What does assessment mean to and for learners in our classrooms? To learners in high school classrooms, assessment often means a "final test" or a grade. The test may be a performance. Students could be asked to create a product or write a paper to demonstrate skills and learning.
What does assessment mean for learners? Assessment for learners or assessment for learning means that students are getting the specific feedback they can apply to their performance or demonstration of learning. Practically, for me as a teacher, assessment for learners means that I need to build in routines or processes so learners can get feedback in a timely way, when and where they need it.
As a teacher, figuring out how to make time for that was always a challenge and I wondered:
- What works in terms of feedback?
- What does the research say?
- What makes sense for kids?
- How does feedback in one class differ from feedback in other classes?
In my English classroom, feedback routines worked for me. Balancing oral and written feedback of learning at the end of a unit to the feedback students receive along the way. Assessment as learning involves the learner in self-assessment. Such self-assessment happens as we are learning, right? We measure each step we take against the mental model we have of success.
worked for me. Getting students to give me feedback about what was working or not working for them as learners or getting students to tell me what they understood and what they were unsure of worked too. Assessment for learning shifts the emphasis from the culminating, one-shot assessment
When administrators talked with me about high-stakes assessments my students took, I used to say that such a test needed to be one image in a student's album of assessment. States and I find countries differ in many people use that metaphor.
My ideal learning environment would banish grades and "assessment" as it's typically used. As I've grown older, I desire more and more a sharing of ideas followed by writing about those ideas and repeating. "Feedback" is a much better tool for learning, and it doesn't have the baggage of "test."
ReplyDeleteI've been pondering this post for the better part of a day. First, you have such a gift for making ideas visible-- I love your multi-colored triangle with its arrows and designations of "summative" and "formative."
ReplyDeleteI found myself wondering how one's ideas about assessment change depending on what hat one is wearing. Are a student's conceptions of assessment different from a teacher's? A teacher's from an administrator's? How have yours been affected by new job locations and responsibilities? (That's what I am *really* curious about.)