The simple answer to the title question is "Yes".  If you're just interested in the simple answer, then you can stop reading.  If you'd like more details, read on.

I'm going to share a specific example of how AFL can be used to impact student behavior; however, first I'd like to take a look at the topic from a philosophical standpoint.  We should start by reminding ourselves why it is that AFL helps students learn content.  AFL practices help students learn because as a result of regular/daily assessments:

• Students receive feedback on their progress,
• Students are trained how to use that feedback to guide their own learning,
• Teachers receive feedback on how effectively they are teaching, and
• Teachers use that feedback to guide their teaching.

Those first two bullets are especially important.  When students are given the proper feedback and the tools to use that feedback, then the potential increases for them to take control of their learning.  AFL demands that we move beyond simply assigning grades and on to providing feedback that will guide students toward learning - which in turn leads to grades.

When AFL strategies are not present, students are more inclined to view a grade as something that a teacher assigns - instead of something that they have earned.  In other words, there is less ownership of a grade.  The grade is an external stimulus.  For some students - those internally motivated to do well - the external stimulus is a great reward.  But for those not internally motivated to excel, the external stimulus usually does not have the desired effect.   When AFL is practiced properly, students gain greater ownership over their grades because the focus becomes more internal as students are trained to guide their own learning.  Could this also apply to behavior?  

For many of our students - especially those inclined to misbehave - good behavior is something that the teacher makes happen by repeatedly requiring students to behave.  The stimulus or reinforcement for these students is completely external.  We tell them to do better, to sit still , to participate properly, to pay attention, to ask questions, and to behave.  We continue to apply external reinforcement and hope that eventually they comply.  This method is not without merit, but wouldn't it be better if we could somehow move from all external to at least some internal motivation?

The Salem High School freshman team of Emily Herndon, Mark Ingerson, Wes Lester, and Jason Sells is trying to do just that.  So far they are reporting a fairly high level of success.  Here's what they have done:

• A student who is identified as having behavior problems in class meets with the team of teachers to discuss their behaviors.
• Those students receive an Academic Self-Reporting Form and the team of teachers teaches the student how to use the form.
• The student then begins rating him or herself in class each day with a possible high score each day of 24 points per class period.
• The student shares his or her self-rating with the teacher on at least a weekly basis.

So can this actually work?  Is it actually possible to get students to assess themselves and then make behavioral decisions based on that assessment?  So far, it is working.  Here are a few anecdotes shared with me by the teachers on that team. (Note: student names have been changed.)

•  John: All year, John has been one of the worst students in all of our classes. However, now that he uses the self-reporting form he has improved dramatically. He has the form on his desk and looks at it throughout class. One of the parts of the chart is participation in class. Prior to using the form, John NEVER participated in any classes, but now he looks for opportunities everyday to share or answer questions. He knows that he regularly fails quizzes in the class but he wants to be able to put a good grade on his form.  Now when he puts that quiz grade on the form he is really proud, and works hard to do even better on quizzes. He now comes outside of class to get help - which he never did before. We really stressed that he needs to be honest with himself and his scores and he takes it seriously. 

• Jake: Jake exhibits very poor classroom behaviors. His mom met with us and we went over the chart with her and Jack. She loved it and asked us to send it back to her on Fridays. It helps her know how her son is truly behaving.  One day in English, Jake had a rough day. Mrs. Herndon had him fill out the chart. She reminded him, "Be honest." He ranked himself a 4 out of 24 possible points. He hung his head and said to Mrs. Herndon, "Tomorrow is going to be a better day."

• Josh: Josh is a boy with whom we have had a lot of trouble this year.  Josh saw another student filling out a form and  said, "Hey, what is that sheet? I think that would help me." He has just started the sheet, but we were very excited that he knew it was something that could help him focus, an issue with which he has had trouble. 

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to talk with educators from schools across the country about the philosophy of AFL.  In doing so I have noticed several common reactions from educators to the idea of incorporating AFL-based strategies into their classrooms.  One of those common reactions is the one that SOME (not all) teachers of higher-level students and more rigorous courses OFTEN (not always) have.  That reaction goes something like this:

I see how AFL could work and don't necessarily disagree with it as a philosophy; however, I don't think it really applies to me or my classroom since I am teaching the most advanced students in college-level courses.  AFL strategies might make earning high grades in my classes too easy.  In a class like mine I need to make sure that a lot is required of my students, and I'm afraid that AFL will take too much responsibility away from them.  I'm teaching the way college professors teach, which is something these students need to experience prior to college.  Besides, the methods I use worked for me when I was a student, and most of my students get pretty good grades in my class - so why make changes.

If you are a teacher of higher-level courses and advanced students whose view toward AFL is at least somewhat consistent to the one I describe above, I would invite you to take another look at AFL and to reconsider your reasons for not adopting more AFL-based strategies in your classroom.  (That is, IF you are someone who has been reluctant to adopt AFL-based strategies)  In the following paragraphs I will examine each of the points of view described above and attempt to show why AFL does apply to higher-level courses.

1. I see how AFL could work and don't necessarily disagree with it as a philosophy; however, I don't think it really applies to me or my classroom since I am teaching the most advanced students in college-level courses.

AFL is definitely a philosophy as opposed to a specific set of practices.  It is a teaching philosophy based on the reality of how people learn.  People need feedback and opportunities to learn from mistakes.  This applies to all students - from our weakest and most unmotivated to our strongest and most talented. Applying an AFL philosophy to a classroom simply means assessing more frequently (not necessarily testing), providing regular feedback,and grading in a manner that allows students to learn from mistakes and, therefore, master content better. (see The Heart of AFL)   With that being the case, how would AFL's usefulness change based on the level of rigor associated with the course?  Do smarter kids not need feedback?  Do highly motivated students not learn better when they receive regular feedback?  Do college-bound students not need opportunities to learn from mistakes?  Of course not.  AFL-based strategies will help ALL students learn and should, therefore, be used in classrooms of ALL levels. 

2. AFL strategies might make earning high grades in my classes too easy.

I have actually heard this exact statement made, and honestly, it baffles me.  While I believe it to be imperative that teachers require students to work hard, I also believe that our primary job is to make difficult content relatively easy to learn.  Both situations can coexist - hard work and content made easy to understand.  That's our purpose - to take content and skills that students cannot learn on their own and make them learn-able.  We are called to communicate in a manner that enables young people to do more than they ever thought possible and more than they could ever do on their own.  We make the hard, easy.  Along the way, students will be asked to work very hard, but our goal is to not make the content hard to learn - it's already hard to learn.  Our goal is to make it easy to understand.  

The rigor of a course should come from the inherent rigor of the content and NOT from the way we teach the course.  I repeat, the rigor of a course should come from the inherent rigor of the content and NOT from the way we teach the course.

