Performance, Feedback Revision

All too often our students wait until a quiz or a test to tell them what they know and don't know.  By then, it's too late.

As an aside, a test never truly tells what students know or don't know, but that's another conversation.

At the heart of that problem is this question: Do we as teachers create opportunities for students to identify the gaps in their understanding?  The best way to do this, is through some sort of formative assessment.  Through that assessment, they're going to realize if they understand it or don't.

Bababa Brinkman has this funny video about evolution called Performance, Feedback, Revision.  He has a line that says, 

"How do humans learn to do anything? Like this: Performance, Feedback, Revision." 

Here's the video: 

We have to create a routine in our classes where students can perform (be assessed). Get feedback (identify their gaps).  Revise (relearn).  Then repeat the process again.

The Problem with Assessment

The problem with most assessments is the fact that they are often punitive.  This makes the assessment product focused, because what matters in the end is a grade.  This opens the door to anxiety and nervousness about performing well.  What's worse, it can promote negative behaviors such as cheating. Why would a kid cheat? Because getting a good grade is what matters. No matter the cost.

What I'd argue matters, and I think most teachers would agree, is growth and learning above all. It's about the process.  It's about performance, feedback, revision.  Yet, if we continue to place weight on the grade or end product, we're not really putting our money where our mouth is.  We need to place value in the learning process.   

See my related post from 2015, What have you learned from the PROCESS?

The Other Problem with Assessment

It's often TEACHER FOCUSED.  It's the teacher assessing the students to identify their progress.   In the case of formative assessments, such as exit tickets, cold calling, or any kind of quiz, it's all about the teacher getting the pulse of the class, and individual students.  While this is important for us to make sure we're pacing properly, meeting students where they are at, and adapting as necessary, it's of equal importance for students to gain that knowledge.  

The Three Rules to Guide Us: 

• Students need regular formative assessment to identify gaps in their understanding. Otherwise, they don't know what they don't know.

• Value needs to be placed on the PROCESS of performance, feedback, revision not just the Product/Performance, otherwise you end up with kids that only care about the grade, and not their growth. 

• Formative Assessments need to be STUDENT FOCUSED. Teachers AND students need immediate access to the results so they can repeat the performance, feedback, revision process.

Putting it together.

I argue that teachers need to have a system or routine in place to frequently quiz their students.  There's Khan Academy, Quizz, InnerOrbit, Flipgrid, Kahoot, Canvas, and so many more. Whatever quizzing method you choose to use, it needs to be quick, easy to complete and grade, standards based, targeted, and immediately available for students and teacher to adjust as necessary.  If you must, give them a grade for doing it, but don't grade based on how they did.

Some argue that this should be done every single day.  In their book the EduProtocol Field Guide, Marlena Hebern and Jon Corippo argue that quizzing every day can replace instruction all together in some instances. They're a big proponent of Quizz.

See also this New York Times article on the subject of quizzing every day.  To Really Learn, Quit studying and Take a Test.

Canvas

Since we use Canvas as our Learning Management System at LGSUHSD, all of our coursework is housed within that system.  There is a Quiz feature that allows you to create a myriad of assessments.  I'll be doing a series of 1CoolThing videos on how to create Canvas quizzes soon.

Early on in our school adoption of Canvas I spent a year making all of my quizzes on Canvas. For every lecture, I created a corresponding nongraded formative quiz, called the CFU, for Check For Understanding.  I made students complete this every other night (we have block schedule). It didn't count towards their grade, but was required.

Having a regular, low stress, quiz immediately after the introduction of content had a transformative effect on my class, and served as a system for helping students to track and take ownership of their learning .

One year my co-teacher and I compared testing scores with those who regularly completed our CFU quizzes.  The results were astounding, and we pointed it out in class that year, and every subsequent year.

The students who regularly took the CFU had a testing average a FULL LETTER GRADE above those who regularly DIDN'T take the CFU.

Here's my advice on how to create a system that meets the three rules:

1. Create practice quizzes that do not count towards a student's grade.  See: types of quizzes.  
2. Give them daily or every other day.  
3. Keep them short: <10 minutes and  <10 questions.
4. Tell students not to "cheat" on this.  You don't care if they get them wrong or right. Tell them to treat it like a real test so they are authentically assessing their understanding at that point.
5. Set it up so that students get their results immediately.
6. Allow students to take them as often as possible.
7. Look at the results immediately after students take them, and use them to influence your instruction.
8. Ask students to reflect on their learning.  Constantly reinforce the importance of learning as a process of performance, feedback, revision.

Here's an image I often draw on the board and use as a discussion about studying and learning in general:

Final Thoughts

I'm not going to lie, making these Canvas quizzes is work.  It takes time to create the questions, especially if you're embedding multimedia.  But it's an investment. After I spent a year creating mine, I've been using them ever since.  My advice? Partner up with a course alike colleague and divide up the work. Canvas' ability to import/export content makes it very easy to jigsaw these quizzes and share with each other. The more you collaborate, the easier it is.

Why would they do it if it's not graded?  In making regular formative assessments a norm in your class, you're creating a culture of constant improvement and iteration.  You'll have to have conversations about the importance of identifying gaps in their understanding.  If you make the quizzing fun or part of the class routine, everyone will do it.  If you are like me, and have it as part of their homework, then you're going to have students who don't always do it.  I created incentives such as several times throughout the semester I would turn a quiz into actual points. Anyone who did the quiz, got 5 points in their testing category; anyone who didn't, got a zero. While this was punitive in a way, it also was a reward for those putting in the work, and often kids made it a priority.

Many people are looking to Canvas as a way of doing summative assessments. While this may work in some cases, I'd argue Canvas quizzes, or online quizzes for that matter, are FAR MORE POWERFUL when used strictly as a formative assessment that are STUDENT CENTERED, LOW STAKES, and PROCESS oriented.

Next conversation is to think about alternative summative assessments. For that, I'd encourage you to check out this post by my colleague Steph Rothstein: Meaningful Finals


Share your thoughts in the comments.  Thanks for reading.