Assessments -- What's the point?

     Pre-assessments, post- assessments, formative assessments, summative assessments, state mandated assessments, common assessments, the list goes on for the buzz words around assessment in education.  Many wonder if we are over-assessing our children.  So what is the point of all this assessment? Why are there mandated assessments? What purpose does assessment serve the children?  That is ultimately the question that we should always be asking when it comes to questioning educational decisions.
     Assessment in it's best form is the heart of the classroom.  Assessment is how teachers know what students know and how they make decisions about instruction.  When teachers are making decisions about what to teach, they use the state standards as their base, but ultimately their students are the driving force in where instructional time is spent.
     Many units of study begin with a pre-assessment.  This automatically gets a bad rap because of the "a" word attached to it.  But this is a way for teachers to figure out what students know before they begin teaching.  Nobody wants to waste time, least of all teachers, who are constantly trying to make time where there is none.  So a pre-assessment informs teachers of student strengths and what they need more practice in.  It's not anything that induces anxiety or fear.  It's not time-consuming.
     In the elementary world, the units of study then proceed and teachers check in with students daily in many different ways to "assess" their progress towards mastery of the learning targets (what they are aiming to learn).  Sometimes these "check-ins" look like tests.  Other times they are more like a one or two question "exit slip" as students are wrapping up their day.  These all lead teachers to make more decisions about what needs to be taught next.  At the end of each unit there is usually an assessment, which also informs teachers and students of how well they mastered the learning done in that unit.  But the learning doesn't end there!
   In short, assessments are a tool for teachers and students to monitor the learning they are doing.  Taking the state tests out of the equation, most of the assessments our students are taking are being used by teachers to determine if they are ready to move on or if they need more practice in different skills.  Unfortunately, grades often drive the anxiety that comes with assessments.  Grades are a by-product of assessing, not the true purpose... but that's a whole other can of worms, a blog for another day.
   

Today's literacy classroom

     Think back to your school days.  What did it look like when it was time for reading and writing? I'll bet it was quite different from today's literacy instruction.  I hear a lot of talk around instruction, standards, and strategies in reading and writing.  Many people are wondering if we are pushing our children too hard, too fast, too rigorously.  But we have to remember that our world is different and our children are different.
     100 years ago, knowledge was doubling every century.  Now, human knowledge is doubling every year! And IBM projects that soon it will be doubling every day.  In such a fast paced world, we have to teach our kids in a way that will allow them to be successful, productive members of society.  It's less about teaching them the knowledge and more about how to access it, analyze it, and sift through the wealth of knowledge out there.

     So what do our kids do all day?
Research has shown that the one thing kids need in order to become better readers is to read more! That makes perfect sense, though.  If you want to become a better musician, you have to practice.  If you want to get better at a sport, you practice.  If you want to be a better reader, you have to read.  A reading guru and researcher, Richard Allington, has said that students need to spend 50% of their time fully engaged in reading and writing.  But this is not just time when students sit and read.  During reading and writing blocks, teachers are teaching explicit skills and strategies for reading and writing.  They spend 10-15 directly instructing students.  Then, students are charged with practicing these strategies in their own reading. The teacher spends times with individual students and small groups, teaching, monitoring, and strategizing.  For the next 30-45 minutes you would see students reading and writing about their reading and the teacher meeting with students about reading.  If it's the writing block, you would see students writing while the teacher meets with small groups and individuals.  Teachers are constantly researching their students and making adjustments to what they need and how they can better address those needs.

     What does this mean for reading at home?
It means that students need to be spending time reading after school as well.  But the reading they are doing can be a mix of different types! Reading magazines, articles on the Internet (appropriate, of course), informational books, environmental print for our little ones --- all of that is reading.  And what can we do as parents? We can talk about reading! Talk about what we are reading, ask questions about what they are reading.  Help them decide what they will read next.  Read together.  If reading becomes a family activity, it will be more enjoyable for everyone!