Therefore, if the grade we assign a student TRULY reflects learning and mastery, then making a good grade really shouldn't be all that difficult.  Some students may CHOOSE to not earn a good grade, but that should be their choice not a result of our teaching.  And while some students may occasionally be in a class that's over their head, that is the exception not the rule.  Therefore, if applying AFL strategies to a classroom leads to a increase in learning which in turn leads to an increase in the level of grades earned, why is that a problem?  (For more, see an earlier post entitled Does AFL lead to grade inflation?)   

3.  In a class like mine I need to make sure that a lot is required of my students, and I'm afraid that AFL will take too much responsibility away from them. 

Thinking along these lines represents a fundamental misunderstanding of AFL.  In discussions related to AFL it is common to talk about how AFL-based strategies will result in students learning more.  To me, this should excite teachers since our job is to find strategies to help students learn.  However, for some educators, this idea gets turned into, "Since students are not doing what it takes to learn, I now need to do these new and additional things for them."  There is a fundamental flaw with thinking that way: It presumes that the way you have been teaching is perfect, and that any problems that exist are student-centered.  

There is no doubt whatsoever that students and their choices play a huge role - perhaps the major role - in student learning.  Absolutely no doubt at all.  However, there is also no doubt whatsoever that teacher choices play a huge role - perhaps the major role - in student learning, as well.  (I realize there cannot be 2 majority roles, thus the word "perhaps".)  Just as doctors must continually hone their skills and gain new ones to meet the medical needs of their patients, teachers should seek continuous improvement to meet their students' needs.  So if your students aren't doing all that they should, but you could change something that you're doing that would result in increased learning, why would you not do so?  Why would a teacher stubbornly cling to, "I'm not going to do that, because students aren't doing their part"?  Our goal is to get all students to learn, not just the ones who do all that they should.

The other fundamental flaw with that line of thinking is that is presumes incorrectly that somehow AFL-based strategies require less of students.  I think what happens is that some people confuse talk of wanting to help students do better with making school too easy or not rigorous enough.  When it comes to AFL, that is an erroneous conclusion.  In fact, the exact opposite is true.  In a classroom where the teacher is using sound AFL-based strategies, the students are being trained to take ownership of and responsibility for their own progress.  By its very nature, AFL should place more responsibility on students.  (For more on that topic, read It's About Students Taking Ownership of Learning and/or Which Parent Do You Most Want to Please?)

4. I'm teaching the way college professors teach, which is something these students need to experience prior to college.

I'm going to be brutally honest here even though it might offend some of the college professors who read this blog.  While college professors are true experts in their field, and while many of them are skilled lecturers, and while I"m sure most are passionate about educating, my opinion is that the worst TEACHING in all of the educational world occurs in college classrooms.  The typical college classroom - as I have experienced it now at 3 universities - consists of the professor lecturing and the students taking notes.  Then, 2 or 3 times per semester, a test/exam is given on the notes.  While many of us have learned a lot content in this format, I would contend that our level of learning is not a result of how well we have been taught as much as a result of how much we have chosen to learn on our own.

Think about it for a moment.  If a teacher provides students with notes on a topic, has them read about it in a book, DOESN'T give them opportunities to practice the content and learn from their mistakes, and then tests them, what is that teacher actually assessing?  I believe that the teacher is assessing how well students can learn on their own from the content provided them.  If a student gets an A in that class is it a result of wonderful teaching?  No - it's a result of the student's wonderful studying.  This must be true because this sort of teacher strongly defends the opposite situation - when a student fails such a class few teachers would say that it was a result of terrible teaching but rather terrible study habits.  You can't have one without the other. 

So here's where that leads us:  College-style teaching is not - in general - the best teaching.  To teach in that style - even remotely like that style - is to adopt poor teaching strategies.  We should find it ludicrous to even consider doing anything less than the best job possible for our students.  Why would we let bad teaching at the next level cause us to be less than stellar at our current level?  HOWEVER, AFL STRATEGIES COULD PREPARE STUDENTS FOR DEALING WITH POOR TEACHING.  If we train our students to seek and use feedback to guide their own learning - in other words, to take control of their education - then they will be more likely to succeed in any type of future classroom situation.  AFL-based strategies are the very skills that our college-bound students need us to teach them.   

5. Besides, the methods I use worked for me when I was a student, and most of my students get pretty good grades in my class - so why make changes.

The fact that the way you teach is the way you liked being taught is in no way an indication that the way you are teaching is the best way to teach - unless, of course, everyone is just like you!  This would be a terrible reason to not try AFL-based strategies.  So would the fact that most of your students are finding success.  In every high school there are some students who are easier to teach than others.  They are the students who behave, have good attitudes, do what is asked of them, and want to be successful.  Let's face it, those students tend to be found in our higher-level more rigorous classes.  Please do not hear me wrong - I fully understand that teaching these students - any students - is not without its challenges, but the truth of the matter is that strong students can really make a teacher look good.  In my lifetime I have run into teachers whose teaching strategies work in their classrooms more because of WHO they are teaching than because of HOW they are teaching.  Bottom line, we must never allow ourselves to grow complacent with our professional growth.  So having success teaching strong students should never be a reason to not explore new ideas and strategies.  

My main point is this: AFL is a philosophy that, when used properly, improves learning.  Since ALL teachers of ALL students should want to improve learning, there really is NO teacher who could not benefit from adding a little AFL to the classroom. 

Thoughts?

Have any of you used Socrative in your classroom?

https://www.facebook.com/Socrative?sk=wall

Here's a sure sign that you don't fully understand AFL and how AFL practices will lead to your goal of helping students learn the content you teach:

You teach a primarily fact-based class or are currently teaching fact-based content - such as History, Biology, or Health - and the first time that your students are assessed/quizzed/tested/etc on facts it's on a graded assignment that goes into your grade book and is averaged with other assignments to determine a final grade.

Think about it for a moment.  AFL is all about assessment FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING.  If you assess your students and put the outcome of that assessment into your grade book - WITHOUT PROVIDING STUDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE OR IMPROVE THE GRADE AS THEY MASTER CONTENT - then that assessment was for the purpose of determining a grade NOT for the purpose of learning.  

There is nothing wrong with assessing for the purpose of determining a grade.  You are required to do this as a teacher.  However, you are first charged with helping students learn.  Your students' grades should be determined AFTER your students have had ample opportunity to learn by practicing and failing and practicing again IF you want the grade to reflect learning.  If you give students notes on the facts of your content, have them take a quiz on those facts, assign a grade to that quiz, and then put that grade in your grade book to be averaged with other grades HAS YOUR ASSESSMENT HELPED STUDENTS LEARN?  

The answer is yes - it has helped them learn.  Now that they realize what they have missed they better understand the content.  We definitely learn by mistakes.  In fact, we need to give students more opportunities to make mistakes (see this post).  BUT IF THAT GRADE ON THAT FIRST QUIZ IS ETCHED INTO GRADE BOOK "STONE" THEN THERE IS NO WAY FOR THE FINAL GRADE TO ACCURATELY REFLECT LEARNING.  

