Assessment...

The way students are assessed in the classroom is definitely changing. For the majority of my classes growing up competency was measured based on a score you made on a test or the letter grade you were awarded for a book report. My recent experience in the classroom as an observer versus a student has indicated that educators are shifting away from test scores toward more hands-on and interactive ways of measuring a student's proficiency with a subject. I can still remember the sinking feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach when vocabulary lists were handed out at the beginning of the week. I knew that come Friday I needed to have the spellings memorized and be ready to spit the words back out on a test. The problem with that kind of learning is that I was simply memorizing the spellings and storing them in my short term memory. Regurgitating them on Friday's test did little to cement my understanding of the word or it's spelling in the long run. I need to do something with them. Use them in a story, find them in literature, illustrate them on note cards... anything that would help connect the words to their meanings and spellings in the long run. I think that is the nature of good assessment. We need to allow students to manipulate the material and create their own understanding of it. I've noticed that many students enjoy hands-on tasks with learning... I mean who really wants to sit in a chair for 45 minutes being lectured to so they can spit the information back verbatim on a test? No thank you. Given the chance I'm sure many more students would pick teaching a mini lesson, discussing material in small groups, or presenting a project to the class.
That being said it is important for teachers to stay up-to-date on the progress of each student, and make sure everyone is following the material. Day to day assessments such as having students write in daily logs, meeting in small groups with the teacher, or debriefing in a larger class setting can help open the floor for further questions. Another way to assess as a lesson progresses is by giving each student a whiteboard that he or she answers questions on. The class can all hold up their answers and a quick scan of the boards lets a teacher know who's got it and who might need a little more help.
Of course all of this sounds like a very "perfect world" scenario.. I understand the continued need for boring old tests every now and then. I just think as a future educator I should also try to use a little creativity in my forms of assessment to keep things interesting and keep students engaged. After all, isn't the Holy Grail of teaching making learning fun?!