Reading Response - Chapter 2

Summary:
Again, Davies uses a really apt title, as she goes into the roots of classroom assessment.  She gives four headers for what need to be done in terms of assessment for learning, and they are as follows:
- Mistakes are essential for learning
- Understand feedback
- It takes time to learn
- Recognize that success has many different looks

Response:
While reading this chapter, there is one quote that popped into my head almost instantly. It's by a certain red-headed teacher that I'm sure we all know and love, and it goes like this: "It's time to take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"  Of course, this is by Ms. Frizzle from The Magic School Bus, and it might seem juvenile, but, in context, it's actually really well thought out.  Mistakes are very necessary for assessment -- perfection, in itself, is imperfection.  Once you know what won't work, you're closer to knowing what will work.

Out of the remaining three headers that Davies offers, I'd like to touch on feedback.  In my opinion, feedback is of the utmost importance if you're even almost looking to improve on anything.  Hearing "this is good" or "this is bad" is simply a mood-changer and won't help improve the quality of work.

Boots:

1.) The most important time I learned something was in my English 20 class in high school.  The assignment involved the breaking down of a poem to try and find the meaning within it.  At that point in my English career, poetry was probably my worst subject -- but I, luckily, had some resources at my disposal -- my teacher and a close friend of mine were both able and willing to help me out with this project.  With their help, I was able to read between the lines of the poem, hash it out, and do really well on the assignment.  Since that time, I've developed an interest in poetry and have become fairly skillful at deciphering it.

2.) Obviously positive feedback is better than negative feedback, but there is always room for improvement, so the best kind of feedback is constructive.  If you find something that doesn't really mesh within an assignment, letting them know is the first step, but after that, you need to give them the tools to fix it.