I’ve got to admit ….. I groaned. I moaned. I stamped my foot (figuratively of course). But I went. Along with all my colleagues from school to hear Dr Anne Davies, Ph.D , from British Columbia, Canada, speak about
“Closing the Achievement Gap: Fine Tuning Assessment for Learning”.

And I have to admit …… She was very interesting, informative and challenging and nobody needed to prod me to stay awake (because when us teachers finally stop & sit down for a while – we usually fall asleep!) The message was simple.

“Whomever is working the hardest in class is learning the most.”

Who’s working the hardest in your class? I know who’s been working the hardest in our class…………. Me!!

This afternoon/early evening I learnt:-

1. I need to involve my students in the classroom assessment process MORE. (I do do it, but not as much as I could)
2. I need to increase the amount of specific, descriptive feedback my students receive. (And that ’s not just from me)
3. I need to decrease the amount of evaluation feedback students receive. (You know, those stickers, smiley faces etc)

I never really thought about the way I was using evaluation feedback. I draw smiley faces all the time. I never thought that some students may have difficulty decoding those kinds of symbols – that they might think that the smiley face meant I like them, rather than I like their work. I’m not telling them what I’m smiling about am I? Nor am I letting them know why it makes me smile. Now that made me think.

I’m really guilty of speed learning. There’s so much to do, so little time. Now I’m beginning to understand that if I slow down the speed of learning, my students will actually learn faster. When students are involved in the assessment process, they learn more and also learn the skills needed to continue learning. And that’s what we want. Life Long Learners!
If you get a chance, read Dr Anne Davis’s book:- Making Classroom Assessment Work. I’m sure I just had 2½ valuable hours of a condensed version.

It was worth it and I’ll probably buy the book.

And you can guarantee, I’m not going to be the hardest working person in our class anymore!