The End In MIND.........

The first chapter being the last one MUST  signify something after all. And this something could be the beginning of new practices,techniques, viewpoints, insights, etc.in our professional development.
It could be quite interesting  to see how this  shift  the book proposes, can be a real fact and not just a
captivating reading that few teachers are fortunate enough to have a glance at.
I think the challenge is there, not in the reading itself, of course, but  in the successful implementation of such innovative approach in learning.
ThE big question we have to ask ourselevs BEFORE doing anything is what is the real purpose of our work, which refers exactly to what we expect from our pupils to learn and be able to demonstrate they undesrstood and obviously that they finally learnt something in classes.
Merci.

The challenge of validity.

''The third question in thinking like an assessor asks us to be careful that we evoke the most appropriate evidence.''
This reminds me of  part of the work I had to do last year in this course  and how the term ''validity'' was  like something coming from another galaxy. I simply had never heard about it before. Now, I know that it does not come from another galaxy but this planet. The Assessment planet. Things happen for one reason so if this validity exists is for an important reason.
I also have the feeling that most of the time we don't pay real attention to the possible consequences our judgements based on test scores can have.In this case, our judgements should be based on valid criteria, something that would fairly and consistently show to what extent our students are able to demonstrate they have a certain level of proficiency in a language skill. Just when we realised our judgements have consequences, which not always is easy to see, we can start to work on making our work more valid than it tends to be day by day. 

Thinking like an assessor

''An assessment approach grounded in authentic work calls for students (and teachers) to come to two important understandings: first, learning how adults in the larger world beyond the school really use or don't use the knowledge and skills that are taught in school; and second, how discrete lessons are meaningful , that is , how they lead to higher-quality performance or mastery of more important tasks''.

This makes me think that we have to be clear about what we are teaching and why, because if teachers do not have a clear understanding or the experience they need to transmit to students, how transferability can occur???  
Of course students have to reach a definite and clear understanding based on authentic work , but have we experienced enough of this real work as to put it into practice and  use it as an authentic  assessment????
A second point is how to make our daily work, that is to say, those lessons that are not thought as preparation for a test,for example, and use them as steps to build up effective learning day by day.

Secondly, as the author points out ''the greatest deffect in teacher lesson plans and syllabi, when looked at en masse, is that the ''key intellectual priorities- deep understanding  of transferable big ideas, and competence at core performance tasks- are failing through the cracks of lessons, units, and courses devoted to developing thousands of discrete elements of knowledge and skill, unprioritized and unconnected''.
I believe this is strongly connected to the school's curriculum, because if it does not present a clear picture of what it is really aiming at, in terms of learning goals, competences and skills how lessons will successfully reflect the curriculum aims. Of course one of our prevailing deffects is how we design the learning process not taking into account where we really want our pupils to get, just taking assessment as the final part of the process rather than the beginning of it.

Gaining Clarity in our Goals

I would like  to focus on  two ideas which seems to me, make a lot of sense when we look back at our work in the classroom.
Firstly, the twin sins:
1. aimless coverage of content, and
2. isolated activities that are merely engaging while disconnected from intellectual goals in the learners' minds.

There is    no doubt that in one moment or another of our careers we have found    ourselves  just     covering content for a number of reasons but not for the correct ones which  should be real learning and understanding. I think this happens  mostly because    teachers   work   very  isolated    from    each other sometimes, or we not   have enough time for reflection   after classes or simply  the  curriculum    it is not       properly  adjusted to the different sociocultural contexts in which we work in.

the end is the beginnig of the end

''Instead of thinking of contents stuff to be covered , consider knowledge and skills as the means of addressing questions central to understanding key issues in your subject''

It would be interesting to try  this revolutionary approach  at school level having the kind support of the whole  school community. Challenges of this nature are necessary and vital for teachers in order to improve our teaching and Assessment practices as well.
A not easy task to carry out, but with proper support  would be achievable.
Starting for having clear what is the purpose of what the students need to undersatand which will  lead the other elements of the learning process on the right track.

Essential Questions: Essential questions to understandings.

''Essential questions offer transferability across disciplines linking not only units and courses in measurement and statistics, but also subjects as diverse as engineering, pottery and music''

This is quite interesting and worthy to have a look at. Most of teachers develop their labour  mainly devoted  to their subjects, which in this case is English. But some of them have to deal with the not always easy task of teaching English in connection with another subject directly.

From this point of view this sentence which reflects how different subjects can connect through essential questions and I dare to add, effective questions as well.This process of transferring question and knowledge might contribute to a deep understanding from part of the pupils.