Assessments

We all know that there is not one single assessment that is sufficient for determining what our students know, are able to do, and what they care about. After reading Conley's chapter 4 of ongoing assessments, he has just refreshed what I have learned in the intro block and made some of the assessments to where I can better understand them.
One of my favorite assessments that Conley discusses is the Classroom Conversations. I like this and think that it is a great way to assess students because you as the teacher are actually interacting with the students and not just assessing them with pen and paper. Conley gives great classroom sample questions to ask students while they are working. "What are you thinking about as you work on this?", "What steps are you taking to get this done?", "How are you using reading or writing?", "How are you using research?", and "How are you using the Internet?" are just some of the questions that he gives us(page 90). By having classroom conversations you get to know your students better and you are able to help them with what they are struggling on. Unlike written assessments you really are not able to grasp what they student is not understanding.
Get to know your students! Talk to them!