Here's an example of what I mean: Let's say a student got a 75 on a quiz about people or vocabulary or dates.  If as a result of that 75 the student learns from his or her mistakes and could get a 95 on a similar quiz the next day, then it's safe to say that you have taught them - at least for the short-term - the content at a 95 level.  BUT THE GRADE IN THE GRADE BOOK IS A 75.  If you are satisfied with this - if you allow this to happen in your classroom - then it's safe to say that you don't really get AFL.  You're probably teaching as YOU were taught - or assuming that all students learn in the manner in which you learned - without really thinking about how your assessment strategies and grading strategies are inconsistent.  You've taught content, but you're just not really skilled at assessment.  You might be doing an excellent job of covering content, but you are not giving your students enough opportunities to practice.  Some of your students are probably experiencing a certain level of grade deflation that doesn't indicate the degree to which they are learning from you.

So what are some solutions?  How about if before you give and then grade the assignment that will go into the grade book, you first try one or more of these 4 easy AFL strategies:

• Try starting each class or most classes off with a short 5-10 question practice quiz.  The practice quiz grade can go in the grade book as long as it can be replaced or improved by a later graded assignment.  I guarantee you that your students will master the content better this way than they would if you gave 1 summative quiz/test after taking notes on the content.  You could even give the same quiz several days in a row.  
• Try ending each class with a quick check for understanding.  Take 5 minutes and make sure EVERYONE has grasped that day's main points/terms/vocabulary.  You might try this flashcard review method.
• Use white boards once a week to see how well students are understanding the content.  Read here to see how this could work in your classroom.
• Start off a unit by giving students a review sheet or rubric.  Then have them assess daily how well they understand the content.  Here's an example of a review sheet and here's an example of a rubric.

Here's my next question?  Why would you not try one of these ideas?  Or more importantly, why would you teach something, give a graded assignment on it, and then put that grade into your grade book without FIRST doing a meaningful AFL activity?  I can promise you this: If you give your students multiple opportunities to fail content and learn from mistakes prior to putting a permanent grade into a grade book, your students will start finding it easier to master the content in your classroom.  And getting students to master difficult content is what teaching is all about.

Do you remember how having children of your own changed your perspective on what goes on in the classroom? (If you don't have children of your own yet, trust me - they will have an impact on your teaching!)  So take a look at these 2 letters.  I don't think any parent would ever actually send either of these, but if they did, which parent would you most want to please?

Dear Teacher,

Thank you for being my child's teacher this year.  I wanted to write you this letter to help you better understand my child's needs and my hopes for how you will address them.

First of all, my child really doesn't do well with negative feedback.  He has self-esteem issues.  Therefore, I would prefer that you approach him with great sensitivity.  I've watched him stop working for teachers who have been somewhat critical of his work.  If he doesn't do something well in your classroom, please consider whether or not you need to tell him.  Positive feedback works great, but he doesn't deal well with feedback when it is negative.  We prefer the "no news is good news" approach.

Secondly, please make sure my child gets a good grade.  While we want him to learn content, our long-term interest is that he get into college.  Low grades on his report card could lower his GPA and hurt his chances of being accepted.  If it's not being too presumptuous, I have a few suggestions for how you can help his grade stay high.  You might try:

• Letting him earn extra credit to bolster his grade.
  I'll be more than happy to buy tissues for the classroom or canned goods for a food drive if you'll give him extra credit to mitigate low test and quiz grades.  Or if that doesn't fit your style, he'll be more than happy to wash your board or pass out papers to earn points.  We know how important it is to accumulate points, and we are more than happy to do whatever it takes for him to earn the points he needs.  We are very involved parents and will spend the money necessary to see to it that our dear child gets a good grade.
• Grading his homework and allowing that homework grade to influence his final grade.
  Unlike some parents out there, I am able to get my son to do his homework.  I'm sure he occasionally copies his friend's homework instead of doing his own, but at least he's willing to do the work required to turn something in.  He's not a great test-taker, though, so please make sure his completion grades for homework count a lot into your averaging formula.
• Allowing a participation grade to influence the final grade.
  My son really is a nice kid, and we've always found that when teachers give him a participation grade he does very well.  He's friendly, helpful, and joins in.  I realize that your class is more of a content class, unlike PE or Band which are participation classes, but I really think you should find a way to reward with a grade the nice kids who do what they're told.  This helps them stand out better from the kids who are from bad families and who don't have supportive parents.

Please realize that I'm not one of THOSE parents.  I don't come and ask for special privileges for my child.  However, I've heard from lots of other students that different teachers use different strategies.  I think it's important for me to share with you how my child learns best.  My child has a lot of stress on him.  Life is so busy these days for kids.  Please be the type of teacher who relieves stress from my child.  He has come home complaining that some teachers seem to have unrealistic expectations of their students.  They are constantly making students assess themselves, analyze feedback, and take ownership of their learning.  When I was a student, teachers made you wait until the end of the grading period and then told you your grade.  This caused much less stress for students.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to these requests.  I hope you will realize that by following them, young people like my son will get better grades, be rewarded for being nice, improve their self-esteem and have less stress in their lives.

Sincerely,

My Son's Parent

Dear Teacher

Thank you for being my child's teacher this year.  I know he's not always the easiest to deal with, but he is a good kid at heart.  I want to support you in any way possible.  I hope you don't mind me writing you this letter.  My intention is not to tell you how to do your job but instead to make sure you feel empowered to push my son to be all that he is capable of being.

My son really needs feedback - whether it's good or bad.  In fact, sometimes the feedback that says you did something wrong is the most beneficial since it let's you know how to improve.  It would be my dream if every day my son left class with specific and descriptive feedback from you.  Even if that's not possible, please don't shy away from making sure he understands what he needs to do to improve.

While we love it when our child makes good grades, we care more about learning and mastering content than we do a specific grade.  Obviously we want his grade to accurately reflect his knowledge of the content, but we understand that not every grade along the way will be an A.  At the risk of sounding a little pushy, but here are some things I wish you wouldn't do for my son when it comes to his grade:

• Please don't give him extra credit
  I don't know if other kids are like my son, but he seems to think that he can do next to nothing for a grading period and then get extra credit at the end to save himself.  I don't understand extra credit anyway.  Sometimes it feels like teachers he's had before will let us buy him a better grade.  I'd much prefer that you give him many chances to show mastery.  I even understand extra assignments that lead to extra grades if those assignments demonstrate that he's learned the content.  But the idea that he can do something extra or bring in something extra and just get points added on - I guess I'd like him to be more intrinsically motivated than that.  Giving away points the way some people do almost seems as though my child is an animal at Sea World being enticed and rewarded with fish! :)
• Please don't allow my son's homework to inflate his grade
  I really want my son to work hard to master content.  Overall, he really is a good kid.  We make him do his homework every night.  Sometimes we've noticed that this leads to him getting a grade that is significantly above his test average in a class.  I think he gets the wrong idea sometimes and thinks that he should be rewarded just because he does what he's supposed to do and isn't one of THOSE kids.  I've explained to him that a grade is not a reward.  It's an indicator of how much you've learned.
• Please do not allow my son's class participation to inflate his grade
  This is similar to the homework situation.  I want my son to learn that he needs to work hard.  Like most teenagers, a sense of entitlement comes naturally to him.  I'd hate for him to think he deserves a reward for just doing what he's supposed to do.  In fact, if he doesn't participate in class properly I'd like to know so that we can deal with it here at home.

