Should we do away with Summative assessments?

Should we do away with summative assessments?

A few months ago, I remember my twitter community engaged in a discussion about the need for summative tasks. Why was it so important to have one if the formative assessments were thorough? Why check again when we have been checking all along and have data to prove that students have met the learning objectives?

Formative tasks assess little bits and pieces. A skill, knowledge on a certain topic, the learner profile, an attitude. A summative task on the other hand, is all about the big picture. Are students able to synthesize their learning? Are they able to unconsciously use the skills and attitudes as they demonstrate content knowledge? The summative task should provide an authentic scenario; a simulation of real life.  Sitting at a desk and regurgitating data denies students the experience of being able to "create" something with their newfound knowledge and skills. It undermines their intelligence.

And guess what? The irony of it all is that a summative assessment inevitably becomes a formative one for students and teachers who realize that learning never stops! There will always be gaps in understanding. We need to allow a few days after the summative task to address these misunderstandings.

Which brings me to my Grade 3 classroom. I would like to talk a little bit about the importance of being thorough with formative assessments. The inquiry cycle is a wonderful guide for all teachers. However, one should not mechanically follow the arrows from one stage to the other! During the sorting out stage, I slow down. I have mini inquiry cycles going on.  The students are making sense of it all. Analyzing data, asking questions, eliminating unnecessary data, reflecting, going back to the questions, and so forth. I believe in using a few tools repeatedly in order to make learning easier for my students. I used ”Framing Routines" this term. Using the framing routine helped students organize and prioritize their work while creating extended pieces of writing based on the unit, Water and Air. The link between language and inquiry was seamless.

As the students were hard at work, I focused on their collaborative skills. I had created the groups based on individual needs. It took time me quite a while to find a right partner for the students, but the effort paid off. They worked brilliantly with each other. Right down to my naughtiest one!

Though the summative  task was highly demanding, they worked in a safe and relaxed environment. It was undeniable hot and once a while tempers frayed. But we survived…and triumphed. Students had to create board games based on their knowledge of water and air; their properties; how people use and misuse it; and sustainable actions that can help preserve our natural resources. Their games were creative, fun, and replete with salient information which kept the players engaged for a long time. We had a surprise visit from DP students and the administrative staff. The students had  finally got a real life audience and this experience was all the more meaningful for them. We were also joined by our principal, PYP coordinator, members of the staff and students from other classes.

A stimulating summative task ensures students will always remember what they experienced and learnt during a unit. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, I say yes to summative assessments!

Notice how the students categorize the main ideas.

The student used the framing routine to organize and present an argument.

Instead of squabbling, they were helping one another. Here, the students are creating an instruction for their board game.

Each member of the group was engaged.

Here is a glimpse of the summative task. It was engaging; it provided an authentic life experience and audience.

Teacher attitude- Empathy for students with Learning disabilities.

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. --Dr. Seuss 

 

By nainisingh | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

My stomach hurts. I do not feel like getting up and going to school. My friends think I am dumb; my teachers think I am dumb. Even my parents have that look on their faces whenever they try to help me with my homework. I hate school! Why do I need to learn?!

Do you know what it feels like to be in Mrs. C’s classroom? There is so much noise! I cannot work in my group table because everyone seems to be talking at the same time. They always seem to have the answers before I have even understood the question! I am dumb I guess. But Mrs. C says group work helps build collaboration skills. I wish she could come and join my group and experience what I feel. If I ask her for help, she strolls over and puts her arm around my shoulder. When I try to explain that I am finding it hard to work, she patiently explains what I have to do all over again. I see her lips moving. No sound seems to be coming out. Just a whiff of…garlic? Her pitying face turns slightly exasperated as I nod blankly at her. I bend over and squeeze my eyelids tight, fighting back tears. They roll down nevertheless. I taste their warm saltiness as I pretend to work.

My worst days are when Mrs. C. gives us research work. I have to plough through endless websites and collect information. There is so much information! My head hurts. My eyes become bleary. I feel embarrassed when Mrs. C’s voice breaks the stillness. I find a sea of faces staring at me. My friends are grinning. My teacher is frowning. Guiltily, I stop staring out of the window and pretend to concentrate. I cannot. I keep remembering the time she had torn my work up because my writing started in the middle of the page instead of next to the margin. It had taken me 40 minutes to write those lines!

