Right now, we have a wonderful teacher candidate, Yakira Smeltzer, in our class. As her  placement continues, we’ve had some good discussions on assessment and evaluation. I think that it’s so important to consider how you’re assessing the students’ learning and the purpose of the assessment.

This morning, I spoke to Yakira about how I use Twitter for assessment. Anyone that follows my tweets will know that I share many photographs and videos throughout the day of student work and student learning. On one hand, I do this because I can then collect the photographs, videos, and tweets using Storify, and add them to our class blog so that parents can have a look inside our class. On the other hand, I use these tweets as “assessment for learning.”

Today was a great example of that! Here’s a look at my Storify Story from tonight.

You may see lots of photographs and a few videos, but here’s what I see:

1) Students connect data management to graphing. This is an important connection for them to make, so I’m glad that they all have this basic understanding.

2) Many students know the names of various graphs and can sketch various graphs. They do not always remember the components of the graphs — especially the title. I will need to review this with them. This can be addressed through our Data Management Activity Centres tomorrow.

3) All students can read graphs and draw some conclusions about them. Many of these conclusions are surface level conclusions. I need to get the students thinking deeply about the data and making inferences as to why there may be these results. I also need to get students to apply what they learned. These needs will be addressed through our Data Management Activity Centres tomorrow.

4) Students are asking many questions about First Nations peoples. Most of these questions align with the overall expectations from the curriculum document. There are still many basic Knowledge and Understanding questions. I need to get students thinking more about the topic. Yakira’s Social Studies activity tomorrow will allow students to immerse themselves in the topic: reading, listening, watching, and talking about First Nations peoples. This should help students gain a deeper understanding of the topic, and hopefully, lead to richer questions.

5) Students are thinking deeply about what they’re hearing (during a read aloud), and they’re beginning to make connections to the text. They do not always reference the text in their responses though. Show students how to use specific evidence from the text to support their answer. Give them a chance to do so during the next read aloud. Also, remind students to proofread their work before publishing it. Mini-lessons on proofreading would benefit many students.

These tweets are informing my practice, and this benefits students. How do you use Twitter for assessment? What value do you see in doing so? I’d love to know your thoughts!

Aviva