A Name, Questions, and an Autopsy

An Interesting Name:

This past summer I read a short summary about Dylan Wiliam and his new book Embedded Formative Assessments.  Besides being one of those guys whose first and last names seem to be reversed, Wiliam is a British educational researcher who has focused on the value of formative assessments. 

The short blurb about his book was so compelling that I jumped on Amazon and ordered a copy. When it first arrived, I thumbed it open and by chance hit page 47.  This is the first thing I read:

Students do not learn what we teach. 

That certainly caught my attention!  Here is the paragraph in its entirety:

Students do not learn what we teach.  If they did, we would not need to keep grade books.  We could, instead, simply record what we have taught. But anyone who has spent any time in a classroom knows that what students learn as a result of our instruction is unpredictable.  We teach what we think are good lessons, but then, after we collect our students’ notebooks, we wonder how they could have misinterpreted what we said so completely.

Those of you who have taught more than one day recognize this reality.  What we teach and what students learn can be frustratingly different.  In this book, Wiliam attempts to address this frustration.  I found that he is easy to read, summarizes research well, but most importantly, gives easy to use and practical ways to incorporate formative assessments into daily lessons.

Three Important Questions:

Whether you call the guy Wiliam or Dylan, he has some interesting things to say and ideas for the classroom.  For now, the questions he raises are good ones to ponder:

• How do you know that students in your class learned today what you wanted them to learn? 
• How do you know who “has it,” who has misconceptions, and who is still struggling?
• How do you know that your teaching resulted in learning?

A Physical is Better than an Autopsy:

This difference between teaching and learning is the heart of the matter.  Dylan compares teaching without learning to a surgeon saying, “The operation was a great success, but unfortunately, the patient died.”  To continue the metaphor, if you wait until the chapter exam or final exam to find out if students are learning, you may be performing an autopsy, rather than a physical.  That is the difference between summative and formative assessments.

This year you are going to hear often about formative assessments.  You will see references to them all over the Teacher Effectiveness Rubric, they are a key component of Student Learning Objectives, and the HSE²¹ Best Practice Model references them as well.  There is a reason for this: Research is very clear that using formative assessments and giving immediate feedback to students have a huge positive impact on learning.

I encourage you to give it a shot.  See if Dylan Wiliam (or is it Wiliam Dylan?) is right or wrong.  Maybe students do learn what we teach.  Maybe not all of them do.  Give a quick assessment during today’s lesson, and maybe you can avoid the unpleasant task of performing an autopsy at the end of the unit.

Have a great week, HSE.

Phil

Kudos this week to the HSE Mock Trial Team!  Janet Chandler coached this group to a first place finish in the National Judicial Competition held in Chicago this past summer.  Our students beat California in the quarter finals, Michigan in the semifinals, and Texas in the finals.  Justice was served. Case closed!

For those of you who like quotes, here are a few from some famous people who happen to have a first name for a last name:

• Hank Aaron: My motto was always to keep swinging.  Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble in the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.  Failure is a part of success.
• Danny Kaye: I wasn’t born a fool.  It took work to get this way.
• T. S. Elliot: If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
• Bruce Lee: A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.