Tests give me anxiety. Thinking about creating tests, gives me anxiety. Maybe it’s because I had so many bad experiences with tests, I don’t know. Throughout this program, I’ve been thankful for the heavy emphasis on formative assessments. I even had a recent class in which we spend the entire class discussing authentic assessments and their effectiveness. The time spent discussing and emphasizing the importance of formative assessments gives me hope and has opened my eyes to a way of measuring knowledge in a way that can be successful for most students, relatively speaking.
While I’m grateful that so much time was spent on the dos and don’ts of creating a typical summative, I can’t help but groan when I think about that type of test. I understand students have to have exposure to typical tests, especially in this day of testing, but how much is enough? Could I get away with just giving the ones issued by the county to ensure they’re ready for the darned SOL tests, or do these types of tests need to be regular practice?
I don’t really know what else to say because my mind is spinning with so many questions, the biggest being: if we are moving toward project based learning and have the VQCRT, why are we still talking traditional summatives?
I guess I just fear making a child anxious and giving negative feelings about school through the anxiety one of these traditional tests can cause. I also hate the necessary evil of giving these tests only to ensure the student does well on the SOL. Don’t get me wrong, I want them to do well but I just prefer project based ways of measuring knowledge.
(I’m sorry if these seems a bit jumbled or doesn’t make sense in some areas. I totally get testing to ensure that the students do well on the SOL, I really do. I guess it just finally hit me that while we can do all of these amazing formatives, we still have to teach to a test…to a degree.
I’ll be fine, I promise 😉 )