I want him to work and work hard.  I don't know if there is a better life lesson to learn than the lesson that success requires industriousness, intentness, and cooperation.  I will add, though, that one thing that has been very helpful for him is when teachers have required him to assess his own progress.  We try to teach him that here at home, as well; however, if you are able to give him materials and/or feedback that force him to assess what he knows and what he does not know we would be very thankful.

Thanks again for all the hours you put it in for my child.  Please do not hesitate to let us know how we can support you.

Sincerely,

Your Student's Parent

So what do you think?  Which parent would you rather please?  Now take a moment to reflect on your assessment and grading practices.  How do they align with the wishes of the fictitious parent you would most hope to please?  Any thoughts?

My daughter, Kelsey, is an eighth grader at Andrew Lewis Middle School where she, as her sister before her, is blessed to have Beth Swain as her Geometry teacher.  

Geometry is proving to be a challenging class for Kelsey.  She is very intelligent and a hard-worker, and while Math is and always has been her favorite subject, she's starting off slower than normal in Geometry.  Thankfully, Mrs. Swain uses the kind of AFL strategies that help young people master content.  

So far, Kelsey's Geometry class has had 3 large tests.  Kelsey scored a D when she took the first test.  In many classrooms a large test like this would be used as a summative assessment; however, Mrs. Swain uses tests in a formative/AFL manner.  This means that the D was not the end of the story.  The grade could still improve since the purpose of the assessment was to promote learning as opposed to the purpose being to provide a grade.  Mrs. Swain chooses to use even large chapter tests formatively - like check-ups - rather than summatively - like autopsies.  After taking the first test, Kelsey's class was allowed to perform a "test analysis" that led to her mastering the content and earning a 95 A on the test.

Then came the second test.  Again, the content was not easy for her, but she worked hard.  Kelsey scored a C on that test.  Again, Mrs. Swain used the test in AFL manner, and Kelsey again was able to perform a test analysis which resulted in her understanding the content better and earning a B+.

So this brings us to the third test and the power of asking "Can You?"   On Monday, October 31, Beth Swain communicated the following message to parents via email:

As a parent, I was so encouraged to receive this email.  I don't know if your kids are like mine, but there seem to be a few standard answers to the questions my wife and I ask.  Those answers seem to be "Nothing" and "I Don't Know."  It's always nice to hear from a teacher information that allows me to ask more effective questions.  In this case, I was able to ask Kelsey, "How are you doing on your 'Can You' sheet?"  All week I was able to encourage Kelsey to make sure she was using the "Can You" sheet as it was intended.

More importantly, though, was the fact that this "Can You" sheet and the way Mrs. Swain used it enabled Kelsey to take better control of her own learning and studying.  She was given a tool that assisted her in assessing herself on a daily basis and then making decisions based on the feedback she received.  

So on the first test Kelsey scored a D the first go around.  On the second test, Kelsey scored a C the first go around.  On the third test - the one with the "Can You" sheet - Kelsey scored a B+ the first go around.  She told me that she felt much better heading into that test than she had on the previous two.

AFL strategies are rarely "revolutionary".  Rather, they are often as simple as asking students "Can You".  It's very encouraging to see teachers using strategies like this that empower parents to assist their children and that train students to assess themselves and to take ownership of their own progress.   

(For some other similar examples check out Using a Review Sheet in an AFL Manner and A Self-Assessment Rubric for Math.)

Members of this AFL Network will appreciate this article (link at end of blog post) written by Laurie Amundson and published in the November 2011 edition of Ed Leadership.  

Laurie Amundson is an elementary teacher.  A majority of our members are high school educators which could mean that some tweaking of her practices would be in order.  For example, some of the assessment she does of student work could be by the students themselves in a high school setting.  That being said, I really believe the idea of using standards based grading to assess student needs and to guide instruction is a natural outgrowth of AFL.  

I'll be interested to see if anyone out there has any thoughts after reading the article.

Here's the link.

Educators exploring ways to practice AFL in their classrooms will often find some parents and students a little confused as to exactly why teachers are doing what they're doing.  Unfortunately, over the years schools have conditioned people to view grades as summative in nature.  Many parents and students do not understand how to use feedback from a score or grade in part because they have not been given the opportunity to do so.  The feedback they received wasn't formative - it wasn't provided as a way to guide learning but as a way to determine a final grade.  The AFL practitioner, though, understands that students need to use feedback to guide and improve their learning.  Therefore, the AFL practitioner must be very explicit and intentional in how he or she trains students to use feedback and in how he or she communicates with parents about classroom expectations.

Recently, Jenn Shannon, a math teacher at Salem High School, shared with me an email she sent home to parents about one of her AFL practices.  I think it's a great example of intentional communication intended to educate parents about how AFL practices can help their children learn.  With her permission, here is a copy of that email:

I believe that we all have something to learn from a simple email like this.  Let's not underestimate the potential benefits of involving parents by communicating with them very directly.

On top of being a great example of AFL communication, Mrs. Shannon's rubric is also a great example of how to get students to assess themselves.  It's very similar to Anika Armistead's use of a science review sheet as it lets students know up front what they will be required to know and then gives them a means to assess their progress.  Here is a copy of Jenn's rubric in case you would like to use it in your classroom as well:

PDF version of Rubric

Over the past several school years as our school and division have focused on Assessment FOR Learning as a primary professional development topic, I have consistently noticed the following:

When I witness or hear about an excellent and highly effective teaching practice, essential components of Assessment FOR Learning are present.

 I know that might sound like too absolute a claim to be true, and perhaps I've witnessed some exceptions that I am currently forgetting, but it really seems to be the case.  At least some amount of what I have dubbed "The Heart of AFL" - frequent assessments, teachers using feedback to guide instruction, students using feedback to guide learning, and grading systems that allow practice to count as practice - seems to show up in every excellent teaching practice I see.

Recently I was in a meeting in which a group of teachers and a counselor were talking about a student's progress with that student's parent.  The teachers were explaining to the parent how their classes worked and what the student could do to be successful.  Anika Armistead, a Science teacher at Salem High School, explained to the parent that at the beginning of each unit she gives her students a test review.  Throughout the course of the unit, she has students assess their progress.  At least theoretically, by the time the test finally rolls around the students should have a personalized study guide as a result of the feedback they have given themselves.

