Sunday, February 9, 2014

In the January 27, 2014 Marshall Memo 521, Kim Marshall reviewed Bob Darnell’s article, “Listening to the Data,” in which Darnell argued that today’s generation actually thrives on assessment and improvement. After reading the summary by Kim Marshall, take a moment to reflect on what’s working well in your classroom and what you could do to improve student learning.

Effective Curriculum, Assessments, and Follow-Up

“This generation is motivated by achievable challenges,” says author/speaker Bobb Darnell in this thoughtful article in AMLE Magazine. “They actually thrive on assessment and improvement. They play video games or participate in sports or other organized activities for hundreds of hours to ‘get good’ at them.” Here’s what Darnell believes today’s students are saying to their teachers:

Please show us the essential concepts, vocabulary, and skills in each unit and clearly communicate the learning goals. Kids need to see the big picture – the structure and organization of what they are supposed to learn. “The big picture gives them a sense of safety, which allows them to take learning risks,” says Darnell. “Without the structures, learning seems random, chaotic, and overwhelming to some students – like trying to put together a 1,000-piece puzzle without the picture on the box.”

Please use a variety of assessments that have real-life connections and show and tell us the characteristics of a great product or performance. Clones of state tests don’t do this, says Darnell. “Assessment-literate teachers vary their assessments, using product and performance assessments and authentic tasks to give students opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge and apply what they’ve learned... These assessments can spark students’ intrinsic motivation when they involve relevant issues and intriguing situations, encourage problem solving and decision making, and promote creativity.” Students also want exemplars of high-quality work and guidelines for what makes it good.

Please assess us often, covering smaller amounts of information at a time and giving us feedback on our progress. Continuous feedback is part of students’ video-game culture, and it’s expected in sports. “We can help them feel this way about classroom learning and assessment,” says Darnell, “but not if we make them wait days before we give them feedback on their progress.” Students shouldn’t go more than five days without an assessment and quick feedback on their progress – exit slips, summaries, graphic organizers, mini-quizzes, self- assessments, and checklists.

Please analyze the assessment results to determine my strengths and weaknesses, teach me strategies to improve, and let me redo or retake assessments. What were the reasons for those disappointing results? “Was it questionable assessment items, mismatches between instruction and assessment, or a lack of students’ prerequisite knowledge or skills?” asks Darnell. “Students especially want us to recognize that they lack the learning-to-learn strategies and skills they need to succeed.” Students need immediate correctives, different approaches to learning, small-group study sessions, individual tutoring, and computer-assisted instruction as a follow-up.

“Listening to the Data” by Bobb Darnell in AMLE Magazine, January 2014 (Vol. 1, #5, p. 10- 13), www.amle.org; Darnell can be reached at bobbdarnell@mac.com.

Schedule for the week of February 10th:

Monday: Terry meeting with Dr. Liepa 7:30
Title I meeting 10:00
Board Meeting (Terry) 7:00
Students will begin taking the District School Improvement Team (DSIT) survey in IT and LMC.

Tuesday: IST 8:00
Clubs 3:45

Wednesday: EPT 8:00
Second Count Day
Bus Meetings 10:25-11:15
Founder’s Day Dinner 6:00
Sport’s Club 3:45

Thursday: Ski Trip to Mt. Brighton

Friday: Title I meeting 8:00

No comments:

Post a Comment