Informal Assessment in the Classroom 1 страница

chapter two

Informal Assessment in the Classroom

The first few days of school are important and busy for both teacher and pupils. It is during these days that a group of diverse individuals must come together and be formed into a class. Al­though most teachers and pupils have been through the first week of school many times before, there are always uncertainties that ac­company the start of a new school year. Each new group of pupils has its own special mix of backgrounds, abilities, interests, and per­sonalities that make it unlike any other class the teacher has encoun­tered. Each spring, after learning the characteristics of the present class, the teacher must wipe the slate clean and prepare to learn about a new class, which will not be the same as the one just leaving (Madaus, Kellaghan, and Schwab, 1989).

It is the teacher's task in the first few days of school to learn about each pupil and the group as a whole and to organize them into a classroom society so that communication, order, and learning are present. A class is more than a group of pupils who happen to be in the same place. A class is a society made up of people who can com­municate with each other, pursue common goals, and follow rules of order. It is the teacher's task in the first few days of school to set up this classroom society.

All classrooms, for example, have rules that govern such matters as who can visit the bathroom, how tardiness or lost homework will be treated, and how papers are distributed and collected. There must also be rules to govern the flow of communication in the class­room (Morine-Dershimer, 1985): "Don't talk when the teacher is

talking"; "Raise your hand if you have a question"; "If you know the answer to a question don't blurt it out"; and "If you don't know the answer to a question sit quietly and listen." Pupils learn quickly that the fastest way to anger a teacher is not by doing poorly on a language, spelling, or chemistry test, but by talking out of turn, pushing in line, laughing at the teacher, or committing some other breach of classroom etiquette. Without such rules and routine the classroom would be chaotic, and instruction and learning would be difficult.

If everyone who so desired tried to speak at once, or struggled for possession of the big scissors, or offered a helping hand in threading the movie projector, classroom life would be much more hectic than it commonly is. If students were allowed to stick with a subject until they grew tired on their own, our present curriculum would have to be modified greatly. Obviously, some kinds of controls are necessary if the school's goals are to be reached and social chaos avoided. The question of whether the teacher should or should not serve as a combination traffic cop, judge, supply sergeant, and timekeeper is somewhat irrelevant to the present discussion, but the fact that such functions must be performed...is far from irrelevant. For a world in which traffic signs, whistles, and other regulatory devices abound is different from one in which these features are absent. (Jackson, 1990, p. 13)

To organize a group of pupils into a class, the teacher must learn their individual characteristics in order to know how to group, in­struct, motivate, manage, and reward them. Thus, a first and im­portant type of assessment that all teachers must accomplish takes place at the start of the school year when they must learn a broad range of characteristics of each pupil and of the class as a whole. It is necessary to know the pupils before one can motivate, interest, teach, and discipline them.

In the first few days of school the classroom teacher is responsi­ble for (1) observing a broad range of information about individual pupils and the class as a group; (2) abstracting useful and pertinent data from all the stimuli available; (3) combining these with his or her own expectations, beliefs, and attitudes; and (4) arriving at judgments about individual pupils, the class, and approaches which will form the classroom society and allow instruction to begin. In carrying out this initial pupil assessment, the teacher acts similarly to a clinician (National Institute of Education, 1975).

There is a scene in the musical comedy The King and I, in which Anna, the English governess, meets the many children of the King of Siam whom she is to instruct. One by one, each child is presented to Anna. The children differ in their confidence, facial expressions, dress, and manner. As each child parades in front of her, Anna sings the song "Getting to Know You": "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you, Getting to like you, getting to hope you
like me " This is what the first few days are like in most class-
rooms. Teachers try to learn enough about their pupils to form
them into a social group that will permit the goals of the classroom
to be realized. If you are participating in some in-school practicum
which places you in a classroom for a day or more a week, you may
recall your first few days in the classroom. Undoubtedly a great deal
of your time was spent sizing up the class, differentiating pupils by
ability, sociability, effort, appearance, and so on.

All teachers do this "sizing up" of pupils at the start of the school year, although the characteristics teachers gather information about differ somewhat depending on the goals of schooling at different levels. At the elementary school level, the major goals of education include both academic and socialization outcomes. Lortie (t975) asked elementary teachers about the importance of socialization outcomes in their classrooms.

