Many of my colleagues around the country know that I’m a little obsessed with assessment in the classroom. It all started in 6th grade. No joke. I didn’t realize it started then, but I recently found a journal from my 6th grade school year that had a rating system designed to assess my classmates personalities. It’s completely embarrassing (and a bit mean) although if I weren’t leaving on this bike trip in a week, I’d have that journal accessible (not in storage) and would share a photo of a page from it.
But, really, professionally, I realized assessment was a passion of mine when I was fortunate enough to be selected as one of eighteen school health professionals nationally to revise the 2007 K-12 National Health Education Content Standards. I was flown into Atlanta many times over two years to work with an exceptional group of school health education experts working collaboratively on the document. I was assigned to write the Assessment chapter with two other peers. Now, I understand that at this point, many of you reading this are starting to yawn. Maybe feeling like folding laundry or doing the dishes or even going to the dentist sounds more exciting than student assessment. But not to me! I’m passionate about whether a teacher is appropriately and effectively assessing kids learning and growth. It makes my heart beat faster (with love) when an educator develops criteria and shares it with students on the things they should know and be able to demonstrate in the classroom!
I’ll stop there to save you from poking your eyes out with a fork.
So, as educators, we strive for students to transfer their learning from the classroom to every day life. And, I want to model that. The past few years, I’ve been transforming this amazing superpower skill of mine for developing what we call in the education world, “scoring guides” or “rubrics” to life. I have scoring guides I’ve developed to assess trips I’ve taken with others, scoring guides that assess what a good workout in the gym might look like, how to find a good “Cheers” bar, where “Everybody Knows Your Name”… and so on.
As I awoke this Sunday morning (ok, now I’m demonstrating just how obsessed and NERDY I really am), I realized I haven’t come up with a rubric yet for Road to Rhode! How have I missed developing this essential document that helps set clear, consistent criteria with categories on what’s most important for me on this journey? How have I forgotten that it will help me fulfill the hopes and dreams and even experiences I have? I guess I know what I’ll be working on my final week home… my official Road to Rhode Scoring Guide. Stay tuned.
Leave a Reply