My original intent was to look at student engagement in the assessment process. My data looked at this as did my lit review. The more time I spend thinking about this the more I think my intentions changed. Originally I thought I was looking at student choice in the assessment. Then I realized this is what PBL is all about--allowing students to design their own way of showing what they learned throughout the course of a unit. This isn't really what I set out to do.
What I'm curious about is how to engage students in the assessment process, not through choice in the type of assessment, but through feedback and content mastery. Can we teach teachers to give timely, meaningful feedback so that students are invested in the learning process? Will this encourage students to become self-sufficient learners, who are aware of the different learning strategies available to them and to know which strategy to use at a given time?
John Hattie says, feedback has a significant impact on learning; it has been described as "the most powerful single moderator that enhances achievement" (Hattie, 1999). Our goal as educators should be to help students know what they know and what they still need to learn. Feedback helps us achieve this goal. The students at our school are profoundly invested in the SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory). They look forward to taking the test and understand the meaning of their score. The follow up and feedback happens daily in the classroom. Students read independently at their level and with the teacher at a level slightly above their independent level. Students receive timely, meaningful feedback about their progress and how to improve. Could this be true of the SMI (Scholastic Math Inventory) as well? Teachers help students become active learners and active consumers of learning strategies for math. Students with a keen understanding of their learning goals will work with purpose and increased engagement.