Here's an example of the type of study guide Mrs. Armistead gives her students:

You probably noticed that this test review looks pretty much like a typical test review that could be or has been used in classrooms for years.  If you noticed this, you are exactly right.  You might remember from earlier discussionson this Ning that AFL-ishness doesn't depend on what type of assignment you give.  AFL-ishness instead depends on how you use the assignments you give.  This is a perfect example of how something as ordinary as a test review can be used in an AFL-ish manner.  And when essential AFL components are present - in this case, students using feedback to guide their learning and a grading system that allows practice to be used as practice - excellent teaching takes place.

Read below for Mrs. Armistead's personal account of how and why she uses test reviews in this manner:

A few years ago, I decided to create review sheets for each test.  I taught the unit, then a day or two before the test, I handed out the review sheet for the students to complete, check their answers, and ask for clarification on topics they weren't sure about.  Some students caught on that the review sheets could really help them, but others didn't and still scored poorly.

 Last year while I was out on leave, I got to thinking about how I could make these review sheets more useful for my students.  My review sheets were designed to show my students exactly what I expected them to know for the final assessment.  So I decided that I shouldn't wait until test time to let them know my expectations.  This year, I'm giving each student a copy of the review sheet at the start of the chapter.

I remind my students that the review sheet will not be collected, nor will it be graded.  I have heard this comment several times, "Then why should I do it?"  I've found that students often decide not to complete an assignment unless there's a grade attached to it.  I tell my students that the review sheet is their time to practice and that they will get the chance to prove what they know on the test that will be graded.  I know that some students won't complete the review sheet, but I'm not going to change something good for the few who decide not to take advantage of the chance to tailor their studying. 

When I give out the review sheet, I remind my students to use this to their advantage.  I recommend reading over the questions to see what the students already know.  As we progress through the unit, I periodically ask the students to pull out the review sheet.  I ask that students complete a section in class (like a chart or diagram) as a way to review something covered the day before, or I write on the board the numbers to the questions the students should be able to answer at that point in the unit.  

I tell them to try to answer the questions without using any notes or outside help the first go round.  I tell them that if they can easily answer a question, then don't spend too much time studying something they already know.  I also tell them that if they don't know the answer to a question, then they need to circle or star that question as one that needs more of their attention.  

By using this process, I want my students to see that by tailoring the review sheet to their needs that they will find how to best use their time.  Overall, they need to focus on the stuff they don't know (the circled or starred items) and just do a quick review of the material that they already know.  

Students are welcome to ask questions about the review sheet at any time.  For these questions, I try to guide the students to the correct answer without giving them the answer directly.  As we near the end of the unit, I let the students know that they should have the review sheet completed by a particular date, usually a day or two before the test.  At that time, I go over the answers with the class to make sure everyone has the correct answers to study.  I remind them again to focus on any questions they got wrong or weren't sure about.  

On the day we go over the answers, I try to walk around to see who has completed the review sheet and who hasn't.  This gives me an opportunity to target those students who didn't use the review sheet as intended.  If a student doesn't do well on the test, I suggest they try completing the review sheet as we work through the next unit and not wait until the end to just copy down answers.

Check out Seven Practices for Effective Learning from the November 2005 edition of ASCD's Educational Leadership.  This is a great description of how to use assessment to promote learning.

Followers of this site will find the 7 practices outlined in the article to be quite familiar.  They are:

1. Use summative assessments to frame meaningful performance goals.
2. Show criteria and models in advance.
3. Assess before teaching.
4. Offer appropriate choices.
5. Provide feedback early and often.
6. Encourage self-assessment and goal setting.
7. Allow new evidence of achievement to replace old evidence.

After studying Assessment FOR Learning pretty intensely for the past few school years, I am now beginning to think that we might do ourselves a favor if we would change some of our terminology.  Specifically, I think it's time to stop using the words "grading" or "grade" as often as we do and replace them - at times - with "scoring" or "score".

You don't have to go very far down the AFL road to realize that traditional grading practices often get in the way of our attempts to use AFL strategies.  Traditional grade books and grading strategies typically average together all of a student's grades for the grading period to determine a final grade.  Therefore, practice assignments such as homework and classwork will have an impact on the student's grade.  Since the concept of assigning lots of practice so that students and teachers can receive the feedback necessary to increase learning is central to AFL (see Heart of AFL), averaging practice grades into a student's overall grade becomes obviously problematic.  What if the additional practice helps a student learn but also lowers the student's grade?  The natural reaction to this problem is for teachers to feel that they should not grade practice assignments.  For more on this topic see:

• I Want to Be the Starting Tailback - a football analogy about grading practicing interfering with assessment
• Why is Allen Iverson on Assessment FOR Learning? - An explanation of the "Practice" video
• Of batting averages, grading, and MVP seasons... - Are you ruled by an inaccurate grade book average?

So the philosophy of AFL naturally leads to teachers feeling as though they should not grade practice assignments.  This is where Newton's third law of motion comes into play: "To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction."  When students realize that some things are graded and some things are not, they react by asking before most assignments, "Is this going to be graded?"  Implied in their question is the idea that if the answer is "Yes" then they will work harder than if the answer is "No".  As a result, teachers are reluctant to not grade assignments - even if they agree with the philosophy of practice assignments not lowering a grade - for fear that students won't work hard and, therefore, won't learn as much. 

So we're left with a quandary.  We don't want to let practice impact the student's final grade but we want students to work on each assignment as though their final grade depended on it.  Part of this quandary is of our own making.  As explored previously in What we WANT students to do v. What we TRAIN students to do, we wish that students worked for the love of learning but we then use points and grades as a Sea World trainer uses a fish.  It's difficult to argue that students should not be motivated by grades when we, in turn, use grades as motivators.  We have to find a new way.  Perhaps our new AFL philosophy requires some new terminology.

What would happen if we started "scoring" all assignments and "grading" only a few?  The term "grading" implies the following:

1. The teacher will assess how well the student did on the assignment.
2. The student will receive feedback on well they have mastered the content.
3. The grade will go into the grade book to be used to help determine the student's final grade.

"Scoring" could be the new tool needed to help us out of our quandary.  The difference between scoring and grading is in implication #3 from the list above.  Both scoring and grading provide the teacher with feedback and both provide the student with feedback.  However, a score on an assignment may or may not be used by the teacher to determine the final grade.  Here's how I envision scoring working in a typical AFL classroom:

1. The teacher assigns practice everyday.
2. The teacher provides feedback on all practice.  While this feedback is often provided very informally, the majority of feedback given formally is in the form of a score.
3. The score looks very similar to a grade.
4. The score goes into the grade book.
5. The students understand up front that the teacher will be looking over all of a student's scores - and grades - to determine what the appropriate final grade is for the student.  While graded assignments are the few that will definitely count toward the final grade, they will be much fewer in number than the scored assignments.  Rather than being tied down to averaging all graded assignments, the teacher who uses scoring will now be able to study the evidence and arrive at the most appropriate final grade.

