Week 4 - e-Portfolios & Assessment

The AFL tenet I focused on was "AFL should recognize the full range of achievements of all learners." I chose that one because TAKS testing is at the forefront of my thoughts these days. My students will be taking the ELA/Reading TAKS test on March 3rd, and I am trying to help them get prepared for it. I have thought for many years that high stakes testing like TAKS is a poor measure of student learning. Two current trends in education today are differentiated instruction and cooperative learning. The TAKS test does not address either of those methods. It does not allow for the fact that some students are not good test takers, or they may be having a bad day the day of the test. I hate the thought of teaching to the test, but how can I not, knowing that my continued employment is partially based on the scores my students get?

As educators, we're constantly told to get our students to use higher order thinking skills--evaluting, creating, and analyzing. But the TAKS test seems to be aimed more at the lower level skills of knowledge and comprehension. It doesn't interest the students, because all they have to do is spit back facts.

I think that formative assessments are a much better way to assess student learning. My students absolutely HATE the TAKS test (and I can't argue with them). Creating a portfolio or some other long term project will engage them in ways that a standardized test never will. When I think back to when I was in high school, I don't remember the tests I took. I remember the projects I worked on, the things I created.

My portfolio will be a showcase for the skills I have learned in class. It will be a tangible representation of the work I put in to the class.