to what happens in classrooms. The reflection can, in turn, create a self-fulfilling prophecy (Merton, 1948). Lee Jussim and Jacquelynne Eccles (1992) explain the power of beliefs to create reality. Our beliefs about assessment impact our language, which, in turn, can affect our students’ beliefs, creating a cycle. Therefore, it is critical to examine both our beliefs and our language around those beliefs. Do we acknowledge that assessment is a relationship between people; between content and context; and between the tool and the people using the tool? Or is assessment an event to be done by students, for teachers, for the purpose of generating a number value? When we make a statement, does it honor the intrinsic value of learning, or does it imply motives for assessment that do not relate to learning? When learning is tied to extrinsic valuing, it removes any intrinsic value it may hold. Our language choices are indicators of our beliefs about assessment, and they can influence what our students come to understand about themselves, their learning, and their reasons for being in our classrooms every day.
Final Thoughts
It is time to reimagine assessment and write a new story that honors both teachers and students. Assessment can support rich learning experiences that attend to all parts of the people who engage in them. Students can explore assessment alongside teachers, and together they can create a new narrative for what the process means and what it becomes in the classroom (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995). Assessment can make learning more creative, more expressive, more diverse, and more responsive when it is viewed in a new way. It is time to soften the edges of assessment and align our practices with our beliefs about learning and students’ needs.
Questions for Reflection
The following questions for reflection have been divided into three sections: (1) architecture, (2) student response, and (3) personal response. The architecture questions invite consideration of how we design our assessment processes to ensure our assessment choices reflect learning accurately and reliably. The student response questions prompt us to consider assessment choices from the perspective of the learner. The personal response section asks us to reflect on our own beliefs about assessment and consider these beliefs in relation to decisions we may make. Each question is intended to act as a catalyst for deeper thinking and may lead to new questions. Taking time to reflect on one or two at a time, through journaling, conversation, or as part of a group discussion, can help determine aspects of assessment that may have a hard edge and those that we have successfully softened.
Architecture
• Do you have a personal philosophical belief about assessment? How does it connect to the purpose of education?
• How often do you explicitly engage students in discussions about their lives? What are some of the ways you do this? How will this help you meet their needs?
• To what degree are you able to build a relationship with each student you teach?
• What are your reasons for assessing students? How often do you assess them?
• How often do you have the opportunity to reflect on your assessment practices, choices, and results? Is it enough time?
• How often are the audience and purpose for student products someone other than you and for a reason beyond grading?
• How prepared are your students for the next grade level at the end of the term or school year? If they aren’t prepared, why not? Could you change this? Why or why not?
Student Response
• How do your students act when receiving assessment information? What are the conversations that accompany assessment?
• How often do your students ask questions about assessment?
• How often do your students volunteer information about themselves? Why?
• How confident are your students in making mistakes? How confident are they in responding to mistakes?
• How comfortable are your students in taking risks and trying new things?
• What language do your students use when talking about assessment? Record some of their words and phrases. What do these word and phrases indicate?
• How engaged are students in your classes? When is engagement highest? When is it lowest? What does this tell you?
• How often are students invited to be creative? To be curious? To be critical?
• To what degree does each of your students feel cared for and valued? Do you need to address this for any students?
• To what degree are your learners’ intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs being met by your assessment choices?
Personal Response
• How often do assessment results surprise you?
• How often do you discuss assessment with students?
• How often do you invite students to co-construct learning and assessment experiences?
• How much say do you have in how students are assessed? To what degree does this frustrate you? How could you address your own efficacy?
• To what degree do you have strong professional knowledge about assessment?
• To what degree are your intellectual, physical, emotional, and social needs being met by your assessment choices?
CHAPTER
2
Instruction and Assessment Planning Using a Learning Continuum
Travel has been a family priority for my daughters’ entire lives. We have journeyed overseas and camped close to home. Each time we head somewhere new, I vow to wander without a clear agenda and let the day unfold completely on its own. This never happens, though, because every day my daughters wake up and ask what we are doing that day. For years, they have resisted my attempts to play things by ear. They insist on learning our destination each day. I have come to understand that knowing where we are going provides them with a great sense of comfort and control—in having a sense of where we might end up despite not being exactly sure how our journey will unfold. As Schimmer (2014) says, “Maybe it’s just human nature—we crave some element of predictability and find comfort in knowing a little about the future” (p. 70). Blending the desire for adventure with the need for clarity supports a softened edge.
This is the same reason why knowing our learning goals empowers and reassures us at the same time. If we know where we will end up, it gives us so much more freedom to meander and explore the landscape on the way. When our destination is clear, we feel more able to experience missteps, take risks, and imagine possibilities because there is reassurance that we will get to where we want to go in the end. The alternative is much less palatable. Starting with a wide open space and then trying to measure a discreet aspect in that landscape of possibility is very challenging for both the teacher and the learner. Instead, we can start with a target and then open up the learning space as wide as desired and necessary. In the end, we return to the target and measure progress against it by using a learning continuum (in some literature referred to as a learning progression). In this chapter, we will explore the concept of the learning continuum, examine the stages of creating learning continuums, and note
