FIAE Chapter 6

This chapter had a lot of very practical and specific advice for how to plan good assessments, and that is the kind of stuff that I will definitely remember when I am a teacher. I didn’t realize that so much thought was put into the kinds of questions that teachers ask on tests, but it was really informative to see how detailed and intricate they actually are. Paying attention to the way test questions are formatted is a great way to differentiate instruction too. I really liked the part of the chapter where the author said that the only way tests can give us an accurate picture of student achievement is to make questions that they actually have a good chance of answering. The test is meant to measure students’ knowledge of the content, not their ability to play word games. From my time in high school, I remember that nothing was more frustrating than feeling as though the teacher was trying to trick us with test questions. It distracts you from remembering what you are being tested on and it adds pressure and anxiety that can impede test taking. I thought the paragraph showing what goes through a student’s mind when they are stressed about a poorly-worded question was really eye-opening, and when I am a teacher I will definitely remember how I felt taking tests as a student. I’ve learned a lot more now about the different types of test questions, and I can see how important it is to differentiate not just instruction, but assessment too.