I recently read a post on Grant Wiggins blog that inspired me to try something new with my classes this fall that I have not done quite so extensively in the past. The basic idea in a nutshell is to do a serious “pre-assessment” of my students early on before we dive into the content of the course. Grant uses the analogy of pre-season athletic practices when coaches do far less coaching and way more watching and assessing of the potential players. Coaches collect a lot of information about the strengths and weaknesses of the players as they watch them scrimmage and perform drills before they begin “teaching” their sport.
I have always asked kids to write a brief paragraph or two describing why they were taking the class (an elective) and what they were most looking forward to in the class. After reading Grant’s post, I plan on expanding my pre-assessment and adding a few more questions that will help me design/adjust the curriculum for the course based on the strengths and weaknesses of my students. Some questions I am contemplating adding to the initial writing assignment are as follows:
- What are your strengths as a student/learner?
- What are your weaknesses as a student/learner?
- What aspect of previous science classes did you most/least enjoy? Be specific.
- What makes you the most anxious as a student/learner?
- What teacher behaviors most annoy/frustrate you?
- What are you most proud of as a student/learner?
What do you think? Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or suggestions.