Chapter 2

Abstract:
This chapter addresses the subject of mastery. It talks about the need for a clear definition of what mastery is. You need to decide what the most important things for the students to know are and then you need to come up with ways of assessing them. Assessments must determine who only has a simple understanding and who actually has mastered the material. The six facets were discussed as a way to help teachers assess mastery. It is important that assessments are actually assessing the important ideas and not focusing on unimportant concepts. In this chapter you will find examples of how to determine which information is the most important and will help the students meet the required standards.

Reflection:
I think for the most part our team had never put to much thought into how much work needs to go into making assessments. I think we all knew that there were standards that needed to be met and that standardized tests are definitely not the best way to determine if they had been met, but we hadn't really considered what would be the best way to determine mastery. It was pointed out that some teachers only focus on material that interests them and they don't pay much attention to the standards and other information that is important for students to learn. Some members of our group found the examples from the book very useful and think that they will help them to determine mastery in the future. Personally, I thought this chapter helped to explain the purpose of the packet we had to do. It really emphasized the importance of figuring out the big ideas and making sure the students master them. Having a variety of testing methods is a very important part of being a teacher because one test does not give you all the information you need about a students knowledge, and one testing style is not fair to all students. If you don't use variety then it is easy to think that a student has not mastered the subject even if they have.
*posted by Chelsae