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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?

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?

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.

Great teachers are constantly on a journey.  It's a journey toward professional growth, toward perfecting their craft, and toward better meeting the needs of students.  Salem High School Spanish teacher, Paola Brinkley, like so many Salem educators, exemplifies a teacher on this sort of journey.

For the past several years, Salem High School has been focusing on using assessment for the purposes of learning - rather than just for the purpose of grading.  This Assessment FOR Learning journey has led to many changes in our classrooms.  Teachers like Paola have been working to assess daily, to use feedback to guide their teaching, to train students to use feedback to guide their learning, and to grade in a way that allows practice to be used as practice (see Heart of AFL)  These efforts have helped teachers like Paola become more effective teacher and have led to students being more successful than ever.  

Those AFL steps have also led to a recognition of the importance of Standards Based Learning.  Standards Based Learning - or SBL - is a natural outgrowth of AFL.  AFL leads to teachers no longer assessing just to fill a grade book up with numbers to average together; however, teachers are still required to assign a grade to a student.  

Traditional grading relies on an average of all the assignments one does - the practice, the classwork, the homework, the tests, the quizzes, the projects - everything.  The AFL teacher is not satisfied with grading this way.  The AFL teacher realizes that it does not make sense to average formative practice with summative assessments.  The AFL teacher realizes that the most recent evidence of mastery matters much more than the the first attempts.  The traditional practice of averaging everything together just doesn't seem appropriate to the AFL teacher.

So if the AFL teacher isn't going to rely solely on the mathematical average of all assignments to determine a student's grade, what will the grade be based on?  This is where Standards Based Learning comes into the picture.  A student's grade in an AFL teacher's classroom should be based on how well a student is mastering the various standards that comprise the content of the course.

SBL has become the next phase of Salem High School's AFL journey, and Paola Brinkley is one of many teachers experimenting with how best to apply the theories of SBL to the realities of the classroom.  While there is no doubt that she and other SHS teachers will in time discover even better ways to use standards to lead to mastery learning and also to determine grades, the progress report below shows an excellent early attempt at grading in an SBL-manner.  Here's what she and other teachers in her department have done:

• SHS's World Language teachers have determined that the four key standards of learning a language are Culture, Speaking, Writing, and Grammar.
• PowerSchool, the grade book teachers in the City of Salem Schools are currently required to use , is set up to average grades together in a traditional non-AFL manner.
• While wise teachers have eschewed the use of category weights based on types of assignments in favor of a total points grading system, SHS World Language teachers like Mrs. Brinkley are discovering the value of using category weights when the categories represent course standards.
• Mrs. Brinkley has set her PowerSchool grade book up based on four category weights, one for each of the four key standards of World Languages.
• When a progress report, such as the one below, is printed for a student the student learns how he or she is doing based on standards, thus enabling the student to identify his or her strengths and to know where he or she needs to improve.

If a student asks how he or she is doing in a class, a numerical answer such as "84" isn't very helpful or descriptive enough.  How does one improve an 84?  Go find more points?  What does "84" tell someone about how to get better, about how to learn more, about how to take ownership of learning?  It doesn't.  "84" - or any other numerical answer - just puts an emphasis on accumulating points.  The AFL teacher wants the emphasis to instead be on learning.  Communication progress based on standards puts the emphasis right where it belongs.

So check out the progress report below from Paola's IB Spanish 1 class.  It happens to be my daughter, Kelsey's, progress report, by the way.  As a school administrator, I'm proud that teachers at our school like Mrs. Brinkley are journeying down this AFL/SBL path.  More importantly, though, as a parent, I truly appreciate this form of communication and find it beneficial as I try to encourage my daughter to do her best.

Notice that my daughter is progressing as she should in three of the four standards.  As a parent, I know that my daughter needs to work on Writing.  Her knowledge of Culture, her Grammar, and her Speaking are right where they need to be at this point in the school year.  Mrs. Brinkley's nice handwritten note is icing on the "excellent communication cake," but the reporting of standards is enough to help me guide my child.  

Is this the perfect way to incorporate SBL concepts into grading? I'm sure there are some SBL purists out there might find fault in the use of points at all.  Those "SBLians" might not like the fact that within the standards there is averaging going on.  Some might prefer the use of a 4,3,2,1,0 or A,B,C,D,F method instead of using numbers 0-100.  

What teachers like Paola have done, though, is creatively communicate based on standards within a grading system and with a grade book that is set up at the district level in a fairly traditional manner. They are helping our entire system - teachers, parents, and students - appreciate standards based reporting and move productively on our professional growth journey. Therefore, this is an excellent step - in fact, a leap - down the SBL road.  

