Making Classroom Assessment Meaningful for the Occasional Teacher (Occasional Teachers' Column)

Classroom assessment is a complex and challenging task for all teachers. Occasional teachers are partners in the daily assessment process and their  observations and tracking of student learning play an important role.

The Ministry of  Education’s  new policy, Growing  Success— Assessment,  Evaluation,  and   Reporting  in   Ontario  Schools, describes  assessment  as the process  of collecting information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving curriculum expectations  in a subject. Growing  Success  outlines three areas of assessment:

• Assessment for learning is the process of gathering and analyzing evidence to determine  where individual students are in their learning, where they need to go, and how to support them in getting there.
• Assessment for learning is ongoing and monitors student progress. It involves meaningful  feedback to students and differentiated instruction.
• Assessment as learning actively involves students in monitoring their own growth and progress.  Students use meaningful  feedback from teachers, peers, and self to develop next steps based on their strengths and needs.
• Assessment of learning is the gathering of evidence for the purpose of summarizing learning at given points in time. It involves making judgments  about the quality of student achievement and is used to communicate to parents, students, and others. Assessment of learning usually takes place toward the end of a learning cycle.

Other terms that  are  important to  understanding practical assessment are strategies and tools.

• Strategies are the tasks by which students show their learning and teachers assess student progress.  Strategies can include written reports, oral presentations, responses to texts, etc.
• Tools are instruments that are used to classify and record assessment information,  including anecdotal records,  running records,  observation checklists, rubrics, marking schemes,  rating scales, and learning logs.

Occasional teachers can be actively involved in the assessment process by  focusing on  assessment for learning and assessment as learning. While delivering daily programs, occasional teachers can make valuable  observations  about the strengths and needs of  students. Short notes about  student work can be helpful to students and classroom  teachers. These observational notes and related feedback to students are also valuable in a variety of ways to occasional  teachers. Carrying through with meaningful  assessment in  the absence of the homeroom teacher provides students  with continuity of programming, and taking time to observe  students completing  tasks and sitting with them to provide feedback  is an important way to make positive  connections. Powerful feedback motivates learners to stay on task and apply their best efforts. When students are motivated and engaged they usually behave appropriately.

Assessment is a collaborative  process that involves all stakeholders—students, peers, teachers, and parents.  Teachers’ professional judgment is critical in all areas of daily assessment. The Growing Success  policy includes the  following definition of professional judgment in its glossary:

Judgment that is informed by professional  knowledge of curriculum expectations, context, evidence of learning, methods of instruction and assessment, and the criteria and standards that indicate success in student learning. In professional practice, judgment involves a purposeful and systematic thinking process that evolves in terms of accuracy and insight with ongoing reflection and self- correction.

The  ongoing  daily  assessments that  all  teachers plan  and facilitate are by far the most meaningful  for students, teachers, and parents. They are planned around differentiated instruction and meeting the needs of individual  students. Occasional teachers support these  priorities  and  are  partners in  this process. Their professional  judgment is  appreciated  and supports the development of next steps for program planning and student growth.

Attached is  a  tear-out  assessment tool  that  occasional teachers can use to track their observations  of student  learning. The assessment records of occasional teachers count in the collaboration process!