Toddle Assessment Meet Up
It’s spring time here in the states which inevitably means “testing season”. And while assessment should be something that happens with our students throughout the course of a school year, the hyper focus on testing, overall performance, and summative assessment is quite high. Teachers and students are fatigued and our stamina and focus is also something that feels like an extra challenge.
Leave it Toddle to organize a special Assessment Meetup to refresh and revitalize our mindsets and recenter ourselves to what really matters when it comes to teaching and learning…our students.
It was my pleasure kicking off the event focusing in on assessment in the early years classroom. I’m a huge fan of visible thinking routines and structures and spent the hour breaking down some common misconceptions related to our littlest learners along with some of my very favorite routines that nurture curiosity yet allow us to assess and meet our students where they are at.
I love a good question and during Levi Allison’s session, he shared five essential questions he uses when asking his students to self assess and determine their next steps as learners.
Are we stuck?
Can we improve?
If so, how?
What can we do?
Why do we want to?
I love the nudge that these questions provide for our learners and not only stretch our learners’ thinking, but give them tangible ways to self manage and be agents of their own learning.
Co designing assessment with students can feel like an impossible task with our standards and other mandates and love how Trevor Mackenzie lifted up the importance of using student language as part of our process of co construction with one another. A simple, yet powerful move that again puts students at the center of our practice. Students “see” more of themselves in the curriculum and classroom and engagement and connection to the learning and assessment are impacted.
Cindy Blackburn closed out the event with a beautifully playful approach to backwards planning with a conceptual lens. As a former PYP Coordinator myself, the dialogue around the curriculum is something I truly love! I find that this collaborative process gets us all outside of ourselves and open to the potential to what’s possible (and interesting!) to explore. Cindy walked us through this process with such an ease, leading with two questions:
How is this relevant?
What’s actually authentic (to the learner and the learning)?
I quickly jotted these down on a few sticky notes and have them at the ready in my inquiry journal. While these questions are ones I’ve asked teachers myself, I know we all need a good nudge and reminder sometimes and these were perfect as I’m working my way through some end of the year reflections with teachers and schools.
If you missed this event or want to revisit some of the concepts explored that day, the recording is up available. I highly encourage you to catch the replay! I’ve already seen some great sharing by the educators who attended the event and would love to see and hear what you try with your learners. Find me on Twitter and Instagram…let’s inspire and support one another shall we?!
