Teachers are constantly bombarded with the phrases “yearly student progress” and “data-based assessment,” and with good reason: These benchmarks are crucial to the process of learning. Teachers desire their students to make progress, and data-based assessment provides justification for educational decisions such as tailoring instruction, improving curriculum, identifying problems, and discerning disabilities.
However, it’s easy to get bogged down in the data and to become lost in the mire of value added, benchmarks, and standards.
Although the following six suggestions don’t comprise an exhaustive nor necessarily revelatory list, they provide unique alternatives to the usual methods of tracking student progress.
Write the Learning Objective(s)
While this advice seems obvious, it often gets overlooked in the busyness of a teacher’s day. More than once, I’ve led a class down a road of thought processes that include honest discussion, deep analysis, and engaging activities, and then I get that shy hand raised from the back of the room: “Miss, what are we supposed to learn from all of this?” Sometimes we as teachers get so caught up in the end result that we forget to communicate up front just what that desired result actually is.
Repeating the learning objectives aloud is a great practice, but literally writing them in an obvious spot on the white board or some other place is essential. Not only does this clarity remind you as a teacher what the ultimate goal is and if students are nearing or achieving it, students can self-assess during instruction to more productively engage in learning.
Provide Multiple Attempts at Mastery
Think about it: What if failing your driver’s test meant you could never drive a car or if an unpalatable turkey meant you could never cook Thanksgiving dinner again? Education is an ever-evolving process, and the “one shot and you’re done” approach is incompatible with growth.
Depending on grade and ability level, providing numerous attempts at mastery will look different. For example, third graders must learn their multiplication tables in order to move forward, so giving them unlimited chances to succeed is essential. On the other hand, a high school student who admits to not studying for an exam might be allowed to retake the exam to improve their score — and in doing so, improve their learning.
Give Choices for Demonstrating Comprehension
Even though we teachers are well aware of the various styles of learning, sometimes we focus our diverse methods on how we teach rather than how students exhibit understanding. Although some standards in subjects require a particular mode of expressing learning — writing, for instance — in many cases, giving students numerous ways to convey their knowledge builds content mastery and confidence. Providing students opportunities to write, draw, explain, demonstrate, or create also builds that higher level complexity of thought from Bloom’s taxonomy for categorizing educational goals.
Present Quick Gauges of Understanding
Exit tickets are an effective way to monitor progress in the short term, but they don’t have to be a couple of words on a Post-it note as students leave your classroom. Quick assessments of understanding can be as basic as a thumbs up, down, or sideways, or a quick Google form that you can reuse in the future. These “dipsticks” — named for the instrument of checking the oil in an automobile — are always low risk procedures, so they can take a lighthearted or even humorous tone, such as choosing an emoji or a pop song that represents understanding.
Provide Low-Stakes Assessments
Thinking outside the multiple choice box also gives educators an alternative means of monitoring student progress. Computer-based games such as Kahoot!, Jeopardy, and Quizlet (and many others!) assess progress as well as appeal to many students’ competitive nature. Additionally, they elicit participation from even the most reticent student: Make learning any type of competition, especially working in pairs or small groups, and get ready for elevated engagement and motivation.
Assessments where no “wrong” answers exist also create a unique way to check for understanding.
One of my favorites is the “Sesame Street Quiz” where students are required to pick similarities and the outlier among four concepts and justify their choices for each. Take, for example, lettuce, avocados, asparagus, and tomatoes. The first three are green in their ripe color; tomatoes are red. Obviously, the answer could easily be that any of these four is the outlier based upon the criteria. This simple concept, which promotes higher level thinking, can be applied to much more sophisticated concepts such as Shakespearean quotes or quadratic equations.
Document Differently
Rather than systematically taking number grades to enter into a learning management system, vary the method of your documentation progress. Take photos of projects along the school year; have students make quick videos describing what they learned; or have someone record class discussions at incremental points in the semester. Vary your rubrics by requiring measurable progress to assess similar achievement points throughout the year.
Data-based assessments aren’t going anywhere; they’re empowering instruments for teachers and schools. However, taking a refreshing break from the numbers game gives an often-stressful distinction a nice break.