Empowering Students in Assessment

As an educator I am always setting new goals for myself. How can I improve my teaching to better help the students? Being reflective about my own practices is not an easy task. This year I was challenged by my technology coach to become more of an innovative teacher. Finding out what this meant to me personally was my learning journey this year.

Part of this journey was reading and reflecting on The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros. One section of his book has us compare engaging students versus empowering students. We are always taught to create engaging lessons to keep the interests of the students in our classrooms. These lessons help get the children excited about our content. Mr. Couros challenges us to empower students. Empowering students gets them excited about their interests and passions. We have to find ways to give students the knowledge and skills to to pursue what they are interested in. According to Couros, "Kids need to be empowered, NOT engaged."

After reading this section of the book I decided to try this theory out. We had just finished a science unit on light. I had an assessment all set to give to the students where they had to answer questions in a test format. Instead, I used the benchmarks for the unit to create a rubric. The students were shown the rubric and then had to decide how to prove to me that they understood the expectations for this unit.

Wow! The excitement was immediate. Even though the topic was set for them, the children were given the power to choose what platform they would use to show their knowledge. I had students create posters, articles on Seesaw, Animotos, Google Slide Presentations, and speeches. I was amazed at how much information the children presented to me. The depth of their knowledge went beyond what I would have assessed them on in a written test. The fact that they had control over the sharing of their learning brought out creativity and innovation.



I am using the "empower not engage" theory in my reading groups now. Students are given a choice as to what they want to learn more about. They then research the topic and create a presentation of their choice with which to share their new knowledge. By helping to empower my students I am setting them up to be successful in their future endeavors.

Patty Luft