Ep. 16 | Michele Jones “Finding Focus With Formative Assessment”
Meet Michele Jones
Michele Jones is the Executive Director of the Alberta Assessment Consortium. When I first talked with Michele Jones, her transparency truly resonated with me regarding her personal story of growth when it comes to assessment practices because I know most educators will nod their heads and say, “yeah, me too,” when they hear it. Michele Jones’s background includes teaching physical education and social studies in secondary education.
In her current role, Michele Jones is responsible for Professional Development and wants teachers to feel confident in assessing their students without adding to their workload. The word assessment often comes with baggage because it’s been used in ways that aren’t helpful for students or teachers. But when I picked Michele Jones’ brain about formative assessment, she expressed ideas that will help those of us in the classroom focus on what our students need and how we can reach them. She knows formative assessment is the key to helping teachers improve instruction, grow more informed learners, and form deeper relationships with our students and their families.
Formative Assessment Routines
When Michele Jones talks about formative assessment, she lights up. She knows when done well and used consistently, students and teachers will feel empowered. Have you ever wondered what it looks like in class? Michele Jones gives us a few examples but keep in mind it’s conversations that happen between teachers and students, whether individually, in small groups, or classwide.
Michele Jones also mentions the 25% Rule that she credits to Dylan Wiliam and training with the Alberta Assessment Consortium. This rule states, “25% of assessment should be detailed teacher feedback, 25% of assessment should be skimmed and summarized for whole class feedback, and 25% of assessment should be peer feedback, and the last 25% is self-assessment/reflection.
Want to know what formative assessment during lessons looks like? It’s feedback that is as simple as a thumbs up or holding numbers/letters to the chest using multiple choice. It could also be a partner activity like “write all you know using letters A-Z to activate prior knowledge.” Jones shares that a teacher can use classroom debates with strongly agree/disagree and use movement as students to go to a side of the room they agree with.
If looking for more routines, Jones suggests checking out Project Zero’s Thinking Routines Toolbox, too.
Lightening the Teacher’s Workload
Perhaps the most compelling case for better formative assessment is that it lightens the teacher’s workload and creates better class flow.
Michele Jones encourages teachers to refrain from marking every piece of learning evidence and instead choose five or six “well-crafted” and meaningful artifacts that truly showcase what a student knows. This will also keep us from spending hours in our learning management systems trying to make the twenty items in our gradebook reflect the true mark our students have earned. When we create better assessments, we are teaching more efficiently, students are growing even more, and assessments aren’t getting in the way of learning.
However, the mic drop that Jones shared about getting away from grading every piece of learning is that when students are being graded more frequently, often negative messages about limitations are being pushed onto them. We want to reinforce and support them in what they can do and coach them to help them continue to grow, which means stronger relationships with our students…and stronger relationships create a more productive learning environment.
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