Assessing Children for Understanding
Traditional education bombards kids with assessments; graded homework assignments, pop quizzes, standardized tests, and high-stress exams follow you from your earliest years to your graduation day. Depending on your personality, you may have even worked really hard to “make the grade”, please your teachers and parents. You may have defined your self worth by your GPA. It may have even determined what college you attended or what career path you took!
Moreover, the role standardized testing plays in education has grown exponentially over the decades. While their use goes back over a century, the current era of hyper-standardized testing can be traced back to 2001’s No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB’s emphasis on standardized testing had a profound effect on American education.
Though born in part as a way to address inequity in school — a worthy goal, the measure has largely failed to live up to its aspirations. No wonder most parents today doubt that standardized testing serve a meaningful purpose!
Assessments Are Natural
Parents may be skeptical about assessments, but they also largely believe they’re important. And they’re absolutely right! Assessments serve a critical role in the learning process — providing feedback! And they’re completely natural and innate to learning experience.
Learning to cook a new dish but add too much salt? Your tastebuds will let you know. Hammering a nail and miss? Your thumb will speak up. These are all forms of feedback.
And it’s not just physical feedback! Help a neighbor carry their groceries and feel a sense of goodness afterward? Watch robins eat from a bird feeder you just hung and feel peaceful? Make a rude remark in front of your kids and feel embarrassed? That’s feedback, too! In fact, it’s the best kind of feedback — intrinsic feedback.
But School Assessments Are Usually Not Natural
Our brains are hardwired to take in all kinds of feedback and learn from it — use less salt; swing the hammer straighter; help others more often. The problem in traditional education is that the kinds of assessments we typically use are NOT natural.
Instead, they only offer extrinsic motivation for success. Instead of focusing on the pride and sense of accomplishment a child gets from a job well done, we teach them to strive for a letter grade, a sticker, a higher up spot on the bulletin board.
Sometimes we even try to tie life outcomes to assessments — do well in school and you’ll get a good job and achieve happiness. But not only is the connection between a specific assessment and future happiness abstract at best, it’s still just another form of extrinsic motivation that’s robbing the learner of connecting with the true, natural joy of learning.
Creating Authentic Assessments
So if you’re not using these traditional, extrinsic methods for assessment, how do you know if your child has mastered a concept? Through observation and engagement and — most importantly — an orientation towards meaningful, natural outcomes.
Maria Montessori knew this very well. It’s one of the most essential qualities of her method!
So while we, as Montessorians, oppose in the strongest terms possible the use of standardized measurements and tests to “assess a child”, we believe that there are helpful methods to assess without interfering with your child’s natural curiosity and self esteem.
Professional teachers spend years learning how to perform observation-based assessments. As homeschoolers, few of us are professionally trained teachers who will work with enough children to master the art. As a result, we need firmer guidance on levels and growth — but not so much firm guidance that it becomes, essentially, another form of standardized testing.
That’s why Child of the Redwoods developed a simple, three-level understanding matrix — called D-E-B — to support your work in the home. Each level represents a different depth of understanding — moving from Discovery to Exploration to Building.
Discovery
D is for Discovery: This is a new topic or a topic that has never been studied with real seriousness. Imagine that the topic is like a beautiful lake you’ve just discovered in a deep forest. What will you find!?
Reading Lesson Example: You are teaching your child to read. You introduce the sound for the letter s. “This is s,” you tell your child, “It sounds like ssss as in sssnake.”
Exploration
E is for Exploration: This is a topic your child is familiar with and is ready to really dig into. Imagine now that you’re exploring every nook and cranny of that amazing lake — drawing maps, creating journal entries. How much detail can you add!?
Reading Lesson Example: Your child plays with objects which all start with the s sound: a plastic toy snake, a spoon, a tiny hotel soap. You sort objects that start with the s sound, which is new, with objects that begin with the m sound, which your child already knows.
Your child is exploring the sound and placing the objects next to the letters s and m. Sometimes they put the wrong letters with the wrong objects or seem to need your help. That’s okay. You’re practicing together.
Building
B is for Building: This is a topic your child knows really well - so well, in fact, they can apply their understanding in creative and novel ways. Imagine that you know so much about the oasis that you can confidently build a little camp next to it without worrying if it will flood or get too hot. What new things will you create!?
Reading Lesson Example: Your child points to a sign and says, “That’s a stop sign, and it says ssssstop! Mom, can I have a sssssnack?” You give your child a piece of dried spaghetti and your child says “sssspagetti” and runs to where your alphabet is kept and brings you the letter s. You know without a doubt that your child knows the sound for the letter s, can identify it, and apply it to new objects and environmental print. Reinforcing the concept isn’t needed; your child gets it.
By observing and documenting your child’s progress through the matrix, you’ll get a concrete sense of how the learning experience is going, which in turn guides your planning.
Supporting Self-Assessment
The D-E-B understanding matrix helps guide our work as homeschoolers by inspiring us and supporting observation. But the most important assessment actually has nothing to do with your opinion of your child’s work! Your child is developing the ability to judge for themselves how well they are learning a new skill and how proficient they are at it.
Self assessment is actually what we are aiming for in the long run!
Think back to the most recent time you learned a new skill or adopted a hobby. Perhaps you decide to take up knitting. First, you get inspired by learning about all of the amazing things that other people have knitted. Then you learn a one basic technique: the garter stitch.
As you are practicing, you are acutely aware of any mistakes you make, but there is something very satisfying about the process and the product, even though it isn’t perfect.
The more you practice, the higher your expectations rise! This can cause frustration, of course, but as adults we know that there is only one way to get better: more practice and the willingness to make mistakes in order to learn.
Whether you decide to dedicate more time and energy to this hobby and move to the next level of proficiency depends on the reason you are learning the skill and how much you are enjoying yourself. There must be a specific reason WHY you want to get better. Understanding that reason is what pushes you either to put in more effort or let go and move on to another hobby or skill.
Supporting Their Natural Talents
Your child is pretty good at self-assessment right off the bat, even if it isn’t verbalized at first. Think of the baby who keeps testing knee positions and gaining strength until crawling is achieved, then eventually walking. Or the toddler who sits there working for what seems like forever trying to get their own shoe on. When these young ones make mistakes, not only do they know it, they redouble their efforts to get better!
Somewhere along the way in the Primary years (ages 0 to 6), children start to learn that some people can do things better than they can. Mommy can tie the shoe. Daddy can use scissors. Sister can write her name. Their awareness of their own mistakes or lack of skills is more obvious to them. Elementary children can especially be very hard on themselves.
As parents, we can help our children develop perseverance and self-efficacy by illuminating the skill-building process. We encourage the members of our courses and programs to encourage and prioritize self-assessment and a growth mindset. It can be as simple as pointing out your child’s progress and how much time they have spent practicing.
Rather than giving out praise, ask your child if they are proud of their work. Ask them what has been challenging or frustrating. Notice and verbalize the emotions you see your child experiencing, whether it’s joy, pride, or dissatisfaction.
By illuminating the authentic learning process, you will help your child to take ownership of their work and progress.