Standard 8- The teacher understands various formal and informal assessment strategies

and uses them to support the continuous development of all students.

1. Fully state the standard in bold text. Then write a paragraph explaining your knowledge and

understanding of that standard—put the standard into your own words.

I think this standard wants me to acknowledge the importance of assessments and how

students can be analyzed to further foster students’ learning and academic success. It is important

for teachers to continuously assess their students in order to monitor students’ progress and

understanding of the instructed concepts and learning abilities. Assessment is also imperative to

ensure that the teacher’s instruction methods and goals are effective and the students are learning

what was intended for them to learn and their needs are being met.

2. Explain how the artifact you chose demonstrates your understanding and application of the

standard.

The artifact that I chose for this standard is an individual child study which focuses on an

individual students through interviews, reading conferences, and reading and writing

assessments. The purpose of this study is for the teacher to be able to determine the student’s

reading abilities and find the most effective ways to help the student improve in their areas of

growth. Through interviewing the student as well as other teachers who frequently work with the

student and conducting reading conferences with the student I was able to learn a great deal

about the student’s individual strengths and weaknesses in reading, writing, and speaking. By

researching, gathering, and analyzing all the information I was able to obtain I am able to

demonstrate my ability to assess students in a variety of ways to prepare how I need to instruct
the student to meet their individual needs.

3. A. If the artifact has been used in your practice, reflect on how your teaching will change in

the future to further meet the standard.

After taking the time to do significant amount of research and analysis on this individual

students I was able to become even more aware of the importance of assessment. I realize that

assessment is vital for both students and teachers and can be done in a multitude of ways, such as

the ones used in my individual child study – reading conferences, interviews, and evaluations of

student work. Through assessing students as I did with the child in this study I will be a more

effective teacher by taking the time and effort to individually assess my students in order to

develop the more successful ways of teaching each student to meet their individual learning

needs.

4. Conclude with a paragraph discussing how you are more prepared to Teach and Learn in a

Diverse Society as a result of satisfactorily meeting the standard.

Conducting an individual child study will better prepare me to teach in a diverse society

as it requires me to know how to assess students individually and to recognize the importance of

taking time to assess students individually. By speaking with the students previous teachers and

reading specialist teacher and conducting one-on-one interviews and reading conferences with

the students it shows that I am interested in taking whatever steps are necessary to discover my

students individual learning needs and behaviors. Not only will assessing students on an

individual basis allow me to recognize the diversity in my classroom, but it will also show that I

will be able to accept students’ different learning styles and abilities and to teach in ways that
meet each students’ needs.