Playing With Assessment

On Wednesday, I ran a small inservice for some teachers and administrators on how to use the Livescribe Pen. These are all people with access to a Livescribe Pen that want to start using it more. This was largely a discussion session, and it was great to hear how others wanted to use the Livescribe Pen, as it inspired me to try some new things too.

Up until this point, my students were the ones that used the Livescribe Pen the most. I believe strongly in getting technology into the hands of the students, and my students will still continue to use this tool the most. I want to start using the Livescribe Pen more though, especially for the purpose of assessment. During Wednesday’s inservice, one teacher spoke about recording conferencing notes using the Livescribe Pen. This got me thinking about my writing block each day. Usually I work with the students, jot down a few notes, and then that evening, type the notes into Evernote. On Thursday, I decided to try something new. After I taught the mini-lesson on writing questions and had the students writing their questions, I took a Livescribe Pen and notebook around the classroom. I sat down with groups of students. I looked at what they wrote, I listened to the conversations they had with their partners, and I started writing down notes. I wrote what I observed. I wrote down questions that I had. I made notes of next steps. I didn’t record any audio notes, but even with just the written ones, I could send my pencast to Evernote, and I had far more assessment data than I usually collect at any given time. It was great! Now I really do know what I need to teach next.

The only problem is that I can’t always write fast enough. As much as I wanted to get around to more groups and record more observations, my hand wouldn’t work as fast as my head wanted it to. I had to make a change to my system. Then came my math lesson from today. I had a plan. I still used the Livescribe Pen to write down my observations, but I came up with a legend at the top of the page:

Then I could just write down a couple of letters to give me an overview of what students knew. I expanded on the ideas with more detailed notes, but I quickly saw the benefit in short forms and even little pictures too. I didn’t record audio notes because of a fear that I wouldn’t go back and listen to them. Maybe I’ll include audio the next time, and just jot down a couple of quick points to remind me what was said. There is value in having the student voice as part of the assessment.

Yes, I could have used a regular notebook to write down these same notes, but then I would have had to use a digital camera to transfer these notes into Evernote. Many iPad and iPod Touch apps have options to send completed notes to Evernote, but I find it more difficult to type on the iPad and iPod Touch. I’ve erased my typed notes more than once before, but at least I can’t erase the ink from the pen. With the Livescribe Pen, it just takes a click to transfer this data to Evernote, and then I continue to have all of my assessment data in one place. Continuing to use the Livescribe Pen for assessment notes and recordings will only increase the amount of data that I collect on my students. Adding in descriptive feedback for the students that I can then share with them gives this assessment data even more value. I now know my “next step.”

Have you used the Livescribe Pen for assessment before? What were the results? I would love to hear about your experiences too!

Aviva