A new way of looking at assessment
Comments: 0 - Date: September 28th, 2007 - Categories: Education related
This was posted on LeaderTalk: “The teacher must come away with a lesson learned also. If a student can think she can get away with a copy and paste product from a web site or an online encyclopedia, then the assignment has not been particularly engaging or thought provoking. The teacher should come away with the understanding that assignments need to engage, to challenge, and to promote an inner dialogue with material student are studying. If the student can just copy and paste to fill out a traditional ten pages, then it is time to re-examine the assignments being imposed.”
I’ve had this type of conversation many times with others. If teachers are worried about students “copying” assignments, maybe teachers should really be worried that they are giving assignments that are easily copied. I’ve been there. As a teacher I devised ways to keep students from cheating on the excellent assignments I got out of the supplemental materials (sarcasm intended). I made them put their notebooks up around their assignments, I made 4 different versions of the same things and labeled them A, B, etc. I took points off for items that were obviously copied. All of these ideas were from other teachers. Finally I got to a point in my teaching when I realized that the problem was with my assignments, not the students. It took a little more thinking to come up with assignments that would have to be individual. It took a little more time to grade (and I couldn’t give my student aid an answer sheet and have him/her do it). But I discovered that I actually enjoyed reading what came out of the kids’ heads. I discovered it wasn’t the amount of grades I had, but the quality of the assignments that mattered. (Note: I once taught with someone who would have 90 grades a six weeks. That wasn’t a typo- NINETY.) Now I’m looking toward being a teacher of teachers and wondering how to convey this information to others. Do I tell them it’s easier? Do I tell them they won’t have to worry about cheating? Do I tell them the students will be more engaged? Do I tell them to just do it, or they’ll be fired? (I know I can’t do the last one…though it would be nice…)
Why is it that the best things you learn about teaching come after you’ve left the classroom?
