Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning.

Through the work of Richard Beach and his colleagues I was able to learn not only multiple ways of evaluating my students’ work but also multiple methods of giving them feedback that can prove beneficial to their writing.

            Regarding how to pick evaluation criteria for the work of my students Beach’s work gives several suggestions but these suggestions depend on what I am having my students attempt to accomplish. For example, if I simply wish for them to retain knowledge of the events and characters with a work of literature I could do a simple “objective test” (Beach 223) in which they are examined using questions revolving around a certain story, to determine how much of it they had retained. However, if I was trying to evaluate the ability of my students to analyze a specific work to make a claim about said work regarding its theme, characters, or events, a writing assignment or essay would be much more appropriate as it would allow my students to go much more in depth than a simple objective test would.

            Furthermore, the methods of feedback that I choose to use with my students could vary just as much as the methods of evaluation that I mentioned earlier. Like evaluation methods, feedback determines on the nature of the task you are giving feedback on and thus the appropriate form of feedback must be selected for a task. For example, if my students were asked to do a discussion and generate ideas I could offer feedback on their performance either with a rubric or conference. In the case of a rubric I believe it would also be helpful to let my students know what I am looking for beforehand such as evidence that they are able to practice certain discussion moves or be respectful of their peers. However, if I was to ask my students to write a paper analyzing a work and producing an argument from it I might give them feedback in a written or spoken form through conferences or looking over their papers. In this case I would be looking for such things as the strength and believability of their argument, the amount of good evidence that is used to back it up, and the way in which is presented through proper grammar and punctuation.

            In short there are many ways to give feedback to and evaluate your students as a teacher of literature, what matters most is whether or not you choose the appropriate context or assignment for each type.