What Did You Learn Today

This question is asked by parents, guardians, and teachers all across the world every day. When I tutor students at Huntington Learning Center it is one of the first questions I ask them every time they come into the center. The unfortunate reality is that this question is often answered with “nothing” or my favorite “I don’t know”. Perhaps part of these answers is because of apathy or they’re prioritizing their mental spaces with other daily events and desires. While it’s fair to be more concerned with things other than what happened in English class that morning when at 5:30 a student is asked “what did you learn today” it shouldn’t be a hard question to answer. This is why clear, formative assessment is important.

Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice by David J. Nicol and Debra Macfarlane-Dick outlines why formative assessments are necessary, why they increase a student’s “self-regulated learning”, and how to make teachers’ assessments better. The article goes back and forth describing the multiple theories on how to administer formative assessments and why it should be done. Personally, the amount of conflicting ideas in regards to formative assessment brought up in the article made the whole question of how to assess up to the individual teachers digression.

According to some researchers, formative assessment is useful for both teachers and students. Teachers can gage where their students are at in terms of learning goals. Students can know that what they are learning and that learning is a process. Nicol and Macfarline-Dick suggest that it beyond the learning goals of a classroom, formative assessments can be used to encourage “self-regulated learning. This is done through several key steps.

1.      Clarify what good performance is

2.      Facilitate self-assessment

3.      Deliver high quality feedback information

4.      Encourage teacher and peer dialogue

5.      Encourage positive motivation and self-esteem

6.      Provide opportunities to close the gap

7.      Use feedback to improve teaching

These of course are all important components of every teacher’s job. Modeling what is good and being a representation of empowerment and high self-esteem set good examples for students. Encourage positive motivation and self-worth can be done through what kinds of language you use as a teacher. Using feedback you give students, be it written or verbal, will help clarify what you are looking for. These elements should be a part of formative assessment. You need to know your teaching/message is getting across. If not, how will you know they are leaning? How would you construct your summative assessment if you know you’re students are getting the message.