The point here is that every score counts toward helping the teacher determine a grade.  When students ask, "Is this graded," what they really means is, "Does this count?"  With scoring, the answer to that question is:

"Yes, it counts.  Everything counts.  As the teacher, I will be analyzing ALL the evidence - just like a good detective - before arriving at a conclusion (your grade).  How it counts could be different for each of you, depending on how you perform, but ALL assignments count."

Scoring satisfies our desire to be AFL-ish:

• teachers receive feedback
• students receive feedback
• practice doesn't have to lower - or overly inflate - the final grade

At the same time, scoring doesn't entice students to fall into the trap of only working "when it counts."

What do you think?

Grading and assessment are two distinct yet overlapped topics.  This site is dedicated primarily to assessment - the getting and giving of feedback that helps teachers adjust their teaching and students adjust their learning.  However, it is impossible to talk about assessment without occasionally discussing grading.  Therefore, grading posts and resources pop up on this site from time to time.  As a way to help members find these resources, this blog post has been created as to serve as a collection of grading links.  Anything posted on this site related to grading can be found on this blog.

Also, please note that as more examples are added to this site, they will also be added to this blog.

Videos:

• We're Talkin' 'Bout Practice - a good reminder that sometimes practice should just be practice
• I Want to Be the Starting Tailback - a football analogy about grading practicing interfering with assessment

Blog Posts:

• Fantasy Football and the Problem with Averaging
• Your Expertise is More Valuable Than a Formula: Provide Descriptive Feedback Rather Than Fractions
• Grading in 3D by Pawel Nazarewicz
• Response to an Email Question about Late Work, Grading, & Responsibility
• Why Grades Should Reflect Mastery, Not Speed by Ryan McLane
• New Terminology: Scoring v. Grading - is it time to add a new tool to our tool bag?
• Of batting averages, grading, and MVP seasons... - Are you ruled by an inaccurate grade book average?
• AFL, Art Class, and Failure Management - Does your grading practice allow for failure?
• What we WANT students to do v. What we TRAIN students to do - Do we unintentionally train students to care too much about grades?
• An AFL Homework Practice - One teacher's plan for grading HW in an AFL manner 
• Why is Allen Iverson on Assessment FOR Learning? - An explanation of the video listed above
• Does AFL lead to grade inflation? - A discussion about higher grades as a result of AFL strategies
• Using AFL to Overhaul Your Grading System - ED Leadership article
• Assessing Student Performance in Online Classes - using marks for formative assessments
• Response to a Parent (from Rick Wormeli)
• Grade Like A Torpedo
• AFL Teachers Reporting Progress in an SBL Method (using PowerSchool)

Pictures:

• Extra Credit on Instagram

Stories in the News:

• Father Sues Over Daughter's Zero Grade

Faculty Meeting Conversations

• 11/12/14 - Pretend You're A Grade Coach
• 2/24/16 - Using AFL/SBL to Analyze a Common Assessment Practice: Earning Points Back on a Test
• 1/11/17 - Applying SBL Philosophy

While assessment and grading are two distinct topics, they often intertwine.  Occasionally something comes along to remind us that poor grading practices can end up negating effective assessment practices.  That's why Allen Iverson is on this site - to remind us that we need to give and assess practice, but to remember that when we do so, we're just talkin' 'bout practice!  That's also why we have this video about a player who becomes the best tailback ever but can't start because his poor practices earlier in the season were counted against him.  Now the world of sports has brought us another example of how allowing practice grades to average into the overall grade can give a misleading perspective.  

Thanks to AFL member, Dr. Keith Perrigan, for sending us this softball story from Tri-Cities.com.  It's about Kelsey, a high school softball player, who, after a great season last year, had an almost season-long batting slump this year.  However, in the last few weeks of the season her bat came alive.  As a result, her team has a great chance to win the state championship.  (Read the full article here: http://www2.tricities.com/sports/2011/jun/10/prep-softball-nave-bearcats-ms-june-ar-1098004/)

At the time of the article, Kelsey's batting average was .265.  Not terrible, but not exactly the stuff of all-stars.  However, based on her ability - as demonstrated in the past - and based on her incredible run at the end of the season, she would be anybody's pick for a spot on an all-star team.  In fact, she'd be a no-brainer all-star except for one thing - her batting average.  Softball doesn't allow for a batting average to start over once a player gets hot; therefore, it's not uncommon for a batting average to tell an incomplete, or even incorrect, story.  Kelsey is the hottest player in the league, but her batting average is, well, average!  Should her coach player her?  Should other teams pitch around her?  If they're smart, the answer is "yes".  If they put all their stock in an average, then the answer is a very foolish "no".

So why do we educators put so much stock in averages?  We know they often don't tell accurate stories.  We know they rarely indicate the true measure of a student's learning.  We know that they also distort the impact of our teaching on students' learning.  Yet when push comes to show we will often swear by them.  We will cling to the argument that the average produced in our grade book is the absolute truth when it comes to a student's performance.  We will be offended and become indignant when someone suggests that a student's grade should something other than the average we derived.

Why is this?  Why do we cling to averages?

I suppose that part of the reason is that it's what has always been done.  Perhaps using a grading system that doesn't rely on averaging together a bunch of grades might seem too radical to some.  I guess there is also a certain amount of comfort and safety in relying on an average.  If a student or parent complains about a grade, the teacher can always use the grade book average as a justification. 

But what if Kelsey's coach decided to bench her?  What if his coaches in the past had always played the players based on batting average?  What kind of coach would he be?  Probably a fired one.  While batting averages are fun for us sports junkies, they aren't a reliable resource upon which to make all coaching decisions.  The same is true for grade book averages.  They might provide some useful data or feedback, but they are not a reliable enough resource upon which to base our grading decisions.  Teachers should feel free to act like Kelsey's coach.  Use the batting average as feedback, but assign a grade based on mastery - not solely on the average.  

Who is in charge of the team - the coach or the batting average?

Who is in charge of the classroom - the teacher or the grade book average?

Any thoughts?

Sometimes you pick up little nuggets of wisdom when you least expect it...

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Williamsburg, VA.  Tomorrow is the start of the annual VASSP conference.  I ate dinner at Sal's Ristorante (lasagna - not bad, but not great) and decided to read a little before going to bed.  I picked up one of the books that I've been reading lately, John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk On Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat - long title, but excellent book.

While Ortberg's book is not specifically about education or the classroom, it deals a lot with fear and failure - 2 topics that do play a major roll in education.  On page 148, Ortberg writes the following:

...another important part of failure management - taking the time and having the courage to learn from failure.

 

A book called Art and Fear shows how indispensably failure is tied to learning.  A ceramics teacher divided his class into 2 groups.  One group would be graded solely on quantity of work - fifty pounds of pottery would be an "A", forty would be a "B", and so on.  The other group would be graded on quality.  Students in that group had to produce only one pot - but it had better be good.