A Fourth Grade Teacher Observes:

Every spare minute I try to stress good citizenship, and if anything comes up in the classroom, the subjects are dropped and I go into that particular thing. Even if you just took someone's pencil, I would say, "Do you realize..." I think that's the most important thing, more than subject mat­ter. Some of them don't get it at home. (p. 112)

A Sixth Grade Teacher Says:

I'm trying to make them good citizens in the community. Not only as far as

subject matter, but as far as what their obligations are___________ We have special

elections in class...They know what is expected of them by the time they are out of the sixth grade, the difference between right and wrong, (p. 112)

In the elementary school, most pupils spend about five or six hours per day in the same classroom with the same teacher and classmates. Further, much of instruction is carried out in sub­groups, so that while one group is occupying the teacher's attention, other pupils must keep themselves busy and productive without constant supervision. Thus, in elementary classrooms, a teacher's

initial assessments tend to focus both on pupils' academic capabili­ties and their classroom behavior.

At the high school level, pupils are already grouped into tracks, and most have become socialized in appropriate school behavior. The goals of schooling at the high school level are predominantly academic and vocational. Instead of seeing 20 to 25 pupils for six hours per day as in the elementary school, high school teachers see 100 to 125 pupils in five different classes lasting about an hour each. While high school teachers are interested in their pupils' af­fective and personal characteristics, they do not "live" with their pu­pils in the same way that elementary teachers do. High school teach­ers can assume their pupils have a level of socialization and maturity that enables them to handle many of their own problems. They can also assume that pupils have a need to be, if not an interest in being, in their class. As a consequence, the sizing up done by high school teachers tends to focus more on academic characteristics and work habits than that done by elementary school teachers. However, high school teachers are also concerned with socialization outcomes. A high school business teacher notes that "you have to prepare them [students] for life. I don't care if they know how to typewrite; they have to be individuals first. They have to be respectful...honest and respectful... good citizens and so forth" (Lortie, 1975, p. 112). So all teachers are concerned with their pupils' cognitive and affective characteristics, although the relative emphasis on these characteris­tics differs according to grade level.

If the sizing up assessment is not done well, a disorganized, dis­ruptive classroom environment results. Learning is inhibited in such an environment. Each of us can recall a particular classroom in which the social system was characterized by anarchy, not organiza­tion; where personal impulse replaced consideration; and where teaching and learning were constantly undermined by the need to bring order to chaos.

Thus, sizing up, "getting to know you" assessments are done by every teacher early in the school year. Their purpose is to provide information about pupils to help mold the classroom into a viable environment in which routines are established, control mechanisms identified, and interpersonal relationships solidified. The initial, sizing up assessments provide teachers with information about pu­pils that they will utilize throughout the year. There is evidence that by the end of the first few days of the school year, experienced teachers know much about their pupils' home backgrounds, range of academic knowledge and skills, learning needs, types of behavior problems, and out of school activities (Calderhead, 1983). Where and how do teachers amass such information about their pupils so early in the school year?

SIZING UP ASSESSMENT

There are many sources of information about pupils that help teachers carry out their sizing up assessments. Some of the infor­mation is available to teachers before pupils pass through the class­room door for the first time. Other information is obtained from a variety of sources during the first few days of school. The following two sections describe the array of information teachers have access to regarding the academic, personal, and social characteristics of their pupils. Quotes from classroom teachers at various grade levels help to illustrate the points.

Preclass Information

The sizing up process often starts before students set foot in the classroom. One might think that a pupil would be unknown to a teacher before they meet face to face, but this is not usually the case. The school is a hotbed of assessment information, and teachers can­not help being exposed to it. The teachers' room in most schools is more than a place where teachers go to eat lunch, correct papers, or plan their next class. It is also a place where gripes are voiced and "war stories" about the day's activities are exchanged.

Sit and listen in the teachers' room some day. Listen to Ms. Robinson or Mr. Rutherford complain about Jim or Jane's contin­ual inattentiveness or defiant behavior in class. Listen to Mr. Hobbs lament the poor learning ability and lack of motivation that Marion displays. Hear Ms. Jeffry complain about Mike's interfering and de­manding parents. One does not have to know Jim or Jane or Marion or Mike personally to begin to form an impression of them as persons and pupils. Many pupils' reputations precede them into the classroom, and teachers who may never have set eyes on a pupil may already have heard a great deal about his or her strengths and foibles. Just as the classroom is a social setting, so too the school is a social setting in which information is gathered and exchanged in a variety of ways.

