Classroom Assessment for Learning

I’m standing in my classroom as a new teacher, looking out at the empty room, very anxious. I know that I want to meet every student at their level and help them to learn at their own pace. However, there are Common Core Standards, State Standards, State Testing, data to deliver, and many other requirements that put pressure on teachers to push, push, push students to go faster. Yet, in my new teacher mind, something feels off. What is the point of pushing students to go faster and faster if they don’t actually comprehend the material? How do I do my classroom material and assessments to meet all their needs? How do I engineer classroom assessment for learning?

As a new teacher, I wondered and then continued to wonder as I got more experience teaching,  if it will actually help students on the state tests, simply “being exposed” to all the required material. It doesn’t make sense to just push students to go faster and faster if they are not mastering the material. Shouldn’t I go slowly until all the students understand a concept well before I go on to the next topic? But then what about the advanced students who will be bored and not be allowed to master the amount of material they are capable of mastering? Going at the pace of the slowest student would be doing the advanced students a disservice.

When I chose to Mastery Gamify my classroom and change my assessments from a ‘final event’ to boss battles where students had multiple lives (attempts) to pass, I changed my style from a pressured, stressful event to much less pressure system of  classroom assessment for learning.

In this system of classroom assessment for learning, my students are able to tell me when they are ready to try the assessment. Or they could also use one of their lives (attempts) right away on the boss battle to get a feel for the assessment and they try again later for actual passing. This system is forgiving of student mistakes because they have multiple lives to complete the assessment. This system also helps students to develop grit because students are not allowed to just “take the D” and move on. They are required to keep trying until they achieve the minimum mastery level of 75% in my classroom.

Another benefit of this system is that students master material at their own pace. Students who need more time to master the material can have more time. Students who need less time to master the material can jump ahead at their breakneck speeds. This allows for differentiation of different academic abilities and all the students are mastering the basics (power standards) for the subject.

Sounds Great! But…

This all sounds great! But how in the world does one teacher pull this off? It can seem like a lot at the beginning. The great thing about this system is that, once it is created, this system is pretty easy to maintain. It’s a front-loading system where the teacher does the work at the beginning and then just tweeks the system as it goes on. If you set up assessments online, you can also minimize your time grading tests manually! When I was a new teacher using traditional methods and grading papers by hand, all of my “free time” was taken up with manually grading papers. I did not become a teacher to manually grade papers all the time. I became a teacher to create systems that help students learn and then to watch the students grow! 

Therefore, if you want to repurpose your grading time to maintaining a system that students enjoy and uses classroom assessment for learning, I’d love to share what I did in my Mastery Gamified classroom.

Testing Window

Assessments for learning in a Mastery Gamified classroom give students the flexibility to take the time they need to master the material. Now, as teachers, we also have to deal with the reality of deadlines for marking periods and data collection. The best way I’ve found to deal with this duality in the classroom is to give a “testing window” for each level assessment. Generally, I’ll give students a two week testing window. During this testing window, students can attempt the test and the only grade that will go in the grade book is if they meet the minimum mastery level. If students test and do not meet the minimum mastery level, that grade will not count during the testing window. If the student does not attempt to take the assessment during the testing window, no problem.

Once the two week testing window closes, all the grades become active in the grade book. If the student earned less than the minimum mastery level on their test, that grade becomes active. If the student did not attempt the test, that grade becomes a 0 in the grade book. This is the point that many students who have not prioritized the test realize that they need to focus and get it done quickly.

Yet these grades in a Mastery Gamification classroom are not permanent. A student may temporarily have a low grade if they missed the testing window however, I still give the student the opportunity to redo the grade any time within our marking period. In a Mastery Gamification, it’s necessary to give students unlimited redos because, without them, they cannot move on to the next level.

Providing this two week testing window is the best way I have found to take the best of mastery-learning and tie it into a modern school schedule.

What About Students Who Still Struggle?

You may find that, depending on your subject and population, that some students still struggle, even with the two week testing window and unlimited redo policy. Along with the strategies listed above, I’ve found that differentiating my assessments also helps students to work at their own pace and mastery material within their academic ability.

Differentiation tests can be a strange concept but I’ve found great results with it in class. This concept is also built on the video game rules that Mastery Gamification is based on. Having differentiated tests is just like switching the difficulty mode in a video game.  In my Mastery Gamified classroom, I offer 3 different test levels. I offer a test where the student can earn a maximum of 100%, another where the student can earn a maximum of 85%, and a third where students can earn a maximum of 75%.

I teach Spanish language and, while I fully believe in all the cognitive and social benefits of mastering a second language (especially Spanish), not all my students share those priorities. They may not be planning to do anything with Spanish in their life after school and my expectations in my Mastery Gamified classroom are overwhelming and defeating. Some students are not interested in earning an A in my class. Some of my students are just interested in exploring a little bit of Spanish and then moving on. Therefore, if I can give students differentiated tests that they can choose based on their goals, then they can take responsibility for their education and are empowered to make their own decisions.

How Do I Make Classroom Assessment for Learning?

But then the question is, how does a teacher fairly make differentiated tests? The most important thing is that students can choose on their own which test they want to take and they can also go back and use a redo on any test they like. Students are not locked into always taking a 100% max test or a 75% max test, they can switch between the levels at will.

In order to make the differentiated tests, the process is that I first create my “normal” test with a 100% max grade. This is the test that is based on all the standards and materials that are covered in the level. If the student gets all the questions completely correct, I can be confident that they have achieved 100% of what I wanted them to master for this unit.

Once I have my 100% max test, there are a couple options for differentiating the test. I like to offer an 85% max test and a 75% max test. I can make the differentiated tests either by putting less material on the differentiated tests or provide an easier way to show knowledge. For example, I may simply use very similar questions on the 75% & 85% test and just cover 75% of the unit’s material on the 75% test and 85% of the material in the 85% test. This way, when you provide study guides for the various tests, the students have less material to study for the 75% and 85% tests. This can take away that sense of overwhelm that many students face when trying to study.

The other way to create the differentiated tests is to cover 100% of the material on all three tests but allow different ways for students to show the skills they have learned. For example, on my 100% max Spanish tests. Students will usually have to type out complete sentence translations in Spanish. In the 75% max test, students would still have to translate, but the question could be a multiple choice question instead of a writing question.

Depending on your material and the needs of your students, either of these approaches may work for you or even a combination of both! The important thing to remember is that students can choose which test they take and they can change their mind at any time. They do not get locked into one choice and they can always redo to improve their grade.

Wrapping Up

Whew! That was a lot! I hope these notes on classroom assessment for learning in a Mastery Gamified classroom gave you some ideas for your own classroom! The big takeaway is that assessment can (and I think should be) used for learning instead of a big, insurmountable end of unit challenge that will define students with a letter grade.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to bring Mastery Gamification to your classroom, I’d love to talk to you! Just send me an email at stephanie@segrovestrategies.com or find me on my Facebook page. Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon!