Formative Assessment That Empowers

Sign me up to work in Armstrong, PA! I loved Brookhart, et. al.'s vignette about the initiative used in Armstrong; in fact, I was really surprised at how much support the teachers and students received. I'm not surprised by how effective the formative assessment was...I think it goes without saying that teachers and students who are allowed to discover opportunites for authentic learning for themselves are going to not only become more motivated, but also ensure that learning truly occurs. I also loved seeing how these endeavors helped increase performance on state tests, which unfortunately is where the realistic implications of this kind of program become clear.

I've addressed this topic before, of student ownership over the learning occurring in their classroom. It becomes increasingly clear the more articles and success stories one reads of this, the higher the stakes for ownership become. The authors relate several stories of success where ownership becomes a part of the classroom and the teachers' role shifts from instructor to facilatator. Again, this is a crucial paradigm shift in our instruction that we need to make more room for in our classrooms. One unit where I think I do this successfully is at the beginning of our study of "Huck Finn"...students go around to different learning centers to understand, analyze, and finally, create material all based around the novel: historical background, connections to students' lives, controversy surrounding, etc. You can see the learning happening on the students' faces and when it comes time to "formally" assess, the evidence is clear that learning has occurred.

This article also reinforced another aspect of this ownership, and that is the use of informing students of the learning objective [target]. This all goes back again to the use of rubrics ahead of time, so students have a clear understanding what is being asked of them. Another aspect that I liked was upping the level on class discussion and discourse. So many times, we rely on that vague concept of "discussion" to get things done, and I've seen some teachers able to do an amazing job with just discussion, and I've been able to learn from them, but I still have a long way to go. Discussion can really fall flat, but the example given here is one where discussion can come alive that doesn't have to really connect to students to really work, for example, when discussing a controversial issue. That doesn't have to be the only impetus for solid class discussion if handled right from the teacher.