LT1: Assessment Graphic Organizer
Course: EDUC 569 Assessment
Professor: Bernard Potvin
Date: Jan 29, 2026
2. Traffic Light Cups
2. Peer Stars & Wishes
đź“– Project Explanation: The "Assessment Warehouse"
The Graphic Organizer is a visual "arrangement of professional practices" designed to show how I will organize and implement assessment of, for, and as learning in my future classroom.
I have structured this organizer using the "Assessment Warehouse" metaphor (developed in EDUC 556). This warehouse sorts my pedagogical practice into three distinct functional areas:
- The Foundation: My core philosophy and beliefs regarding balanced assessment.
- The Operations Floor: The daily cycle of formative and reflective assessment (AfL/AaL), focusing on Wiliam's 5 Key Strategies. This theoretical floor is the foundation for my Field IV Professional Growth Plan.
- The Showroom: The summative evidence of learning (AoL) through authentic task design (Koh, 2011).
The goal is to demonstrate Assessment Literacy by showing how evidence of learning is elicited and used to regulate the instructional process (Wiliam, 2011).
🏛️ Section 1: The Foundation (Philosophy)
“Assessment is the central process in effective instruction” (Wiliam, 2011, p. 3).
- Core Belief: Assessment should be a "growth pathway" (increasing competence) rather than a "well-being pathway" (protecting self-esteem) (Boekaerts, 2006, as cited in Wiliam, 2011).
- Goal: To move away from "dangling data" (unused results) and toward what Wiliam (2011) calls "instructionally tractable" evidence.
- Grade 4/5 Context: Students are moving from dependent learners to independent regulators. My practice focuses on Wiliam’s 5 Key Strategies to facilitate this shift in the assessment landscape.
📦 Section 2: The Assessment Warehouse (The Map)
| Category | Definition | Grade 4/5 Strategies & Theoretical Alignment |
|---|---|---|
| Assessment FOR Learning (AfL) ↪ Focus of PGP Goal |
Formative: Used to adapt teaching in the moment. | 1. Exit Passes (Social Studies 4): Outcome 4.1.1: "Value the stories of Alberta's peoples." Strategy: Students write one question they still have about oral history bias. Alignment: Wiliam’s Strategy 2: Engineering effective discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of learning. 2. Traffic Light Cups (Math 5): Outcome: "Apply estimation strategies." Strategy: Red/Yellow/Green cups on desks signal real-time need for intervention. Alignment: Wiliam’s Strategy 3: Providing feedback that moves learning forward immediately. |
| Assessment AS Learning (AaL) | Reflective: Students monitoring their own progress. | 1. "I Can" Checklists (Science 5): Topic E: Wetland Ecosystems. Strategy: This strategy operationalizes Earl’s (2013) view of the student as the "critical connector" (p. 4). By actively co-creating success criteria, students engage in the "regulatory process" required to monitor their own understanding. Alignment: Wiliam’s Strategy 1: Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success. 2. Peer-Editing Stars & Wishes (ELA 4): Outcome: "Use a variety of strategies to improve comprehension." Strategy: Peers identify two "Stars" and one "Wish." Alignment: Wiliam’s Strategy 4 & 5: Activating students as instructional resources for one another and owners of their own learning. |
| Assessment OF Learning (AoL) | Summative: Confirming what has been learned. | 1. Authentic Performance Tasks (Science 5): Topic A: Electricity. Strategy: Students build a working alarm circuit. As Koh (2011) notes, a rubric is a "powerful tool... to communicate and clarify the targets" (p. 42). The rubric is shared before building begins. 2. Curated Portfolios: Strategy: A collection of "Best Work" selected by the student for report cards, demonstrating growth over time rather than just a final snapshot. |
🔍 Section 3: Critical Analysis & Academic Integration
Theoretical Connection: The "Tractability" of Evidence
Wiliam (2011) argues that for assessment to be formative, the evidence must be "instructionally tractable"—it must tell the teacher what to do next. The Exit Passes in my organizer serve this function explicitly. Unlike a quiz score (which only tells me that they failed), an exit pass reveals why (e.g., a specific misconception about bias), allowing me to adjust tomorrow's lesson.
Psychological Connection: Dual Processing Theory
Wiliam (2011) draws on Boekaerts’ (2006) "Dual Processing Theory," which suggests students choose between a "growth pathway" (focusing on competence) or a "well-being pathway" (protecting self-esteem). In a Grade 4 classroom, public grading often forces students into the "well-being" pathway, where they hide mistakes. My use of Peer-Editing Stars & Wishes mitigates this by focusing feedback on the task rather than the person.
Authentic Task Design (Koh) & Metacognition (Earl)
To ensure validity, my summative tasks follow Koh’s (2011) criteria for authenticity—requiring students to apply knowledge in real-world contexts. Furthermore, by integrating Earl’s (2013) concept of Assessment as Learning, I shift the burden of proof to the student. As Earl states, students must "personally monitor what they are learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make adjustments" (p. 4). The "I Can" checklists ensure that when they arrive at the summative task, they have already regulated their own learning journey.
đź“š References
- Alberta Education. (2022). Program of studies: Science grades 1-6. Government of Alberta.
- Earl, L. M. (2013). Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning (2nd ed.). Corwin.
- Koh, K. (2011). Task design and rubric development for authentic and formative assessments. In K. Koh (Ed.), Improving teachers’ assessment literacy (pp. 34–48). Pearson.
- Wiliam, D. (2011). What is assessment for learning? Studies in Educational Evaluation, 37(1), 3-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2011.03.001