« Minutes with Charlie 3 | Home | Minutes with Charlie 5 »
Minutes with Charlie 4
By Charlie | January 21, 2008
We now approach an often overlooked, vitally important, underestimated, misunderstood, incredibly powerful fifth key to quality classroom assessment: student involvement.
The single most important user of assessment results is the student. Yet, all too often the student gets only a grade that at best is an ambiguous report of the result of enigmatic assessment that gives unclear direction. Unfortunately the idea of student involvement in classroom assessment is understood to mean that the student makes the test and the teacher gives the test.
Student involvement in classroom assessment consists of individual students being actively involved in self-assessment, recording keeping (progress monitoring), decision making, and the clear communication of results.
If students and teachers are to reap the tremendous benefits promised in classroom assessments, students must be trained and must practice the skill of self-assessment. All too often it is the professionals involved in the teaching that assesses the student rather than the person involved in the learning. In order for an individual to improve his performance (in this case learning), he must clearly know and understand what constitutes excellence in performance, where he currently abides on the path to excellence, and what steps he must take to draw closer to that goal. As a student learns to compare his work to the standard of excellence in an independent, self-assessing manner, he begins the process of self-assessment. The second stage of self-assessment comes as the student learns, upon recognizing the difference between his performance and excellence, to recognize the steps or changes he must make to improve.
An invaluable component of student self-assessment comes in the form of timely, descriptive feedback to the student from the teacher. This is perhaps the most powerful tool in the teacher tool box for helping students learn to self-assess.
A very powerful transformation takes place as the learner becomes proficient at self-assessment.
The second aspect of student involved classroom assessment comes in the form of the student being involved in record keeping. This deals with the student tracking his progress toward excellence in measurable ways. Included in this aspect is goal setting. Beginning with the end in mind, setting goals that are attainable and focused, and tracking progress toward those goals assist the student in developing and maintaining an intrinsic motivation.
Finally, student involved classroom assessment regards involving the student in communication about learning. The students should be able to clearly communicate their learning goals, their progress toward those goals, and the steps they are taking to reach those goals. This communication needs to be both with teachers and parents. This is a clear indication of authentic student involvement.
So, these are the five keys of quality assessment that we have examined:
- Establish a clear purpose for the assessment.
- Produce clearly defined, articulated, and understood learning targets,
- Insure a sound assessment design,
- Practice good communication regarding assessments and their results, and
- Work to insure student involvement in the classroom assessment process.
Personal Reflection: If I were to rate my common practice of these items in my classroom assessment from 0 to 5, with zero being “never do that” and five being “I do it on a constant basis with quality”, what would my sum be over the five keys of assessment quality? What can I do now to improve that sum?
Topics: Minutes with Charlie, Quality Assessment Components, Student Involvement |