TARGETmath is The PiFactory's assessment-for-learning support system… here are some screen shots.
This is the home or contents screen. Click on a button to go where you need… hover over a button and a drop-down help tip will point you forward&hellip:
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This is the screen where you show a student or parent progress… color-coded!
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This is the screen where you show a student or parent the learning targets profile; color-coded!
This is the screen where you build assignments attached to targets from questions attached to targets…look, you can include a picture to help identify the assignment… draw in your own bubble with a silly joke!
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This is the screen where you build targets including textbook notes and a picture if needed…
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This is the screen where you write questions and link them to targets and a math daigram if needed… Note, there's help on every screen and color-coded guidance:
| A rubric for student self-assessment |
| Starting... I can sometimes do this
• I can follow the idea, but I find it difficult to explain it to others.
• I can make a start at answering questions about this skill, but I often get stuck.
• I can usually follow if others explain how to use this skill.
• I can sometimes complete some problems using this skill... with a little help from my friends.
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Getting it... I can do this most times
• I can explain the basic idea to others, but do not feel confident to answer questions about the idea.
• I can complete problems using this skill most times, but still find I sometimes get stuck.
• I can get myself unstuck with just a little bit of help.
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Got it... I can always do this
• I can explain this skill clearly, answer questions and demonstrate it to others.
• I can complete exercises using this skill with confidence. If I get stuck, I can get myself unstuck.
• I can recognize when to use this skill in solving problems.
• I can use this skill along with other skills to solve more complex problems.
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NEW! View the TARGETmath targets online… TARGETmath goes open source. For teacher resources click The PiFactory For mindmaps of rubrics to help student self-assessment and teacher assessment click: TARGETmath gives teachers the ability to help students re-focus on what they are learning, and away from viewing their education as a superficial exercise in collecting points and grades. In line with the conclusions of progressive research data, TARGETmath focuses only on descriptive feedback — on what a student has achieved and on what a student needs to do to improve — and not on de-motivating and de-moralising letter or percentage-based grades or levels. At the heart of the project are hundreds of student-friendly learning targets. The focus is on "I can…" Questions, assignments, feedback and student self-assessment are all built around these targets, which can be easily searched, sorted and grouped into units. Students know what it is they are trying to learn. And dozens of feedback sentences — available to the teacher in convenient drop-down menus — build feedback slips that help students positively take control and focus on their learning. There are comments on the strengths and weaknesses of work done, study skills tips and pointers to possible areas of weakness. Unlike alpha-numeric grading, descriptive feedback gives precise and meaningful support. Descriptive feedback doesn't focus on failure or success, but on learning. Over time TARGETmath builds a personalized and individual picture — color-coded — of a student's strengths, achievements and the focus for further work. Instead of the de-moralization that comes with letter grades or the even worse percentages, students can see what they have achieved and exactly where they need to focus their efforts to develop their learning. They can see progress and they can see where they are going. TARGETmath builds:
Quick-view screens easily show color-coded lists of learning targets, assignments and all feedback for each student… "why can't all teachers show me this?" commented one parent at a recent student-parent-teacher conference. TARGETmath is fully editable— don't like the targets, the guidance notes, the questions… fine, write your own! (The targets are a re-write of the Oregon standards into something students might understand).
Assessment for learning links: The Assessment Reform Group: arg.educ.cam.ac.uk The UK Qualifications and Curriculum Authority: www.qca.org.uk AAIA, The Association for Achievement and Improvement through Assessment: www.aaia.org.uk AifL, Assessment is for Learning: www.ltscotland.org.uk FairTest: www.fairtest.org Rick Stiggins: www.pdkintl.org |
 
EDUCATION researcher and thinker Alfie Kohn is damning about the destructive role of alpha-numerioc grading in children's schooling.
In his inspirational The Schools our Children Deserve he quotes Missouri teacher Dorothy de Zouche:
"If I were asked to enumerate ten educational stupidities, the giving of grades would head the list… If I can't give a child a better reason for studying than a grade on a report card, I ought to lock my desk and go home and stay there." She said that in… 1945.
The first problem with grades is simple, says Kohn, they don't provide accurate and reliable information about how students are doing.
"A grade of B in English tells you nothing about what your child can do, what she understands, where she needs help," says Kohn. "Moreover, the basis for that grade is as subjective as the result is uninformative.
"A teacher can meticulously record scores for one test or assignment after another, eventually calculating averages down to a hundredth of a percentage point, but that doesn't change the arbitrariness of each individual mark.
"Even the score on a math test is largely a reflection of how the test was written: what skills the teacher decided to assess, what kinds of questions happened to be left out, and how many points each section was 'worth'."
Research has long been available confirming what all teachers know: any given assignment may well be given two different grades by two equally qualified teachers.
"It may even be given two different grades by a single teacher who reads it at two different times.
"In short," concludes Kohn, "what grades offer is spurious precision — a subjective rating masquerading as an objective evaluation."
For articles by Alfie Kohn go to www.alfiekohn.org
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