Ch. 4 Final Assessments

I think that planning with the end in mind is the most effective and purposeful way to plan. When you create a final assessment for a unit plan at the early stages of planning, then you are able to align the content you teach and the way in which you teach it with the final assessment. Research shows that students perform best on assessments that are structured in the same way in which the content was taught. Creating a final assessment before teaching allows teachers to map out what they would like their students to know by the end of the unit, and as they plan their unit, they will make sure to cover what will be on the assessment. Not only is planning backwards a smart idea for teachers to plan effectively and make sure that their exams have content validity, but it is also a good student investment tool. As Smagorinsky explains, having a final assessment that ties together the overarching concepts from a unit or even the entire year’s curriculum gives students a sense of purpose for their studies in your class. In the most high-performing education systems in the world, students take purposeful end of year assessments that are directly tied to the content that has been taught throughout their schooling. In this way, students come into school every day with an understanding that what they are learning will help them reach their end goal for their classes.

After reading about the different final assessment approaches that Smagorinsky describes, I believe that the portfolio approach fits best with my teaching style. With all of the testing that my students must go through, it is easy for them to lose sight of the purpose of school. In an elective class like Spanish, students often think that this class is their opportunity to not do work because there is no standardized test that they have to pass for the class. Therefore, it is important for them to have a purpose for their work in my class. As a student in foreign language classes, I often lost sight of the real world applications of the language, so as a teacher I prioritize instilling in my students the value of learning Spanish in Miami. If my students made a process portfolio throughout the year as a final assessment, they would reflect on the significance of their experience learning Spanish in my classroom. This portfolio may be a collection of their writing, grammar and vocabulary quizzes, cultural readings, or projects in which they are speaking Spanish. They would reflect on what they excelled at, the struggles they experienced learning a second language, and what they learned about language and culture overall. Essentially, my students would be establishing their own personal purpose for taking Spanish, which would motivate them to put in effort on a daily basis.