflection, feedback, and structuring an online poster. The Backward Design approach was applied to correlate the desired learning outcomes with the assessment task, and learning experiences during the unit. In turn, I was able to give the class clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning new skills. During the delivery of the assessment task, I made modifications to cater for the one child with the hearing impairment. A teacher aide provided her with individual support to construct the container, and she completed the poster using a special program on the computer called “Clicker 5”. This program allowed her to use verbal language to dictate what she wanted to write as well as physically type.  By being flexible with the assessment, I was able to make adaptations to suit the needs of each individual to provide them with an opportunity to reach their academic goals.

The ”Egg Drop” assessment task allowed me to explore a range of assessment strategies to successfully report, assess and provide feedback on student learning. Formal and informal observations, and ongoing feedback provided the students and myself with a reliable assessment of the student’s understanding of Chemical and Physical Sciences. Artefact two and three (Focus 5.2 and 5.4) demonstrates my ability to incorporate a range of strategies for reporting and providing feedback to students on their learning. I presented Artefact two to the class at the beginning of the assessment duration to guide their learning. This strategy allowed the students to take responsibility of their learning and gave them an insight on what is required to achieve an outstanding result. Artefact three is the rubric I used to make reliable judgments on the students’ understanding. The same rubric was applied to all students to give each individual a fair and consistent result.

The experiences and the mentoring I have received throughout my pre-service teaching have fostered my enthusiasm to become an educator whom values equality and fairness. I will practice this enthusiasm by designing assessment tasks that engage and interest the learner. I will also ensure the assessment is reliable, valid and flexible to suit the varying learning abilities of my class. By catering for diverse needs, I will provide the class with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding and achieve their educational goals. 

MacMillan, J. H. (2007). Classroom Assessment: Principles and Practice for Effective Standards-Based Instruction, In (pp. 464). London: Merrill.

McTighe, J. (2012). Understanding by Design. Retrieved September 2, 2013, from https://www.mheonline.com/secondaryscience/pdf/ubd.pdf