Unconventional Assessments
5/1/2021
This year our 5th and 6th graders have learned a lot about poetry, so let’s try out this metaphor: teaching isn’t baking bread, it’s cooking chili. When baking, if I follow the recipe exactly as written, I'll be more likely to yield positive results. While baking bread takes a lot of time and effort initially, I don’t interrupt my bread while it’s actually baking—I cross my fingers and hope that what I'd done will cause the final result to be what I expected. I often don’t know I’ve made a mistake until the bread has cooled and by that time, it’s impossible to go back and remedy. However, when I cook chili, I check in on it constantly. I taste it after adding certain ingredients to check how it’s melding. I stir it while it’s cooking, knowing that it might need something extra added when I wasn’t expecting it. Even when it’s finished cooking, there are always things I can add to improve it. That’s the difference between teaching with formative assessments versus summative. Formative assessments are frequent, informal check-ins. They are designed to help teachers gauge their students. They are not anxiety-inducing, “gotcha” tools. Students feel safe to take risks and be honest during these types of assessments (as they usually do not even feel like "assessments"). Summative assessments are high-stakes, “final” measuring tools. Traditional quizzes or tests have a ceiling on what they can tell us about students’ learning. Formative assessments give us constant feedback about how students are enjoying and comprehending their learning. These activities benefit both students and teachers. This year, we’ve done a ton of formative assessments. Self reflections, check-ins, summaries, peer discussions, and many other low-stake activities all check for understanding. Games are formative assessments, too. Whether's it's a morning meeting, closing circle, or everyday game, we try to combine learning and playing. We end each week with a homemade game of Jeopardy. I create these games based on what we’ve learned throughout the week. There are academic categories and random, silly categories as well. We’ve reached the point where the kids pay extra attention in class to try to “predict” what material I’ll use for the game. We play in teams and, while there is no tangible prize for the winner, the games are always competitive and what they look forward to each week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much my students have retained throughout the year. I accredit their lasting comprehension to formative assessments. There are times when a student says, “I’m not going to be here next week, can you give me the assessments I’ll miss?” While I probably have an idea of what main concepts we’ll be learning, I can’t (and shouldn’t) pre-determine exact assessments. It’s not in our philosophy at PNA to have prescribed assessments planned far in advance. Every student and every class is diverse in how quickly and how deeply they grasp and retain information. We assess informally each day and use that to help us plan for the next. While baking bread and cooking chili are labors of love and both can be successful, when it comes to strictly teaching, we believe that consistently checking-in with our students nearly always yields the best results.
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Elizabeth FerryMs. Ferry's experiences include teaching with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, teaching high school English in Maine, and this is her second year at PNA. She loves moose, outdoor activities, and being with her students. Archives
April 2021
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