Chapter 5
Page 127 - Do we provide information for the simple purpose of Johnny giving us feedback on a test or do we use this teaching and assessment to guide our instruction? How do we get "effective feedback"? Our principles tell us that master teachers use every assignment and grade as feedback for both themselves and the students. Students need direct feedback in a timely manner. How do we get them to share ownership? A big part of maturity is teaching students that failure happens and how do we learn from it? How better to learn from mistakes than to retake an assessment? Failure should promote responsibility
I found the research done by Carol Dweck to be very interesting. I could actually put faces with the descriptions she gave of performance-oriented students and learning-oriented students. One important point made by her research is that most of our feedback is simply "you got this right and this wrong" - but doesn't include where they went wrong and how they can improve.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the comments on page 129 that often our paper/pencil tests are artificial, contrived, and and are only one aspect of student learning. I was reminded of a student I had several years ago who absolutely could not do a paper/pencil test. But get him to give verbal responses, and he could talk for days about any topic! THAT was a true assessment of a student's knowledge and growth!
I am really giving thought to using portfolios as part of my assessments next year. I think this will give me a "big picture" of where my students have been and where they are going.