Here are the words of several teachers who were asked what in­formation they had about their pupils before the start of the school year and where that information came from.

School records are kept in the office and are available on all pupils. I could look at these before the school year started to get information about my pupils' abilities, prior school performance, home situation, and learn­ing problems. I don't do this, because I like the students to start out with a

"clean slate" in order to judge them for myself. If I know I have a pupil with a special need, I always review that pupil's office file before the start of classes.

Before the start of the school year, the department of special education notifies me of any pupil in my class with a learning disability who is receiv­ing special help.

Sometimes I recognize names of siblings I have taught on my class list. This gives me some idea of the type of student I expect a pupil to be. Usu­ally it is teacher-to-teacher interaction that provides most of my informa­tion about my new pupils. After all, these are the people who have seen the child constantly for a year.

Teachers inevitably hear about the real problem or gifted students through the school grapevine. Comments such as, "Oh no, you'll have a lot on your hands this year with Bill!" or "Mary is a really intelligent child and a treat to have in class" are frequently heard in the teachers' room.

Standardized test scores and previous grades are available in the prin­cipal's office. I look at these before classes start to get an idea of the capa­bilities of my class.

In my school, classes are assigned by level. Before classes start I know whether a class is higher or lower level. This information tells me some­thing about the general ability, interest, and motivation of the pupils and the class as a whole.

Sometimes when I compare my class list with another teacher's, the other teacher may comment on a pupil, the sibling of the pupil, or the par­ents of the pupil. Susie's brother was a nice, quiet boy. Sam's sister was de­fiant and disruptive in class. Andy is the last of the eight Rooney children, thank God. Be careful, Mrs. Roberts is overly protective of Peter and very concerned about grades.

Note the range of sources available to help teachers get to know their pupils even before the first day of class: teachers' room com­ments, performance of siblings, school records, the special needs department, and the school grapevine. Some of these sources pro­vide formal evidence, but much of the information is informal, based on casual observations. In some cases, the teacher does not even observe performance directly, but relies on hearsay evidence in the form of another teacher's offhand comment in the teachers' room. Such comments are relied on heavily by teachers in sizing up their pupils (Kellaghan, Madaus, and Airasian, 1982; Lortie, 1975). From all these sources, teachers glean information that helps them form initial perceptions about their pupils' likely achievement, in­terest, motivation, and deportment, as well as about their parents and family background.

The fact that such information is readily available to teachers and can influence their perceptions of pupils even before they enter the classroom raises the important question of how much teachers should know about their pupils before the start of classes. In the course of interviewing teachers over the past few years, a number of conclusions regarding this question have emerged. First, there are some obvious characteristics that most teachers indicate they would want to know about before the first day of class. For example, most teachers want to know about any physical or emotional problems their pupils might have. If a pupil is subject to seizures or requires periodic medication to control hyperactivity, the teacher obviously ought to know this before classes start. Second, most teachers want to know if any pupils have been diagnosed as having special needs, learning problems, or a disability. It is policy in most schools to in­form the classroom teacher about such pupils before school starts to help in planning. Third, at the elementary school level, many teach­ers express a desire to know about problematic or atypical custodial arrangements of pupils in their class. One elementary school teacher put it this way: "This is an era of divorce, child snatching, and fierce custody battles. It reassures me to know right from the first day of school who should, and more importantly, who should not, be picking up or dropping off a student." Most teachers agree about the usefulness of having these three types of information available to them at the start of classes.

As to other types of preclass information, there is less agreement. Some teachers want all the information they can get and turn to of­fice records, other teachers, and any other information source in order to learn as much as possible about their pupils before the first day of school. A greater number of teachers, however, prefer not to know too much about their pupils until they meet them face to face at the start of the school year. These teachers often talk about al­lowing the pupils to enter their classroom with a "clean slate," unencumbered by the perceptions of other teachers or knowledge of the pupils' prior school performance. These teachers say, in es­sence, "I would like to find out about the pupils myself, based on the way they act with me in my classroom." The advantages and dis­advantages of having a great deal of preclass information will be considered later in this chapter. For the present, it is important to note that information of various kinds is available to teachers, and that teachers exercise discretion regarding the amount of that in­formation they seek prior to first meeting their pupils.