 

Amazingly, all the highest quality pots were turned out by the quantity group.  It seems that while the quantity group kept churning out pots, they were continually learning from their disasters and growing as artists.  The quality group sat around theorizing about perfection and worrying about it - but they never actually got any better.  Apparently - at least when it comes to pottery - trying and failing, learning from failure, and trying again works a lot better than waiting for perfection.  No pot, no matter how misshapen, is really a failure.  Each is just another step on the road to an "A".  It is a road littered with imperfect pots.  But there is no other road.

 

The AFL principles just jumped off the page at me.  This story obviously applied to an art class - or any other class in which something is produced - but I really think it applies to every single classroom in our schools.  Failure is a tool for success.

This story brought the following questions to mind:

1. Do you give your students enough practice?
2. Do you give your students enough opportunities to fail?
3. How could failure (from trying) help your students?
4. Do you ever try to prevent your students from experiences failure (from trying)?
5. How could you better explain to your students the importance of failure (from trying)?
6. How could you better explain to your students' parents the importance of failure (from trying)?
7. Does your grading system allow for students to learn from failure?
8. Does your grading system penalize students for failure?
9. How could you help your students learn from their failures?
10. Along with opportunities to practice, do you also provide appropriate feedback students know if they are failing? 
11. What could you do to create a culture of failure - (risk-taking and trying) - in your classroom? 

I want to encourage you to consider how, in the spirit of AFL, you can embrace appropriate failure in your classroom.

Any thoughts? 

If any members of this Ning are going to be attending the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals annual conference this week in Williamsburg, I would invite you to attend my presentation on The Heart of AFL.  It will be on Tuesday, June 28 from 1:30-2:30 and will repeat from 2:45-3:45.  Here is a link to the handout for that presentation.

Hope to see some of you there!

Sometimes - or maybe all the time - perception is everything.

We have all realized this at some point or another in our lives.  We have said something, written something, or done something with a positive purpose in mind only to see it have the completely opposite effect due to the way it was perceived.  Perhaps no where is this more true than in the classroom.  Students watch what we do through various colored lenses.  As a result, our actions are often not perceived the way we would like.

This is why SPIN is so important. I know that typically SPIN has a negative connotation.  However, it's a powerful concept in communication.  SPIN doesn't have to mean lying or telling half-truths, as it often does in the political sense.  Instead, think of SPIN as preemptively and proactively making sure that our students hear us the way we intend to be heard.

The concept of SPIN applies to almost any topic, but in this case we'll apply it to AFL.  Assessing students more frequently could be viewed negatively by both students and parents.  Assessment tends to be viewed through the lens that believes students are tested and/or assessed too much.  However, as AFL-savvy educators, we realize that we need to assess more frequently so that both students and teacher receive the feedback needed to make important educational decisions.  This doesn't necessarily mean more grading or more grades, but AFL does mean more assessment.

So how do students react when you start assessing them daily or testing them on a very regular basis?  The answer probably depends on how well you SPIN.  AFL can mean more testing.  Or AFL can mean that the teacher is going to ensure that the students know what they need to know to succeed.  AFL can mean more work.  Or AFL can mean that students will feel more confident in their learning because they have had more practice and more feedback.

Below is what I find to be a great example of proactive AFL SPIN.  Jamie Garst, a Science teacher at Salem High School, has a summer assignment for his IB Biology 2 students.  This summer assignment will require them to come to school during the summer.  Did you hear that?  Students will have a summer assignment AND they will have to come to school during the summer.  I don't know about your students, but ours tend to NOT get excited about assignments and visits to the high school over the summer!

To pull this off, Jamie needs to SPIN.  He needs to make sure his students understand that that his AFL strategies will benefit them.  Read his letter to students (posted below) and assess how he did:

Greetings from Salem High School!

I hope this letter finds your summer break off to a relaxing start. I want to touch base with you to let you know how excited I am to be teaching IB Biology 2 next year. I truly look forward to meeting and working with each of you in the fall.

As part of your summer assignment, I am requesting that you attend a brief workshop on internal assessment laboratories that will be a major part of our year next year. At the workshop, we will learn about the general structure and format of internal assessments, design a simple experiment and obtain data, as well as evaluate labs of previous students. I anticipate the workshops lasting approximately 4 hours. I am offering a variety of dates to accommodate everyone’s busy schedule. 

Workshops will begin at 9:00 AM and will be held in my classroom (RM 266). Please let me know via email at your convenience which date you would like to attend (jgarst@salem.k12.va.us). If none of the above dates work, additional times can be available.

Following the workshop, you will be required to submit a complete lab write up based on the data we acquire during the workshop. This will be due the first day of school. I realize that the first attempt at an internal assessment is a learning process. The labs will be marked and returned for you to fix and re-submit for an actual grade during the first 6 weeks.

I look forward to hearing from each of you. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance at any time. Sincerely,

James F. Garst

So what do you think?  How was the SPIN?  If I was a student recipient here's how I think I would perceive this teacher's message:

• Mr. Garst is going to be a very positive person and he seems to like me before meeting me - "truly look forward to meeting and working with each of you"
• Mr. Garst likes the content and maybe won't be boring - "how excited I am to be teaching IB Biology 2 next year"
• While I do not want to do summer work, completing this assignment will help me because it will give me valuable practice.
• I don't need to stress over this assignment because the feedback will be used as practice.  I'll be able to re-submit it for an actual grade after it has been marked.

Of course, SPIN will only get you so far and must be backed up with action and results.  However, the way students perceive the teacher and the assignments either makes the teacher's job easier or harder.  If you're using solid AFL strategies - such as Jamie's summer PRACTICE lab - then you have a genuine source of positive SPIN.  When properly explained to students and parents, it's easy to see how AFL strategies are all about helping students learn.  But it's imperative that we control the SPIN to guide the perception.

Any thoughts? 

My daughter's 7th grade English teacher at Andrew Lewis Middle School uses a time-tested easy-to-apply simple AFL strategy that motivates my daughter to work, helps her to learn, and ensures that her grade is an accurate reflection of that learning.

Every Monday the students are given a pre-test on that week's spelling words.  If the student spells 100% of the words correct on the pre-test, then the grade is recorded in the teacher's grade book, and the student does not have to take the post-test.  All other students will take a post-test on Friday of that week.

Simple but effective.  Students receive feedback on Monday.  They now have the rest of the week to work on improving.  More importantly, though, is that they know exactly what they need to do to improve.

I'm going to brag on my daughter, Kelsey, for just a moment.  She is a terrific speller, and almost always scores a 100 on the pre-test.  Knowing that she can get out of having to take the post-test is a wonderful incentive for her to prepare for the pre-test.  When she occasionally misses a word on the pre-test, she becomes a very focused and motivated studier when preparing for the post-test.

