Chapter 4

This chapter outlines three important choices for assessments. The chapter starts by talking about the benefits of portfolios. One of the benefits that the book highlights is the fact that teachers can collect work and examine it over time which means that teachers don’t have to make as many inferences about a student’s mastery based on single samplings. Another important thing that I learned about portfolios is that they are a wonderful mirror for students to see their own development and take charge of their learning. The biggest benefit that portfolios have is that they promote the ideals of differentiated classes. The next choice the book highlighted was rubrics. I learned that they can be difficult to make and that there are many things that need to be considered when creating rubrics such as what the task requires, what consists as proficiency in the task, and whether the criteria is clear for the person who is performing the task. The chapter also tells the reader how to create a rubric. This will have a big impact on me in this class. Since we will eventually have to create rubrics, the tips that this chapter gives will help me create one. The last thing that the chapter talks about is self- assessment. This is extremely important because it provides feedback and helps the student and the teacher set individual goals. Knowing that these three methods of assessment work well in a differentiated classroom will impact me when I am creating lesson plans and making sure that my class is a differentiated classroom.