Communication like this is helping to condition parents and students to look at progress not just as a grade but in terms of standards.  For example, if after receiving this progress report I were to ask Mrs. Brinkley about my daughter improving, rather than ask about how Kelsey could earn more points, it would be logical for me to ask how she can improve her writing.  Getting parents and students to think that way is a significant step to improving learning.

Thanks, Mrs Brinkley, for the wonderful communication, and thank you to all the great teachers at SHS who are bravely continuing their AFL journey!

Any thoughts? 

*Additional Note:

The progress report you see below is just that - a report of progress.  It is not a grade that is recorded in an historical record or averaged with some other grade to determine what goes on a report card.  It was given to the student on October 3; however, there won't be an officially recorded grade in the class until the end of January.  The teacher wasn't required to hand out this progress report, and it has no official bearing.  What it is is one way that a teacher is making sure that students and parents are aware of student progress.  It is a snapshot.  It is feedback.  It is given for the purpose of guidance so that students and the teacher together can make appropriate educational decisions moving forward.

Followers of this site know by now that Assessment FOR Learning is way more important than Assessment OF Learning.  In order to make sure our assessment and our feedback increase student learning, we need to communicate and assess in a standards based manner.

Many schools and school systems have begun their Assessment Journeys by focusing on Standards Based Grading Policies.  There are 2 key dangers of having Grading Policies as a point of focus:

1. This puts too much emphasis on grading.
   Schools need to set the example for students that learning trumps grading.  Anything that reinforces the hyper-focus on grading that tends to motivate students will be detrimental to our goal of keeping our focus on learning.  This includes polices that create one-size-fits-all grading practices.
2. Policy is not as valuable as professional development.
   There is no way to create a policy that addresses all possible scenarios.  However, a faculty that is well-grounded in Assessment FOR Learning philosophy can create its own logistical answers to the situations that arise.

Our friends at @CVULearns in Vermont have put together a wonderful argument for why focusing on Standards Based LEARNING is significantly more important that focusing on Standards Based GRADING.  All I can say is "Amen!"

Enjoy their thoughts here:

http://cvulearnsblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/newsflash-sbg-does-not-improve-student.html?m=1

This network has tons of practical examples of Assessment FOR Learning, great insights into Standards Based Learning concepts, and even a bunch of Sports Analogies to help educators apply sound assessment philosophy to their classrooms.  But how can school leaders and teachers help lead assessment change in their schools and systems?

Pawel Nazarewicz (Salem High Math Teacher) and I (Scott Habeeb, Salem High Principal) wrote this article for the Fall 2016 issue of Virginia Educational Leadership to help administrators and teachers lead determine their assessment needs and then lead assessment journeys in their schools.

It's Time to Take an Assessment Journey

http://publications.catstonepress.com/i/751683-fall-2016/59

We'd love your feedback!

Yes, I think formative assessment is important however it is not the only measure of a student's success. Unfortunately we are currently in an environment that places so much emphasis on formative and standardized testing. In my school, it seems as if the formal testing never ends. They are tested in September (a formative), October (SRI), January (formative), March (state test), April (SRI), and finally in May (formative) not to mention the unit test required by the district. The structure, lenght and environment that is created around these test are such that students become desensitised. In an effort to help make this over testing environment tolerable, I must come up with alternative ways of conducting my own assessments.

It has gotten to a point that the students moan when they are told that it's a testing day. Several pupils have even asked why there is so much testing. I candidly explained that testing won't go away and that even when you get older there are yet more test to come. (driver's test, SAT's, professional test, etc.) This explanation seemed to make it more palatable. In truth, I feel that these children are tested because of the demographics of the district and past performances. Neighboring counties within the same state don't administer nearly as many assessments.

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.

"I thought I could read my students' body language. I was wrong. As an experiment, I used Socrative when I taught binary numbers. What I learned forever changed my views on being a better teacher."

This quote from Vicki Davis, author of the Edutopia article linked below, is essential.  As teachers we NEED formative assessment - or Assessment FOR Learning.  We need it because we need to KNOW how our students are doing.  

If we don't base our teaching/remediation/questioning/activities on how our students are doing then it's hard to say we're really interested in learning.  The alternative is to cover content and tell students to learn it.  This works fine with highly motivated students who possess excellent study habits and requisite background knowledge.  In other words, this works fine for students who don't need a teacher!

But since the overwhelming number of students - even students of higher level courses - need their teachers (thank goodness, or else our profession would be unnecessary) then we need AFL.  We need to know for sure how our students are doing so we can focus our teaching in a way that leads to learning - not just covering content.

