Connected Educator Month kicked off October 1! As we head into the second week of CEM, October 8th-15th, NCTE will be hosting and promoting activities related to “Where are We and Where are We Going? (try,reflect, and act) Reflection and Direction“.
When you take a road trip, your experience is guided as much by the journey as the goal of the end destination. All along the route you use a whole dashboard of tools to gauge your progress and your current situation – how much gas is in the tank? How far does the GPS say you have to go? Is there traffic ahead? How might you re-route? Can you see what’s behind you in order to merge? Is the engine running too hot? Our ability to answer these questions and make choice decisions along the way is greatly enhanced when we collaborate with others who are along for the ride. Similarly, instructional decisions, guided by myriad assessment tools, are similarly enhanced when they’re made in collaboration with colleagues. This week we’ll explore ways to work together to use the evidence we get from assessments to reflect on the learning journey and make decisions about where we go from here.
Please also join us as we participate in these activities all month long:
- Innovations in Assessment: Read and React discussions will be occurring throughout the month of October. Join this discussion group on the National Center for Literacy Education’s network, the Literacy in Learning Exchange, to read and discuss research articles and studies from a variety of organizations on the topic of assessment. Join Community Facilitator and Professional Learning Specialist Lara Hebert in facilitated conversations around two articles each week. Topics include formative and summative assessment, standardized assessment, portfolios, standards-based grading, and more. Go to the Literacy in Learning Exchange to learn more.
- Using Social Networks to Build and Share Collective Wisdom: #WhatWeHonor. When we begin to think about meaningful and equitable assessments, we inevitably think about those measures of learning that deserve as much and even more honor than standardized assessments because these measures can tell us more about student learning, growth, context, and ongoing needs. And different situations call for different tools and strategies. During the month of October, follow and contribute to the #WhatWeHonor conversations and sharing of assessment tools and artifacts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Tag resources and blogs related to formative assessment; share your most tried-and-true rubrics, observation protocols, conferencing strategies, and more; post a video of your collaborative team discussing the power of looking at student work together; and make any other contributions you can think of that can change the conversation about assessment to focus on more than annual standardized testing.
Other events of interest:
- Join Us as We Kickoff “Innovations in Assessment” with a webinar Monday, October 5 at 8:00 p.m. EDT
- Check out these Formative Assessment Illustrations and Examples.
- Learn more about a systemic tool for assessment – the asset inventory.