However, her teacher uses the pre-test in a more powerful way than just as a motivator.  Since Kelsey almost always scores a 100 on the pre-tests, the rest of the week's focus on spelling potentially could be a waste of time for her.  However, her teacher turns the better spellers into spelling tutors during the week.  This gives Kelsey a much-needed opportunity to be a leader.  It allows her to have fun serving her peers, and it helps her peers do better on their spelling by providing one-on-one assistance that a teacher would have a difficult time providing during a busy school day.

Most teachers in America have probably tried pre-tests.  This is not a ground-breaking strategy.  That's the beauty of AFL.  To be a good AFL teacher doesn't mean re-inventing the wheel.  It means taking the best of what you already do and focusing your purpose toward providing meaningful feedback that gets used by both the teacher and the students.

One word of warning: You can completely mess up the benefit of this AFL strategy by the way you grade.  Please do not ever average the pre- and post-tests together or allow the pre-test to factor into the grade at all unless the student reaches the desired benchmark on the pre-test.  Otherwise, allow the post-test score - the one that reflects the outcome of the teacher's instruction - to be the one that is recorded in the grade book.

Is anyone in your school looking for an easy-to-understand primer on AFL?  Check out this journal article recently published by the VASCD in Virginia Educational Leadership - Spring 2011: 

http://content.yudu.com/A1roe9/VASCDSpring2011/resources/52.htm.

One of exciting things I've come to realize about AFL is that so many teachers are already practicing it in their classrooms.  To become a more "AFL-ish" teacher usually doesn't require making major changes in practices.  Instead it's usually a matter of focusing one's intent and purpose.  When this happens, it seems that what we find is that the best classroom practices tend to be AFL in nature.  When one's mind is focused on AFL purposes, it becomes much more likely that these best practices will become more frequent and pervasive.

Here's a simple activity that Mrs. Kelley, my daughter's 3rd grade teacher at South Salem School, does with her students.  Everyday they review key Social Studies facts and key Science facts.  Take a look at the worksheets pictured below (you can enlarge them by clicking on them) and then read on for some AFL analysis of this activity and the lesson that secondary teachers can take from it.

At first glance, there is really nothing extraordinary about this activity.  The teacher teaches the content and then has her students review it daily.  This isn't extraordinary because it is - and should be - a very ordinary activity.  Everyday students should be reviewing content.  

This is a perfect example of the fact that our best activities are usually AFL in nature.  Rather than simply teach and then assess at the end (summative assessment), Mrs. Kelley is choosing to assess daily (formative assessment).  If she uses this activity properly, 2 important AFL objectives will be accomplished:

1. She will daily receive feedback on how well her students are mastering content, and
2. Students will daily assess their own progress.

This type of activity needs to occur at all levels of education.  I would contend that not a single class period should go by in which ALL students don't assess their understanding and provide feedback to the teacher.  It's not enough for a teacher to rely solely on the feedback from the handful of students who answer questions in class.  A systematic approach is necessary to make sure that ALL students are assessing their progress.  In fact, I would strongly encourage all teachers at all levels to do exactly as Mrs. Kelley has done.  Create a daily review activity and then train your students on how to use the feedback they receive from it.

I can think of 2 possible negative reactions that a secondary teacher might have.  They are:

1. Printing out this many daily review sheets would use too much paper, and
2. This is an elementary-style activity.  At the secondary level students should take more ownership of their own studying/reviewing.

Let me try to address both of those.  The first is easy: Don't print out a daily review sheet.  Project the daily review from a computer/LCD projector/overhead on your screen at the last part of class each day and have students use their own paper.  Write it on the board.  Review orally.  There are many alternatives that will work great.

So is this activity too "elementary-ish"?  I would respond to that with the following question: Would students learn content better if at the end of each class period/lecture/activity the teacher made them stop and review what they had just covered?  I think it's pretty easy to say the answer to my question is "yes".  Our first of order business is to NOT to make sure that students review on their own.  Our first order of business is to make sure that our students learn.  Therefore, if there is something we're not doing DURING our class time that would increase learning, then we're not doing all that we should.

Think about your own classroom.  Are there ever days when your students leave without you being able to quantify how well they have mastered the content?  Are there ever days when your students leave your class without you having provided them with a way to quantify their own level of mastery?  Thinking back to my own classroom, I think the answer for many if not most teachers is probably "yes" to both questions.  

The next obvious question is, "What should we do about this?"  Some would say that the answer is to tell students to go home and review.  I agree with that answer, but that answer isn't complete unless I don't feel a sense of ownership of my students' success.  If I feel a sense of responsibility for how well my students do, then I will make sure that each and everyday I provide students with a time to check their understanding.  

So go ahead and figure out a way to daily let your students assess themselves.  It works great in 3rd grade and it will work in your classroom as well.

This blog post is a reprint of an article originally published on Education Week. Read it here or in its original form. 

Student Success Prerequisite: Hope

9th-grader Keisha (not her real name) entered my Algebra class older than most of her classmates, having been held back a year in elementary school. And based on her test scores, she would have been repeating eighth grade if it hadn't been for the district's social promotion policy. So there she was in my classroom, giving no effort and getting 0 upon 0 on one assignment/exam after another.

Not attempting an assignment and getting a 0 on it is a common face-saving strategy for kids like Keisha, since they can always say, "I could have done that but didn't feel like it." Trying their hardest and getting a 25 or 30 would be worse, since failure would then reflect lack of ability rather than apathy.

But I wasn't buying it, and at 10-week report card conferences I reminded Keisha's grandmother (mom was incarcerated, and dad came and went--mostly went) that I stayed after school to tutor students. Keisha showed up for tutoring the next day. At first, of course, she didn't want to be there. But at least in this safer setting--with just a few other "dumb" (her word) kids there--she set aside her "I could do this but don't feel like it" facade, and said tutoring was pointless because "I'm no good at math."

After a day or two of sulking, Keisha decided the time would go faster if she actually did some work. And what soon became apparent to me and, more important, to her was that she had much stronger math ability than her prior experience had led her to believe. Within weeks, she was earning a "C" in class, and her grandmother excused her from tutoring. But Keisha decided to keep coming anyway, so instead of remediation, I gave her extension problems and sneak previews of upcoming lessons. And soon the "dumb" kid was the go-to kid for students who needed help.

Keisha was upbeat until I gave a test that she should have aced but instead bombed--a result, I was sure, of test anxiety rather than lack of ability. But newfound confidence is easily shaken for kids who've doubted themselves for years, so you can imagine Keisha's response as she stormed out of class: "I told you I'm no good at math." Still, I tracked her down later that day, and convinced her to retake the test after school. And when I told her she got a 96, Keisha looked at me and said, "Are you for real, Coach G?!" I've never seen a prouder or happier kid.

What Keisha's turnaround illustrates is the need for students to feel hopeful in order for them to learn to their potential. Instilling hope in students at school must therefore be an essential goal for us as educators. And the way to achieve it is not, as I wrote in Success Comes From the Heart, by preaching optimism, but through policies and practices that give students cause for optimism. Here are some examples: