Testing What Students Know

In my opinion one of the most interesting strategies Tovani presents is "Testing What Students Know". This strategy redefines the way we think about assessment, instead of creating an assessment to see how well students remember what they've been taught, Tovani suggest testing students on, "...what they've learned about themselves as readers"(114). I really like this idea because using this type of assessment you can see how the students feel they are progressing in comparison to how you see them progressing. This will also teach students how to reflect, which is very important in school as well as in the "real world". Using this type of assessment does not put as much pressure on students to remember things and perform well because they are reflecting on themselves and there is no right or wrong answer. One of the questions that I have in regard to this type of assessment is, is Tovani testing what students have learned about themselves as readers in place of testing whether or not they have learned the material she taught or is she using this test in addition? to more traditional methods of test?