Throughout EDUC 391 Experiential Practicum I found myself stepping away from the knowledge that I have been gathering throughout the course of the program and instead was looking for ways to put it into practice as well as methods for classroom management. Last week’s class with guest presenters Michelle Miller-Gauthier and Mark Gauthier has really resonated with me because it has me thinking about how I can keep record of my own assessment data within the classroom, perhaps even using their district record keeping as a template, just modified for a classroom environment. This idea has had me thinking a lot about what that might look like, how I might organize it myself to benefit my own understanding of my students’ learning, as well as different ways that I could use the data for that class along with future classes that I will have.
The content in last week’s presentation that interested me the most was how they broke down each curricular competency for each subject and assigned each student a number grade level as to how they are doing. Now, when I think about putting that into practice, I think I would like to do something similar, however instead of getting this data through testing (like they do at a district level) I think I would like to gather it through pre-, formative, AND summative assessment. Even I, with truly little assessment experience thus far, can admit that this idea sounds like it would be a lot of work, HOWEVER, I believe that I am well on my way to developing a system that would take some preparation at the beginning of each school year and then would become a resource for me to use throughout the rest of the school year. I do not entirely believe in grade books, hence the inclusion of 3 different assessment types and room for student growth between assessments, but I think that what I would like to have in my classroom is a hybrid of the district level assessment data and a traditional grade book.
Bare with me as I try to explain what this might look like, because I believe that this journal may be my only way to record this thought-process before I am able to put it into practice. I would have a binder, and in that binder would be 3 charts per subject (pre-assessment, formative, summative). The charts would be laid out much like how Michelle and Mark had theirs formatted with the curricular competencies along the top with the student names on the side. My thoughts are that I would start with pre-assessment at the beginning of the school year and mark down where I believe each student is on the corresponding chart, then following that chart I could include an exemplar of their work and notes as to what exactly they should be focusing on, which students may require (more or less) help, and what methods of learning work best for them. From there, I could format my formative teaching around that and move onto the next chart for the students, making my way to summative by the end of the school year. I also think that by using this system I could more easily integrate cross-curricular projects or activities for the students because I would be able to take a look at what still needs to be assessed and form a learning encounter around what I am looking for from my students as opposed to keeping assessment within one subject at a time.
I apologize if this journal has come out as a sort of idea purge, it is something I have been thinking a lot about for the last few days and I am really excited to continue to work on this idea and experiment with it in the future!