Unit Assessments, Chapter 4

Creating a final assessment for a unit plan allows the teacher to purposefully and meticulously design daily lessons that ultimately will lead students to mastery of a particular skill or benchmark. As Smagorinsky states, when teachers know where students are headed, they in turn have a better idea of how to teach them appropriately. Therefore, backwards planning inevitably will ensure that classrooms are flourishing with purposeful instruction and meaningful discourse. Furthermore, creating a final assessment for a unit plan allows the teacher to continue making thematic connections throughout the time of the unit, which will draw the students into various texts and discussions because the stories selected or material chosen for a particular lesson will be aligned to the overarching theme.

Scaffolding instruction, especially in my English classroom where the students’ reading levels fluctuate drastically and the needs for each student can vary greatly, allows students to master concepts at their level and show their mastery through daily exit slips and/or bi-weekly benchmark assessments. Smagorinsky also stresses the notion that creating a unit plan helps a teacher differentiate between what students learn and what the teacher should grade. Lastly, aligning the content one teaches to the unit plan’s final assessment forces the teacher to question what steps need to be taken in order to reach the final goal (mastery of the assessment). It allows the teacher to infuse a sense of purpose into the students. These students can then enter school everyday being cognizant of what the daily goals are, what the ultimate goal is for he/she individually, and understand that the instruction being given on that specific day is directly tied to the assessment that is crucial for their academic success in that area.

The portfolio assessment approach certainly fits my teaching style best. At Miami Edison Senior High School, we as a faculty have been trying to instill school pride because for many years our school has been frowned upon in Miami and in the Little Haiti community. Oftentimes, students are quick to want to transfer to another school because of the reputation Edison has academically and athletically. Portfolios will allow students to make mistakes or produce work that isn’t their best because ultimately the work that is placed into the portfolio is work that best represents the student’s ability. Learning from their errors is not only great for success in school but is also a life lesson that my students need. In addition, process portfolios encourage students to select pieces of work that demonstrate key learning experiences throughout the year. These key learning experiences don’t necessarily have to be the most polished piece of work but can show what a student has learned. This autonomy allows for the students to be comfortable with being uncomfortable: a skill that oftentimes is difficult for my students to grasp.

Using a portfolio as an assessment also instills a sense of accountability within the classroom from the beginning. Students know that if they do not save their work they may do poorly on the final evaluation. Instilling pride and accountability could be monumental at a school such as Edison and I am excited about implementing in the upcoming unit I will be creating.