Marty Swanhall (original heh)

I am sure you have gone to see a doctor for an illness you have had. Imagine if you said nothing to the doctor about what is wrong or any of your symptoms AND the doctor never asked you what is wrong with you nor about your symptoms. But yet, the doctor still prescribed medication for you to treat whatever is ailing you!

And sometimes that I show teaching is. Students do not tell the teacher what is ‘good’ with them or ‘bad’ with them in terms of their understanding of the material. Teachers just give quizzes and tests, and if students do well on them, the students are fine and if they do poorly on them, the students are ‘sick’. The teacher then prescribes ‘study more’, ‘see me for extra help’, ‘pay more attention in class’ medicine and continues with the next topic.

So, how do we change this pattern in education? By using Formative Assessments! Think of formative assessments as a physical (Dufour, et al.) Formative assessments are like a conversation between a patient and a doctor but instead are between a student and a teacher. These assessments are not graded and come in many forms. They are used to ‘diagnose’ the condition of the student at that time in the class and allow the teacher to make adjustments in the class to help that student succeed in learning the concept that is giving the student trouble. If the student already understands the concepts, then the teacher can prescribe enrichment work to the student (note: I did not say extra, more, or busy work but enrichment).

What will happen this year is that on many, but not all, assignments, activities, labs, etc., I will use different formative assessments to see how you are progressing on a topic or unit we are covering. Just like you would not tell a doctor incorrect symptoms you are having when ill, you will also need to give accurate and correct information on these formative assessments. Remember, formative assessments are not graded – they are an indication of how you are doing at that time on an assignment or activity and are meant to assist me in ‘prescribing’ any necessary help you may need in order to understand and learn the material in class.

Most of the time, your responses to formative assessments will be written in a ‘composition’ notebook (which we can call ‘REFLECTIONS’) that will be used only for formative assessments. Other times, the formative assessment will require you to answer on paper or place answers onto a scantron sheet which I will collect, look over, return to you, and then you will attached that sheet into your reflection book

By reading your answers/comments, I will be able to make changes to the weekly schedule in order to have us all understand what is being covered in the class.