In the following article, Vicki Davis has shared 5 easy-to-use tools that will help you become a more effective teacher through the use of formative assessment: http://www.edutopia.org//blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis

The Monday spelling pretest. It's as American as apple pie. Each of my three sons routinely scored 20/20 on the Monday spelling pretest throughout elementary and middle school. They were required to “study” and “practice” these words with an obligatory worksheet, crossword puzzle, or write-the-word-ten-times assignment. They were then tested on these same words on Friday. They learned zilch about spelling from this instructional practice.

Fair to say that this common instructional plan makes no use of the teacher as an informed practitioner. The first task of an informed teacher is to determine what students already know and don’t know. The second task of an informed teacher is to make use of the diagnostic data to differentiate and individualize instruction.

So, how can an informed teacher make sense of the Monday spelling pretest to differentiate and individualize spelling instruction? Simply follow these five steps:

1. Prepare

Create Supplemental Spelling Lists for each student.

A. First, administer a comprehensive diagnostic spelling assessment to determine individual mastery and gaps. (Avoid qualitative inventories which do not clearly identify spelling patterns.) Grade the assessment and print grade-level resource words for each of the spelling pattern gaps.

B. Second, find and print these resources: For remedial spellers−Outlaw Words, Most Often Misspelled Words, Commonly Confused Words. And these: For grade level and accelerated spellers−Greek and Latinate spellings, Tier 2 words used in your current instructional unit.

C. Third, have your students set up spelling notebooks to record the spelling words which they, their parents, or you have corrected in their daily writing.

Now you’re ready to teach.

2. Pretest 

Dictate the 15—20 words in the traditional word-sentence-word format to all of your students on Monday. Of course, the words do matter. Rather than selecting unrelated theme words such as colors, holidays, or the like, choose a spelling program which organizes instruction by specific spelling patterns. Have students self-correct from teacher dictation of letters in syllable chunks, marking dots below the correct letters, and marking an “X” through the numbers of any spelling errors. This is an instructional activity that can be performed by second graders. Don’t rob your students of this learning activity by correcting the pretest yourself.

3. Personalize 

Students complete their own 15−20 word Personal Spelling List in the following order of priority:

-Pretest Errors: Have the students copy up to ten of their pretest spelling errors onto a Personal Spelling List. Ten words are certainly enough to practice the grade-level spelling pattern.

-Last Week’s Posttest Errors: Have students add up to three spelling errors from last week’s spelling posttest.

-Writing Errors: Have students add up to three student, parent, or teacher-corrected spelling errors found in student writing.

-Spelling Pattern Errors: Have students add on up to three words from one spelling pattern deficit as indicated by the comprehensive diagnostic spelling assessment.

-Supplemental Spelling Lists: Students select words from these resources to complete the list.

4. Practice 

Have students practice their own Personal Spelling Words list.

A. Use direct instruction and example words to demonstrate the weekly spelling pattern.

B. Have students create their own spelling sorts from their Personal Spelling List.

C. Provide class time for paired practice. Spelling is primarily an auditory process.

5. Posttest 

On Friday (or why not test every two weeks for older students?) tell students to take out a piece of binder paper and find a partner to exchange dictation of their Personal Spelling List words. Now, this makes instructional sense—actually using the posttest to measure what students have learned! But, you may be thinking...what if they cheat? For the few who cheat...It would be a shame to not differentiate instruction for the many to cater to a few. Truly, they are only cheating themselves.

Mark Pennington is a middle school teacher and educational author. His focus on assessment-based instruction led to the development of his just-released Teaching the Language Strand (of the Common Core State Standards) Grades 4-8 programs.

Thank you to Catherine, the EDUTECHCHICK, for the following blog and Daisy Dyer Duerr for sharing it on Twitter.  Here are 10 great tools to add to your AFL toolkit.

http://www.edutechchick.com/10-formative-assessments-tech-tools-to-put-to-the-test-in-2015/ 

This Assessment Network is dedicated to the concepts of AFL: Assessment FOR Learning.  In other words, the PURPOSE of assessment is for learning to occur.  It's impossible to maximize your AFL efforts if you don't assess based on content standards.  That's where SBL: Standards Based Learning comes into play.  

There's philosophy, and then there's Philosophy in Action.  When it comes to Assessment Philosophy in Action, it doesn't get any better than LOOPING.  This blog post will include all other posts from this network that are dedicated to the practice of LOOPING in the classroom.  

• Redos and Retakes? Sure. But don't forget to Loop!
• Practical Examples of Looping: AFL/SBL Philosophy in Action
• It's Time to Take an Assessment Journey

There are some exciting things going on in the Northeast these days with Standards Based Learning.  Here is a link to a phenomenal list of SBL resources from the state of Vermont.

http://vermontsbl.weebly.com/resources.html

Thanks to the following educators for putting this together:

Emily Rinkema: Teacher/Instructional Coach, CVUHS, Hinesburg

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?