The worst part is when no one wants me in their group. My teacher asks me sarcastically, if I know why no one wants me in their group. Yeah, I know Mrs. C. That is something I know!  I am dumb.

Break time. I find myself hovering around the playground, hoping some of my friends will ask me to join their football team. No one does. They assume I am not the sporty type. The other day, I scored a goal against my dad and brother. I am pretty good at football.  No one knows that. No one gives me a chance. I squeeze my fists and try to keep rage and frustration at bay. But this is nothing compared to how I feel when I am not invited to a birthday party. I am not cool enough, I guess. That hurt never really goes away.

I wish my teacher would just sit down, breathe, and relax. I wish she would ask everyone how their day was. I wish her smile was warmer. I wish carpet time was longer. I want everyone to know who I really am. I want to share my thoughts and feelings. I want them to reach out and help me. I want them to understand that deep down, I am not really dumb. I just learn differently. I take time. I love playing games on the computer. I wish my teacher would give me math games to play. I wish she could give me a table of my own, where I could think at my pace. Without the noise and the superficial collaboration.

 I hate writing. But I have great ideas. My mum always says that. Why is it that my teacher cannot figure that out? I wish she would not ask us to write a 4 page essay. It takes me half an hour just to write a passage! The other day, I was playing with my dad’s phone. I recorded an amazing story. Every one listened to it and clapped. They thought it was hilarious. Encouraged and excited, I brought the phone to school to share with my friends and teacher, but Mrs. C. was furious. She said it was against the school rules. She sent a stern letter home informing my parents to ensure this did not happen again. It won’t ever happen again Mrs. C. But if you allow me to share my ideas instead of writing them down on paper, I would love to see the look of surprise on your face. That would be a precious gift from you. A look of surprise. 

It would burst that bubble of your ignorance, Mrs. C. Someday, I hope.

Vow of Silence

The other day I happened to come across my virtual Google friend Craig Dwyer's post A vow of Silence . I loved the idea! It would be great to be silent for the whole day. I had my doubts as my 8 year olds are absolutely, unequivocally irrepressible. What I did not realize is that my day's lesson plans had to be carved and moulded to suit this paradigm shift!  So if you want to try it out, keep that in mind, Comrades:)

The children loved it! Something new is always greeted with widening eyes and a toothless grin. They actually did quite well apart from a few suffocated throttling noises from one of my students :)

But this is not why I am writing the post. I write it for a totally different reason...

A few day after our Vow of Silence episode, my students were trying to find out the perimeter and area of their silhouette using wool and post-its. They were busy and the voice level was more than the acceptable 5 on our noise-level continuum. I could hear them arguing and fighting for the resources. Some where debating about how to place the post-its. Though a great inquiry time, I noticed their collaboration skill was not that great. I left the class to get a glass of water from the dispenser outside. When I came back after a few minutes, there was pin-drop silence! The students were hunched over the silhouette and working quietly, efficiently together. They did not do this to please me. Someone had decided to execute the LAW OF SILENCE...and somehow they all learnt to work together. They gesticulated and nodded. Some of them got busy and quietly passed out post-its or adjusted the wool.
They found their own solution through the medium of silence.

A novel way to teach conflict resolution?

Reference:

http://www.teachingparadox.com/2013/02/a-vow-of-silence.html
http://bitsofwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/silence-is-golden.png

A teacher's delivery style

So much depends 

on words 

that you speak

tempered by your tone

embellished by the 

curve of your brow

adorning your telling

eyes.

I love teaching poetry, and yes, you have rightly guessed...this is a sorry imitation of William Carlos Williams', The Red Wheelbarrow. But when days are dolesome, I ride on the wings of poesy and create my own. 

So educators!

How do you address your students when you are upset?

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/angry-owl-michael-rutkowski.jpg

Grade 3s start their writing workshop

These last 2 weeks have been busy. The students were introduced to the writing process and it took us over a week to get some pieces published. Though I felt quite drained by the end of it, the end result had me rubbing my hands in glee. Their final published work, (though still with a few minor errors), was a work of art! :) I am so proud of my little ones.

Not only did the students learn about underlining verbs and nouns and adding resepective adverbs and adjectives, they also had to show when to use commas and quotation mark. Having created a checklist right at the beginning of the work shop helped them stay focused.

