I received an e-mail not too long ago from my assistant principal that woke me up to the kind of assessor I actually am. I'll try to explain the three types of assessors in terms of a GPS app, and then explain 5 steps that I'll take this coming semester to make the switch from a more summative assessor to a more formative assessor.
GPS App, Completely On
When taking a trip to a destination completely unfamiliar, I not only put the destination's address in my phone, but also plug the phone into my car's stereo system with the voice directions on. The robotic voice guides me along and humors me as well as it completely mispronounces the street and town names between point A and point B. My specific app also has the ability to provide me with listed directions in case I don't want to use the visual map feature.
This is the full-on, formative assessor that helps students in every single way, never letting students veer off course and making sure that things are done in such a way as to ensure a nearly-perfect end result. I have no real desire to be this kind of assessor, except in the rarest of cases.
GPS App, Sound Off
This is the kind of assessor I thought I was. I thought I had given students proper directions and time enough to complete the task set. I thought that if I could just provide a framework and get out of the way, but inform students that my "sound" could be turned on at any moment, upon their specific request, that the end result would be the product that I'd be happy to grade and that students would be proud to submit. The e-mail from my AP awakened me to the fact that this wasn't working as well as I thought it was. So, too, were the rubrics I was filling out to assess the final product.
GPS App, completely off
This is the type of assessor to which it turned out I was more akin. By standing off on the side, but providing framework, students didn't ask the questions I thought they would and didn't receive the guidance they needed. They never consulted overall list of directions and didn't hear from the app's voice (me) nearly enough. So, they ended up like a car full of people I was once in. We were headed to a funeral in Middleofnowhere, GA, and turned left into a cotton field. The voice said "You have arrived." The four of us looked around for the church, looked at each other, and got a solid ab workout laughing.
I was expecting students to "get to the church" as it were, but the papers I received looked more like the cotton field.
Here are the five things I'll do differently this semester. They were inspired by a post linked below.
1. Have students highlight pieces of writing that they think are really good or really bad.
If the work is really good, the students will feel excited to share; if it's really bad, and they don't know what to do about it, they can receive quick, immediate feedback from their peers. This reduces the amount of feedback I have to give, which should increase the quality of the feedback I give.
2. Make a list of the most commonly-written comments, put them on a PowerPoint slide and see if students see that work in their own writing.
Instead of commenting on every. single. thing. every. single. time. I will instead keep a running list of comments that I would normally make on the students' papers on a PowerPoint slide and offer students the low-cost chance to recognize the mistakes in their own writing.
3. Base mini writing lessons on comments made on papers.
What comments I do make on individual papers will be the source for brief writing lessons.
4. Introduce P.E.A.
This little beauty came to me courtesy of the same person I found the article that inspired this post. Her Twitter info is below. But, the abbreviation is a quick way to organize paragraphs and utilize the skill set required by the Common Core.
5. Check-minus (1 point), Check (3 points), Check-plus (5 points) go on glanced-through work, mini-assessment of single standard at the ignorance of everything else.
I want to comment. On everything. Every single time I see something. But, I can't do that and efficiently provide feedback. So, I'll pick the standard that was the basis from the mini-lesson and continually check up on that standard. A classwork grade will be earned by averaging the number of "Check Points" out of total available.
The Tweet in which I found the article:
GPS App, Completely On
When taking a trip to a destination completely unfamiliar, I not only put the destination's address in my phone, but also plug the phone into my car's stereo system with the voice directions on. The robotic voice guides me along and humors me as well as it completely mispronounces the street and town names between point A and point B. My specific app also has the ability to provide me with listed directions in case I don't want to use the visual map feature.
This is the full-on, formative assessor that helps students in every single way, never letting students veer off course and making sure that things are done in such a way as to ensure a nearly-perfect end result. I have no real desire to be this kind of assessor, except in the rarest of cases.
GPS App, Sound Off
This is the kind of assessor I thought I was. I thought I had given students proper directions and time enough to complete the task set. I thought that if I could just provide a framework and get out of the way, but inform students that my "sound" could be turned on at any moment, upon their specific request, that the end result would be the product that I'd be happy to grade and that students would be proud to submit. The e-mail from my AP awakened me to the fact that this wasn't working as well as I thought it was. So, too, were the rubrics I was filling out to assess the final product.
GPS App, completely off
This is the type of assessor to which it turned out I was more akin. By standing off on the side, but providing framework, students didn't ask the questions I thought they would and didn't receive the guidance they needed. They never consulted overall list of directions and didn't hear from the app's voice (me) nearly enough. So, they ended up like a car full of people I was once in. We were headed to a funeral in Middleofnowhere, GA, and turned left into a cotton field. The voice said "You have arrived." The four of us looked around for the church, looked at each other, and got a solid ab workout laughing.
I was expecting students to "get to the church" as it were, but the papers I received looked more like the cotton field.
Here are the five things I'll do differently this semester. They were inspired by a post linked below.
1. Have students highlight pieces of writing that they think are really good or really bad.
If the work is really good, the students will feel excited to share; if it's really bad, and they don't know what to do about it, they can receive quick, immediate feedback from their peers. This reduces the amount of feedback I have to give, which should increase the quality of the feedback I give.
2. Make a list of the most commonly-written comments, put them on a PowerPoint slide and see if students see that work in their own writing.
Instead of commenting on every. single. thing. every. single. time. I will instead keep a running list of comments that I would normally make on the students' papers on a PowerPoint slide and offer students the low-cost chance to recognize the mistakes in their own writing.
3. Base mini writing lessons on comments made on papers.
What comments I do make on individual papers will be the source for brief writing lessons.
4. Introduce P.E.A.
This little beauty came to me courtesy of the same person I found the article that inspired this post. Her Twitter info is below. But, the abbreviation is a quick way to organize paragraphs and utilize the skill set required by the Common Core.
5. Check-minus (1 point), Check (3 points), Check-plus (5 points) go on glanced-through work, mini-assessment of single standard at the ignorance of everything else.
I want to comment. On everything. Every single time I see something. But, I can't do that and efficiently provide feedback. So, I'll pick the standard that was the basis from the mini-lesson and continually check up on that standard. A classwork grade will be earned by averaging the number of "Check Points" out of total available.
The Tweet in which I found the article:
And, for fun, the MLA Citation for the Tweet:
Drew, Noel (drewedu). "Great tips for grading writing faster and smarter. Quick Formative Assessment of Student Writing
http://zite.to/U7ZsXc via @zite #engchat." 18 Dec. 2012, 1:54a.m. Tweet.
The link the inspirational article: Quick Formative Assessment of Student Writing by Janet Abercrombie.
Its MLA Citation isn't as fun, though.
Drew, Noel (drewedu). "Great tips for grading writing faster and smarter. Quick Formative Assessment of Student Writing
http://zite.to/U7ZsXc via @zite #engchat." 18 Dec. 2012, 1:54a.m. Tweet.
The link the inspirational article: Quick Formative Assessment of Student Writing by Janet Abercrombie.
Its MLA Citation isn't as fun, though.