Making Classroom Assessment Work by Anne Davies - Reading Responses

Chapter 1 - Making Classroom Assessment Work

The first thing to realize is that assessment and evaluation are simultaneously different and related. Assessment is more closely related to the idea of Assessment for Learning, where evaluation is related to Assessment of Learning. Both have a time and place in the education system and both can be misused.

For a while I thought there was only assessment for learning or of learning. It didn't occur to me to use both. In this chapter Davies explains a classroom assessment process that works in three steps: creating the big picture (this would be creating a unit plan with predetermined lesson plans and assessment strategies), using assessment for learning to determine what still needs to be learned (this can be done in multiple ways - Davies suggests peer/self/group evaluation to keep the students involved) and ending the unit with assessment of learning (if this is the end of a unit and not the semester this can still be used as assessment for learning).

Different ways to teach and learn as covered in this chapter include:
Talking about learning - "When we involve students in shaping their learning, they are more likely to: understand what is expected of them, access prior knowledge, have some ownership over making it happen, be able to give themselves descriptive feedback as they are learning, and give information that teachers need to adjust their teaching" (6). This is a model I am rather fond of, for all the above reasons. It is particularly useful to me as a new teacher because I can use it to determine where the students are at and what needs to be adjusted. It also teaches the students an invaluable skill that I think more students should be learning: how to self-monitor.

Samples and Evidence - When we show students models it helps them realize what needs to be done to be successful. This method also helps the students to "...connect what [they] already know to what they need to know..." (7).

Practicing - Davis suggests that giving students the opportunity to practice a new skill/concept before it is heavily graded is a good way to develop the students skills. This can be done by allowing the students to do a mock paper before an important one. This gives them the practice needed, but also the opportunity to discover what they already know and what they need to learn.

Self Assessment - This is an important tool that can and should be used in almost every assignment. It is beneficial for everyone involved including the teacher, the student(s) and the teacher's future students.

Criteria - Including the students in the creation and revision of the criteria used in the grading process is not only fair but it is an intelligent way of ensuring the students understand how, to what standard and why they will be graded.

Sharing the Work - All of the methods previously discussed can be used to make the lives of both the students and the teacher easier. It makes the teacher's life easier at the moment, and the student's lives easier in the long run.

Although using this many methods all within one or two assignments seems like a lot to plan for, once a routine is established many of these things will fall into place. A lot of the work that the teacher needs to prep for will be difficult in the first few years of teaching, but after that it will get easier. The samples will have been created by the students. The criteria will have been worked out so many times that only problems having to do with individuals will needs to be catered to. So although it seems like a lot to take on, after time it will become easier. Until then, beginning teachers (including myself) will simply need to prepare ahead of time and ask for help from experienced colleagues.

Chapter 2 - Building the Foundation for Classroom Assessment

There are four important factors in creating a foundation for classroom assessment. "Students and teachers can be engaged in assessment for learning when everyone knows that mistakes are essential for learning, understands feedback, takes time to learn, and recognizes that success has many different looks.

Making mistakes is a part of life. Life skills should be taught in school, including this one: we should learn from our mistakes. We should use our mistakes to find what we've done wrong and how to improve.

Descriptive feedback and evaluative feedback are two different ways to tell students about their learning - both what they've learned and what still needs to be learned. Descriptive feedback is assessment for learning. It is more useful for the student's improvement in the future. However it is difficult for the teacher to provide a lot of this so they may have to give general samples too all students instead of individual detailed feedback.

Evaluative feedback is easier for the teacher and is required by governing authorities to keep track of the students' success both as individuals and as larger bodies (schools, regions, cities, etc.). This type of assessment is of learning. It is not particularly useful to students because they "...understand whether or not they need to improve but not how to improve" (17). This type of feedback is often difficult for struggling students to understand and therefore detrimental to their success. When successful students are given evaluative feedback they are able to interpret what needs to be done, but this is not the case for struggling students. There needs to be a good balance in the class between the two types of feedback.

Students need time to learn and reflect upon what they've learned. Time is needed to cover all items in the curriculum as well as those covered in chapter one of this text. True education takes time; time that we as teachers often do not have enough of. There is so much to cover in the curriculum in such a short amount of time. But we must not concern ourselves with this more than we are concerned about the students. We must not let the balance shift from teaching the students to teaching the subject.

Success needs to be developed and fostered in all aspects of a students life. For this to be done the student's family need be involved in the process with the teacher. This can be done early in the year by making goal setting conferences with the teacher, student, and parents. This is helpful for everyone involved to understand what will happen in that term and for everyone to understand what needs to be done to help the student succeed. The family can also be involved throughout the semester by inviting them to share success at home and then sharing the students scholastic successes. This can also be the time to check in at home and keep track of how well things are going, and if any alterations to the regime need to be made.

