Assessment In My Classroom

Assessment is one of those things in progressive schools that can be hard to see. We don't give grades. We don't give "tests." There are no pop-quizzes.

Recently, I asked the kids to create advice columns with answers for the characters problems in "Clarice Bean Spells Trouble." I did this because as much as I love writer's workshop, my kids are at an age where publishing means they want to write a twenty-page story and publish their "novel." I've not had as much time to edit these enormous stories, and therefore, do not have as many teaching opportunities to discuss spelling, conventions, plot, and so on with them. I decided to give them shorter one-day assignments more frequently, so they could then publish shorter pieces more often, in addition to their novels.

They had been giving some excellent advice. Some of the kids actually asked for grades on this assignment. I had been thinking about how I would do that... or if I would, or if they could grade themselves. This is not something I would make a habit of, but often kids this age want grades and will ask for them, especially since most have never had a grade, a report card or anything like that before. Writing, of course, being so objective is the hardest thing to grade! The problem with grades, for many, is that students will do the minimum needed to get a good grade. I was reading an article by Alfie Kohn, who writes about educational issues, and this is what he said about grades, "I’d been looking for an alternative to grades because research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself."

In subjects like math, which I can look at in a more quantitative way, I will often give a more formal assessment. Often, this is simply a worksheet similar to the others they do on occasion, but I give it out with the intention that I will use it to gauge what they understood formally- meaning I will not help them as much, and they work alone instead of with their friends. I will measure this against what I have taught, how much of it I taught, and how well they seemed to understand it during the lessons and practice activities. Other times, I have given an assessment where I ask the kids to write a story problem they feel is tricky, but not so tricky they can't solve it. This is very revealing, not only about their skill level, but also about their confidence. I have had kids go back and revise original story problems because I thought they were being too hard or easy on themselves. It's a very different way of assessing a student. In addition to these more formal assessments, I watch the kids play games, and work through problems, listen to them talk to their table mates about what they are working on, or the questions they ask during discussions. These are all wonderful ways for me to see what they understand and what skills they need practice in. Sometimes I do "math conferences" where I sit with a child and ask them about math, and do an assessment on the skills we have worked on thus far, but one on one, verbally, rather than written.

During reading, I am constantly assessing the ideas and questions they ask during shared reading of our periodicals and read aloud. During conferences about their self-selected book, I discuss plot with them, their connections to the book, questions they have, words they may or may not understand and so on. We have written responses to books and articles as well, and I am able to see how they understood the article by the responses they give to specific comprehension questions. I also often ask that they form opinions on what they read and use evidence from the text to back up their opinions. This helps me see how they are understanding and connecting to what we read. I also do a "running record" about every 4-6 weeks, which measures how accurately they can read a passage in a minute, how many words per minute they read and how they comprehend the material. These are "grade level" passages, simply because they are made by a company that looks at grade level, but I am mostly looking for progression over time. I have the students self-assess their reading often, by asking them how they feel about their reading, their choice of book, their understanding of a book and whether or not it feels easy, just right or challenging. They are often very thoughtful in their responses.

Writing is the hardest to assess. So many things go into a good piece of writing. I look at conventions, of course, such as spelling, grammar, capitals and periods. The students use a checklist to correct these on their own, or with my help. They are to correct these and write them correctly in their final draft. This is a skill students need to learn to do, and often, once they have corrected it with me, if they don't get everything right on their "final draft" I don't always make them correct it again, depending on their age and experience. This is a skill that takes time and requires careful tracking from one page to the next. It's difficult for many younger kids, especially as they begin to write more and more on a page. Aside from conventions, I look at their voice, organization, sentence fluency, word choice and ideas. I also look to see if they wrote about what was asked and if they followed directions if the assignment had directions, rather than was a published piece from their journal. I want each child to be putting forth their best effort on all of their tasks. Writing is an area that is looked at over time. From their first journal entry, I can see where a child is at, and use that information to make sure the skills I teach are going to help the child move onto the next phase in their writing development. Word "study" is the easiest part of writing to assess for me, because it becomes clear as I correct work, how many new spelling words, patterns and conventions or increased vocabulary a child has acquired. It's always fun toward the middle of the year, when we have been working on spelling for awhile, when I can hand a child back their rough draft and tell them there are no or hardly any words to correct!

Lastly, one of the things I assess is how much the child is working to his or her capacity. I can look at a homework assignment or an in-class task and see when a child has put forth as much as they could into a project. I am not below sending a child back to fix something again and again, if it seems to me that they are rushing something, or trying to get as little out as possible, especially if it is a subject that comes easily for them. More than any academic skill, having the ability to stick to something when it is hard put thought into it when it seems easy and do it even when you don't really want to, are some of the things I think will make a child a strong student when they leave our school. (Of course this along with creativity, open-mindedness, curiosity, etc. etc.)

Oh, and as for the graded advice columns? It never happened. We got so busy with a borrowed science kit from a museum that a week went by and they went untouched. I gave the students a choice to edit and revise the advice columns, or work on their journals. Many finished the advice column, but no one asked again about grades.

