Tests

I think that every teacher encounters the question as to what format (multiple choice, essay, fill in the blank, etc.) they think would best suit the subject, their students, and the information they want to test their students on. I've always been a supporter of the essay or fill in the blank tests for a number of reasons. In my opinion, I feel that a teacher can more easily identify whether or not each student obtained the information you've taught them or not. When you give an essay, the student is required to write about what they've learned and what they know about the topic at hand. In addition, fill in the blank tests also test their knowledge on a certain subject. Multiple choice tests on the other hand can never insure as much accuracy. Often with multiple choice tests it is better to guess at an answer then leave it unanswered an automatically get the answer wrong, but guessing gives you the oppertunity to hopefully guess right. In this case, as a teacher, multiple choice tests can't fully assess a students knowledge because you can't be sure as to whether they understood what was taught to them and retained the information, or if they simply were very lucky at guessing the answers.

In my classroom, I understand that I can not always be biased by using essay tests or fill in the blank tests, and that in some cases I will have to use multiple choice tests, however, I believe that essay and fill in the blank tests more accurately assess students than multiple choice tests so I plan to use these methods more frequently.

Portfolios

In my personal opinion I think portfolios are a really usful tool to track student development. Portfolios should involve both the teacher and student. You always want the student, in my opinion to choose the assignments, projects, etc. that they would like to include in their portfolio with the guidance of the teacher who should help them choose the material that will show the most development from the last piece included in the portfolio to now. So the teacher should give suggestions to the students including telling them what material s/he thought showed the most improvement and the most effort.

I also believe that portfolios should be passed on from grade to grade with an accumulation of portfolios for the student to have when they graduate from high school. This will allow students to see how far they've come and how much they've learned from the begining of the year to the end, in addition to see how much they've learned this year in comparison to last.

I would definitely consider utilizing portfolios in my classroom. I think they have a lot of really positive aspects to them and even if people don't believe in them, they will be a display of the progress of each student.