Evaluation is an important part of education, but it often carries a bad stigma. It is difficult and not always understood. But if we take the advice and actions set out in this chapter things change for the better. It is important to remember to keep a balance between the types of evaluation and feedback and to include all members in the students life, including themselves, in the evaluation process. When done properly this can only yield positive results.

Chapter 3 - Beginning with the End in Mind

When we as teachers plan for the upcoming term we create unit plans that include multiple lesson plans, and within those lesson plans are objectives. These exist because before we teach we know what needs to be learned and understood by the students in the end. We create our lessons starting with the end in mind. Although this is a great idea that has been in practice for some time, there are road blocks that must be consistently dealt with. We have to ensure that our direction, expectations, and standards are clear to the students, or the objective has little chance of being completed. We as teachers must also understand that every student is an individual. With 30 individuals in a class there in the potential to have 30 different levels of understanding of a topic to be taught. We must be able to teach to small groups within the class. This is more easily done when the teacher holds an extensive knowledge of the subject matter.

We must be sure to include the family (as suggested in the previous chapter) in this learning journey. It is especially important that they know where the class is going to end up. It is said that when we know what we are learning we mentally prepare ourselves for this and are able to learn better. This is done by reading and understanding curriculum documents and then translating them into a language that the parents and students can understand so they can be a part of the learning journey.

The ideas expressed in this chapter seem straightforward and standard, but they are ideas that people don't often talk about or consider. These are things that I believe are essential to creating a more understanding and educated generation. They may be difficult to do as a new teacher who has yet to master the subject content, but that is no excuse to not do them. Creating a destination and inviting the students and parents on the learning journey with the me, the teacher, are two things I hope to always do, regardless of the difficulties.

Chapter 4 - Describing Success

This chapter is all about using samples and examples in education. Using them to show students what something should physically and scholastically look like, to develop criteria, to give evaluative feedback, to represent learning as in evaluation, to help others understand learning, and to inform professional judgment. Many of these topics were discussed in previous chapters.

The most obvious ways to use samples and examples can be the most helpful to students. Many students are visual learners, so seeing what they need to do is more easily understood than when they are told what to do. This is also true for developing criteria. The students may have really good ideas to contribute, but can't put them into words without visual help. And this idea is great for students in evaluation. As mentioned earlier descriptive feedback works much better for struggling students. Often times students struggle because they are not being taught in a way that they understand. If we use visual representations of learning and development these students may struggle less, or at least this will help them to succeed.

Samples can also be useful to teachers and the school as a whole. The teachers can work together, with samples, to see if their class is working at an appropriate level or if changes need to be made. These samples can then be brought back to the students so they can understand what good work looks like and, further, how to improve.

Chapter 5 - Evidence of Learning

Evidence of learning is necessary, but it can be difficult to come by. It is important that when developing unit and lesson plans that teachers make a list of the evidence that will be collected, adding to the list when something unplanned occurs/is created. These lists need to be referred to over the course of the semester. They should be thorough, having representation from a variety of categories and sources.

Davies says there are three sources of assessment including "...observations of learning, products students create, and conversations with students about learning" (45). When all three of these types of evidence are gathered a trend is created known as Triangulation, which increases "... the reliability and validity of our classroom assessment..." (46).

Observational evidence plays a major role in music. A major way of assessing our music students is by observation. If we don't record evidence of this we risk it being inaccurate and being deemed as invalid come reporting periods. A good way of recording this evidence is by creating charts with the student list for each class. Combine the list with the tasks that are supposed to be completed each recording period. Using these charts is easy while recording and when reading in the future. A few things should be included on the chart for future reference including: What is the purpose of the learning activity, what are the focuses for this activity (49) and what scale are the students being rated against (1-5, A-F, etc.).

Collecting product is the easiest form of producing evidence. The key is to remember that not all students have the same abilities. We must remember to choose from various forms of assignments so that students have equal opportunity to prove their learning/knowledge. Getting the students involved in creating a list of ways to collect this evidence is a great way to include them in the learning process.

The final form of collecting evidence is by having conversations about the learning with the students. As has been stressed in the rest of this text and many others, the students should always be involved in the learning and assessment processes. These conversations provide evidence for the teachers, parents and administrators, but also help the students to improve in the future.

A lot of consideration, planning and preparation needs to be put in before evidence can be collected, or the term can be started for that matter. We must always remember to be over prepared and to have enough evidence to satisfy everyone without overwhelming the students or ourselves. It is always better to err on the side of caution and be over prepared. This includes being equally prepared in all three areas, not having representation in only one or two of the corners of the triangle.

This is something that I think might be difficult to do as a young teacher. But that doesn't make it any less relevant. I will need to take the advice given in the text and be over prepared because I will be judged and watched more than most teachers because of my lack of experience in the first few years.