All the skills they learnt during the course of this term were put to use. Using energetic sentence starters, adding new words from the word wall, and using the thesaurus were among some skills they had to exhibit.

Here are some shots of my students at work.

Where do you start a paragraph?

2nd draft

The writing process, along with the checklist



Working on the 3rd draft




Completely immersed in writing



At the computer center, looking up the thesaursus for new words

PUBLISHED!

A closer look

Our writing wall

I asked my students if they would like to participate in another workshop anytime soon. They gave me a dazed look, and suggested a month's time!  I think creating  a sense of pride in their work is what I was aiming for, along with the understanding that a good piece of writing needs a lot of effort and time.

They keep popping into the class to gaze at their writing. :)

Teaching and meditating...what's the difference?

The other day, I was talking to a colleague about a post I had seen on Facebook. It was about how we need to be in the now as opposed to thinking about the past or fearing what's to come. She commented laughing, on how difficult it is to be in the present. I think she's absolutely right!


 

Funny thing is, the only time we are in the the NOW is when we enter the classroom. All our baggage, our fears are left by the door the moment we walk into the room. The students envelop us with their warmth, joy and laughter. Their needs take precedence over anything else during those moments in the class. We are constantly looking around us, listening to what they have to say. I feel this is the closest to meditation I have ever been!

Action in PYP



These moments should happen more often in my classroom.

My students were busy creating  videos, powerpoints, booklets, and posters in order to show their learning. Their unit of Inquiry was about Health and Wellbeing. 

Their task : 

Identify someone in your environment who is not leading a balanced lifestyle. Based on your understanding of what you have learned in this unit, create a week's plan that your patient needs to follow.

Some students were busy borrowing glitter paint and colourful tape (I admit I do get irritated when they rush for these things without a plan, but as they were focusing on time and self-management skills, I had to curb my instincts and hold my tongue...hard job this is!); other students were video taping each other. The class was abuzz. Students were busy. Well, except one.

My eyes fell on a child who was doing nothing  apart from watching others at work. At times, he would rush to their aid and hand them a pair of scissors or a crayon. When I checked upon him, he had managed to staple a few papers together...in it was written in large bold letters...MUNDAY..then scratched out and re-written correctly. The other pages were blank. I asked him if I could help him. He shrugged,smiled, shook his head and proceeded to look out of the window.

The deadline for submission of the assessment had arrived. Students were ready to present their work. Using the class generated rubric, they assessed each other. As I walked around the class, I realized that a few students has actually ignored many facets of their learning. They were focused on the product and had forgotten many basic facts that were needed to show their conceptual understanding. Many students who were always eager to participate during class discussions and enjoy highly challenging tasks, had actually forgotten to create a diet which was balanced.

I approached my Munday's child. I asked him if he had anything to show. He told me he had left it at home. I shook my head, frowned, tutted, and walked away.

And today, I changed my mind about him. He impressed me the most. Not because he did nothing in class. He was actually quietly absorbing the learning. He connected with it unlike any other student in the class.

This is what he did. During the 3-Way conference, the parents quietly listened as I spoke of my concerns about him. I, of course praised him, but I made sure I pointed out the fact that he had not completed his assignment and that he should set some specific goals for himself which can help him address my concerns.

After I had finished talking, the mother told me something that stunned me.

This child had called for a meeting at home. He lives in an extended family. Once the whole family had assembled, he explained to them that junk food was not good for them. He drew pictures of the heart and arteries and showed them how cholesterol lined the arteries and in turn caused high-blood pressure, which in turn, results in a heart attack. (concept of Causation). Later that day, he asked his mum for  her phone, and called up his dad, who travels a lot. He explained to his dad how worried he was about his unhealthy lifestyle, then suggested a few dietary changes and recommended daily exercise. Today his dad told me that for the past one week, he had stopped eating meat and was considering becoming a vegetarian. He had also started exercising. This 8 year old had used what he learnt in the unit, and changed an adult's life!

That was all I needed to hear. I was not interested in the final product. It seemed so irrelevant at this moment. The student had applied his learning to his own life and made a change for the better. He had attempted and succeeded to solve a real-life problem without creating a product!

I was speechless. I could only fumble and apologize for assuming that he had learnt nothing. I am so proud and humbled by this child.