« Minutes with Charlie 6 | Home | “Feedback” - What Difference Does It Make? »
Minutes with Charlie 7
By Charlie | February 19, 2008
Three questions confront students in the learning process. In order to succeed in the mission of learning, the students must be able to answer all three. A quality classroom assessment program provides the student with the answer to all three on a regular basis.
The first of the three questions is “Where am I going on this learning journey?”
If a student does not understand what they are to learn to know and be able to do, the chances of them knowing and being able to do it are greatly reduced, if not eliminated.
A quality classroom assessment program addresses this question with two essential components or competencies.
The first component is clearly defined, articulated, and understood learning targets. They must be clearly defined in that they are focused upon specific learning goals that are appropriate for the students. They must be articulated by both the teacher and the student. If both the teacher and the student cannot articulate the learning targets, we can be pretty well assured that they are not clear learning targets. Finally, they must be understood by both teacher and student. At first it seems that if one can articulate the target, it should be understood. However, from experience we know that this is not the case. Students can often repeat what they have been told and be void of understanding.
Often we find teachers listing a learning target that is either actually an activity (not a learning target) or is stated in terms that virtually eliminate any chance of the student understanding.
An activity is usually expressed in terms of what a student will do while a learning target is usually expressed in terms of what the student will understand.
The learning target should be articulated in student friendly language without compromising the target itself. I have found the pattern of “I am learning to . . . .” is a form that is useful in simplifying learning targets into student friendly language.
The second component of classroom assessment that assists students in answering the question of “Where am I going?” is the provision of clear examples of good or strong and poor or weak quality work. All too often as teachers we ask our students to complete a task when they have no idea what a good final product should look like. It is essential to their learning that we provide them, prior to starting the project, with clear examples of what are considered quality work. This gives them a clear standard against which to measure their work and performance.
I have been asked a number of times something along the lines of, “But what if my assessments don’t lend themselves to examples of high quality? How do you give an example of high quality multiple choice answers?” To this question I give a two part answer: (1) While there are several assessment methods that do not lend themselves to providing good examples, there are few learning targets that do not lend themselves to providing good examples, and (2) if most of our assessments are of the type that do not provide examples of quality, we should carefully examine both our learning targets and our assessments since it would appear we are missing some tremendous opportunities.
Personal Reflection: Am I providing my students with a clear answer to the question “Where am I going in this learning?” Do I, as a matter of course, provide clearly defined, articulated, and understood learning targets in student friendly language? Do my students have examples of good and poor quality evidence of this learning?
Topics: Learning Targets, Minutes with Charlie |