The A.C.T. Explorer Reading Model
Combining Formative Assessment and Reading Strategies
By David Elbaum, Social Studies“I don’t care what I think about your learning, I care what you think about your learning.”
Radical right? Why would a teacher not have an opinion about students’ learning? Are they not gatekeepers to learning? Are they not the verifiers of student growth?
To teach by definition is to give training in or instruction on a particular topic or field of study. Nowhere in the official definition of ‘teach’ does it say that a teacher is the gatekeeper of aptitude. It is this ‘gatekeeping’ mentality that gets teachers off track in the first place. The misapplied role of teacher as gatekeeper turns students into passive participants in their own learning, ultimately causing students to throw out the idea of building competency and instead focus on fleeting bursts of learning.
This is evident in our current assessment model as students are graded or judged on what they know, not on the degree to which they learn from their reflection and experience.
This is a problem.
However there is a way out of this mess with A.C.T. (Artisan, Citizen, Thinker) Assessments!
A.C.T. assessments are powerful formative assessments that analyze the thinking of students instead of the students’ aptitude. How these assessments work is instead of asking for answers or outcomes, A.C.T. assessments allow students to answer with reflective thinking, where students aren’t graded on the correct outcome they instead are graded on their ability to articulate and scrutinize their thoughts.
For example on an A.C.T. a student may answer like this, “I don’t know the answer but what my thinking is as follows…” That is, the student acknowledges they have hit a limit of their understanding, then records their thoughts, and ultimately is evaluated on the quality of those thoughts.
Current assessments that are based on outcomes create forces for learners to become expert guessers or even worse rationalize mental understandings that may be incorrect or based on flawed content.
With A.C.T. assessment, correct thinking is as sufficient as a correct outcome. Only when this thinking is exposed, can a teacher truly see how their students are performing. Increasing student trust of his or her thoughts increases performance, both in quality and motivation.
A.C.T. Explorer assessments assert that students who explore and record their thoughts, as well as reflection on those thoughts, are faster to real learning than the student who tries to simply find the right answer.
If you want to create powerful and transformative assessments, the A.C.T. Explorer model must be structured with the following areas: Artisan, Citizen, and Thinker
Artisan – Components on assessments that ask the student to critique their own thinking and patterns of reflection.
Some examples of this include:
Articulate why a certain reading strategy did or did not work and what you learned
i. What was your approach to this question?
Act against your own views to challenge your mental framework. Learning is processing information through a different lens not through the familiar context
i. Why did you answer that? After listening to the class discussion, explain why is the correct answer the correct answer
Always search for alternative perspectives once you feel you have an answer
i. What was your teacher’s approach to the question? Why did they use that strategy?
Citizen – Components of the assessment that challenge students to scrutinize their own work publicly, relate their thinking to peers, and build a learning resiliency.
Some examples include:
Create strategies for reacting to errors.
i. What action steps can you complete to raise your level of proficiency?
Need other classmates to pressure test our thinking to shatter delusions.
i. What did your partner teach you about answering this question, or these types of questions?
Thinker – Components of the assessment that challenge students to search for trains of thinking that lead to success and examining thinking through a variety of contexts.
Some examples include:
Ask them how much they are certain it is correct?
i. How many times did you differ with the teacher in your strategy? Why do you believe this to be the case? If you prefer your strategy over the teacher’s or your classmate’s, explain why (defend it).
Which assumption do you think has the highest potential to get right answer?
i. Now that the activity has completed, what strategy will you use in the future?
Remember this, the ability to articulate a critique of one’s own work is the true expression of expertise, not the pursuit of a correct outcome.
Radical right? Why would a teacher not have an opinion about students’ learning? Are they not gatekeepers to learning? Are they not the verifiers of student growth?
To teach by definition is to give training in or instruction on a particular topic or field of study. Nowhere in the official definition of ‘teach’ does it say that a teacher is the gatekeeper of aptitude. It is this ‘gatekeeping’ mentality that gets teachers off track in the first place. The misapplied role of teacher as gatekeeper turns students into passive participants in their own learning, ultimately causing students to throw out the idea of building competency and instead focus on fleeting bursts of learning.
This is evident in our current assessment model as students are graded or judged on what they know, not on the degree to which they learn from their reflection and experience.
This is a problem.
However there is a way out of this mess with A.C.T. (Artisan, Citizen, Thinker) Assessments!
A.C.T. assessments are powerful formative assessments that analyze the thinking of students instead of the students’ aptitude. How these assessments work is instead of asking for answers or outcomes, A.C.T. assessments allow students to answer with reflective thinking, where students aren’t graded on the correct outcome they instead are graded on their ability to articulate and scrutinize their thoughts.
For example on an A.C.T. a student may answer like this, “I don’t know the answer but what my thinking is as follows…” That is, the student acknowledges they have hit a limit of their understanding, then records their thoughts, and ultimately is evaluated on the quality of those thoughts.
Current assessments that are based on outcomes create forces for learners to become expert guessers or even worse rationalize mental understandings that may be incorrect or based on flawed content.
With A.C.T. assessment, correct thinking is as sufficient as a correct outcome. Only when this thinking is exposed, can a teacher truly see how their students are performing. Increasing student trust of his or her thoughts increases performance, both in quality and motivation.
A.C.T. Explorer assessments assert that students who explore and record their thoughts, as well as reflection on those thoughts, are faster to real learning than the student who tries to simply find the right answer.
If you want to create powerful and transformative assessments, the A.C.T. Explorer model must be structured with the following areas: Artisan, Citizen, and Thinker
Artisan – Components on assessments that ask the student to critique their own thinking and patterns of reflection.
Some examples of this include:
Articulate why a certain reading strategy did or did not work and what you learned
i. What was your approach to this question?
Act against your own views to challenge your mental framework. Learning is processing information through a different lens not through the familiar context
i. Why did you answer that? After listening to the class discussion, explain why is the correct answer the correct answer
Always search for alternative perspectives once you feel you have an answer
i. What was your teacher’s approach to the question? Why did they use that strategy?
Citizen – Components of the assessment that challenge students to scrutinize their own work publicly, relate their thinking to peers, and build a learning resiliency.
Some examples include:
Create strategies for reacting to errors.
i. What action steps can you complete to raise your level of proficiency?
Need other classmates to pressure test our thinking to shatter delusions.
i. What did your partner teach you about answering this question, or these types of questions?
Thinker – Components of the assessment that challenge students to search for trains of thinking that lead to success and examining thinking through a variety of contexts.
Some examples include:
Ask them how much they are certain it is correct?
i. How many times did you differ with the teacher in your strategy? Why do you believe this to be the case? If you prefer your strategy over the teacher’s or your classmate’s, explain why (defend it).
Which assumption do you think has the highest potential to get right answer?
i. Now that the activity has completed, what strategy will you use in the future?
Remember this, the ability to articulate a critique of one’s own work is the true expression of expertise, not the pursuit of a correct outcome.