Initial Sizing Up Information

Teachers were asked what two or three pieces of information about the pupils in their classes they would like to have by the end of the

first day of school. This is another way of asking what types of in­formation are most helpful in setting up a classroom learning soci­ety. Not surprisingly, there was a difference in the answers teachers gave depending on the grade level they taught (Airasian, 1989; Stiggins and Bridgeford, 1985).

In elementary schools, where the primary aims are both aca­demic and social (Good and Brophy, 1973; Jackson, 1990; Lortie, 1975), each teacher typically spends five to six hours per day with the same group of pupils. Since elementary school pupils are younger and less mature than their high school counterparts, it is more difficult for a teacher to organize the classroom society at the elementary school level. Teachers at this level must deal with a more diverse, less socialized, and less independent group of learn­ers. Also, the social system is more complex and intricate when pu­pils and teachers are together six hours per day than when they are together less than one hour per day as in the high school. Given this context, it is not surprising that most elementary teachers first want to know if their pupils have special problems (e.g., immaturity, hy­peractivity) and how well their pupils are adjusted to the social en­vironment that is the classroom. Few elementary school teachers in­dicate that information such as test scores, prior reading placement, or interest in mathematics are the things they most want to know about their pupils after day one of the school year. Rather, they are concerned with information that will help them form twenty or twenty-five diverse young learners into a unified, orderly classroom society.

At the high school level pupils are more mature, have been sep­arated into tracks by prior performance and vocational plans, and have been participants in the system long enough to become social­ized into the procedures and expectations of schools and class­rooms. Further, as noted, the classroom society is not as complex as in the elementary school because pupils and teachers are together for only an hour or so at a time. Finally, since instruction at the high school level is focused primarily on subject matter, the information initially sought by high school teachers is generally related to the achievement or ability level of their pupils and their interest in the subject matter.

Both elementary and high school teachers want and need some information about their pupils early in the school year. How do they get the information needed to create an appropriate learning environment? How long does it take most teachers to feel that they have sized up pupils in their classes? How confident are they of these initial assessments made during the first few days of school? These are important questions to answer because they influence the

quality of the assessments teachers make and these assessments, in turn, determine how teachers will perceive and interact with pupils (Brophy and Rohrkemper, 1981; Cooper and Berger, 1980; King, 1980).

When asked what behaviors and traits they observed during the first week or so of school to help them get a sense of their pupils, teachers offered these typical answers.

You find out about the students by listening to them. We talk so often in the classroom that if someone takes the time to listen they can learn a lot about a student's interest, ability, and thought organization.

By the end of the first week of school I will know whether each child is going to work, care about school, get along with the other pupils, be re­sponsible enough to relay messages for me, and their personality in class. I know these things by observing the children in class. Whether a student volunteers an answer or comments willingly or if he needs to be called on to give an answer tells me about the pupil's type of personality. I watch how they get along with each other. The look of interest on their faces tells me about how hard they will work.

I watch the way the pupils enter the classroom. Are they late? Courte­ous? Quiet? How do they interact with each other and with me? I watch the students' body language because you can learn a lot about the way a student feels about himself and the class from body language. I'd like to say that student dress doesn't affect me in judging the students, but it is a good indicator of the student's style. Their style usually reflects the way they go about addressing academics.

After the first couple of days of class I go to the office to review each student's past academic record. I look over test scores, previous grades in my subject area, and other teachers' comments if they are there. This in­formation tells me a lot about the differences among students I have in class.

I can recognize who is motivated and who is not by the end of the first week of school. I base my judgment on whether or not students complete their homework and whether they attend class every day. I also get a lot of information about the students' personal lives. It's amazing what one can learn by overhearing conversations before and after class and in the hall­ways.

Nothing can be more revealing about a youngster than discussing the birthday party they had over the weekend. Making a point to stop and chat with a student about the weather can tell you a great deal. Watching inter­actions on the playground and in the bus line also can be revealing.

By about the end of the first week of school, using information such as that described above, teachers have sized up their pupils and classes and can provide a fairly detailed description of the char­acteristics they believe pupils to possess. During those first few days, teachers have their antennae up, constantly searching the environ­ment for indications of student characteristics. Sometimes their search leads them to expected places: school record folders, prior teachers' perceptions, and the way pupils interact with them and their peers. The search also leads to some places that would, on the surface, seem to have little to do with the main task of the school: the way pupils dress, posture and body language, their discussions in the hallways and cafeterias, and who they "hang around" with.

