Category Archives: Linking Assessment to Learning
Becoming a Writer: What We Learn From a Child’s First Stories
My son’s first story consisted of a series wavy lines and curlicues written in black marker across the back of a leather sofa. Upon completion, he declared, “Look! I wrote my story in grown up writing!” (For those of you … Continue reading
Re-framing Conversations About Disengaged Students
At a recent a professional learning session focused on re-engaging the disengaged student, we asked each participant to write a few words on a post-it to describe a disengaged student. The completed post-it notes were attached to a white board. … Continue reading
A Student’s Self Assessment of Listening
Let’s start the conversation with Beyond the Apple’s video about teaching students how to listen: When our students sit up straight, look at the speaker, be silent, and keep hands still and visible, we assume through their posture that our … Continue reading
Student Writing: An in-depth look at the assessment and feedback process
Let’s begins this conversation with Beyond the Apple’s video “Assessing Student Writing Through an Appreciative Lens”. This video suggests that learning to assess student writing may begin with listening to a student’s writing before seeing a student’s writing. The writing … Continue reading
Exit Slips and Feedback Revisited
Let’s face it . . . when we rely on tests to gather information about student learning, not only do students become test weary, the process of test development, marking, and providing feedback become the bane of any educator’s existence. … Continue reading
Writing Valid (Equitable) Assessments
A well-written test, quiz, or examination will complement the many other forms of formative assessment we use, so it’s important to know the how to’s of valid and equitable test construction. In the jargon of assessment development, test questions are … Continue reading
How to Score Student Work Equitably
Contrary to public perception, scoring student assignments and tests goes well beyond determining whether an answer is correct or incorrect. To score equitably, a teacher needs to be familiar with the art and the science of scoring. It’s an important … Continue reading
beyondtheapple.com 
Meaningful Feedback in Minutes
The purpose of feedback is to: acknowledge evidence of progress search for and share evidence of “the known” within the student’s misunderstandings provide the student with a focus for the next steps of learning Here’s an example of a very … Continue reading →