Complete Alfie Kohn Article

School Rules

In my own life, I have always been a bit of a rule breaker. As far back as I can remember, I was asking, "why?" and "how come?" and trying to test the boundaries set up for me by the adults in my life. Perhaps that is why I like the kind of educational system I am a part of now. It allows kids to question, make decisions and grow to respect legitimate authority without a lot of rules and condemnations. It also doesn't trivialize children and their ability to form opinions and think through problems.

As the school year begins, I teach various procedures and set up my expectations for my class. We go over how to turn in work, how I get their attention, how to come into the room, how to listen and share ideas during meetings, and the list goes on. Every part of the day, from the time they come in, to the time they leave is run by procedures. A classroom would not flow well without them. Teaching procedures gives the kids independence to solve their own problems, take care of their own business and the opportunity to develop self-direction.

My first year at this school, I began the year setting up procedures with the class as always. Several weeks into the school year, we had a smooth running class. They were listening, raising hands, speaking kindly towards one another, just what a teacher would hope for. Then came the rain. The kids asked, "Do we have to wear our coats?" I asked another teacher what the general coat wearing rules were, and she had told me in her class they had to wear a coat outside all the time. So I told the kids, "You need to wear a coat outside." Well, believe it or not, this simple rule set off a huge debate amongst the parents in my class. At parent night I was inundated with questions about it. I was told that in a sibling’s class, they were allowed to CHOOSE whether or not they wore coats. Another parent told me that he didn't want his child to think not wearing a coat would get him sick. I kept the coat rule all year, and heard about it several more times throughout the year from the parents and the children.

So the next year, I did not make a coat rule. I said, “If you are cold, wear a coat.” Well, what do you know, the first rainy day, they were running around in the rain getting soaking wet. A couple of kids stood beneath the gutters and got completely and totally soaked to the bone. I was standing inside watching this happen. I rang the bell to call them in, and the wet kids came to the door. I said, "I'm sorry, I can't have you come into class. If you are that wet, the materials you use will get ruined, and you can't sit on the carpet, because it also will get wet." They look at me surprised. I told them, "Go dry off in the bathroom, then you can join us." They came back to class somewhat dry and sat shivering during morning meeting. Toward the end of the meeting, I asked them if we needed to discuss a coat rule. I told them that the year before, there was a rule that everyone always had to wear a coat outside. Most of the kids didn't like this rule. "I don't get cold," "I hate wearing a coat," "You can't move your arms as well in a coat..." Their reasons went on and on. We needed to come to a decision. I quite frankly did not like my old rule either, so was interested in hearing what the kids would say. The overwhelming idea among the students was to be thoughtful in the choice about wearing a coat. Most students agreed that standing under the gutter is not a good idea. The few holdouts over the gutter debate, spoke their mind about how they were just having fun and wanted to be able to do it again. The others sat shivering, and agreed, it was fun once, but not as fun to be cold in class afterwards. We came to some classroom wide agreements about coats and gutters in this discussion. The kids decided they would be smart about wearing a coat. If they were cold, they would put it on, and if they wanted to play in the rain and get soaked, they would bring a change of clothes, leave recess early so they could change and meet back in the class at the same time as everyone else. Well, no one ever played in the rain again to that degree. (By the way, the room was nice and toasty, so I wasn't worried about them getting sick or anything. After the meeting, we called home and the kids got some clothes brought to school to change into.) The rest of the year, kids would often go outside, play for a few minutes and come back in for their coat. They were wise in the choice about wearing a coat. They learned to be aware of what their body was telling them.

Most rules in my class come about this way. Setting up a lot of do’s and don’ts at the beginning of the year and telling the students what they can and can’t do creates the feeling that the adults around them don’t trust them. Teaching procedures and having the expectation that they can and will follow procedures because it makes the flow of the class run smoothly, establishes clear guidelines for behavior but does not enforce the why’s and how comes of rules. They make sense. You know why they have to be done this way.

As we begin to have morning meeting, we discuss what makes us feel like we are being listened to. These become our meeting guidelines. As we work in small groups, we discuss how groups feel like when they are working well together. The students’ ideas become group work guidelines. Throughout the year, throughout the days, we set up rules in school to help the children communicate, gain independence and remain safe in their environment.

Photo Diary

I think viewing what we do in class will make it easier to see what we do. Once school starts I will be able to share the experiences of each day. Since one day can be so different from the next, and curriculum can change moment to moment, there is no way to post a schedule, or list my curriculum or share in any way, except to share what happens- as it happens. Since it is July, and that's not possible, I thought I would share some past photos.



One thing I love about our school is it's setting. Our classroom doors open into a wooded area, and a playground. The kids have ample time to play, explore and create in these woods each day. Outside time and free time are a valued part of the "curriculum." Last year, kids spent months building this dug out, and used branches that fell from a storm to create a very solid roof. They often had shovels, saws and other tools out to aid in the building of their structure. Every child in the class became involved in some way. Kids from other classes also helped. While building the fort, the kids worked out social conflicts as they arose, discovered the downside of clubs, and also reinacted one of our read alouds, "Holes" by Luis Sachar. The children began to use nicknames, as the children in the book did, and we extended this to our classwork, as they wrote acrostic poems with the names, and the story of how each of them chose a name, or was given a name by the group.



