One of the aspects of assessment I originally struggled with was deciding what should be recorded. In my initial practicum experience, I had a lot of time to reflect on the day, and inevitably recorded almost everything about students. As I shifted into the significantly more challenging second practicum, I had to limit my recording time and be more selective during the recording process. During my second practicum, I was able to refine my record keeping skills, and experiment with a couple different modes of recording student progress.
I decided to keep a Word Document Folder for each student during my initial practicum. I created a list of “Check-in Questions” and often held conferences with students one-on-one, and later recorded their answers.
Check in Questions
How are you feeling, in general?
How are you feeling about what you are learning in class? (Math, Science, GH)
What are you finding easy?
What are you finding difficult?
Is there anything you are currently confused about?
What can you do to enhance your understanding in those areas? OR how can you further challenge yourself to get the most out of your education?
What resources do you have/need to be successful?
What is your plan of action?
Is there anything you want to learn more about?
Do you have any questions for me?
November 27, 2014
I thoroughly documented student strengths, areas in need of improvement, interests, hobbies, and anything else that would help me develop a more holistic understanding of each student. This process took a lot of time, and I do not think it would be realistic to have these ongoing, in depth, one-on-one conferences in a regular classroom setting. I would still like to know the answers to these check-in questions and more, however I think a more efficient use of time would be to explore questions related to these in a circle, creating open dialogue with the entire class. I still believe one-on-one conferencing for formative assessment purposes is important, especially for students on the lower and higher ends of comprehension and performance, however ongoing circles may facilitate the process of developing a greater holistic view of the classroom environment, student needs, abilities, and interests.
When I began my second practicum, I decided to record student notes based on specific subjects. I created a table for each subject, which included the class list on the left, and the specific ongoing assessments on the right. For each assessment (formative or summative) I wrote comments about the specific struggles the student experienced so I could revisit needed concepts, either individually or as a class. My comments were brief, and conveyed the information I required to adjust and modify my instruction. However, when I began to experiment with FreshGrade, I realized that parents and students require more than just highlighted notes on student struggles. I realized that I needed to paint a holistic picture of the student’s growth over time, including strengths, interests, and achievements. I was aware of these aspects of each student generally, but had not recorded specific examples.
“When I was writing comments to include on FreshGrade this week, I realized that although I kept adequate descriptions of student struggles (for follow up lessons, and to adjust/amend teaching), I didn’t have much documentation of strengths. My records of assessment need to include more than just the qualitative notes on what they need to improve on, because students and their parents need to also be made aware of successes! I’m glad I started doing FreshGrade this week, so that I noticed there was a flaw in my assessment record keeping.” Week 6 of long practicum
The ongoing contact with parents through FreshGrade helped me refine my recording process so I could better communicate overall student learning with both parents, students, and administration. FreshGrade also allowed me to take pictures of the rubrics and the projects to share directly with parents, and create an ongoing portfolio of their progress and performance. I had limited time to explore and experiment with FreshGrade in my second practicum, but it is a tool I look forward to gaining more experience with in the future.
“FreshGrade..form[s] a continuous glimpse into each child’s progress that parents and students can share.” – Sir Ken Robinson
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