Have you thought about adjusting your assessments this school year? No matter the way that your school is going back this 2020-2021 school year, we should take time to consider what are the standards and expectations. Either way, the need to measure growth is valid and necessary. I just think that the level of expectations and rigor of standards might need to be adjusted.
I saw a meme that said something to the fact that the same teachers who got worked up over students eating in their class are the same ones who have issues with the video cameras being on during remote learning. Although, I believe that the remote classroom still lends opportunities for teacher and student engagement, primarily by still seeing each other, there is also validity in that we do not know what home life is like for most students. Turning the camera on might be embarrassing or revealing, depending upon the situation. This rule of always having the camera on might be one of those things that we can let go and then turn our energy onto something else that is more important.
I only share this small example as a reflection upon ways we need to practice empathy in the education system during this outbreak. My hope is that educators can find opportunities to let some things go while also gaining new perspectives and tools to reach their students. For that reason, I hope share various types of formal and informal assessments that might be great to try this year:
STANDARD BASED GRADEBOOK
A few years ago, I changed my gradebook from measuring types of assignments (quiz, test, homework, etc.) to measuring the standards.
This is a blog for another day, but I found that having a standard based gradebook changed the conversation between teacher-student and teacher-parent. Instead of talking about what assignments they missed or failed, we could look at the data to determine the standards they were not meeting and create a support plan based on that idea of growth.
I had one year where many students were just not turning in the work and were failing. This is not unusual, but for some reason this entire 10th grade class in the school had adopted this behavior or mentality. So, I decided to adjust the way I used my informative and summative assessments for a unit plan which allowed the students to only take the parts of the summative assessment (essentially an end of unit test) where they did not meet the or exceed the standard. How did I measure their meeting of the standards along the way? Through informative assessments or checkpoints along the way. If the student showed any meeting or exceeding of one or more of the standards, there was no reason to make them show me again in a summative assessment. Does this idea scare you?
Here is the kicker. If a student did not turn in work or did not meet the standard, they could take the summative assessment and show me they did grow from the beginning of the lesson until the end. I would break the test into sections based on the standards. Now, if the kid was failing the class, I could go in and adjust their informative assessments that reflected a 70 or below with the passing grade that they made on their summative assessment. Even if they got a 0 or did not turn in the assignment, putting a 71 or above (based on their actual grade) could truly show their growth. This might be something to try during the 2020 school year.
VARIED STRATEGIES
Varied strategies is just like it sounds. The teacher gives the students a variety of strategies that they can utilize to show their meeting or exceeding of the standards. The nice things about varied strategies is that you can give your students the opportunity to shine through their learning style and allow them to pick their timeline.
Here are some examples of various types of assessments from Scholastic.
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/fifteen-ways-vary-instruction
At the end of the day, educators should find ways to empower their students to make the best of this year and find learning intoxicating. In Christopher Emdin’s TED Talk, he discusses ways we can provide an environment to open doors to curiosity to our students. I truly believe that we, educators, can use this year like a sandbox. Draw up some plans and try something new, use your imagination to teach and engage, but don’t be afraid to brush over the sand and start over or adjust.
See You Real Soon,
Erin
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