Bring Your Own Guts When Tracking Student Growth

Dabo Swinney had a vision nine years ago for his Clemson football program.   He didn’t hope his players would do well in a national championship game, he planned for them to do well in the national championship.  He planned every practice.  Every player knew how, what, and why they were learning with every practice.  

This is exactly what should be happening in our classrooms on a daily basis. As Dr.  Tammy Heflebower, Senior Scholar at Marzano research states in her webinar Using Assessments to Track Student Growth, “We don’t want to hope our students do well on our assessments.  We should purposefully plan for them to do well.”    She goes on to further explain that students should be able to answer these three questions with each lesson:

1. What am I learning today?
2. Why am I learning this?
3. How will I know that I have learned it?

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Additionally, Dr.  Heflebower explains that there are three types of assessments we can use to track student progress:

Obtrusive	Formalized, interrupt the normal flow of activity in the classroom Aligned to standards Levels of proficiency	Pencil/paper tests Quizzes MAP
Unobtrusive	Informal, do not interrupt the normal flow Happen along the learning journey	Observations Listening for key ideas Watching for key actions or processes Monitoring for the desired effect
Student Generated	Students generate their own ideas about how they will demonstrate their current level of knowledge or skill.	Choice menu boards Portfolios Presentations

Well, Dabo, you did it!  You beat Alabama! It would be a dream come true to sit in on one of your practices.  I would love to see what your practice plans look like and what types of assessments you use to track the progress of your players.  Congratulations Clemson!  Way to “Bring your own guts!”

Additional Gutsources- Charting Student Progress   5 Assessment Forms That Promote Content Retention