Student Investment
One of the most notable challenges in designing an effective system of assessment is generating student investment in the assessment process. After all, if students do not put forth their best efforts on exit tickets, tests, projects, and other forms of assessment, the data that these tools generate will be nearly useless. Effective teachers need to engage students in the assessment process proactively. Assessments should not be chores for students, but rather opportunities to demonstrate what they know and celebrate the mastery that they have achieved through hard work.
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I remind my students daily about why we do exit tickets and turn in work. Each time I pass out an assessment, I remind them what I am looking for and reaffirm my confidence that they can and will succeed. As with so many aspects of education, there is no substitute for strong personal relationships; students care more about impressing teachers whom they respect and from whom they receive respect. I provide individual encouragement to my students as I hand back assignments and celebrate those who do exceptionally well by posting their work and their names in strategic locations within my classroom. I also ensure that scholars receive specific, targeted feedback from me on each assignment that they complete. This helps my scholars see that I am as invested in their success as they are.
Feedback on a set of eighth-grade exit tickets. Note the praise of creativity (p. 2), the strategic pushes to move scholars up to the next level (p. 3), and even the calculated disappointment expressed when scholars do not take a risk and complete the assignment even if they are not sure of themselves (p. 9). Of course, this latter strategy is predicated on a strong teacher-student relationship. I work hard to build good relationships with all of my students, in part so that both my praise and my disappointment are meaningful incentives for excellent scholarship.
Students also know that they have the potential to receive awards for superlative performance on assessments, from exit tickets to final exams, and they find that incentive very motivating. For example, students who meet certain growth benchmarks on their second round of i-Ready diagnostic testing this year will earn degrees: a bachelor's for solid growth, a master's for strong growth, and a doctorate for exceptional growth. These degrees will also correspond to various privileges like off-campus lunches, free dress coupons, etc. My colleagues and I are currently working on a visual tracking system for these achievements, and I will post images of it on this site as soon as it is completed.
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Within my classroom, I also want students to be invested in collecting and interpreting their own data. To that end, I give each student a "Passport to Success" at the beginning of the year.
The front (left) and back (right) covers of an eighth-grade Passport to Success. "Building the knowledge so we can get to college" is one of my catchphrases and appears in many places around my classroom. Students are expected to bring their passports to every class period and update them with any data they receive from me.
Students bring this passport to every class and use it to record their scores on assignments that I hand back. This allows them to track their progress toward mastering each standard. My students use this information to identify topics that they need to study more thoroughly and to explain their academic growth to their parents at our student-led parent-teacher conferences. Charting scores on the graphs also helps students build fluency with coordinate planes.
Examples of an interior page of the eighth-grade passport. Passport pages include a student-friendly version of the standard with an example of it in action on the left and a blank graph on the right. When students get scores back, they put them into the graphs. This serves as a formative assessment of graphing fluency that allows me to correct errors like using the wrong shape for points or failing to connect the points with straight, solid lines. It also gives the students an easy visualization of their progress, which builds an intuitive understanding of the difference between positive and negative slopes.
I also strive to engage my students in their own assessment results on computer-based intervention programs like i-Ready and ALEKS. After each round of i-Ready testing, for example, my students and I set growth goals and discuss what we can all do to help them reach these goals. Students are even able to identify specific mathematical domains in which they want to improve and focus their attention on those i-Ready and ALEKS lessons, which further increases their ownership of and investment in their own success.