📑 Mapping Assessment

Bookmarked Mapping Assessment by Written By RON RITCHHART (ronritchhart.com)

I propose that we think of assessment as occurring on two dimensions. The first dimension (let’s set this on a horizontal continua) is the degree of evaluation in which we engage. At the far end of this continua (we’ll place it on the right), we are highly evaluative, desiring scores and measures that quantify outcomes in a fairly precise way. Here, we judge work against clearly defined criteria that we apply to see just how close to the mark a student gets. Such evaluation can produce ranks and comparisons. On the other end of this continua (we’ll place it on the left) we might seek to understand students where they are, making sense of their actions and respond through our grounded interpretation. Here, rather than come with predetermined criteria, we open ourselves to the possibilities and variations in both learning styles and outcomes that a close examination of our students’ learning might provide.

“With this map of the terrain in hand, we can begin to place our various assessment practices in the appropriate quadrant. ”
The second dimension (let’s set this on a vertical continua) is the extent to which our assessments are integrated in our instruction and part of the ongoing learning of the classroom. At one end (we’ll place it at the top) we have assessment that is highly embedded in our teaching and students’ learning. That means that we don’t stop or pause our instruction in order to assess but instead embed it as a regular part of our practice. At the other end of the continua (placed at the bottom) we have assessment that is set apart from instruction and student learning. Here, we declare a formal end to our instruction and move into a deliberate assessment phase that we hope will reveal something about students’ learning. A basic graph of these two dimensions produces four quadrants that we might use to map the terrain of assessment (see Figure 1).

Ron Ritchhart provides a model for mapping assessment based on two dimensions: integration and evaluation. He provides examples for each of the quadrants, including providing feedback on performance (Quadrant A), checking for understanding and misconceptions (Quadrant B), examination of teacher’s documentation of learning (Quadrant C) and formal summative assessments (Quadrant D). In the end, the purpose of the map is to ‘to know where we are, and where we might go or want to be’.

One response on “📑 Mapping Assessment”

  1. So here we are again. One week I am catching up with Richard Olsen and co for drinks in the city and then the next week we are in lock-down again. I remember reading about the hammer and the dance early on in the pandemic, where we lock-down to get on top of things and then dance with the ever changing rules and restrictions. The problem is, I do not think we are very good at dancing. Coming home from my night out, face-masks on public transport were near on non-existent. On top of that, the bar thanked me for clicking on the QR code at the door. Maybe he was just being courteous, but it did not feel like it.
    In lock-down, I took our daughters for a ride. At the local reserve, there was a food truck set up with two guys selling take-away. Sadly though, there were no face-masks. I contacted the company privately raising my concern and got the following response:

    Reason for not wearing face masks is none of you’re business.
    I sincerely hope you were not scared.

    I am not sure he quite understands how masks work. That I wear a mask for him and he and his colleague wear a mask for me. To be fair, my greater fear is not catching COVID from him, although it is a possibility, but rather that such small businesses will no longer exist if we do not all do our bit to get on top of things. Personally, I am able to work from home, so other than having to support our children with their learning, I am not impacted. Sadly, I am not sure everyone quite sees it that way.
    On other matters, I have been listened to new albums by Olivia Rodrigo, Haerts and St. Vincent, but have found myself retreating to the more familiar with Estelle Caswell’s ode to gated reverb playlist. In addition to this, I have been tinkering with Google Sheets and XML, as well as started a few posts, but with jobs around the house and work at the moment, I seem to be failing with following through.
    Here then are some of the posts that have had me thinking:
    Education
    The Trouble with Teaching: Is Teaching a Meaningful Job?
    John Danaher dives into his frustrations with teaching in a university setting, providing a provocation to reflect upon in respect to all aspects of learning and teaching.
    Knitting a Healthy Social Fabric
    danah boyd explores role played by schools in building the social fabric and democracy of the future.
    Is De-Implementation the Best Way to Build Back Better?
    Peter DeWitt reflects on the need to de-implement and take things off the plate in order to build back better.
    Mapping Assessment
    Ron Ritchhart provides a model for mapping assessment based on two dimensions: integration and evaluation.
    On Rereading
    Victor Brombert reflects upon the different forms of rereading and the uncanny experience of coming upon lost notes in the margins.
    Technology
    The Global Smartphone
    A team of anthropologists spent a year conducting an ethnographic study in nine different countries documenting the ways in which smartphones are used by older people. The team come to the conclusion that the smartphone has come to represent the place where we live.
    Pedagogy, Presence and Placemaking: a learning-as-becoming model of education.
    David White talks about the issue of simply moving face-to-face learning online and the need to foster presence to help make online spaces places that foster learning.
    YouTube’s kids app has a rabbit hole problem
    Rebecca Heilweil takes a look at the way in which YouTube Kids and the autoplay function acts as a gateway to questionable content.
    Data isn’t oil, so what is it?
    Matt Locke suggests that we need more effective metaphors to help people understand the place and purpose of data in our world today.
    On the temptation to nuke everything and start over
    Influenced on Kin Lane’s decision to leave the past behind, Doug Belshaw reflects on the temptation to start over.
    General
    The Case for Letting People Work From Home Forever
    Jaclyn Greenberg makes the case for a permanent move to working from home, while Cal Newport pushes back instead arguing for near-home locations.
    Welcome Back, Darling
    Kath Sullivan and Nathan Morris explore what it means to have water back in the Darling River. In contrast with the past few years of dry river beds, towns like Brewarrina, Wilcannia and Menindee have become energised once again.
    In the Air Tonight’s influence, intrigue, and THAT drum break that endures 40 years on
    Matt Neal reflects on the forty years since Phil Collins’ released In the Air Tonight and its ongoing legacy, especially in regards to gated reverb.
    Tao of WAO
    Laura Hilliger and Doug Belshaw have started a new podcast associated with their participation in We Are Open Co-op.
    The Weaponization of Care
    Autumm Caines discusses the way in which survelliance technology is packaged with notions of care as a way of normalising various practices.
    Read Write Respond #065
    So that was May for me, how about you? As always, hope you are safe and well.

    Cover Image via JustLego101

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