Assement for Learning

For me assessment for learning and not of learning essentially means the assessment is part of the learning.  When we asses our students it needs to work in conjunction with learning and not just as a means to give a grade and write a comment.  The assessment should improve learning outcomes for students and aid in the growth of the individual learners.  My example of this was the Peer Mentor class that I teach at Stromlo high School.  The assessment in this class is given from the teacher and the peers in the class.  The progressive nature of the class allows the students to read the feedback on each lesson delivery and improve on their performances.  Students must continually reflect, discuss and critique their work and the work of others.  This process enables the students to build on prior experiences and refine their delivery and content.  Next term we will be visiting 3 local primary schools and working with 400 young students.  This pressure focuses the students desire to improve and to have engaging and informative content to deliver.  The final assessment we will use is a presentation where the PM students reflect on their learning over the last semester.  I believe it will become evident that the students have improved dramatically through their experiences abut also through the style of assessment we used.