All Posts

Beyond the Test: Other Perspectives on Assessment

Assessment isn’t a single event or a single tool. It’s the entire ecosystem that surrounds teaching and learning. And when we look beyond classroom-based assessments, we discover a whole landscape of ideas that shape how students grow and how teachers teach. Here are a few assessment viewpoints that continue to influence my thinking as both a teacher and a doctoral student. Standardized Testing: Necessary, but Not the Whole Story Standardized tests sit at the far end of the a

Tamara Giusti

1 hour ago3 min read

Why Figures Matter: Seeing Learning Through Data

As teachers, we gather incredible amounts of information—exit tickets, observations, checklists, writing samples, reading notes, project reflections, and informal check-ins. But sometimes it isn’t until I visualize the data that the learning patterns become clear. Figures (like bar graphs, tables, and charts) turn scattered information into something we can see, interpret, and act on. They help me answer questions like: Who’s ready for enrichment? Who needs reteaching? Where

Tamara Giusti

1 hour ago2 min read

Portfolios for Student Growth: Our Year in a Book

Every year, I keep a portfolio for each student—a growing, evolving collection of their work across writing, science, social studies, and art. There’s no math in it (our math work lives in a separate, ongoing notebook), but the portfolio captures something deeper: the story of each child’s growth. If I had to choose one practice that helps me see students as whole, developing humans, it would be the portfolio. Portfolios aren’t new, but when they’re used intentionally, they b

Tamara Giusti

1 hour ago3 min read

Student Self-Assessment: Teaching Students to See Their Own Learning

One of my favorite moments in the classroom is when a student pauses, looks at their work, and says something like, “I think I need to add more evidence here,” or “I’m proud of how I revised this part.” That little spark of insight?That’s self-assessment—and it’s one of the most powerful tools we can give students. Self-assessment isn’t just about rating a rubric or checking off a box. It’s about helping students understand their own thinking , recognize their strengths, iden

Tamara Giusti

1 hour ago3 min read

The Effort Grade Debate: Motivation or Misleading?

If you were to walk into my school and ask about grades, you wouldn’t hear anything about A’s or B’s. We don’t use traditional letter grades. Instead, we report on progress toward mastery and on behaviors that support learning —things like engagement, collaboration, persistence, and readiness to learn. In certain domains, especially exploration, engineering activities, physical education, and performance-based arts, we also honor effort more explicitly. This makes the “effo

Tamara Giusti

1 hour ago3 min read

Choosing the Right Assessment Tool

One thing I’ve learned after years in the classroom is that the format of an assessment matters just as much as the content. You can have a beautifully written learning target, but if the assessment tool doesn’t match what you’re trying to measure, you’ll end up with data that doesn’t actually help anyone. I sometimes think about assessments like art supplies: I wouldn’t hand my students colored pencils if I wanted them to paint. And I wouldn’t hand them watercolors when wha

Tamara Giusti

2 hours ago3 min read

What Assessment Really Means to Me

If you stop by my third-grade classroom on any given day, you’ll probably hear me asking questions like, “How do you know?” , “What makes you say that?” , or “What would you change next time?” For me, those moments are assessment. They’re the quiet signals that help me figure out what each child understands, what they’re still developing, and where we need to go next. Over the years, I’ve realized that assessment isn’t a test or a score—it’s a process of listening . Research

Tamara Giusti

2 hours ago2 min read