Stiggens, R., & Chappuis, J. (2006). What a difference a word makes: Assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning helps students succeed. Journal for Staff Development, National Staff Development Council, Vol.27, NO.1.
Reading this article brought forward a realization of how little I think about assessment in the classroom. I have devoted much time reflecting on the current state of education, specifically, the outdated Language Arts Curriculum, 21st century skills, or restrictive NCLB laws. Conversely, assesment has not been a major element of reflection.
In sum, the article encourages "assessment for learning rather than assessment of learning"(Stiggens and Chappuis, 2006). One aspect of the article that I found myself agreeing with is getting students involved in the assessment process. The authors of the article encourage students and their teachers to become "partners in the classroom assessments process, relying on students-involved assessmetn, record-keeping, and communication to help students understand what success looks like, see where they are now, and learn to close the gap between the two."(Stiggens and Chappuis, 2006). In my own classroom, students keep a grade sheet where they figure out their grades and keep track of their progress throughout the year. I find that keeping grades a secret from students until the end of a marking period is unecessary and somewhat elitist.
In addition to students' involvement in assessment, Stiggens and Chappuis mention four other essential aspects of successful assessment: clear purposes, clear targets, sound design, and effective communication. Most of the objectives for effective assessment are fairly obvious and what I believe effective teachers currently practice.
In Language Arts, majority of assessment includes writing samples which are incredibly time consuming to assess and grade. So when the article suggested that teachers "must figure out ways to comment on the quality of students' work and then schedule time for students to act on that feedback before being graded" (Stiggens and Chappuis, 2006), I was taken back. I was sure the next suggestion was for teachers to grow another pair of hands and an extra brain, yet the authors conceeded that it would be difficult to accomodate such practices on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this is old news. I learned to write by following my teacher's criticism and correcting my mistakes. Although I try to give my students the same opportunity, I agree that in addition to the myriad of tasks that already fill up the teaching day, this would be difficult to accomplish.
Furthermore, the article suggests use of learning teams where teachers can experiment with different types of assessment and collaborate with other collegues to improve teaching practices. I have always been a proponent of peer coaching and believe that peer collaboration is an integral part of professional development.
Although the article did not contain anything groundbreaking, the authors neverthelss agree that "if we don't begin this dialogue, this study of assessment for learning, we are relegating assessment to its accountability role and passing up its potential benefits to students." (Stiggens and Chapuis, 2006). While we have little power to change standardized testing imposed by law, inside our classrooms we can certainly maximize student acheivement through clear and effective assessment.
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6 comments:
Teacher feedback should be based upon what Wiggins and McTighe call “..modeling and exemplars..” (78). When a student can get a sense of what is expected of them and what examples of a sophisticated and naïve understanding looks like in the form of a final product, they are provided with direction on how to proceed. Many teachers provide rubrics for projects, and that is a good first step, especially if it is a detailed rubric. An effective instructor can take this a step further by providing a model of a “5” essay or a “1” project as a model to students before they begin.
When students receive feedback after their work is completed, the questions teachers should ask to gauge if the feedback is appropriate is if students are able to know what they have done well and what they need to do better with in the future. In most cases in schools, students submit work, get a grade, and move onto the next assignment. Very rarely to teachers give a chance for students to act on the feedback. Wiggins and McTighe (2006) state that students should “have an opportunity to become evaluators of their own learning” when they are given a chance to refine, revise, practice, and retry. (79) This practice can be employed in both a traditional and online class setting.
A few teachers in my school have recently started allowing students react to feedback. When given this critical feedback, the student can then assess his or her understanding and progress of the assignment. This definitely gives them a chance to improve and provides a confidence boost for the next assignment. Instead of just assessing and that is the end of the assignment, give students that extra chance to build their own skills and knowledge.
I agree compeletly with students having more control over their own assessment. This year for the first time, I made students rewrite a certain essay as they made corrections that I suggested. I strongly believe that they learned more from that lesson than from an entire week of disconnected writing exersises.
I also think encouraging students to reflect on their own performance allows them to become more involved in their learning process and thus encourages future reflection.
I, am a huge fan of having students re-submit papers that are not up to par. Most students will get their papers back with a grade of B or C and think nothing of it if they don't have to re-submit them. However, if they are forced to correct their errors, they will be less likely to make the same ones in the future because they will not want to re-do their work.
My AP English teacher did something similar in high school as we had to keep re-submitting a paper until he felt it was A-level work. I hated it in the beginning, but it paid huge dividends in the end because my writing improved tremendously.
April- I love that idea and as I mentioned earler, that is the way I learned to write. My concern is time, time, and more time. While I am already pressured to move through a rediculous amount of content, keeping track of students who need to rewrite, redo, still turn in, seems incredibly overwhelming. I knwo that is an excuse, so I will try that next year. What's the worst that can happen?
This year, I simply brought my students to the computer lab and had them rewrite a certain essay in class. Although not everyone finished, I think in the end it was effective.
I totally sympathize with your concern about the huge time commitment required to grade essays/re-submits. If you teach multiple sections of the same course, you could be getting 75 papers at a time to grade and that truly is overwhelming. At the end of the day, even if it takes you two weeks to grade them, the students' writing will improve and they will have you to thank years later when they are able to write properly!
Sidenote: My AP English teacher had it easy...there were only 5 students in our class!
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