KSA Addressed

11. Teachers gather and use information about students’ learning needs and progress and assess the range of learning objectives

In almost all cases, I believe that the rationale in different education situations can be summed up by a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. This, I know is a very weird assertion but I really think that the cartoonist speaks volumes to my beliefs and rationale behind my pedagogy of assessment.

I believe that assessment should be real, have meaning to the students and should be constructivist in its nature. I do not believe that repetition, rote memorization, or factual recall should supply the majority of summative assessment in any class, let alone a social studies classroom. I do not want to test factual recall such as the cartoon above, I would rather have the students apply their knowledge in a lifelike manner in which the students will not only learn more about the subject content but also about themselves and the global community in general.

I believe in multiple intelligences and varying my assessment strategies from classroom debates to worksheets (as anti-climactic as that may appear) because what works for the students will work for me.

I believe in Bloom’s taxonomy and the need to assess students at a higher cognitive level. The rote memorization will definitely still be present as each level builds upon the others; however, the focus of my in-class assessment, exams, and assignments will be on the levels of synthesis, evaluation, and judgement.

This is where students will be taught to think critically about their world. This is where the real world and the social studies classroom will meet.