How to Follow Along With Your Child's Assessments
Hello and welcome!
At the beginning of the year I informed parents that their child's assessments will be on Google Docs. The document is in their own Google Drive account and is titled with their name. This Vidyard video is an explanation on how to follow along with your child's assessments that they receive from me in Language, History/Geography, and Drama. Each child has a document where my assessments can be found. Some are longer assessments (large projects, responses, etc.), some are feedback only when I sit with them during conferencing, and others are quick check-ins so they can understand their next steps in their learning. Please view the video to learn about how to access this document and what each assessment means! If you're interested in learning more about how I set up our assessments, consider reading the blog post below... Feedback is Important. How can I ensure that my students read the feedback I spend hours marking?
One of the greatest struggles in teaching is the marking. It can be daunting, and the most frustrating part is when students don't read the feedback you spent the time crafting for them. They don't do this to be rude, but it's a natural instinct to want to see the mark at the bottom of the page rather than reading the short paragraph on how they can improve. I know I did this as a student, and I know many students still do this today.
I turned to Google Docs/Google Forms as an assessment format a couple of years ago. I've created a Google Form (see photograph) on G-Suite and use the add-ons of Doc Appender and Form Values to feed assessment data to each student in real time. The data feeds to a document that is shared with them on G-Suite. This assessment practice has become invaluable to me as a teacher. It makes my assessments quicker, and allows for me to give real time feedback that students can revisit when they need to. Oftentimes, to discourage students from ONLY focusing on the mark, my assessments take a "Not Quite, Almost, On Target, Wow" approach. Students have to read the feedback in order to really understand what their mark actually is. I don't intend to do this to be confusing, but rather to ensure they are looking to improve rather than looking for a mark and leaving. This year, there is a "learning skills" section of my assessment document for me to track and comment on how students are implementing their learning skills during inquiry/group/independent projects. I will comment on whether they collaborated well, worked independently with their peers, took great initiative, etc. It's important for students to receive feedback on learning skills throughout the year, as it is my professional opinion that learning skills are the most important aspect of the report card. These are very strong indicators of success! Finally, in the assessment document there is opportunity for students to dialogue with myself about their next steps for improvement. On larger assessments, I have students reflect on what they need to work on for next time. Sometimes I simply have them summarize the feedback they receive so I can ensure they understand it. We also have a peer evaluation feedback for students to assess and give feedback to each other, which feeds to their document as well. It is my hope that through using this method for assessment that parents can follow along with their child's learning, and students can receive advice on how to make themselves a better learner. This is what the job is all about, after all: helping students become the best version of themselves. Not to mention: trying to track teenagers getting rubrics signed by their parents is a very onerous task, and one that I found to be fruitless at best! Thank you for reading and learning with us!
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AuthorHi! I'm Mrs. MP and I teach grade seven English! I'm so excited for you to learn along with me Archives
January 2022
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