Like is not a bad word. If you need to compare something like is the perfect word to use. For example planning in the summer is like ripping off a fresh band-aid that clings to every hair, you just got to do it. I am not an English teacher, but I believe we even call that a simile. Like gets a bad rep because we over use it. We put it into sentences it does not belong in and fall back on it when we loose our train of thought. The main purpose for like is not bad. Tracking data is the same thing.
No one in education can argue that tracking data is pointless or a waste of time. I fully support data tracking data and had positive results after rethinking how I used data in my classroom. Tracking data allows teachers and students to assess what they learned and make adjustments to their lessons. I have always tracked summative assessments at the end of unit to see trends in classes, student growth or decline, and have a reliable measure of each students mastery per TEK. I track that information over the year and make decisions on class wide vs individual review throughout the year. It takes more time after an assessment than just grading, but the information I can analyze from it is extremely valuable.
While formative assessments are extremely important to use to see students day-to-day mastery and either adjust lessons or review misconceptions, I would not track daily lessons. From a daily formative assessment I need to know WHAT the students had trouble with, not only how many passed. I also want the student to see what was expected from them that day and apply their learning to know if they got it or not. Tracking this data daily over the year would provide over 150 individual pieces of data per student in addition to assessment data. Just like, if you like, kinda like, use the word like to much, the message looses its importance. Too much data can loose its important. In addition this data may not be the most reliable. Maybe that day was the fire drill, the rainy day, the day you were sick, or just confusing, you can review it in the do now or a quick mini lesson the next day in a new way. The goal of a daily assessment is to get information, to make adjustment to future lessons with, so that students understand the topic and do not have those misconceptions on a summative assessment, which can then be tracked to make larger unit adjustments on a class wide and student level. BOOM! (now take a deep breath)
So lets be really honest for a second. Who are we really tracking here. To me it seems like another teacher compliance test. Are teachers giving DOLs and are teachers having good results on those. Teachers will need to rethink how to design their DOLs to be tracked easily or take some time to grade each one and post this information. How long before every teacher miraculously has between 75% and 85% mastery every day? Second six weeks?
It is time to get back the basic purpose of tracking. Helping students learn.
No one in education can argue that tracking data is pointless or a waste of time. I fully support data tracking data and had positive results after rethinking how I used data in my classroom. Tracking data allows teachers and students to assess what they learned and make adjustments to their lessons. I have always tracked summative assessments at the end of unit to see trends in classes, student growth or decline, and have a reliable measure of each students mastery per TEK. I track that information over the year and make decisions on class wide vs individual review throughout the year. It takes more time after an assessment than just grading, but the information I can analyze from it is extremely valuable.
While formative assessments are extremely important to use to see students day-to-day mastery and either adjust lessons or review misconceptions, I would not track daily lessons. From a daily formative assessment I need to know WHAT the students had trouble with, not only how many passed. I also want the student to see what was expected from them that day and apply their learning to know if they got it or not. Tracking this data daily over the year would provide over 150 individual pieces of data per student in addition to assessment data. Just like, if you like, kinda like, use the word like to much, the message looses its importance. Too much data can loose its important. In addition this data may not be the most reliable. Maybe that day was the fire drill, the rainy day, the day you were sick, or just confusing, you can review it in the do now or a quick mini lesson the next day in a new way. The goal of a daily assessment is to get information, to make adjustment to future lessons with, so that students understand the topic and do not have those misconceptions on a summative assessment, which can then be tracked to make larger unit adjustments on a class wide and student level. BOOM! (now take a deep breath)
So lets be really honest for a second. Who are we really tracking here. To me it seems like another teacher compliance test. Are teachers giving DOLs and are teachers having good results on those. Teachers will need to rethink how to design their DOLs to be tracked easily or take some time to grade each one and post this information. How long before every teacher miraculously has between 75% and 85% mastery every day? Second six weeks?
It is time to get back the basic purpose of tracking. Helping students learn.
RSS Feed