From Small to Powerful: How Everyday Habits Add to Controlled Teaching and Confidence (pp. 78-80), by M. Plotinsky, 2024, ASCD. Copyright 2024 by ASCD. Reprinted with permission.
In the last several years, teaching methods have gained a significant trend as the preferred method of assessment, thanks in large part to the ideas based on this practice. Not too long ago, students were taught material in classrooms, mostly by standing up and delivering specific instructions, and then asked to demonstrate their learning in what are now called summative or “satisfying” tests. In this model, it wasn’t just grades that were cast in stone when the test results came back; there was also the assumption that the students knew enough to move forward with new ideas and that anyone who lagged behind had to hold back or commit to continuing the struggle (perhaps forever).
This method of swimming or swimming has lost popularity over time, especially after the growing awareness of education that is carried out equally and among the results of teaching and learning during this epidemic. Turning a blind eye to the struggle of students is dangerous, as well as closing the opportunities for growth. Additionally, the idea of determining student achievement within any given content standard only at the end of an instructional unit is absurd. Ideally, teachers clear up confusion and check understanding continuously throughout the learning unit.
The pushback leaders often face when asking teachers to routinely assess students centers around securing two scarce resources: time and bandwidth. Educators ask, how can they assess students at any time when instructional time is short, when grading is stacked, and when district leaders don’t give extra time to plan or prepare?
The answer to a complex question can be surprisingly simple, and that is true in this instance. Rather than thinking of formative assessment as a drawn-out process, it helps to focus on using tools that will tell us what we need to know quickly. The following test bank shares some tried and true ways to quickly gather information about what students know and can do. Students may be asked to do any of the following:
- Take a short survey (one or two questions).
- Summarize the daily learning goal in one sentence.
- Fill out an exit or entry ticket that shares an idea or presents an open question.
- Hold up color-coded cards (usually red, yellow, and green to match robots) to indicate level of understanding or confusion.
- Briefly reflect (3−5 sentences) on an idea.
- Complete the stem of the sentence: “I still don’t understand . . . .”
- Submit questions that do not require immediate attention in the public “Parking Space”.
- Put “Burning Questions” on the board to clear up confusion quickly.
- Draw an important idea instead of writing about it.
- Take new learning and apply it to a different situation.
- Create short tests for peers to complete.
- Write a short summary of social media style for the study.
- Make a “mic drop” statement that leaves everyone with the last thought of the day, verbally or in writing.
When students complete short assessment tasks like this, they focus more clearly on the impact of whatever they have learned, and their progress is also more visible. Short comprehension tests do not negate the need for longer, summative tests that reflect what students have learned at the end of a unit or period of study. However, when teachers tire of handing out long tests after another with questionable benefits, adopting a common practice of using quick formulas takes a lot of pressure off and reveals valuable data that moves everyone in the classroom forward.
