Post 7

Assessment is a way of knowing where your students stand in a particular content field. Assessing helps a teacher know where to begin a lesson and at what level to begin it at. It also identifies which students are succeeding in the content and which students are struggling. There are two kinds of assessment; formal and informal. Formal testing consists of standardized tests such as the TAKS and SATs. Informal testing is also known as authentic assessment which consists of teacher observations, portfolios, written assignments, etc. 


A way I would assess in Physical Education is by observation. If I were doing a lesson on motor skills such as jumping, hopping, skipping and galloping, I would want to make sure the students were doing the movements correctly. I can't give them a written test about it. The only to make sure they know is to see them doing the movements and observe them. 


Another way I could assess is by competition. For example, when learning about the food pyramid I would have the students play in a game involving scooters. The game consists of students separating into groups of six. Each group will have one scooter and have a large blank pyramid. In the center of the gym will be an "island" consisting of different pictures of foods such as, apples, broccoli, bread, nuts, eggs etc. At my command, one person from each group will move on their scooter to the center of the gym and grab an item. They will then return to their group and work together to see where on the food pyramid the item belongs. The first group to complete their pyramid wins. From this I would be able to see what the class knows as a whole compared to individually. 


Finally another way to assess is by having the students do a self evaluation every nine weeks to kind of think about how they feel they are doing in P.E. The students will evaluate how they think they are doing in class and how they are applying being physically active and eating right at home. Some students will be honest and say they are not doing well, while some will say they are doing good. Reading the evaluations will help me as a teacher to better see which students need a little extra push and which students need more expansion on staying active and eating right.