Your Assessments are Talking. Listen! Harnessing the language of assessment
By Sandra Wright, Social Studies
After a large assessment, a student who was struggling said out loud “I guess I should have studied harder”. Ironically, this was a student who took copious notes and was always actively engaged in class practice. I knew if I could convince this type of student to come in and meet one on one after an assessment, we could, together, hone in on the areas where thinking or application of the concept drifted. I could work directly with the student to develop specific suggestions on the types of practice, or areas of content, that the student needed reworking, to affect real change in understanding, or application, of the material. I have always been frustrated by what I felt was my inability to truly help these students on a larger scale. How could I offer meaningful coaching to 150 different students in a semester?
Assessments should ‘talk’ about more than scores
I started thinking about my assessments in two different ways. What were the assessments telling me? What were they telling my students? Students looked at an assessment and saw 9/10 or “I got number 7 wrong.” As a teacher, I look at a student’s work and see patterns, or identify a level of understanding. Could it be possible for students to see this as well? I still use a lot of the same assessments but now I put them together differently in smaller chunks. Assessments are no longer scores in a grade book but rather a place for kids to see where they are at and identify what steps they need to move forward. I use formatives daily to take a pulse of where students are at so we can check in and make changes as soon as possible. This includes illustrating the desired state and what levels students are at. For example, I ask the students to identify the ideal execution of the target; self assess, and sketch a plan to close the gap. This self-reflection has led to more in depth conversations about their thinking and misconceptions.
Talking assessments can promote better reflection
Student reflection moved from superficial questions such as, “How did you do on this concept?” to specific reflections of “ How well were you able to use the economic model to illustrate the changes in the market?”
This often includes a checklist for students to reference in order to decide what level of proficiency they are at on the scaled target. Students now increase both their command of the material and ownership of the learning processes.
The meaning of a score is no longer a mystery or a message to just study harder but rather a clear indicator of where they are at compared to where they want to be.
Multiple Choice Assessments Can Talk As Well
Now, even on a formative with multiple choice questions I will ask students to identify why they picked the wrong answer in order to get them thinking about what track their thinking went down and also to see nuances between an answer that has some correct information but is not completely correct. My students sharpened their thinking to distinguish the best answer, where before they might narrow to two possible choices but guessed wrong. Students could see the big picture and believed me when I said, “this is a good one to get wrong because it shows that you do have command of the concept to a high level and we are now getting into nuanced details.” One student said to me, “That is nice and all but how do I get this question right?” Now I ask students to use their reflections to see what parts of a concept they are getting right, not did you get number 7 right or wrong on the test. The formative assessments now are part of a collection of assessments where we can see patterns and repeated mastery versus non-mastery.
Why ‘Talking’ Assessments Work
Now we discuss the distance the student must travel to reach the best answer. Is this easy to do with 150 students every day? Not yet but I have found that taking 2-4 minutes after providing feedback as to desired state on the assessment multiple times a week is doable and worth every “lost” minute of instructional time on content. It has become so valuable that there is at least one day a week that is all about completing a formative assessment, comparing student work to the desired state, identifying areas of mastery and non-mastery, and then giving students a chance to compose their own feedback. Yes, they may be studying harder, but more importantly they are studying with more purpose and clearer goals. At that point students are half way home.
Assessments should ‘talk’ about more than scores
I started thinking about my assessments in two different ways. What were the assessments telling me? What were they telling my students? Students looked at an assessment and saw 9/10 or “I got number 7 wrong.” As a teacher, I look at a student’s work and see patterns, or identify a level of understanding. Could it be possible for students to see this as well? I still use a lot of the same assessments but now I put them together differently in smaller chunks. Assessments are no longer scores in a grade book but rather a place for kids to see where they are at and identify what steps they need to move forward. I use formatives daily to take a pulse of where students are at so we can check in and make changes as soon as possible. This includes illustrating the desired state and what levels students are at. For example, I ask the students to identify the ideal execution of the target; self assess, and sketch a plan to close the gap. This self-reflection has led to more in depth conversations about their thinking and misconceptions.
Talking assessments can promote better reflection
Student reflection moved from superficial questions such as, “How did you do on this concept?” to specific reflections of “ How well were you able to use the economic model to illustrate the changes in the market?”
This often includes a checklist for students to reference in order to decide what level of proficiency they are at on the scaled target. Students now increase both their command of the material and ownership of the learning processes.
The meaning of a score is no longer a mystery or a message to just study harder but rather a clear indicator of where they are at compared to where they want to be.
Multiple Choice Assessments Can Talk As Well
Now, even on a formative with multiple choice questions I will ask students to identify why they picked the wrong answer in order to get them thinking about what track their thinking went down and also to see nuances between an answer that has some correct information but is not completely correct. My students sharpened their thinking to distinguish the best answer, where before they might narrow to two possible choices but guessed wrong. Students could see the big picture and believed me when I said, “this is a good one to get wrong because it shows that you do have command of the concept to a high level and we are now getting into nuanced details.” One student said to me, “That is nice and all but how do I get this question right?” Now I ask students to use their reflections to see what parts of a concept they are getting right, not did you get number 7 right or wrong on the test. The formative assessments now are part of a collection of assessments where we can see patterns and repeated mastery versus non-mastery.
Why ‘Talking’ Assessments Work
Now we discuss the distance the student must travel to reach the best answer. Is this easy to do with 150 students every day? Not yet but I have found that taking 2-4 minutes after providing feedback as to desired state on the assessment multiple times a week is doable and worth every “lost” minute of instructional time on content. It has become so valuable that there is at least one day a week that is all about completing a formative assessment, comparing student work to the desired state, identifying areas of mastery and non-mastery, and then giving students a chance to compose their own feedback. Yes, they may be studying harder, but more importantly they are studying with more purpose and clearer goals. At that point students are half way home.