Assessment

Assessing what a student learns has been done in many ways, but more often than not it comes in the form of a test, either multiple choice or essay. but does this truly show how much a student learned, or just how much information he can regurgitate?
While with the current grading system that is employed in most schools, these tests are imperative for making up a letter grade.(csus.edu) These grades can be sent home and mom and dad can ooh and ah over it with proper enthusiasm, but it may not actually show how much their student has learned. What can? What can show the student, teacher and parent how much the student has actually learned?
If there is one way, there must be 10. There is plenty of ways we can asses how children are learning, and here is one.
give a student an assignment, 20 multiplication problems, write down all of the capitols of every state, write a 5 paragraph essay. Time the child or have them time themselves, remind them to be honest. Perform this task at the beginning of your unit then perform it once again at the end of your unit, not letting the child know that this is the same task they performed at the start. This should show improvement, and therefore letting the teacher know the student has learned. These two tasks can be displayed side by side and show to the student and parent, letting them know how well they have done and what they still need to work on.  This can easily be applied to any other type of classroom, art, church, or adult college.
In order to be able to focus on what they need to do, students should have someplace they can look and know exactly what they are expected to accomplish for the day or week or month.
"Assigned topics for each class throughout the day are written on the whiteboard in order to help everyone to focus." (Wachowiak, p51)
This strategy will help the students to know what they are expected to do. The teacher will be able to know if the student learned the lesson or not by noting whether the information in the expected task is correct and completed or not.
As before, this strategy can be used in many different types of classrooms, and not only classroom. This technique can be used in raising children as well, writing chores on the board or their schedule for the day lets children know exactly when they need to accomplish and can provide a way for the parent to know exactly what the child did.
There are many more strategies that can be used in classrooms, at home, and in the world today, the ideas are endless.

Center for Excellence in Teaching. University of Southern California, n.d. Google. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
Clements, Robert D., and Frank Wachowiak. Emphasis Art. Ninth ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2009. 51. Print.