Effective evaluation of learning

Evaluating student success is a vital part of a teacher's job. Without evaluation, how would they know where their students are in the classroom? There are many types of evaluations that can be useful in an agricultural classroom and laboratory setting. Here are some snapshots of what I learned from my readings this week and how I plan to implement them.

• Written exam: 
• This is a test that uses multiple choice questions, short answer, true or false, and essay questions. There are advantages to these types of questions. Multiple choice and true or false questions require students to recall information, but it is easy for students to guess on and create mistakes. Open ended questions require students to know the material well, but it makes grading harder for the teachers because answers can vary greatly. A written exam will work well in the Ag Business Management course I am student teaching next semester. I don't look forward to this type of examination because students just memorize the information instead of learn it. 
• Performance Assessments:

• This will be great to use in a shop setting in any class where students are completing hands-on labs. Students are evaluated based off of a rubric. This evaluation has its ups and downs as well. Of course students get to show of their skills, a couple students may be struggling in this area and are afraid of failing in front of the class. I can cause a lot of frustration to the student who is behind. The way I plan to incorporate this in my classroom is through students working in groups, except for welding class. I can pair the students who feel like they struggle with the topic to a student that feels comfortable with the topic. 
• Portfolio Assessments:
• Students use all their projects from throughout the course to compile a portfolio that can be used as a final assessment at the end of a course. This shows where the student has grasped or struggled with the topic. I want to implement this in the Ag business management course through the students' projects. Each unit has at least one project and the student will chose 3 of their best for the portfolio. 

Evaluation of students learning lets the teacher know where the student falls in the classroom. It can show what needs more explanation and what can be moved quickly through. It will be fun getting to experiment with the different types of learning assessments to figure out which ones work best and how to properly implement them in the classroom.