Chapter 6 - Involving Students in Classroom Assessment

This chapter re-caps information and skills discussed in the previous five chapters. These ideas include: assessment for learning, involving students in setting criteria, self-assessment, setting goals, descriptive feedback, and collecting and presenting evidence of learning. In the previous chapters many of these ideas were approached in a teacher centered way. This chapter is exclusively about involving the student in these processes and how it will assist their learning.

Chapter 7 - Using Assessment to Guide Instruction

Including the students in the assessment process can be useful and easy when done within the lesson. This can be done by explaining to the students (either directly or indirectly) how they are assessed on certain things such as reading. When they know the criteria they are marked against they know what to improve on. This can make instruction, lessons and daily life easy and simple.

By including the students in this process the end goal is made clear (which is discussed in this text) without needing to discuss it outright, which can be un-organic and feel manufactured. This process not only teaches the students how to learn, but also what they need to know and be able to do (71).

This can be useful in my specialty by working with the students to make a list of what a good band/choir sounds like. Not only the basic qualities of music, but also the intangibles. If the students are able to recognize, label and discuss the things that are often difficult to describe about music they will be more likely to use these things in their performance. These lists can be created by referring to adjudication forms or talent competitions. 

Chapter 8 - Collecting, Organizing and Presenting Evidence

This chapter is much like chapter 5 in that it is about collecting evidence, but this chapter focuses more on including the students in the process. If we include the students in the process we teach them to be accountable for their own education. If the students are involved in this process it also makes studying for exams easier. They have a ready made study guide.

If this process is to include the students and succeed there are four steps that need to be taken: keep the process simple, involve the students, help students and parents value the evidence and reconsider evidence collections.

To keep things simple for the students they need to know why they are doing this task, who's doing what, the system they are using and the time frame (75). If these four things are attended to the students job will be made easier, helping to keep them involved and interested.

Keeping the students involved is a great way to keep them interested in their own education. When involving the students they need to know what they are providing evidence for, so keep the learning objectives in mind. By involving the students both the students and parents are able to see what the student has learned, and where they need to improve.

Keeping parents involved in the process is important and practical as students may forget to do this or be unable to take all the evidence home with them. Sending a letter or email home to parents will keep them involved and help them understand any foreign assessment methods.

Chapter 9 - Communicating and Learning

As mentioned in many of the previous chapters it is important to keep the parents involved in the education process. The methods of communicating with the parents has moved toward a student centered approach. Some methods include students collecting and demonstrating their learning (chapters 5 and 8), student generated news letters, self-assessment and work samples, conferences, and presenting to an audience (using their feedback). Regardless of the approach the students and parents need to be communicated with in order for the student's education to be successful to the highest degree.

Chapter 10 - Evaluating and Reporting

Evaluating and reporting are two mandatory aspects of education. It is important to include all members of the learning team in these events. These members include the student, the teacher and the parents. The student is involved by collecting evidence and being a part of the reporting process. The student is very useful in this process when they self assess and "...summarize their strength, needs and plans" (94). Parents are important members of the reporting processes "...by listening, watching, asking questions, and making sense of the evidence" (94). They need to be included in the evaluation process so they can fully understand the evaluation and be a part of their child's success and improvement. The teachers work with both the parents and student, as well as doing the majority of the evaluating and reporting. The teacher needs to have discussions with the student so they know how they can improve and with the parents so they know how to help their child succeed.

Evaluation is subjective. It is smart important for teachers to back up their decisions regarding evaluations with evidence. This evidence needs to be collected by both the student and teacher and reviewed by all members of the learning process.

A lot of times what teachers need to do regarding evaluation and reporting is compulsory, but it can be difficult and unnatural. It is important to "compensate for the compulsory" (100) by changing or adding to this process to accommodate the government requirements. This is not always easy or organic, but it is necessary and required. This is made easier if we know the rules about evaluation and reporting before we start the term. We should design with the end in mind and know how we will be evaluating.

Chapter 11 - Learning by Ourselves and With Others

This chapter discusses ways to continue educating ourselves as teacher about our careers. We need to keep fresh ideas, especially as young teachers. As individuals this can be done by reading textbooks like this one, going to conferences and professional development seminars and by doing research. Working as an individual is often easier because of time constraints. However, working in a group is more productive. It saves time in the long run and more ideas can be shared. Davies suggests creating a learning circle. This can be a group of teachers, small or large, that get together to share ideas and techniques. These circles can be as structured or as formal as the group wants. The idea is to make teachers lives easier, so accommodation is key with learning circles. The three guidelines to remember are to: start small, get organized and share responsibility. Our education system is about sharing the responsibility of educating our youth. If we work together to share our ideas about education and everything it encompasses we can create a better environment to teach and learn in.


Making Classroom Assessment Work Third Edition by Anne Davies, Ph.D. 2011 Text, A. Davies Duncan Holdings Inc.