The first advantage of Progress Points is the effective presentation of learning targets. We are convinced that specific and measurable learning targets for each lesson are essential to student success and a necessary piece to the educational puzzle. Through the learning target envelope feature a teacher/coach can write and organize the learning targets, align them with state approved standards, and decide on a set of very specific and leveled skills.
Through Progress Points these targets communicate the academic expectations that exist in my classroom and develop a shared academic vision between the students and myself. Students review these targets every day and through this method bridge their native language knowledge with foreign language course material.
It’s one thing for a teacher to list the target and direct the lesson to achieve the target. But it’s another thing to assure that students understand them. We believe most teachers rely on informal “entry and exit activities” in combination with summative assessments as tools to collect data on how an individual student is progressing. Progress Points believes that these methods alone do not capture true student learning due to their lack of timeliness and lack of importance placed on it by the students.
Both student and teacher feedback on learning is needed more frequently and more importantly prior to the assessment. In a basketball analogy, would a coach be as effective in only making adjustments to his team’s offense after the game has ended? Or would he and his team be better served to make adjustments during the game in an attempt to achieve victory? I believe that it is the same thing in education; I must make adjustments to my teaching based on data during my lessons, not after assessments. So it is in this mindset that I so proudly created the “growth chart” feature of Progress Points.
This “growth chart” provides two types of feedback: an immediate analysis of student achievement on learning targets learning gaps and accountability for lessons, materials.
This “growth chart” has become a very powerful reflective tool for both students and teachers alike and I find its output to be invaluable in the educational process. Upon implementation of this system, my students immediately took it more seriously than an exit worksheet, knowing that they will know what deficiencies they may have with outlined learning targets when I return their scores to them.
The growth chart and Progress Points have one main advantage and that is increasing student involvement in the post-assessment reflection process. After researching the assessment FOR learning initiative, we adapted Progress Points to provide students with detailed feedback through informal methods (classroom discussion, key review) and formal methods (student reflection sheets). When teachers use both feedback methods harmoniously, it can help students build upon strengths and improve weaknesses and make instructional methods more effective. I believe, above all, that assessment is an instrument by which students examine their own improvement and develop into self-directed learners.
If students can have the opportunity to reflect and grow in the learning process, it can lead to higher confidence and increased collaboration within the classroom. In order to lead students in the proper academic direction, educators must have the knowledge and skills necessary to produce timely and explainable feedback. Progress Points is a representation of our belief that assessment can be deduced in a way that presents feedback that is beneficial in constructing educational opportunities that endorse self-awareness within the learning process.
