Reply To: Lesson 6-2: Question

[Katrina van Lierop]

I really like the idea of spiralling, and have dipped my toes into it with some of my classes. Unfortunately I get bogged down with the tracking of learning expectations. It is very overwhelming to try and track each expectation on a larger assessment, record them(sometimes there are 5 or 6 smaller expectaions) on a single assessment. One thing that has helped is assessing more often. I now run a show your understanding every Friday and it is only based on concepts covered in that week. Then there is the issue of reporting. Our current report card only allows for a single % for the course, and at the mid term this % can be very deceiving to parents and students. I do report a level of understanding for each concept on each assessment but many students continue to ask what their overall % in the course is at that moment. Clearly there is a need for a general shift in how we report and in the larger community on assessment of learning. There is too much focus on marks and not enough in learning.

[Katrina van Lierop]

I really like the idea of spiralling, and have dipped my toes into it with some of my classes. Unfortunately I get bogged down with the tracking of learning expectations. It is very overwhelming to try and track each expectation on a larger assessment, record them(sometimes there are 5 or 6 smaller expectaions) on a single assessment. One thing that has helped is assessing more often. I now run a show your understanding every Friday and it is only based on concepts covered in that week. Then there is the issue of reporting. Our current report card only allows for a single % for the course, and at the mid term this % can be very deceiving to parents and students. I do report a level of understanding for each concept on each assessment but many students continue to ask what their overall % in the course is at that moment. Clearly there is a need for a general shift in how we report and in the larger community on assessment of learning. There is too much focus on marks and not enough in learning.