Anne Davies

27 April 2007

Thursday and Friday I attended a conference on assessment with Anne Davies of the Assessment Research Group or ARG. I refrained from pirate jokes for two days but it was difficult. Thoughts aren't organized yet and I haven't gone through my notes but here are some scattered reflections.

One important thing that I learned was to involve students more in setting criteria. Davies reminded us that it is the person that makes the criteria or rubrics that really understands them. This has certainly been true for me as I agonize over criteria for various assignments.

Another interesting thing that I want to work on is the idea of continuum ranges of examples. This would be a booklet or a set of pieces of work on the wall that would show a progress continuum. In a writing example it would go from a low level, maybe two levels below grade level, to a high level. Students would move along the continuum and it would be clear that there would be no end.

Davies also showed us many great examples of students self assessing. A way to assess student work more, to give more feedback, while not increasing teacher time in doing it. With good criteria it is possible for grade one students to do this kind of work. She had many videos to show it.

Need to think more on what to do with it all. She and her colleagues recommended an approach that might be helpful for our graduation standards and competency work. Every time we add something we should be clear as a school what we are then going to not do or to do differently.

How to fit this all in, how to use it without overwhelming is the key.