MWSU Teacher Education Standard 8: Assessment of Student Learning The preservice teacher understands and uses formal and

informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of the learner.

My summative assessment was developed to ensure the students had sufficient comprehension of the world of ancient Rome, its importance and its governmental structures to be able to apply that knowledge in their district benchmark assessment. While the benchmark covers the entire material covered through the entire academic quarter, my assessment only focused on unit material. However, without student progress with the unit material, the students would not be able to adequately perform on the benchmark. I utilized formative assessments during each lesson through critical thinking questions directed to the class, and through exit slip assessments or short review worksheets on each lesson. Through my interaction with the students and my observations during their work time, I was able to gauge their progress through the material. To further my commitment to the students learning, I arranged to be present at several parent-teacher conferences involving my students and cooperating teacher. I wanted to be able to adequately address any parental questions and to show progress in their students work. This was a positive experience for me by broadening the scope of my experience as a teacher answerable to the parents and for the parents.

One of the best moments I have had as a preservice teacher came when I was grading the Post-test results and realized how emotionally invested I was in seeing the students succeed. Certainly it was important to me for them to be successful to show I had a positive impact on student learning, but my ah-ha moment came in understanding how much I wanted them to feel successful and to have learned this material. The test results contained a few surprises for me. Most of the learners that scored very well were the students that were consistently engaged in class and focused on their work. However, student 15 scored a 100%. This is noteworthy because the student generally chooses not to openly participate in class work or discussions. This student has a learning exceptionality connected to reading and writing that the students mother and my cooperating teacher feel if often used as an excuse to not make an effort. This student did make an effort, though, not only on the test, which was the first written work the student did for me all unit, but the student was obviously engaged with the material throughout the unit to be able to achieve a perfect score. What a gratifying moment, and a wonderful reminder that there is so much more going on beneath the surface of these students than they elect to display. There were several disappointing scores from students I had hoped would try a little harder. Only two students scored below a 60%, and those scores were still 38%+ higher than the pre-test scores had been. The average class score for the post test was a 79%, while the pre-test average was 17%. That is an overall score increase of 66%. This shows a clear positive impact on student learning.

On a line item basis, more than half of the class was successful on the short answer questions at the end. The students that lost points either only listed without describing the influences of Rome on modern society, or they discussed factors relevant to the growth of Rome as a powerful nation, but didnt tie those factors to the geographical advantages of Rome as the question asked. The overwhelming majority had good answers to the questions, and I think the wording of the questions could have been better and that would have yielded stronger results. As we have moved into the fourth academic quarter, I am seeing more examples of the positive impact on student knowledge I achieved in this unit when the students ties elements of Feudalism back to the way Roman society was constructed, even without my prompting them with a question. Even more that being successful on the post tests, I am pleased by this development. It shows they retained the material we covered and are able to convert the knowledge to apply it as a comparison to another unit. This is an example of MWSU Teacher Education Standard 5: Multiple Instructional Strategies because the assessment scores for my students all rose by an average of 66% over the pre-test scores. The students are also displaying retention of the material and the ability to apply their knowledge to another area of study.