BENEFITS

Going Visual

Using visual tools allows you to work more upstream than other approaches. They allow you to make real–time assessments in real– time learning. How? By getting to the source of your pupils’ understanding. And by directly influencing the formation of your pupils’ concepts and understanding. In this way, you move from assessment for learning into the next stage…assessment–as–learning.

Why Going Visual Works

When visual tools are incorporated into every teacher’s assessment tool box, and used throughout the curriculum, you can expect to see:

• Sharper focused questions about pupils’ thinking
• Earlier and more useful feedback on pupils’ formative understanding
• Direct challenges to pupils’ ideas via a visual tool that avoid upsetting personal sensitivities
• More talk about the learning process as a whole
• More explicit modeling of thinking processes by teachers
• Less impulsive responses by pupils as they work through the visual tool methods
• Pupils accurately reporting where they’re stuck in the learning process
• Ongoing self monitoring by pupils as they make repeated self assessments in action
• Productive discussion of learning problems among peers

Links 

Click here to read about the benefits of using visual tools in … Thinking Skills, Collaborative Learning, Learn to Learn