Practice with Multiple Opportunities to Succeed

I am currently taking a course for a possible side project. The course itself is organized in Schoology and there are multiple assignments and tests that we have to complete before we go through the final certification process. This experience has demonstrated the absolute importance of having assessments that match the practice and having multiple opportunities to succeed.

I literally had a moment of “Oh my god, how did I only get 25% on that? I spent over an hour listening, reading, and referencing. And this? 25%? For real?” After the initial shock wore off and I realized that I have as many opportunities as I needed to re-listen, re-read, and re-reference, I started thinking about what happened, why it happened, and how it happened.

Practice. Throughout this entire week’s practice, the examples that were given to me were in English. The analysis was done in English. I answered in English. I’m a fast learner so by Wednesday, I was getting 100% on all of my practice and was feeling pretty confident. I also aced all of yesterday’s work, too.

Reality. The actual items I will be working with will be in French. Today’s official practice before the certification test was in French. The responses I was listening to was in French. Even though the skills I had honed in English I knew could transfer to French, that had not been my practice throughout the past four days. The specific items I have learned to listen/read for were misplaced. I’ve been practicing with the wrong materials throughout the first four days. Taking my practice exam today, I was bummed to get only 25% on my first round. Nevertheless, I also have multiple opportunities to go back, review, and try again until I get 100% throughout the next 10 days. This will help prepare me for the actual exam.

How does this relate to our students and their learning? Teachers, what do your assessments look like? Does your students’ everyday practice work look like the assessments that the students will take? I’m not asking you to teach directly to the test, but the practice that the students are doing should be a direct reflection of the assessment they have. Moreover, do they have multiple opportunities to recover from the initial failure, if they do fail their assessment? And are they encouraged to try again so that they can learn the information at their pace and discover their misconceptions, independently or with your guidance?

If I, an emotionally-developed adult, felt crushed with my 25% knowing that I had put in a great amount of effort into my work, I can’t imagine the feelings of our students who could feel absolutely discouraged from ever trying again. Please, build classrooms that encourage students to learn. In an era where assessments are inevitable in our data-driven educational system, help your students by creating a space where their daily practices meet those of their eventual assessments. Give them the opportunities to fix the mistakes on their assessments, too, for full credit. Because really, we want to keep their passion in learning, and we’d want the same for ourselves in the same situation.

I know that I am thankful for the multiple opportunities.