Experiences with different language arts strategies

Before last class I did not know much about writers workshop--but I do remember having similar methods in school. As a class if there were unclear topics, our teacher would do a mini lesson to review the topic usually followed by a worksheet after. We did have an area in our classroom where we could get supplies such as paper, pencils, stapler etc to use during our writing time. I did like having the mini lessons, I felt like it helped refresh our memories on topics that we had learned before. For example, punctuation, sentence structure etc.

I do not remember having literature circles in school, I remember having the same book as everyone else and we would do "popcorn reading" in class. Where one student would start reading and then after a paragraph the student would call on someone else to read the next paragraph. I did and did not like this method. I thought it made the students pay attention more to what was being read just in case it was there turn to read next. But I also was shy in school therefore I was paying attention, but did not like reading in class in front of everyone.
I also remember having an incentive to read--in school they had "book it" where after you read a certain number of books you recieved a sticker which went on your pin and after a certain amount of stickers you recieved a personal pan pizza for free! I did like to read in school, but this program did encourage me more to read :)

Assessment

I believe assessment to a teacher and to a student differ. I believe to a teacher assessment is to evaluate a students work, and try to help them find ways to improve and move forward in there education. Assessing students can also help teachers determine if there objective for the assignment has been met. To a student assessing includes judging a student on their work, and determining if they pass or fail the assignment.
While in school I liked certain forms of assessment. Test taking was not my strength, so anytime assessment was measured through a test I did not do well. If I was being assessed through a hands-on project or some way of showing creativity I did well.
I think all students have different strengths and weaknesses and when it comes to assessing a student a teacher must take into consideration the differences, and be able to assess the students by using different methods. For example, tests, hands-on projects, portfolios, group projects etc.