“Literacy Lines”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Weighing the pig doesn’t make it fatter.” Or “When are we going to stop weighing the cows and start feeding them?” These are lines often heard from teachers who are frustrated and/or overwhelmed with assessments. Sometimes we hear, “I just want to get back to teaching my kids.” These are honest feelings of frustration that are based on the idea that assessments are given too much and aren’t useful. But the reality is that assessments aren’t the problem. The real problem is not knowing how to use the assessments to drive our instruction. We are fortunate that our assessment tools are meaningful and inform our instruction. We don’t just decide what students need to know, but use our assessments to focus on our student’s strengths and drive our instruction. Vygotsky calls this the “Zone of Proximal Development” or ZPD. Whatever you call it, it means teaching our student’s where they are and intentional teaching for maximum growth in learning.