Chapter 6 & 7 Reflections

Chapter 6 proved to be a very enlightening chapter. Some of my own personal misconceptions of assessment and evaluation were clarified. I used to see assessment and evaluation as the same thing and I thought the only time we should use assessment or evaluation was at the end of a lesson. I have now learned that assessment can be used during different parts of the lesson and for different purposes of diagnosing a student's prior knowledge, their current understanding of the science concept as they are going through the lesson, and they summarized understanding of the whole lesson and if the objects of the lesson were met. I also learned that evaluation is more of a judment made of the students like grading and evaluating their work and their products and using the standards to judge their progress. I really appreciate the wide array of examples the author provides for informal and formal assesment, which was something I was often confused by because I was not sure what made the assesment formal and what made it informal. I was just wondering how do you balance the usage of different forms assessment and preparing students for standardized test in the short time you have?
Chapter 7 was focused on effective questioning. The author provided us with different ways certain questions can enhance student learning. I really see the difference in asking students to think about an answer or to come up with their own theories and explanations versus a teacher giving them the answer and the reasons behind it. I believe that through questions with are encouraging student to notbe afraid to bewrong and that we just want them to think about their own thought process. I believe this also helps boosts a student self esteem as well as making them feel like their thoughts are valued. I believe the author makes a great point in that we have to build off of students prior knowledge and then probe at whatthey have learned from the lesson or activity.