Scaffolding assignments provides clear checkpoints for students, allowing them to feel successful at acquiring new skills.
If you’ve never felt successful at something, how do you know it’s possible? More precisely, if you haven’t seen progress toward success, do you have any reason to believe that your effort is paying off or that it’s even worth trying?
This is what I think about when I start planning an assessment sequence for any bit of learning I’m asking students to do. How am I building assessment sequences to help students see their success and growth so they build the confidence they need?
For starters, the only evidence they have to support whether they will be successful is how they did in previous classes or the grade they got on the previous essay. This is why we so often see students get trapped in a performance loop. Students who got an F on their last essay will approach the next essay with that evidence and convince themselves success isn’t on the table for them. The students with an A might find themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum, full of confidence and convinced they have nothing left to learn. At this point, the assessment process does nothing more than cement identities students have already created for themselves.
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