Dipsticks in the Classroom

Come on now.  When you think of "Dipsticks" in the classroom you were not thinking of assessing instruction!  LOL!  

Evaluating our instruction is an ongoing process.  I love the analogy author Robert E. Stakes gives.  "When the cooks tastes the soup, that's formative; when the guests taste the soup, that's summative."

This "Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding" article goes into detail of efficient ways to check for student understanding in the classroom.  I think the common question that educators have in this summative and formative assessment conversation is how much is too much of combining the two in student grades.  If we go back to Robert Stakes' analogy of cooking.  It makes me think of the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen".  Too many formative grades combined with the summative grades can spoil the "dish" of learning that we are using for true assessments.  

If all of this, the article, staff meeting discussions, and individual conversations, has got you thinking about how you are using, or maybe overusing, formative assessment for grades then by all means stop by and have a conversation with me.  If you are thinking about making a change with your grading process it is always a good rule to explain this to your students and parents so they are not blindside in the change.