Episode 5 — Podcast Recap

In this episode, we discuss formative assessments. When we were first encouraged to do more formative assessments, we really struggled with what that should look like. We felt that we needed concrete right or wrong answers and in return that would make comparing our data easier. We made lots of slides where we compared the different styles of artwork we were teaching about and had the kids tell us what was right and wrong. 

Turns out, we weren’t getting much out of that. After talking with our admin, we realized we didn’t always have to have perfect numbers and they didn’t always need to be things that were right or wrong. Sometimes students give us a thumbs up or down on how they felt about their project or the instructions. Other times, we do a fist to 5; fist meaning they didn’t understand at all, 5 meaning they could teach someone else what to do. Another quick idea is to give students a post it and have them rate themselves or draw a face on how they felt about something. 

A few things to remember; it doesn’t always need to be written down on paper, you don’t always have to do a whole grade level, and when you have more open-ended opinion-based questions, feel free to have your team do the assessment with whatever class or grade seems to be struggling with them.

Keep Blending,

Laura and Hayley