Jennifer, If it sounds interesting to you let me know. I could send you sample records for different grade levels and student levels of accomplishment. Also some articles, practical ones that might introduce it well to the teachers. It is way easier than it looks, just scary because it's new. Especially if teachers can use some of what they already have to do as work samples, e.g a DRA or a district writing sample or ??? What they discover over time and with talk that other kinds of evidence may be even more useful but they have to come to that themselves. For example, teachers in some schools thought the Accelerated Reader printouts would be easy to include as reading assessments until they realized how little those printouts actually told them about a student!!! It helps when its hard for another person to see a child's accomplishment through the work provided. (Kind of like when we first learn to write, we have to realize that an audience won't necessarily get what we thought we communicated!) The other challenge is that teachers don't always want to reveal themselves in writing even though it's not a lot of writing. They need lots of encouragement and support and believing that the point of it all is to support the child, not judge the teacher!!!
The important thing is to make it a long slow learning process - not expect records on all students (we asked for 3) and making clear that records would not be (if ever) perfect records. The point was to start the process. AND to know that it won't work unless there is plenty of regular time for teachers to talk together. (and that's for always and forever as those on this list know.) A thought just occurred to me. Maybe we make the analogy with reading and writing workshop classrooms. Just call this Assessment Workshop! Sally On 7/7/08 6:03 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Sally > Thanks for this info. I remember reading your posts about this before...this > time I have put the book on order. Barnes and Noble does carry it too, and > since I am a member, it works for me. > This seems like a more holistic approach to assessment that takes into > account that teachers have some expertise and that students need to have a > role in > assessment too. I am not sure, until I read it for myself, if my teachers are > ready for this, but it sounds like something I want to experiment with. > Thanks for your long, detailed email! You are terrific for sharing your > expertise! > Jennifer > > > > **************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for > fuel-efficient used cars. > (http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007) > _______________________________________________ > Understand mailing list > [email protected] > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
