Assessment

Our instructor would like us to write about assessment and Classroom 2.0. His vision is that computer use is embedded into lessons and that students reach for internet applications with the same ease that they reach for a pencil - and we do not teach or assess how one uses a pencil - or do we?

Back straight, head upright, fingers relaxed, start the letter from the top and draw downward like a hawk swooping...what teachers used to spend 45 minutes per day instructing, is now the focus for an hour or less per week (Newsweek, 11/12/07). The article sites a new study that shows that handwriting is linked to thinking and learning (Graham, Vanderbilt University). Thus, I make a case that teaching and assessing pencil use is a key part of learning. Furthermore, teaching and assessing use of any tool during the elementary stage of its use is important as it adds to effectiveness and fluidity. I am speaking of 'assessment' in its original form - to sit beside. And I'm stressing its formative use - to observe, scaffold, and reinforce.

As savy as some of our students are with Web tools, most of them need to be taught and provided with opportunities for practice. Then, like those students who we've taught to hold a pencil who can now write better or draw better than we can ever dream of, students will take off with internet applications and take them further than we can ever dream of.