Guest post: How will I know if my students learned what I taught?

A guest post by Brent Truchon, Instructional Coach at Edmunds Middle School

Our PLC discussions focus on four primary questions:

1. "What do we want our students to learn?"

2. "How will I know if they've learned it?"

3. "What will we do if they don't learn it?"

4. "What will we do if they already know it?"

Like many, I am currently participating in a book club offered by the district. The book is called "A Teacher's Guide to Flexible Grouping and Collaborative Learning" by Brulless and Brown. Chapter 3, titled "Assessment and Flexible Grouping", has been particularly helpful to my thinking about the second PLC question: "How will I know if they've learned it?"

The chapter includes over 30 different strategies for assessing student understanding. Some of these were familiar to me, while others provided new ways of having students share what they've learned that can readily inform instruction.

Here are a few of my favorites: 

1. Minute Papers: used at the end of class to check for understanding. Students are asked to share their most important takeaway from the day's lesson in a minute or less. Data can be used to inform next steps, create groups, and/or confirm understandings/misconceptions.

2. Five Words: students are asked to select five words that they would use to describe their learning. They can take it in so many ways. It forces them to think critically and occasionally make creative connections between skills and content.

3. One Word Journals: Students must select one word to summarize their learning then justify their choice in a paragraph. As a teacher, this is a great window into student takeaways- what did students learn? Does it align with your intentions?

4. Whiteboard Checks: Students share their learning visually. Again, this is a window into takeaways and misconceptions and can be a great segue from a warm-up into the lesson. Designed for individual whiteboards, but obviously can be done on paper, too.

Looking for more formative assessment strategies?  Check out a copy of the book, email me or Nadya Bech-Conger from the Teaching and Learning office for a copy of the chapter, or read last week’s Edutopia Article called “13 Formative Assessment Strategies That Inspire Creativity”