Assessments are a GPS for learning. Assessments provide a visual map for students of where they are in their learning, where they are going, and show at least one path toward moving forward. Assessments enable students to see where they have been and provide markers to reflect on how their journey is going. Daily assessments are an essential part of productive meaningful learning.
Every learning experience could be an assessment, so how do students and teacher know which activities are assessments? We use the rule of the students need to receive feedback (self, peer, teacher, or automated) and have an opportunity to apply that feedback for an activity to be an assessment. So, for example, a daily journal turns into an assessment if the student receives feedback on their reflections and has the opportunity to apply that feedback to future journal entries or to another writing task.
Therefore, feedback is an essential component of assessments. Explore our deeper learning feedback framework in the essential skills section.
Assessment range in a continuum from informative frequent curriculum-based assessments where the audience of the assessment is the learner to formal less-frequent assessments where the primary audience of the assessment may be policy makers of the public (for example, standardized tests). Often students receive results, but not feedback from formal assessments.
Agile teachers use assessments dynamically, on their feet, to adjust learning to make the most out of the little teaching time they have with students. Students use assessment to take control over their own learning and actions. Curriculum-based assessments that prompt self-regulated learning nurture student feelings of autonomy and meaning. You can use any of our Routines as assessments.
When planning a unit of study, use the Clarity Planner to increase teacher capacity for agile thinking. Each learning goal in a unit should have more than one assessment to enable students can monitor their own growth and teachers can adjust teaching to ensure student learning.
Click on any of the documents below to view them in a new tab. Feel free to download or print them so you could add them to your lesson plans.
