I Don’t Have Time For Formative Assessment

assessment challenges

Although a fairly narrow view on the barriers to implementing assessment for learning, the cross section of views shared on the Google Document have been excellent as a starting point for discussion.

The above Wordle is a helpful representation of those contributions. I have removed the following words from the visual: assessment, formative, teachers, learning and students in an effort to focus on the other language more readily used to describe the issues.

“Time” appears as a perceived barrier to quality formative assessment or assessment for learning – but is it really such an issue? Is curriculum time often shunted and pinched too readily? Do we not protect our curriculum time, and so time for reflection, fiercely enough from the other pressures in school?

I Gave My #Purposed Book Away – what have you done with yours?

5673376761 05fda5b6d8 mDuring the recent Purpos/ed Conference in Sheffield we were given a smart little book of all of the 500 word articles published during the March campaign. The books were created with the help of Scholastic and their We Are Writers service.

In one of the sessions we discussed how online debate and face-to-face conferences would engage certain members of a school staff and not others. The challenge is to engage those not on Twitter or reading blogs with the same questions and topics we have been grappling with.

One of the things I feel is important is to widen the message and giving away the little book of blog posts seems a pretty good starting point to me. So that is what I did!

When I picked my son up from school yesterday I had a quick chat with his class teacher and gave her the book. She was really pleased to accept it and amazed to see my article in there as well. I hope that she reads some of the posts as they are extremely thought provoking, and of course my own contribution relates to her as she is my son’s teacher.

What have you done with yours? How have you extended the message of Purpos/ed?

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pic by Learn4Life

What is the purpose of education?

purposed badgeSix or seven years ago my answer to this question would probably have been different. I am now both a teacher and a father, in fact I have been for nearly five years. I am both education consumer and provider. My son has just begun full time education and my perspective on what it should be is mixed.

I don’t have a clear idea about education’s purpose. I believe it is a whole range of things that I am sure are applicable to all of us in some respect.

My son is naturally curious, he asks questions when it seems there are none to ask. I don’t want education to answer them all for him necessarily – I want education to be there to listen to him, and to encourage him to question more. Education should help us to question what we see, hear and experience, and challenge the world we inhabit with our curiosity.

He dreams up imaginary characters / worlds / situations / predicaments / plot lines / battles / relationships and plays them out with what he has around him. I hope education shines a light on this creativity and seeks it out. Education should draw from him these precious sparks and help him craft them into something beautiful. Education needs to nurture the different precious sparks we all have.

I want him to struggle and to feel challenged. I want the education he encounters to be brave enough to let him fail and to support him if he does and help him learn the lessons. Environments that encourage risk and innovation will also intrinsically understand failure. Education should embrace all the ups and downs, the bumps in the road, the setbacks and hurdles, the scraped knees and bruises, the ‘Let’s have another go’, and not just the success at the end of the road / line / course / year .

To work in education it helps to be passionate. I want my son to see the drive and determination in another person at some point in the next few years. I want him to feel that human to human inspiration that is so powerful. Education should be about giving young people inspiration and belief – these can come from the environment that surrounds them. But it will probably resonate more strongly from one passionate person.

Looking out is as important as looking in. Education needs to support children to find out who they are as well as their place in the world and how they can make a difference.

My son is happy at school, he has made a great start. That makes us happy. Education should be about cradling happiness.

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purposed.org.uk