Heather's Teaching- Post 4

We had not really been doing formal forms of assessment in our classroom, not being sure of what authority we had in our cooperating teacher’s classroom, but as we talked with her on Friday she wanted some forms of points to give her students for our unit. This got me thinking about how I want to do points in my future classroom and how I want my assessments to be graded and recorded. I really feel that for the most part in a theatre classroom points can be awarded for participation. I’ve realized I need a way of assessing participation though, because there are always students who work harder than other students and they deserve the extra points. But on the other hand, every student has a different personality, and for some a lower level of participation still might be them doing their best. This is something I feel that I will just have to practice while I’m student teaching, and something that will really depend each year on the students I have.
So we went through and decided on points to give for each day according to our form of assessment that day. I like that in a theatre classroom you don’t always have to assess through turned in paper work but that a performance, or an activity can come as a form of assessment. We have had a couple of days where the students have needed to turn something in and then the rest of the day they’ve just needed to be a part of the activities going on in the classroom. I believe both are valid forms of assessment, and that by using both the students won’t get burned out.