Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there was a penguin named Waddles, who loved to go to school and play with her friends. Waddles had a teacher named Ms. Storey who was a very old, worn, beat up looking penguin, who told stories of battling off killer whales and sea lions in order to survive. Ms. Storey was very adamant on comparing her penguin students to one another by using norm referenced testing. Ms. Storey would use both traditional based testing which used forms of assessment which more often than not the form of testing which was confusing to Waddles because it used lots of multiple, circle the correct, and un-understanding ways to present questions (L.K., May 18th 2009) and norm based which was a way of assessment that was a way for her to compare her students' scores with what their peers scored or a standard (R.P. May 19th 2009).
Waddles often felt frustrated because she felt she was trying so hard in class but would get frustrated and give up because she was always being compared to others. Waddles thought she was improving, but eventually decided to stop trying in class.
Ms. Storey one day woke up and realized that Waddles had stopped trying in class, and approached Waddles to ask what why the lack of effort? Waddles explained that she was giving her all in class and wished that Ms. Storey would recognize her efforts.

Ms. Storey realized that perhaps her methods of assessment may not be the best way to assess her students and spoke with other teachers’ one the iceberg. Ms. Storey realized that if she used a form of assessment such as universal or standard based she could better meet the needs of Waddles and all her students.

Ms. Storey changed her way of presenting her activities as well as her assessment methods and saw a significant improvement in student performance.

Everyone was happy, especially Waddles, and everyone lived happily ever after.

The End.