October PD - Assessment - Schmotzer

How to effectively assess a student is something I have always struggled with. What I mean by that is grading students for mastery verses consequences for deadlines. If mastery is my only goal then why take off points for an assignment being late? But don't adults have consequences for not meeting deadlines? Isn't this a real-world skill that we should teach students? If I've spent several weeks on a project in my class, is it fair to allow a student to redo that assignment when they didn't use their time wisely in the first place? I don't know what the right answer is - it's a tough one for me.

As to the type of assessment, I do believe in creating authentic assessments and putting value in the skills I want students to have rather than if their name is on their paper. (Although, I'd really like it if they wrote their names on their papers.) Last year, I was introduced to the concept of the single-point rubric. If used correctly, this type of rubric allows for feedback and revision prior to putting the final grade on the assignment. I think this type of grading allows for both the teacher and the student to evaluate how they're doing along the way and give them an opportunity to "fix" things.

In reference to the example in the article about the social studies project, I agree that we need to get students passed summarizing information. However, before we can do that, students need to learn to read and reread information so that they can write an effective summary and analyze the text. Students today are used to instant gratification. They do not want to put in the time to understand a text enough to develop thoughts on the topic. Until we can teach students to develop a stamina for learning, I think we will always struggle with analysis.

I don't know that there's a right or wrong answer to the grading issue.