"Failure to give students a voice in educational decision-making is an opportunity lost"
One of the biggest and crucial parts in teaching is feedback, aka assessments and evaluations on both the teacher and student. Without this, there would be no personal goals for the students or opportunities for growth. Like in the quote above, without hearing what the student is going through, teaching is pointless.
There are many types of avenues for teachers and students to evaluate and assess each other and the material in regards to effectiveness. My personal favorite are anonymous surveys that let you express how you really feel without being afraid someone will push it to the side or treat you differently because of it. Another assessment that is all too familiar is the FCAT which is Florida's infamous standardized test. Another type of feedback are group projects which are another one of my favorites because you're working with your peers which evaluate you to help you improve.
The most common and everyday assessment given is homework. This is the most common performance evaluation today. There are pros and cons to giving HW. If the point is just to regurgitate something without actually learning anything just for the teacher to fell like they did something then the student is not learning or growing. This is personally how most of my teachers ran their class.
The best assessments and most helpful are hands on learning projects. Instead of just reading from a book, watching a video on how-to, or listening to a lecture (not that there;s anything wrong with these of course), actually doing involves all your five senses and challenges you to want to know more about a particular subject and lets you have a say in what you're learning.
In conclusion, there are many tools to engage students to have a voice in the classroom and without feedback there is really no point in assigning homework, projects, etc.
RESOURCES:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Education, F. (2015). K-12 Student Assessment. Retrieved November 4, 2015, from http://www.fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment
Enjoyed reading your reflective comments and it sounds like these concepts resonated with you. Most of us have had experiences in school - for better or for worse! - and that sets a foundation. Although standardized tests will always be used to some degree, there is definitely more of a movement to hands-on projects and authentic assessments.
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