Snapshots of Learning

We’re into Term 4 (if you’re in Australia), and end-of-year assessments are underway. Perhaps you have gathered your data. Maybe you’re searching for that one piece of information. You know that student has mastered the concept, but where is the evidence? Did it disappear without warning following the time your laptop crashed?

Why do we keep evidence of learning? Because it’s our job to document milestones, of course. And we have to keep track of multiple learners and their learning journeys. I haven’t met a teacher who can retain that stuff without writing or recording it.

I have met teachers who found the notion of assessing student learning troublesome. The assessment method had a lot to do with it.

Schools focus on academic excellence. Nothing is wrong with that–we should strive to be the best versions of ourselves. Measuring that excellence takes a particular skill. I taught in a school where the measuring process was pre-defined. That is, the students knew the type of assessment and the content ahead of time. Teachers stopped short of providing the answers, though.

The type of assessment was invariably a written quiz. The only variation was the format–multiple choice, short answer, or a combination. Students became so savvy at the process each new concept was prefaced with, ‘Will there be a quiz about this?’

I didn’t find the process cumbersome. It was easy to fall into step with it. I did find an issue when, at year’s end, I tried to assemble a snapshot of the year’s learning.

A quiz that asked for answers to something we covered in February was waved away with, ‘We’ve already been quizzed on this.’