posted by:
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Paul Black
on March 16, 2000
at 8:08AM
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subject:
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Response
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I appreciate the feeling of "challenge" that Trisha Herminghaus reports, with the difficulty of framing good comments. It is easier to give marks, but if the marker has difficulty giving meaning to these by framing comments, how much more difficult is it for the learner to make any meaning out of the marks ? So please continue with the struggle; if you can find opportunity to discuss with your teachers after they have had a chance to think about your comments, then this could be valuable in developing your practice - after all, we all need formative assessment of our work ! The report on the Fresno LSC science shows one way of helping with this process. The numbers (level 1 to 4 in this case) again tell you very little on their own - it is the rubrics which give them meaning. A good set of rubrics embody the criteria of quality, and with sample materials to flesh these out you have a really good programme. However, please remember that for the formative purpose, these ideas have to be conveyed to pupils so that they too can share the meanings of the levels. I'm not sure whether or not this is done by sharing the rubrics with them, or by picking out, for comments purposes, those elements of the rubrics that identify the further work that they need to do - perhaps it should be both. I'm pleased that Greg Kniseley has picked up the suggestions from our King's College project, and I look forward to hearing more from him, and from others, about how the use of question stems worked out. The list of ways of applying the question stems is very insightful - any or all of them are possible, and if the college students get their pupils involved in this way, it's hard to predict where the pupils will take the idea. Thanks also to Greg for the extra references; some I did know about, but had forgotten - I must look at them again. I agree with Greg that facilitating "science talks" is a most difficult and rewarding part of the work. My experience has been that pupils need to try doing it, and be supported as they do it badly at first, before some clarity and fluency develops. Here, as elsewhere, peer assessment might help : pupils might be asked to assess a talk, maybe working in samll groups, and present and compare their assessments. This helps all to develop criteria of quality. However, there has to be careful leadership, to steer tham away from negative and possibly hurtful comments about one anothe, so prhaps this should only be introduced after the first few tentative steps have been negotiated. There's useful material on work of this sort, as reported from several schools, in the collection edited by Linda Darling-Hammond and , J. Ancess and B.Falk - 1995, Teachers' College Press, entitled "Authentic Assessment in Action".
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