A REAL PERSONALIZED ASSESSMENT

“For learning to take place with any kind of efficiency students must be motivated. To be motivated, they must become interested. And they become interested when they are actively working on projects which they can relate to their values and goals in life”. - Gus Tuberville, President, William Penn College

The consummate professional will conduct basic diagnostic assessments tailored to each specific subject area at the beginning of the school year. Like a physician, this methodology will provide the teacher with baseline data on students’ current skills levels and deficiencies. The results will supply you, the practitioner with the necessary information to prescribe an exact plan of action in the form of a study plan to remedy and accelerate your students’ abilities. These results should always be used to implement a course of study in a positive way to help each student track his or her own personal progress with you.

Routinely monitoring progress instills accountability. Dedicated professionals that are serious about student improvement will give the same, or similar assessments at least every three weeks. Consistent monitoring not only promotes the efficacy of student progress, it conveys that the expectations you have are real and hold extreme importance for you. Students will sense you are doing this because you really care and the learning will become a challenging game rather than a chore. After all, the child should always be the winner!

These steps will help your application of assessment data accomplish the best results:

Step one: Use assessment results to inform your teaching and student learning.

With the exception of normal quarterly and semester grades, I was astonished to learn, a significant number of teachers fail to discuss assessments with their students. Failure to provide students feedback is unfair. Students without assessments are like ships without compasses. They won't know where they are and, therefore, won't be able to navigate toward the goal. It deprives students of the incentive to work toward self-improvement, and keeps them in the dark about what the expectations are. Students are naturally goal oriented. They are eager participants, especially when given the opportunity to set their own goals. In order to use the personalized assessment results toward improving student learning, follow these simple steps:

1. Share the knowledge of specific areas where growth is needed with the student.


2. Set stiff targets toward known goals the student agrees to meet.

Knowledge is power. It brings as much joy to my heart as it does to each student when they manage to meet or beat their own target. For example, can you imagine what it is like when an eleventh grade student, who began the year reading at third grade level, finally achieves the goal of reaching eleventh grade reading level? I would never have thought anything could bring tears to this young man’s eyes; but it happened. Naturally, I excused him from the room momentarily so he wouldn’t be embarrassed. After class he told me he could never thank me enough for believing in him and helping him achieve what he thought was (and incredibly had been told was) impossible. I thanked him, but told him he was the one that had done all the hard work. This is exactly how knowledge of where you are, and what your next target is, works magic.

Step Two: Ascertain what motivates your students.

How can we actually motivate our students to want to learn? Here is a “personalized” assessment I found to be extremely helpful:
1. I passed out lined paper to my students.

2. I thanked them for their hard work in completing the various assessments.
3. I stated, “While completing these assessments, perhaps some of you found an area that you never learned about previously, or that you would like to improve on.”
4. I instructed the students to fold the paper in half, length-wise.
5. I asked them to make two columns.
6. On top of the left column, I had them write: “What skill(s) would I like to learn more about or improve on this year.”
7. On top of the right column, I had them write: “What would I really like to know or find out about just for me.”
8. I instructed the students to list one, two or three items in each column.

This gives you the “personalized assessment.” Simple as it seems, this tool will yield a fruitful crop. First of all, students tend to know themselves pretty well. They are keenly aware of their shortcomings; hence they will write down real areas they need to address. As the teacher, you would, of course consult your professional assessment data when working out a learning plan with each student. To add to this fruit cocktail, students will write down some very interesting topics they’d like to learn more about, just for themselves. This is the whipped cream topping. It affords the perfect material for research projects they will actually want to do and will therefore learn from. Furthermore, students will be excited to teach their classmates (by delivering presentations), about all the new knowledge they have gleaned on a topic that truly motivates their curiosity. The perfect parfait is ready. You have now opened the doors for real learning to take place.

”To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.” Tryon Edwards, American theologian.
How can I best prepare my students for the upcoming State Testing? A special blog posting next Sunday will give you some great answers.