The demand for digital assessment tools has been validated in the marketplace by the emergence of several competitive products. However, it is also important to consider the competitive role of legacy formats like paper and pencil and excel data entry.
For a digital formative assessment model to become teacher approved it must function more efficiently than these legacy formats, yet provide the same security, accuracy, and system wide integration.
The Highlander Institute has been working on just such a system using mobile applications on the iPad as well as other tablets and Smartphones. Below is a visual step by step guide to the “Highlander Model of Formative Assessment”.
Step one: Always start with the skill you want to measure. It doesn’t have to be one skill, but it must be a skill and not an activity. Build the lesson around that skill so you are certain what formative data you want to track.
Step two: Teachers must have extensive knowledge of each individual student’s needs at the skill level to begin to build lessons that can target the student in a more personalized way.
This becomes increasingly challenging in classrooms with multiple students with multiple needs in multiple skill areas.
At this point, the technology becomes an integral tool for helping teachers to differentiate instruction around so many diverse learning needs.
Step 3: The model continues with a process of ongoing and targeted, formative data collection. Without ongoing assessment each subsequent lesson loses it’s power.
This model is challenging to say the least.
It requires an incredibly skilled and dedicated teacher along with extensive training.
but the ability for a teacher to combine skill based teaching with differentiated instruction is crucial for increasing student performance. And technology is the key to making the entire system manageable.
Teachers can pull this off. Let us train you on the hardware and apps you need to pull this off. We have the tools and the solutions to help.
Contact admin@highlanderinstitute.org today!
