Audit your assessment for balance. Unit 2.A

audit your assessment for balance. UNIT 2.A

Assessment criteria for 3rd course of Primary Education. Subject: Science.

The student...

-Recognizes the animal or vegetal origin of specific foods.

-Classifies the foods as natural or processed.

-Gets information from food labels such as the ingredients or the expiry date.

-Classifies foods into the corresponding groups.

-Indicates whether a specific food gives us energy, helps us to grow or helps us to stay healthy.

-Understands the need to wash fruits and vegetables.

The value that has been established to each kind of assessment is the following: 

-Formative assessment: Tasks developed in class, group works, homeworks and participation. 30%

-Summative assessment: Tests. 70%

After having read chapter 2, we think that the percentage given to summative assessment is excessive. We have learnt that both kind of assessment complement each other. 

In our opinion, the value of formative and summative should be equal, giving a percentage of 50% to formative assessment and 50% to summative assessment. Considering that formative assessment is the process that the student develop to get aims, we think that the value that has been given to this kind of assessment is really low.

We have also reflected about the idea that following these previous percentages to assess our students is easier to pass subjects without developing any effort in the process. As the final test is the 70% of the grade, students who haven´t carried out their tasks or haven´t made any effort can get a good mark. 

However, sharing our experiencies as teachers, we have gotten the conclusion that most of the teachers make the same mistake, giving a high percentage of the grade to summative assessment. It is because teachers think that this kind of assessment is the most important. As teachers, we have learnt the necessity of an equilibrium between summative and formative assessment and we encourage teachers to carry out a reflection about the ratio that they have proposed to assess, as we have done.