This year in my department we are looking at data differently. We are not only looking at data from results of unit assessment and benchmarks, we are also looking at results of formative assessments given at the end of lessons. In the past, I did not pay too much attention to this but I'm glad to be looking more in-depth.
My district has decided to implement a new Performance Based Assessment (PBA) for the history courses and this has made me change my focus of the course from teacher-centered to student-centered lessons. I am all for the change to student-centered and reducing the amount of lecturing in my lessons. I am planning more opportunities for students to work with each other reading and analyzing primary and secondary sources, facilitating discussions and writing. Because of this change, I am using the data from my formative assessments to measure whether my students "get it." Instead of waiting till the end of the unit, as I have done in the past, I am able to plan mini-lessons to "reteach" content or a skill, if necessary. I am starting to see a change in assessment results and so has the administration. They rewarded the department this week for the improvements in the content area. Looking at the formative assessments does add time to my planning of my individual lessons but I am able to have continuous review instead of waiting till the end of an unit or the end of a semester.
Making the lessons less teacher-directed and more student-centered, my students are "surprised" the class moves so quickly. Now there are some days that my lessons are teacher-centered. Eventually, I want to have 95% of my lessons student-centered. I am not sitting back and relaxing in the classroom. I am actually more active, working in small groups, facilitating discussions with individual students about history, and watching students "doing history." (Term used in our department and district.) My World History I students just completed their first PBA for the year and I can't wait to sit down and check the progress as compared to their pre-assessments. In their first PBA, students had to use several documents to support a claim about Mesopotamia.
I am looking back on my research from my Master's program (6 years ago) as I was cleaning out the files on my computer and I ran over an article from Educational Leadership ,"How Classroom Assessment Improve Learning" published in 2003. According to the article, " To use classroom assessments to make improvements, however, teachers must change both their view of assessments and their interpretation of results. Specifically, they need to see their assessments as an integral part of the instruction process and as crucial for helping students learn." Because I did not think I had enough time to do this in the past I did not use assessments like this. Thanks to my administrators (at the time I thought they were just adding more to my work load), I am viewing data in a different light.
I think I literally looked like this one day while discussing my data with my administrator and department chair.
