"Partly, it's because we don't always know what to do with the assessment once we have it: often we don't take the time to use the assessment to move the children forward and determine next steps for teaching." (Routman 98)
I feel like sometimes I assess to get a grade and make sure they understood the material I taught them. What I have learned from reading this chapter is suggesting that I am doing it backwards. I do agree with Routman when he says that when doing our own ongoing assessments we will have the time to use our assessments to improve instruction and learning. First, you need to ask yourself if the assessment your are giving is valid or useful and also what goals do you want to set for your students. By setting goals for your students and keeping track of them every day then each student can have his or her own goal and differentiation becomes easy and a part of everyday routine. I love that Routman gives a list of "Child Friendly Reading Goals."
Using student assessment to direct future instruction is the only way to make it meaningful. Next year, we will spend a lot of time assessing student data and decided how we want that to drive our mini lessons and guided reading groups. We definitely don't want to teach the student who got a 100 on the assessment the same things we teach the student who got a 60. That would be a waste of time! :)
ReplyDeleteI think most of us in education do assessment "backwards," just like you say. That is one goal for myself as a coach next year--figure out how to do it "frontwards"! :-)
ReplyDelete