Chapter+6+Notes

Assessment for Learning is about teaching and learning so that students can improve their work. It is also called formative assessment and should not be used to determine a student's mark or grade.

Cooper speaks about Assessment for Learning and how it can be implemented in our classroom by asking 6 questions; 1) Do I share learning goals with my students so they know where we are heading? Sharing learning goals helps manage instructional time, clarify the purpose of the lesson, focus instruction and what will be assessed as well as remind both teacher and student about what has to be accomplished.

2) Do I communicate to students the standards they are aiming for before they begin work on a task? By sharing the rubric, checklist and anchors before a task students will understand "what you are looking for" and know what they have to do to achieve a Level 4.

3) Do I have students self- and peer assess their work in ways that improve their learning? These types of assessment such as Traffic Lights, the Fishbowl and Snowball activities allow students the opportunity to be "able to internalize the standards for quality work."

4) Does my questioning technique include all students and promote increased understanding? Using open questions that allow all students to be able to answer as well as make a personal connection is an excellent technique when done in groups.

5) Do I provide individual feedback to students that informs them how to improve? Descriptive feedback must cause thinking, be specific to the criteria and lead students to improving their work.

6) Do I provide opportunities for students to make use of this feedback to improve specific pieces of work? By working one on one or in small groups with the low achieving students, students have the opportunity to improve their work.

For each of these questions he has provided a number of methods and examples of how to implement these strategies in your own classroom and describes how it improves students' work.

In addition to writing about these strategies, in this chapter Cooper has given teachers the means to answer the following questions:
 * How do I get my students to take assessment for learning seriously if they know it doesn't count?
 * How do I find the time within a reporting cycle to include assessments that don't count?
 * What kind of feedback is most helpful for improving student learning?
 * How do I get students to use the feedback I give them?

As always there will be challenges but he encourages teachers to use authentic task, have patience, persevere and use effective marking practices.

__**Question:**__ Cooper writes on page 114, "In a secondary school culture that focuses on scores and percentage grades, motivating students to work hard for the intrinsic rewards of learning and improving skills is a significant challenge." Discuss, what we can do to motivate students without the mark.

Ria