Assessment Reading the Writing while Reading the Writer Guide Chap. 12, Nuts & Bolts Chap. 9

Give One, Get One, Move On  Individually fill in up to three boxes on your chart in response to the prompt. Then, get out of your seat, walk up to someone, give an idea away, and get an idea from them. Repeat the exercise until time is called, or until all your boxes are filled. PROMPT: What words or phrases come to mind when you hear someone say “assessment?”

Assessment that Informs Us as We Develop the Curricular Calendar  Before school starts, ask yourself these questions in regards to your teaching:  What worked? – reflect on Units  What didn’t work?  What have students learned? – reflect on student writing  What do students need to learn?

Assessment that Informs Us as We Plan the First Days of School  “Up and down” visits – move students along a thoughtful gradient of difficulty from year to year  Letters to parents – writing back  Assessment is continuous  “The child does something—anything—and we, as teacher, think, ‘What is this child showing me? How can I best respond?’”  “The thinking teacher’s mind work.”

Guiding Principals for Assessment  Discern what the child can do; determine the next step  Keep a growth line in mind  Deliberately choose your lens  The questions are always  “What can a child do now?”  “What can a child almost do now?”  NOT “What can’t a child do?”  Give students a working knowledge of what good work entails and how they can get there

Guiding Principals (cont.)  “People learn as much or more from attention to growth and celebrations of progress as from critique.”  “Children are reflections of the effectiveness of our work with them.”  “The most valuable assessment is always self-assessment.”

One-Word Summary  Write one word that represents or summarizes assessment as it relates to writing workshop; then, write two or three sentences that explain why you chose that word.

Opportunities for Assessment  Writers’ Notebooks  Notebook  Folder for current work  Portfolio  Goals and Rubrics  End-of-year standards  Goals/Rubrics for each Unit of Study (make your own!)  Traits piece  Writing Conferences (keep records!)

Remember…  “Assessment must be purposeful to be either effective or useful.”  “When we take what we learn about our students and use that information to teach them more, teach them differently, place them in helpful learning contexts, and show them how their hard work has made a difference in their ability to make sense of and participate in the world, then our assessment has truly been worthy of us and of our students.”