the essentials of assessment

assessment~ the Latin root, assidere, means to sit beside.

opening thought

Clouds appearand bring to men a chance to

restfrom looking at the moon.

~ Basho

Assessment should be likea Japanese haiku poem, deep and simple.

(adapted from Damian Cooper’s Talk About Assessment)

the whole idea

Assess often, evaluate less.

assessmentassessment evaluationevaluation

terms to ideas

Gathering, recording, and analysing student work to help students, over time, attain a learning goal.

Assessment informs instruction.

It looks to the present, and to the future.

Assigning a value to student work to measure the learning they have acquired at the end of a time period.

Evaluation is for reporting.

It looks to the past.

assessment moves instructionFORWARD

teacher student assessment

coaches practices assessment

coaches practices assessment

Students can hit any target that they know about and that holds still for them.

~Rick Stiggins

If you don’t know where

you are going, all roads will

lead you to nowhere.

~ Henry Kissinger

foundation

Begin with the end in mind.

backwards design

What do I want my students to

learn?

How will my students get

there?

How do I know when my

students are there?

Where are my students now?

planning

practicing

assessing

evaluating&

reporting

Ongoing feedback

foundation

Seek variety and balance.

WRITE

DOSAY

obse

rvat

ion

s

products

conversatio

ns

Anne Davies, Making Classroom Assessment Work

Only if we expand and reformulate our view of what counts as human intellect will we be able

to devise more appropriate ways of addressing it and more effective ways of educating it.

~Howard Gardner

balance assessment strategies

SAY

debate oral presentationinterview

WRITE

play scriptbrochurereport

DO

muralartifactphoto essay

assessment strategy = how the student will demonstrate learning

balance assessment tools

anecdotal records

checklists rating scales

rubrics

assessment tool = how the teacher will assess learning

foundation

Give descriptive feedback and include the student in their

assessment.

The student knows more than the teacher about what and how he has learned – even if he knows

less about what was taught.

~ Peter Elbow

Research Connection

Involving students in assessment and increasing the amount of descriptive feedback, while decreasing the amount of evaluative feedback, increases student learning significantly. Students who usually achieve less show the largest gains.

(Black and William 1998)From Anne Davies,

Making Classroom Assessment Work

know your studentstrust yourself

assessment means to sit with

thank you