Positive things about my first experience with SBG?

I’ll start with 4

On the whole, the kids picked up on the concept of SBG very quickly. Even though on that first introduction session there were great looks of uncertainty and puzzlement I was very pleased how quickly they started to run with this crazy new scheme. Their feedback was very positive.

One thing that I was really pleased about was how naturally and easily peer coaching developed. This was not something I talked about at all but the kids seemed to realize that if I was not grading assignments or homework but attempting to directly assess their achievement of a standard the whole area of inappropriate peer aid such as cheating had significantly shifted. They were freer in themselves to work with and provide aid for each other.

Setting and grading assessments for SBG is a whole lot easier and more fun! I found that when you are more focused on what you are assessing it takes much less time to set up an assessment. It takes much less time to grade them as well because I don’t have to spend any time working out how many partial points an answer that isn’t 100% satisfactory gets. All I have to ask myself is that does this demonstrate achievement of the standard as written? Yes/No

If the key question is “Does this demonstrate achievement of the standard as written?” I’ve found it makes setting up and demonstrating the validity of alternative assessments much easier. I feel much more confident to regard an oral quiz as valid or to choose an appropriate problem from the text book and say solve this.