Reassessing assessments

Assessment is the teacher term for testing, quizzing, or verifying in some way that the students are understanding the material. There are formal assessments, which are the standard, anxiety creating tests, quizzes, projects, and papers; basically anything that you can be graded on. There are also informal assessments, which are measures a teacher takes to verify the student is learning though they aren't receiving a grade. This would be like walking around while students are doing independent practice and checking their answers, or having them work out problems on individual dry-erase boards as a competition.

During our second class in Oxford, we took about an hour to discuss formal assessments. What they are? Why we do them? Who benefits from them? etc. In the discussion, one of the veteran teachers said something somewhat revolutionary. He said, "Assessments aren't just a formality that you do when you want a break from discipline and classroom management. They are intended to give you insight into how your students are grasping the material". Somehow, in the 17+ years of school I've been involved with, I never really thought of formal assessments as being anything like that. This comment really resonated with me and got me thinking.

Last Thursday I gave a quiz to my Geometry and Trig classes. The Geometry average was roughly a 60, and I was honestly disappointed. I knew that they understood the material much better than their performance had indicated, so I was reeling at what had happened, and what I could do about it. I went back to the drawing board and thought, "what do I honestly want to gain from this assessment?" and if I truly want to them to grasp the material, it sounds like I need to reteach and reassess. A marvel Idea. It seemed crazy because I felt like I needed to keep up with a somewhat arbitrary pacing guide, but I just decided it was worth doing.

The next day, I re-taught the material. I used similar questions, with the same procedures, and gave a similar quiz. It wasn't rocket science and required no silver bullet, but I think it might have worked. The grades drastically improved, and I think the students will have much more satisfaction when they get their quizzes back on Tuesday. I'm glad I reassessed assessments.