Pivot. PivOT. PIVOT!

Welcome back to When the Wind Blows...an Epic podcast for parents, teachers, leaders and anyone vested in the world of education. I am Erin Barnes, host of the show...and today’s co-hosts are

Who are you and what is your role here at Epic?

Principal Development Specialist

Letting formative assessments drive instruction...Why did you choose this topic?

Assess real-time student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, course, or time period/

Formative is for learning/Summative are of learning

Helps us modify teaching and learning activities

Teachers sometimes say they don’t have time to assess students along the way. They fear sacrificing coverage and insist they must move on quickly. Yet in the rush to cover more, students are actually learning less. Without time to reflect on and interact meaningfully with new information, students are unlikely to retain much of what is "covered".

These don’t all have to be formative that are given on a program. MC offers great ones to look at, but we can do more things simple as an exit ticket from a lesson, a paragraph/classroom polls, admit tickets/think-pair-share

I allow my Tate to make presentations when she asks to show what she knows.

How long do you give it before you PIVOT?

After we look at the results, we must differentiate instruction even more if it’s not working. (Teacher story about too many Fs)

Give very direct, instructive feedback, and make it an iterative process where student voice is a large part of how we assess them with reflection and self-assessment. That partnership between what’s going on for them as learners and what we’re seeing as educators comes together to help them start to set goals and move on, progress along their own learning.”

Tune in next week where we are rethinking how leadership and education can better prepare the next generation for a rapidly evolving world