I remember making a note to self about coming to office hours that afternoon. After thinking for a few minutes about my question, I decided to ask here in class instead of waiting until office hours. Hearing the “oohhs!” of my classmates, I was relieved to hear some of my peers had the same question.
~MC (from the 2/8/11 journal)
The opportunities to reflect and ask questions are incredibly important. How often do our learners leave class without asking their question? For whatever reason, questions go unasked and unanswered. From our friend, Grant Lichtman, we embrace the idea from The Art of Questioning chapter in The Falconer: What we wished we had learned in school.
Have we ever stopped to ask “What do you need or what would you like to learn or work on tomorrow?” If we want more student-directed learning, wouldn’t a great first step be to involve them in the planning of tomorrow’s lessons?
Yesterday, I sent out a #20minwms tweet at the 2o minute mark in class, but I also used exit cards as an additional opportunity for my learners to help inform our next steps in their learning. I chose 4 to tweet as evidence of learning from class. These learners from Algebra I said:
If you read my previous post, you will share in my excitement for GW. I was very pleased with the notes and ideas on all of their exit card. Then on my way to dinner, one of my Synergy 8 learners asked a great question.
I explained my version of the day’s exit card and the following conversation happened. To be clear, @TaraWestminster and @fencersz are two of our Synergy 8 learners while @bcgymdad and @danelled111 are my teammates.
While I’ve been considering how to promote more student-directed learning for quite some time, I have to admit that I have never considered student-directed common formative assessment. Isn’t it great that these two bright young learners feel they have a voice in their learning and assessment? Won’t you join me in applauding their advocacy for themselves and other learners? Doesn’t this show that we are a community of learners? We learn from each other; we focus on learning and questioning.
It is about lifelong learning!
_________________________________________
Lichtman, Grant, and Sunzi. The Falconer: What We Wish We Had Learned in School.
New York: IUniverse, 2008. 35. Print.
Experiments in Learning by Doing 
Do you give formative assessments as a pre and post test? Or a pre or post test?
LikeLike
Hi Staci…
We give formative assessments to help our learners calibrate where they are and where they need to be. Sometimes, but not very often, we give a leveled formative assessment as a diagnostic assessment prior to teaching. I suppose we could call it a pre-test. Most of the time, we have our learners level their understanding in the middle of the learning cycle. This helps us (and them) adjust the course to meet all needs.
Does this answer your questions? How else can I help?
LikeLike