In the intro session last night (which I missed but felt like I did not thanks to the power of social learning!), we were asked to consider what makes learning visible. This is where my thoughts went…
This year MA instituted a new teacher evaluation system. Part of the system is that we have to identify a student learning goal, which is meant to be explored and achieved in collaboration with our prof. learning community. We also have to identify a professional learning goal, which is meant to be an individual focus. For both of my goals I have chosen to focus on assessment. This is ironic because, in general, the word makes my skin crawl. When I analyze why that is, I realize that it is not the process of reflection and critique that I loathe, but that in MA it has boiled down to MCAS and preparing for MCAS. Scantrons and unit tests ad nauseum to see if kids are “ready” for the standardized comprehensive exam. (Yes, Common Core will be replacing this, but until I see otherwise, I have no reason to believe that the change in curriculum & assessment name is going to affect the high stakes testing.) What I am trying to evaluate as I work on my goals over the course of the school year is how I can make assessment meaningful to students, and to me as a reflective practioner. To me, this is what making learning visible is all about. We as educators should be able to create opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding in a way that is visible for reflection and critique; and in turn, the learning, as well as the assessment, should be visible to the learner themselves so that they can be reflective as well.
Some of the questions/thoughts that are guiding my consideration of assessment and learning, and that I would like to consider throughout this course, are:
* Not a point in time capture, but a series of moments and experiences that document our growth and our understanding
* What role does a portfolio have in reflection and deepen learning?
* What role does assessment have in reflection? What does the assessment have to look like to be meaningful? (This is the focus of my professional learning goal this year.)
