Chapters 1

The language assessment chapter was definitely a general introduction to assessment. I almost got myself stuck on the politics of it even more so than the author did. I noticed that I was expecting more new vocabulary than the author provided also. The information about the test-criterion relationship got me wondering if it's something like Bloom's Taxonomy that we need to be utilizing. Finally, the requirements for the testers that were laid out in the conclusion got me wondering about our practices in KSD. We do not have official testers and the training that we're provided doesn't touch on looking for signs and the theory(ies) behind them. All in all, the chapter was definitely general and I can't wait to read more to see what I'll learn.

The authentic assessment chapter caused me to feel sad, mad, and even guilty (about my philosophy). It was disappointing to see that districts have trouble making effective decisions about testing for English Language learners (because of the politics). In the end, I was glad for the useful information this chapter provided. I also ended up thinking about the Maori article and figured that the characteristics of the performance assessment they had were numbers 1, 3, 4, and maybe 5. I also thought about our district's standards and the GLE's and saw that we seem to be following these guidelines. I kept thinking though that they are not very applicable to the grade I'm teaching- kindergarten, even though this chapter includes K-12, and it even mentioned including pre-K in these instruction and assessment procedures. Finally, I am actually looking forward to more information on reliability and validity.