#pw8 Allow New Evidence to Replace Old

Image by epSos.de via FlickrConsider throwing out students older grades when they've demonstrated competency in a more recent assessment.

Your drivers license doesn't say anything about how many times you took your drivers test before you passed. Why should student's earlier grades affect their final mark if they've later demonstrated competency?

If the final grade you give a student is a reflection of what they know at the end of a course of study should that mark include data (e.g. grades from earlier assessments) that doesn't reflect their current understanding of the course material?

What impact do you think doing this might have on your students' attitudes towards learning in your class?

Talk this over with your students or a colleague, see what they think. Please share the results of these discussions here or elsewhere.

Tweet, blog, leave a comment here or anywhere and include this tag in it somewhere: #wpedagogy

#pw7 Share Evaluation Criteria

Image by nchoz via FlickrMake the criteria for judging the range of student performance explicit.  Take this week to show your students exactly how they gain or lose points for a variety of assessment questions.

Ensure students know what success looks like; particularly if your students are writing final exams soon. They can achieve the targets for success we set for them if they know where the targets are and what they look like.

After a week of doing this do you find yourself thinking differently about how you assess student work?

Did this have any impact on the questions your students asked or how they showed their work?

Were there any changes in the atmosphere (culture) of your classroom?

Tweet, blog, leave a comment here or anywhere and include this tag in it somewhere: #wpedagogue

#pw6 No Numbers

Image by dkuropatwa via FlickrMore than once this week, assess your students work without assigning a numeric grade or mark, comments only. Keep it simple, like a short quiz with 1-3 questions. Some advice for giving comments:

Comments should identify what has been done well and what still needs improvement and give guidance on how to make that improvement. (source)

 Give yourself  1000 bonus points if you keep a digital record of this weeks assessments (questions, student responses, and your comments) in a blog, wiki, podcast, or digital pictures on flickr. (You might want to make your students' work anonymous to the public in some way.)

After a week of doing this do you find you ask different kinds of assessment questions?

Did this have any impact on the answers your students gave?

Were there any changes in the atmosphere (culture) of your classroom?

Tweet, blog, leave a comment here or anywhere and include this tag in it somewhere: #wpedagogue

#pw5 Make Thinking Transparent

Image by dkuropatwa via FlickrFind ways to make your students thinking transparent this week. You might have them explain their thinking to the class, write a blog post or leave a comment to a prompt on your blog, or create a visual summary of what they learned this week using five carefully chosen pictures from the flickr creative commons archive.

After a week of doing this do you find you know more about what your students know and still need to know?

Did this have any impact on class discussions?

Were there any changes in the atmosphere (culture) of your classroom?

Tweet, blog, leave a comment here or anywhere and include this tag in it somewhere: #wpedagogue