One my recent obsessions this school year is figuring out the best assessment strategies and methods of reporting student progress.  While I have not even covered the tip of the iceberg when it comes to mastering how I assess my students and provide them with timely, meaningful feedback, I have been struggling this year with translating these practices into the limiting, number-based, weighted, percentile gradebook system that I am currently required to use.

I recently tweeted out that I needed to be a software designer so I could develop a system that would allow me to report how my students were progressing on standards along with the ability to provide individualized comments.

Within minutes I received a tweet from Riley Lark, who stated that he himself had gone through the same challenge and had come up with a solution himself. His solution, ActiveGrade, provides a customizable gradebook that allows the teacher to enter standards, assessments and grades based on either a percentile scale or a rubric scale.  Teachers can then print out or email customizable reports that automatically populate individual grade reports in the form of a letter for each student.  Teachers can input personalized comments for each student to be included in the report.

I tested it by easily copy/pasting in one of my class lists and was quite satisfied with the report it created. I was also excited by the opportunity to show a list of standards rather than random-seeming tests/quizzes or other assessments that don't paint a complete picture of what a student knows or doesn't know.  All assessments can be grouped by standard to paint a picture of a student's progress toward mastering a standard.

You can try it for free for 14 days or pay just $12 until September.  If you want to start using it next year it will cost about $40 for the entire year.

I'm almost halfway through a wonderful book, Applying Standards-Based Constructivism: A Two-Step Guide for Motivating Elementary Students. It has given me a lot of practical advice and it has given me a better understanding of some of my instructional practices and methods and at the same time justifies practices I've been doing for years.

I will write more about the Two-Step model later, but today I wanted to briefly reflect on a new method for checking for understanding that I found in the book. In the section on Assessment, the book stresses that teacher observation really is a valid form assessment because (gasp) teachers are professionals and are the most qualified to determine whether and how their students are learning.

The authors describe how you can easily gauge student understanding by having each student take 10 seconds to say one thing they learned at the end of class.

photo courtesy of farleyj on Flickr

Today I tried it with my 1st graders after their first time using MS Paint and was amazed as they stated, "I learned how to use the paint brush," "I learned how to use the magnifying glass to make my page bigger," "I learned how to change the color," and other things. What an 'ah ha' moment. In 2 minutes I had a snapshot of the actual learning that had happened during the 45 minute period. I tried it again with my 5th graders who had started typing stories. They shared, "I learned how to change my font," "I learned how to put my heading in the middle," and other statements that really helped me understand whether they had met the learning objectives of the class period. (They had.)

Part of the success I had today was due to the fact that I had clearly outlined the learning objectives at the start of the period and limited them to a few observable behaviors (put one space between each word, center a heading, use return key, use capitals and periods).  I was easily able to know whether the students had learned what I wanted them to in a matter of minutes.

I am still amazed by Geoffrey Canada's bold statement that he was a 'Master' teacher in his 5th year of teaching. I feel like this year, my 6th year of teaching, I am finally 'getting it' when it comes to assessment. It's a messy process, but I'm loving it.  I can't wait to see what I'm working on 6 years from now.

I just finished reading Checking for Understanding by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher.  It is one of the most practical books I have read in a while. In it I found techniques that I could immediately apply in my classroom.

Assessment is a huge challenge for me.

I see most of my students 45 minutes a week and I teach about 300 students over the course of a week. As a previous post discussed, I have recently been working on the learning goals and focus of my lessons and projects. Now that I have semi-solved that issue I am now working on assessment.

This year I also have a new classroom setup with an Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) at the front of the room and the computer facing it. This makes it impossible for me to see the student screens if I'm demonstrating something at the front of the room (we don't have wireless, so a wireless computer controlling app for the iPhone is a no go).  In my former labs I didn't even have a wall to project on, so all demonstration had to happen through Apple Remote Desktop on the students screens. As a result, part of the challenge this year is getting used to a new classroom configuration.

These changes and realizations have caused me to be extra reflective in what I do and why in the classroom.

