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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Less Teaching, More Assessing?

I must admit this title on a recent Education Update from ASCD grabbed my attention. I was immediately reminded of Marzano's What Works in Schools. Marzano's compilation of years of research shows that timely feedback is critical for student learning.
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe support this when they note that the essence of good instruciton does not lie in the presentation of the content, but in assessing student understanding and coaching for better performance. Assessing student learning helps teachers monitor and adjust to maximize performance.
To meet standards, students need multiple ways to interact with new learning. Teachers need to build time into the schedule for feedback. It's the outcome--the assessment of the standards-- that matters, not the input--the content. According to Wiggins, good feedback is timely, ongoing, expert, accurate, and consistent. It is user friendly and specific. Good feedback helps students to understand where they can make improvements. It does not tell them what to do.
Do we have enough time in our schedules for feedback?

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