Two characteristics of the sizing up information teachers gather are worthy of mention. First, most of the information used to size up pupils during the first few days of school comes from informal observations. Rarely do teachers give tests or make formal measure­ments to determine pupil characteristics. If they seek such informa­tion (and many do not), they go to the school record folders where past performance, including both triumphs and failures, is usually recorded. For the most part, however, teachers simply observe and listen to their pupils. Second, because initial information is obtained largely by means of informal observations, teachers are exposed to only a small sample of each pupil's behavior. Since teachers can ob­serve any given pupil only part of the time, it is inevitable that dif­ferent pupils will be sized up on the basis of different kinds of evi­dence, determined largely by what the pupils happened to be doing when the teacher glanced their way.

Forming Descriptions of Pupils

Information from all these sources is synthesized by a teacher into general perceptions of his or her pupils. The process through which teachers put together diverse observations and performances to produce a pupil portrait is not known, but the process produces descriptions of pupils such as these:

About Nancy, a First Grader:

Nancy comes from a family in which all the other children have had many, many problems all during their school lives. But Nancy seems to be one of the better ones of all the others, because just now she is able to distinguish differences in pictures and also in word forms. She will be one of the best

of this particular family but she will be a slow learner___________ I have taught all

the others in her family that have been in this school. She listens well, follows directions to some extent. I believe she will be below average. (Willis, 1972)

About John, a First Grader:

John is such a pretty boy with big old brown eyes, and he smiles all the time, even his eyes smile. He wants to please, is well behaved. Really joins in with any activity that is going on, and his work has been nice. I'm ex­pecting him to be one of the better boys. (Willis, 1972)

About Jim, an Eleventh Grader:

Jim is athletic and good-natured. He is flirtatious with the girls and some­times with his teachers. He doesn't go beyond the bounds of good taste and is respectful in class. His ability is average. He is a handsome boy who will be a class leader.

About David, an Eighth Grader:

David is a smooth talker, a Casanova. He is a nice dresser, a nice kid with a head on his shoulders. Unfortunately David is very unmotivated, most likely because of his background. He's street smart, loves attention, and has a good sense of humor. He is able to "dish it out" but can also take it. David is loud in class but not to the point of disruption; he knows where to draw the limit. If only he had some determination, the kid could go a long way.

About Joslyn, a Fifth Grader:

Joslyn walks into class each day with a worried and tired look on her face. Praising her work, or even the smallest positive action, will crack a smile on her cheeks, though the impact is brief. She is inattentive, even during the exercises we do step by step as a class together. She is shy, but sometimes will ask for help, but before she gives herself a chance, she will put her head down on her desk and close her eyes. I don't know why she lacks motivation so severely. Possibly it's a chemical imbalance or maybe prob­lems at home. She will probably be this way all year.

These are rich descriptions of pupils. Each encompasses many different pupil characteristics and conveys a perception about mul­tiple dimensions of pupil behavior and background. Cognitive, af­fective, and psychomotor behaviors are included in the teachers' as­sessments. Each relies more heavily on descriptive information gathered through observation than on numerical, test score infor­mation. Many make a prediction about how the pupil will perform

during the school year. As a whole, they give strong testimony to the fact that teachers size up their pupils in various ways.

What is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of these assessments is that each was provided by a teacher after fewer than ten class meetings at the start of the school year. That teachers size up pupils is not in itself remarkable; people in any social system size each other up. What is important, however, is the speed at which teach­ers form impressions about almost all the pupils in the class. Only the most timid and quiet pupils escape initial, detailed sizing up, and then only for a few extra days or weeks. Consider what these teachers have said about their pupils after a week or so of school: "I believe she will be below average," "I'm expecting him to be one of the better boys," "He is a handsome boy who will be a class leader," "If only he had determination, the kid could go a long way," "She will probably be this way all year."

Sizing up assessments produce a set of perceptions and expecta­tions that influence the way the teacher will plan for, instruct, and interact with the pupils throughout the school year (Anderson and Evertson, 1978; Brophy and Good, 1974). This is, after all, the pur­pose of sizing up assessment: to help the teacher get to know the pupils so he or she can organize them into a classroom society and know how to interact with, motivate, and teach them. Clearly the teachers represented above have done this. Not only do they de­scribe many diverse characteristics of their pupils, they also make predictions about their performance through the upcoming school year. First impressions have an impact.

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