Teachers need to observe and evaluate process as well as product. Creative projects and oral presentations can be used to assess learning. Portfolios can be used to collect the variety of work students produce. Videos, pictures, journals, checklists, anecdotal records, and student self reflections may also be included. The possibilities are numerous.
Teachers can be creative in the forms of assessment they wish to employ in their classrooms.
They must take care, however, to vary assessment procedures so that they match instruction. They give us a sometimes accurate snapshot of where a student is at a given point in time. The decisions we make based on them need not be final. Actions should be recorded and collected over time, and trends in behaviors noted. In the past few years, I have moved away from the more traditional forms of assessment.