Ah, Legos! While not a staple in most 2nd, 3rd or 4th grade classes, this was the choice activity for many kids in my class. Any chance they got, the lego bin was open. We have 3 choice times daily, which end up being well over an hour a day. These times can be spent indoors or out. It is quite unusual these days, to be given this much "play" time in school. Because the interest in legos was so intense this year, I ended up introducing a unit we called, "Small World." I introduced an economy system, and the students created a lego character, business and created a family with a group. Using the economy, we opened the market, and students sold goods and services for their lego people. Aside from simply being a math investigation, this became a social studies project, as we examined the larger context of what makes a society just. We looked at the economy of Small World and talked about economics, scarcity, supply and demand as well as capitalism, communism and socialism. Students debated which system would work best for Small World. After seeing the play “Goin’ Someplace Special,” which was about segregation, we worked on creating ways for Small World to have as much equality as possible. Students discussed ways of making it a fair society so that everyone was included, and had enough of what they needed.



We use the TERC Investigations math curriculum, but each teacher supplements quite a lot. I like the program for our school because it allows us to extend each investigation due to it's open endedness. For example, we were using the book from the 3rd grade curriculum called "From Paces to Feet" which focuses on measurement. A child brought in a 'life size' poster of 6'8" Mariner's player, Richie Sexton. This was quite intriguing to the students. Each child was measured by a partner and compared their height to his (addition/subtraction.) Because he is so tall, this peaked more interest in height. We found the average height of the children in our classroom, the polled and found the height of other kids the same age in our school. We found the mean, median, mode and average height for a 7, 8 and 9 year old at our school. The Guiness Book of World Records is an all-time favorite in our class. We found the heights of the smallest and tallest men and women in the book. The children then compared their height to those people. An activity in the curriculum asks the kids to measure their feet, and their parents feet. It also has them look at the feet of a person in the record book. We read that Matthew McGrory (2005) had the largest feet, and was known to spend $20,000 on a pair of shoes. As an art project, we designed life sized shoes for him. We were going to send him a letter, but unfortunately found that he had passed away. Ironically, this happened the year before as well, and since I keep kids for 2 years, they remembered this well. A boy declared, "This class is cursed! It must be because we learn cursive!"



Literacy is taught through reading and writer's workshop. It is quite individualized. Reading is done mostly with SSR (self-selected reading) and I conference with the kids each week, or more often, since I have a small class. This is a picture of a student reading with her book buddy. Book buddies are from a 4-5 class (pre-K) and they would come once a week. They read books the buddies picked out, books they had practiced for fluency, and books they had written themselves. Sometimes, we also enjoyed a read aloud together. In addition to SSR and book buddies, the class also read several books together throughout the year in whole group guided reading. In Writer's Workshop, the kids write for about 35 minutes a day, and can write on any topic of their choice. We edit, revise and publish books.

What is Progressive Education?

I guess this is a pretty good question to start with... progressive education was founded on the research and educational philosophy of John Dewey, and has been part of the American Education system for about 100 years. What's complicated about it is this idea that today everything has a label. When I tell people about my school, they ask, "Is it Montessori? Waldorf? What is it?" It's as if everything needs to have a brand name. Progressive education cannot be so simply labeled. Montessori, especially is often misunderstood, and cannot even be defined by it's own label from school to school.

The other aspect about progressive education that complicates it's explanation, is that our educational system has already begun to use so much of it's philosophy as standard practice, that people have a hard time seeing how it is different from other types of schooling. Constructivist math, the use of manipulatives, inquiry science, writer’s and reader’s workshop... all has their roots in progressive teaching practices. But it's hard to delineate when the other side of education today is focused on NCLB, testing, scores, student achievement... very goal oriented. I would say progressive education has always been process over product, while schooling today, is focused primarily on the product, which in most cases is passing a test. This is very different.

So basically, it's hard to explain progressive education in our current educational context... people either expect it to be a brand, or to have some sort of outcome different from simply letting children experience and live their lives.

The video, "Big Kids at The Little School" is a terrific example of how kids see their school as different from others. They will be fast to point out that they don't have desks (tables instead) that they don't get grades, report cards, they call teachers by the first name... these are the obvious and easily seen aspects of our school. The subtle differences are what make us different. There is a lot to be said about what children experience in a progressive school, but also a lot to be said about a teacher's experience in a progressive school.

As a teacher, according to Dewey, I am to be trusted to know what is best for my own students. This means that no one else dictates what I do in my classroom. I am responsible for knowing each child on a very intimate level, and knowing how to teach each of my students. The administration and parents need to trust this. This means that I am constantly reviewing my practice, looking at curriculum, changing my ideas, taking classes and learning to teach differently for each group of students I work with.