When I reflect at the end of each year, I start by looking back through my lesson planner to see what we accomplished. I always see patterns in the assessments that I choose to use, along with many of the activities we do in class. For example, each quarter my students almost always complete a series of short writing assignments followed by a larger writing assignment and Writer's Workshop, along with a Shared Inquiry/Socratic Seminar. I noticed that I rarely utilize comprehension tests for reading, and the only consistent "test" I use is for word study. But even then, my students are expected to incorporate their required vocabulary into their writing assignments. By the way, I am loving the Townsend Press Vocabulary Series that we are using this year! So anyway, every year I ask myself, what other types of summative assessments could I be using in class? Would anything be more effective for measuring student mastery? Sometimes I add in an additional assessment i