Alternative Assessment

This presentation was a really great eye opener in a lot ways. All throughout our schooling here at UMF we are taught to teach to our students' strengths, and one of the stations really showed ways you might do that, and that there is no wrong answer. As a teacher, you need to be aware of what your students' abilities are, and use those abilities to show you that they can "meet the standard" or do understand the concept at hand. The board was also very eye-opening, in that it really brought statistics about assessments to light. It really makes gives you a lot to think about. And the skits really made us think of solutions to problems we might encounter as future teachers. What do you do if there are students with special needs? Or students who speak other languages? How do you make it fair? Lately I've been thinking a lot about the book Fair Isn't Always Equal. That truly applies here, whether the student is from another culture, or needs glasses. Alternative assessment is a truly beneficial tool to keep in mind when lesson planning in any classroom.