Timing the Doses

Be clear about the purpose of your assessment, and make sure that you are going to be able to act on the feedback. 

Students are less likely to sustain their commitment to assessment tasks if they can't see the value of them, or they feel that the feedback is overwhelming or not useful to their learning goals.

Make sure the energy you are putting into assessment, and the provision of feedback is efficient and purposeful.

 This saves you time and makes sure that students are clear about why they are doing the assessment, and what feedback they will get that can help them take the next steps in their learning.

Teachers can sometimes fall into the trap of carrying out large assessments, becoming overwhelmed with marking and not being able to provide focused and timely feedback. 

Smaller, regular assessment tasks that target a key skill or knowledge are often more powerful, and they save our sanity!

Diagnostic assessments for learning should help gather key information about students' prior knowledge and skills to help you strategically plan to address gaps and build on strengths.

Formative assessments of learning should be undertaken regularly, and should zone in on specific skills and knowledge that is being scaffolded over a course of learning.

Summative assessments report on student outcomes against the standards, as determined by the Department of Education's reporting policies.

Growth assessments help both teachers and students identify where they are in their learning, and where they should go next.

None of these assessment tasks need to be large, or laborious. In fact, smaller more regular assessments can encourage more routine rehearsal of the key skills and knowledge you need students to develop.

For example, if you are carrying out an assessment to determine students' ability to structure a paragraph, students don't need to write a whole essay. Writing single paragraphs regularly over a series of lessons using a feedback checklist and models will give students more opportunities to apply the feedback they need to make progress in their learning.

Purpose - Be clear about the purpose of the assessment. Zone in on the key skills and/or knowledge students need.

Position - Skills and knowledge need to be scaffolded, or built upon. Think about the order of the skills and knowledge students need to develop to help them achieve the learning goals for the unit or lesson. Then position your assessment tasks to check the skills and knowledge when you need students to make a new step.

Practice - Position your assessments to allow students to practice developing the skills and knowledge using the feedback you provide them.