Assessing to make sure they're learning, not just that they've learnt

I’m trying to catch up on my poor little neglected blog! Life’s been crazy as usual – short handed at work, so I’ve been practically living there. Kailey’s been having quite a negative reaction to that – can’t say I blame her – so when I’m home with her, I try to make the most of it. If I do pop open my laptop to try to get some work done, she usually pushes it closed while crying and saying “No puter Mommy… pleassssse!” How do you resist those big brown eyes and pouty lips?! J

So, here are my thoughts on the week of 2/25/10:
We were beginning to get snowed in by the big blizzard of 2010, so class was held in my kitchen! I have to say it was pretty cool, and definitely changed my idea of what an online class could be life. I’ve taken online classes in the past and really struggled. I need that direct instruction from a teacher; I can’t just read chapters from a text book and gain any real knowledge.
We discussed assessment and standards. I had a very general idea of what assessment is, but never considered the idea of authentic assessment. Of course it makes perfect sense to, but I just never really gave it a thought until now. Testing your students prior knowledge before teaching a new topic will save you time and keep their interest. Learning how your students like to learn, and how they will best, is also extremely important. Once all of this is determined, assessing your students throughout instruction is SO important! Why wouldn’t we do so? Say you teach a new topic for 2 months straight, without out ever stopping to asses the students and see whether they were properly learning the material – only to find out that they were completely lost or misunderstood several small components. We have such little time with each class that we need to make the most of each day we have with them, and make sure we are teaching them enthusiastically and effectively.
I gave this all some thought, and tried to imagine how I would authentically assess my future students. For example, let’s say the new topic on my agenda is Explorers. I would start by having each child start a KWL chart. I’d give them five minutes or so to fill that out, and then go over all results as a class. We could write similar responses on the board, and I could then encourage the class to brainstorm about the topic a bit more. I would assess the children a little bit every day, at the end of the lesson, to reiterate important facts learned that day. The children would also be routinely quizzed on important information, and also broken into groups discuss and review new material. I love hands on projects - so a creative hands on project in regards to the topic would be handed in and shared with the class.
Sounds simple from my perspective, but I’m not in charge of a classroom! I do plan on asking the teacher I’ll be observing this coming week how she assesses, I’m curious how accurate this is in most classrooms…