Assessing as You Teach

To accelerate learning for students, I need to continuously analyze their learning. Since some types of formative assessment take up a considerable amount of valuable time, I try to maximize impact by focusing on data collection that informs my next teaching steps and lets students know where they stand, all while not taking up valuable learning time.

There are, moreover, four main reasons to formatively assess learning. The first is to avoid making assumptions about what students know or don’t yet know. I go to the students to find out their existing funds of knowledge and skills. For example, I was observing a kindergarten class as a part of my coaching and support of a new curriculum. Students were asked what they already knew about museums, an upcoming topic, and they were able to share much more than I expected. If I hadn’t gauged their knowledge, instructional time would have been wasted.

A second reason is to measure the stickiness of teaching and to ensure that it has met the appropriate degree of rigor given the expectations or demands of the standard. This connects with the third reason to assess: to design next steps in instruction. Are some or all students in need of practice or reteaching, and how can I adjust my way of teaching the material, using scaffolds and effective strategies to make it more accessible? The final reason to assess is huge: Assessments provide actionable feedback and empower students. Students need to know what they are aiming for, where they are currently, and what to do next. Then they need time to act on the next steps.

By planning formative assessment with intention, I can ensure that I’m meeting the needs of all learners. 

When and whom to assess

I’m always assessing students in informal ways, through observation, in conversation, and by examining their work. For example, when partners turn and talk, I listen to what they’re saying. While they’re solving problems, writing, and reading, I check in to ask questions about their strategies: Tell me how you solved this problem. What changes have you made to your writing today? Why did you annotate that section of this text?

I also engage in systematic assessment week to week. A huge shift I have made over the past several years is to realize that it’s not always necessary to assess every part of every piece of student work or to assess every student every time.

To assess strategically, I think about the purpose of the assessment, then the most efficient way to gather data. For example, if I’m gathering data on the standard, Decode and encode regularly spelled one-syllable words, I observe students as a whole group as they read a set of words and write them on a whiteboard. Then I meet with a group of four students who showed they’re not yet proficient, while the rest of the class works independently (reading, completing a literacy activity, etc.).

As another example, a co-teacher who taught a whole group lesson and assessed which students needed more practice with inferring gave me the names of five kids to check in on during small group instruction. I reinforced her teaching point, then provided students time to practice with a text. Students provided annotation and verbal responses, and all of them were able to accomplish the small group task.

Managing assessments

There are a number of ways to make assessment more manageable. Here’s an example: When students write an on-demand piece, I may decide to focus on two aspects of writing to analyze; if organization and word choice have been a center of instruction, that is what I analyze. Some teachers randomly select four students to analyze, to gauge trends across a class. Others focus on a small group every day, so that every student has an opportunity across a week.

The key is to assess student learning frequently enough to gauge effectiveness of instruction and for students to receive feedback. This allows me to coach students and provide multiple opportunities to make changes so that if students don’t at first meet the expectations, they can revise and resubmit.

What should be the focus in the assessment?

If a curricular resource has many assessments per week, I decide which assessment will best help determine if students have learned the essential standard. There are multiple ways of showing success. For example, if the standard says to “create,” I don’t need to require that students write their response. This empowers students to choose the best way to show their learning, depending on the skill (talk, video, show a strategy on paper, etc.).

It’s important to assess the process and/or the skill. By asking students to describe a process, I gain rich information and help students know that the ways in which they approach a task are important: Why did you choose this strategy? What helped you meet that goal? What might you do differently next time?

I also assess social and emotional skills and collaboration. Collaboration can enrich learning, and social and emotional skills nurture wellness. Asking questions such as the following shows students that we value the process and the shifts they make as learners: You were frustrated at first, and then I noticed a shift. What did you do to refocus on the learning? What did your group find most challenging, and what three things did you feel you did well?

I also assess my own teaching. I create success criteria for a new strategy I will use over the next several weeks. How will I know this is impacting student learning? What will I do? I lift student voice by asking focus students (students who are not yet meeting a certain standard) about their experiences and what they would suggest I try. This not only improves my teaching practice, but it shows students that I, too, am learning based on feedback.

Assess how students are experiencing the learning: Ask them what they would suggest as areas of improvement. For example, a student told me that when he worked in small groups with me, it was too loud for him to concentrate. I modified future lessons to provide more quiet work time, and he felt much more heard and successful.

I know I need to measure what matters. Measure what will impact decision-making on next steps and what will empower students. I truly believe that by doing so, I and other teachers have the ability to maximize instructional time and accelerate learning; we must do so for all students and especially for the students whose needs we have yet to fully meet. This is a true equity move.