Response Boards
The teacher asks students to respond to a question—usually multiple choice, true or false, or short answer—using an erasable whiteboard or response card. He or she can then quickly scan the responses to get a good idea of the class’s competence with the content. As this is meant to be a quick check for understanding, train yourself to look for the following.
• Missing information: The absence of types of information can reveal as much as their presence. The answers to many questions can be phrased in a variety of ways, and when students are unsure about particular concepts they tend to avoid using those concepts in their answers. Pay special attention to whether students are avoiding using certain ideas in their answers, as this can be a hidden indicator that they are having difficulty with those concepts.
• Key words: Proper use of relevant vocabulary is a necessary step to greater understanding of a topic. Looking for the presence of key words in students’ answers can be a quick way of assessing whether they have a basic grasp of the content. Pay attention to how students use key words, as the misuse of certain words or phrases can indicate that students are struggling with the material.
• Procedural clues: For answers involving several steps or components, look for words that indicate order or progression. Words and phrases like before, then, next, or in addition can indicate that students are grasping the procedural nature of certain skills or are beginning to understand the relationships between different concepts. Of course, check to make sure that the procedures and associations are being described correctly.
• Justifications: One way to assess students’ level of competency is to check for justifications in their answers. The use of words and phrases like because or resulting in show that students are beginning to understand the why and how of an answer and not just the what. Correct justifications for answers indicate that students are forming a more comprehensive understanding of the material.
• Extrapolation: A major indicator that students are mastering a content area is that they are able to apply the principles of the content to hypothetical situations. In other words, they not only know the correct answer to the specific question posed but can employ that knowledge to answer other similar questions. Look for if-then statements to assess whether students are understanding the concepts underlying the material.
Unrecorded Assessments
In this strategy, teachers administer assessments that students then score themselves. Teachers do not record individual scores in a gradebook, but they use the scores as a whole to see how well the class is doing. Unrecorded assessments are useful in providing students direct, immediate feedback about their progress. Use the template in figure 2.1 (page 30) to help guide students in reflecting on their assessment.
Monitoring Element 4
Specific student responses and behaviors allow the teacher to determine whether this element is being implemented effectively and producing the desired effects.
• Students readily engage in whole-class assessment activities.
• Students can describe the status and growth of the class as a whole.
• Students seem interested in the entire class’s progress.
• Students appear pleased as the whole class’s performance improves.
Use this list to monitor student responses to element 4.
To monitor your own use of this element, use the scale in figure 2.2 (page 30) in combination with the reproducible “Tracking Teacher Actions: Using Informal Assessments of the Whole Class” (page 37). As with other proficiency scales, level 3 or higher is the goal.
The following examples describe what each level of the scale might look like in the classroom.
• Not Using (0): A teacher only uses assessment to record grades for individual students.
Source: Marzano Research, 2016.
Figure 2.1: Student assessment scoring sheet.
Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.
Figure 2.2: Self-rating scale for element 4—Using informal assessments of the whole class.
• Beginning (1): A teacher administers informal assessments of the whole class, but those assessments are not focused on specific content important for students to learn.
• Developing (2): A teacher uses informal assessments of the whole class to provide students with feedback about how they are doing but does not attempt to determine if this feedback is useful to the students.
• Applying (3): A teacher uses informal assessments of the whole class to provide students with feedback about how they are doing and monitors their responses in order to adjust his classroom instruction.
• Innovating (4): A teacher uses various informal assessments of the whole class to provide students with feedback about how they are doing. When she notices that some students are reluctant to indicate their confidence with the material in the whole-class setting, she has brief conversations with those students at their desks to gauge their confidence.
Element 5: Using Formal Assessments of Individual Students
An effective educator uses a variety of formal assessments to determine individual students’ proficiency with specific content at specific points in time, which are then translated into scores and recorded in a gradebook. Research has shown that gathering and using student assessment data to provide feedback and develop knowledge and skill improves student achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Ideally, teachers and students use assessment data in a loop as they focus on a specific learning target, collect data about and evaluate learning in relation to the target, and then take steps to move closer to the target (Brookhart & Nitko, 2007). Feedback to students, an important element of assessment, is also associated with student achievement gains (Hattie & Timperley, 2007).
There are seven strategies within this element.
1. Common assessments designed using proficiency scales
2. Assessments involving selected-response or short constructed-response items
3. Student demonstrations
4. Student interviews
5. Observations of students
6. Student-generated assessments
7. Response patterns
The following sections will explore each strategy