Wikimedia Commons

After reading Checking for Understanding I decided to use the 'thumbs' method to pace my demonstrations. As we move through the steps, for example, to insert an image into a project, I stop and tell students to 'show me your thumbs.' A thumbs up means "I'm with you and ready to move on" and a thumbs down means "stop, I need to catch up or I'm lost."

It has worked wonders for checking that everyone 'gets' what we are doing. I have found more of my students retaining the steps and more capable of applying their knowledge to other functions of the program. One of my 4th graders exclaimed today, "Ms. Hertz, I can insert a picture all by myself! I did it!" 

Of course, even a simple sounding procedure such as thumbs up/thumbs down needs to be practiced, so I'm excited at the possibilities for ensuring that my students are getting the base skills I want them to have so we can begin to push toward more complex, content-based projects.

Another goal of mine has been to have an assessment clipboard on which I have each child's name and a skill I want them to master. Today I walked around while my 2nd graders were practicing typing lowercase letters and uppercase letters using shift as well as sentences with capital letters and and periods. I was able to go student to student, checking that they knew how to make a capital letter and write a sentence with a period and a single space between their words. I now feel that I have a true snapshot of whether they have mastered the learning goals for the lesson.

In addition to these assessment goals, I have been clearly stating the learning goals at the beginning of the class period and restating them at the end. For instance, "Today you will....." and "Today we......" I've found it makes ME even better reflect on what we accomplished for the day.

A big factor, I believe, in my ability to implement these new practices is that, now in my 4th year teaching in a lab, I have most of the big stuff down so I can now focus on more reflective practice than before. I also have a school climate that is more organized and more predictable than my previous 5 years. This gives me more time to focus on my students, not on the fact that there are 5 teachers out and I have to cover a class for 3 hours.

I'm excited to keep trying new ways to check for understanding and to focus on how and what my students are learning in a more organized, deliberate and meaningful way.

This tweet came to me from Greg McVerry during this week's #edchat conversation about promoting creativity in schools.  The discussion thread was about assessing creativity.

While I do not think that creativity itself can be assessed, I do think that it needs to be part of the assessment process.

And I'm not talking about the creative pictures students make with Scantron bubbles or turning test papers into origami.

I believe that as education becomes more individualized and differentiation becomes a mainstay in classroom delivery, it is important that we assess students the way we are expected to teach them.

If we discover that a student finds it easier to write out a math answer in paragraph form, or that a student expresses ideas best through drawing, why do we test them the same way--death by bubble?  If we know that a student needs to move to learn, or that a student works better with background noise, why do we test their knowledge while they sit sedentary in a silent classroom?

I am reminded of the wonderful story that Sir Ken Robinson tells in his TED Talk and in his wonderful book, The Element, about Gillian Lynne, who was thought to have a learning disability as a child due to her restless nature. Through the wisdom of an insightful psychologist, it was discovered that there was nothing wrong with her.  She was just a dancer. She ended up being a world famous choreographer with Broadway productions like Cats on her resume. Her grades in academic subjects even improved once she started dance school.

So what should assessment look like if we are to include our students' creativity in the process?

I believe that the way our students attack a new situation, a new problem or challenge forces them to use their creative strengths.  We, as teachers, need to know these strengths as well as foster them and expand them.

So how do these strengths fit into the assessment process?

Back to the bright, colorful tweet at the top of the page.

Student-assembled portfolios.

Allow students to choose the assignments, projects or achievements that best show how they have met the learning standards set for them at the start of the year.  Allow them to keep a blog, an online portfolio or website. Allow them to verbally present these portfolios if they choose to. Challenge them to explain the process they went through picking each piece, much as a researcher or scientists explains the process by which he or she reached a conclusion.  Challenge students to reflect on their own accomplishments, their own learning. Allow their creativity to shine. Even a first grader can put together a small portfolio of his or her best work. I'd love to be a fly on the wall as they explained each choice!

This of course requires us, as educators, to provide a variety of learning experiences and assignments and well-defined expectations for quality work.

But we're already doing that. 


OK, Devil's advocate. I know, I know--how can we measure AYP goals in this manner?  Let the students still take the darned tests. But don't let them be defined by them.

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Another post to ponder
What is creativity anyway?  by Elizabeth King

Resources
Critical Thinking Sites by Jerry Blumengarten