We know that feedback is essential for student learning and that the purpose of assessment is to improve student learning. We’ve become convinced that numerical grades aren’t all that helpful in providing feedback to students to move their learning forward. They can also perpetuate stories students tell themselves about their abilities in mathematics. In this session, we’ll share our current thinking about grading, assessment, evaluation, and descriptive feedback, and you will be able to compare different approaches to providing feedback, recording the data, and responding to that information so that students can understand where they are, know where they need to go, and have steps to get there.

Bios:

Carolyn Gingerich and Aleda Klassen have collaborated together for years. Regardless of the roles they’ve held as classroom teachers working at different schools, then the same school, then as consultants or coaches, they have spent much of their teaching careers with Waterloo Region District School Board invested in learning how to teach mathematics so that it is more accessible to all students. Their work in destreaming mathematics in secondary education has focused on equitable teaching and assessment practices. Carolyn Gingerich currently works as a consultant with WRDSB supporting mathematics, and Aleda Klassen supports four secondary schools in WRDSB as a math instructional support teacher. Their collaborative efforts now centre around using small group instruction to meet the varied needs of students in Grades 9 and 10.