BRECKNO CK BUL L ETIN

Decem ber 20 1 0

What’s in a grade? Assessment What is it? Examples

Type
Lately I’ve been reflecting upon the educational
practice of grading. Report cards have certainly Assessment OF Unit tests
evolved since the years I went to elementary learning
Cumulative
school! The information my parents gathered from Typically occurs projects
my report card included only an end-of-the-quarter Summative at the end of the
instructional PSSA
letter grade with corresponding numerical
period
percentage. What, then, did that indicate about
what I knew and was able to do in each of the
content areas? It is hard to answer those Assessment “Ticket out the
questions with a simple letter grade or 82%. door”/Exit slip
FOR learning activities
There are currently a number of lively discussions Occurs Written summaries
occurring throughout my professional network on throughout the and blog posts
the topic of student assessment and grading. instructional Quick-checks/quizzes
Formative
Many educators are recognizing the importance of period Whiteboard work
focusing our assessment efforts on formatively Class discussions
assessing students more consistently and Think-pair-share
providing more substantial feedback about their Conferencing with
learning. They are also working hard to include students
students in the process of assessment, as they
must be active participants in their learning! This is
something I definitely will be exploring in greater
depth as the year moves on.
To help you understand a little more about
assessment, consider two different types of Ready for BrainPOP?
assessment most commonly used in schools (see Our students have 24/7 access to
right). BrainPOP and BrainPOP, Jr. videos and
Throughout a typical lesson, a teacher should be activities! Please visit
constantly assessing the “temperature” of the www.brainpop.com and enter the
class and student understanding in response to following credentials to learn at home!!
the lesson’s essential question or student learning
objective. This comes in a variety of forms, and Username: b r e l e m
the most skilled teachers do it inherently. Password: s p a r t a n s

Brecknock Elementary School * 361 School Road, Denver, PA 17517 * (717) 445-8600
Formative assessment is referred to as
assessment for learning because it allows the
teacher to gauge the effectiveness of instruction
and the degree to which students have understood
the content. Armed with this knowledge, the
teacher can then adjust and design future
instruction to best meet the needs of all learners.
This might mean that students engage in varied
learning activities and have differentiated
homework and classwork assignments, etc.,
because every learner is unique in his/her needs.
Summative assessments can provide an end-of-
the-unit look at how well a student grasped the
material. However, if we constantly formative
assess throughout the unit, should we not be able
to predict the summative performance of the child
based on those “dipstick” assessments throughout
the unit? We should! No child, parent, or teacher
should ever be surprised by a grade on a unit test.
With formative assessment, a child has the
opportunity to consider his/her own comfort level
with learning the material. With constructive
feedback, the child and teacher can discuss
strategies for learning, celebrate strengths, and
make plans to improve on the areas of need.
As we shared report cards with parents last week,
we had the special opportunity to meet together at
conferences to discuss students’ progress.
Through this dialogue, a teacher is able to paint an
accurate portrait of the child’s successes and
needs in the classroom. Parents are able to share
what they’re seeing and hearing at home. I’d like to
see us further develop in this area. Considering
how powerful those conversations about learning
are, wouldn’t it be an amazing benefit to have
students dialogue with teachers and parents about
their progress? To have students show samples of
their own work, and to dialogue reflectively about
what they’ve learned thus far? Student self-
assessment is truly a powerful component of
learning that I hope to continue to delve into. Many
Busy third graders involved in whiteboard
word work with partners!
of our classes are embarking on the journey of
student blogging. This is an amazing avenue for
students to write reflectively about their own
learning. Educational researcher Doug Reeves
says, “There are no silver bullets in education. But
writing – particularly nonfiction writing – is about as
close as you can get to a single strategy that has
significant and positive effects in nearly every other
area of the curriculum.” Thanks to technology,
student blog posts are collectively stored and can
be referenced throughout the year. Think of the
growth we will see in students’ posts from now until
May!
Parents are an integral part of the assessment
process. Help us formatively assess by engaging
in conversations with your children each and every
night about the day’s learning. Can they tell you
the essential questions from their science and
social studies lessons? Can they share with you a
reading comprehension strategy their small
group is learning about, or explain the main idea
of a story or passage the group has been reading?
In math, can they explain the processes behind
the exercises and story problems they’re
completing? Can they talk to you about the
purpose for learning the content we’re learning?
These are all excellent ways to help your child
learn to think about his/her own learning. We do
not wish for our students to be passive recipients
of information. We want them to be actively
engaged learners!
Thank you for your continued support!