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TFE 800.63
Field Based Experiences: Assessing Learning
Effective educators understand how to collect, analyze, and use assessment data to plan
instruction that meets student needs. This field-based experience (FBE) course draws on
previous courses such as TCR 405 Questioning Strategies and Feedback, TCR 406 Formal
Assessment, and TTL 409 Using Data to Inform Instruction.
As you spend time observing teachers and students in these five classrooms, watch for both
formative and summative assessment strategies. Pay close attention to the techniques the
teacher uses to gauge understanding and what they do with this information. Does the teacher
reteach a portion of the lesson, pause independent work to clarify a concept, or pull a small
group aside to give extra time for mastery? In your reflection, refer to previous coursework to
connect what you saw in the classroom with how assessment is used to guide instruction.
Reflection Questions:
1. In video 1 where you observed the classrooms of Ms. Christensen and Ms. Dunlap, what
type(s) of formative assessment did you see in the classes observed? How was it
administered and used to impact future instruction?
In the first video I saw Ms. Christensen used exit tickets as a tool for formative assessment. I also
noticed that she took the exit tickets that the kids did and used them to help with the disconnects
in the class. I also liked how she talked about it the next time she saw them and turned the lesson
into a lesson that talked about the missed topics from the passage. I really like that idea, because
in my own classroom I do exit tickets, but I really don’t discuss them with the kids. In Ms.
Dunlap’s class she incorporated a strategy called turn and talk. She let the kids have a time to turn
to their peers and let them discuss the math problem. She really didn’t inject in the conversation
mostly just observed what they were saying. She at one point did kind of stop the kids and had
them talk about the number line again. She wanted to make sure the kids knew what they were
doing.
2. The classrooms of Ms. Lassiter and Ms. Manske in video 2 are very hands-on
environments. How did each of these teachers employ formative assessments in their
classrooms? Provide specific examples of each.
During the second video, while Ms. Lassiter was teaching, she asked questions to the students
while they were doing their workout, like, “How do you feel? How is this affecting your body?”
She wanted to see if they knew the knowledge of what they were doing. She also made sure to go
around and correct any of the kids to make sure they were doing the correct workout and doing it
safely. I remember she corrected squats and showed the correct way of doing it. Then when Ms.
Manske was doing her cooking lesson, during the lesson she asked the kids questions to make
sure they knew the knowledge. She also read the journal entries and said that there were some
things that the kids needed to be retaught with. She then paired some kids together and made
them relearn certain skills. One of them was how to use a knife, and she also showed them how to