Assessment

     Second grade at Prairie Crest does not have traditional summative assessments that come to mind when you hear those words. Rather than having the traditional end-of-unit written exam, the students at this school and grade level do things a bit differently. There are two different ways in which the students get assessed, the first being their 'choice boards', and the other is individual assessment with the teacher to check where they are at in reading and math. 

    Choice boards are a mini-packet of roughly 4-5 pages of written work with some online tasks outlined. How it works is the choice board is filled with assignments based on what the students are learning that week. The front cover outlines what they'll be doing as well as showing what choices they have when they finish their one or two tasks for the day. At the end of the week, the choice board packet is expected to be filled out and this is used to track their learning in the units and/or concepts we have been working on. In this way, it is primarily a formative assessment with summative traits.

    The individual testing occurs during independent math time and during choice board. One student at a time will take a test in either reading or math with the teacher. This test is to see where the students should go during phonics and math rotations, as well as show the overall classroom performance in these important academic areas. 

    These are interesting to me because I am so used to the straight and direct summative assessments that many visualize when they think of tests and quizzes. This new experience is great, and in my opinion, I much prefer this method for younger students. This shows us what we need to know to help them, and it gives them a way in which they can track their own progress with the choice board.