Before and After: Prior Knowledge and Meaningful Assessment

Before any project, large or small it is important to establish an understanding of where each student is coming from. I've definitely experienced this in classrooms. Just recently, in fact, I was working with a group of students who were reading a selection and were then supposed to answer questions. One of the questions had to do with the game of chess, and it was asking a rather abstract question that even I had difficulty understanding. The student didn't know what chess was, which obviously caused an even bigger damper on her understanding of the question. One great way of establishing prior knowledge is using a KWL chart. A KWL chart is a place for students to organize what they Know about something, what they Want to know, and after the lesson, what the Learned about the topic of study. Establishing this prior knowledge is so important, because it helps us understand where each student is coming from...where they're "anchored". When it comes to the conclusion of any lesson, the authors point out that assessments need to be meaningful. They cite an example of a student who turns in a research paper late, and is given a much lower grade than what the writing exemplifies. The paper is late, yes, but has it's tardiness contributed to the quality and content of the writing? No. Grades should be based instead on multiple categories, with student work ethic being only one. This makes a tremendous amount of sense, especially when considering my own project. When doing something like a musical, inevitably, there will be areas where some students excel and others...not so much. As an educator, I cannot base Susie's grade on whether or not she can hit a high A or not; but maybe Susie works really well at organizing things for the backstage crew, or even being a chorus member on stage. Using multiple categories for assessment makes so much more sense than one aspect of the student's abilities compromising their entire grade.