I have been reading a book about medicine, about surgeons and doctors and about performance in the field of medicine. The book is called, Better by Atul Gawande. Why would an educator want to read a book about doctors and medicine? This is what the back of the book states, "The struggle to perform well is universal: each of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. Nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives may be on the line with any decision." This struck me as we are also always seeking to do better in education. We face the same struggles of fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities. And along with the field of medicine, our field of education also has lives and futures at stake. We are constantly seeking ways to improve, ways to reach (cure) every child, and how to constantly get "better".
The book is filled with stories of specific patients. One story is about a woman being treated in the hospital but with no real diagnosis. Gawande was a resident taking care of her while a senior resident kept a close eye on her and continued to check on her. The senior resident ended up catching and treating what could have been a life threatening condition. "Because he checked on her, she survived." He checked her temperature, her blood pressure, her oxygen flow, etc. He performed "formative assessments" in order to inform his diagnosis and treatment.
From this case Gawande stated, "What does it take to be good at something in which failure is so easy, so effortless? When I was a student and then a resident, my deepest concern was to become competent. But what that senior resident had displayed that day was more than competence - he grasped not just how a pneumonia generally evolves and is properly treated but also the particulars of how to catch and fight one in that specific patient, in that specific moment, with the specific resources and people he had at hand." We know that not every child responds the same way to instruction. If they did, our jobs would be so much easier. Not every child will respond the same to any given instructional strategy. Some students will grasp the concept the first time around. Others will require reteaching or interventions before they get it. And some students may require a completely different approach before they understand the concept. "What does it take to be good at something in which failure is so easy, so effortless?" It would be easy to teach it once and move on.....effortless. It would be easy to assume our instruction worked the first time without checking the temperature, blood pressure, oxygen flow of each student to make sure our course of instruction was working. 
Formative assessments are crucial to the success of every student. I know this year has been a frustrating year to say the least with assessments. NWEA and MSTEP testing has and will continue to take a great deal of time in our classrooms. Most importantly are the formative assessments that we need to be giving throughout all lessons. A check for understanding, a pulse, of each student in order to determine next steps and interventions needed before moving on. There is compelling research that says that frequent formative assessments improve student achievement for all students. Our PLC focus should continue to be spent discussing common formative assessments. If this is not happening during your grade level time, what is being discussed that has more value?
Read this final passage from Gawande's book and replace medicine with education. I'm sure you will see the correlations I see:
"In medicine, lives are on the line. Our decisions and omissions are therefore moral in nature. We also face daunting expectations. In medicine, our task is to cope with illness and to enable every human being to lead a life as long and free of frailty as science will allow. The steps are often uncertain. The knowledge to be mastered is both vast and incomplete. Yet we are expected to act with swiftness and consistency, even when the task requires marshaling hundreds of people - from laboratory technicians to the nurses on each change of shift to the engineers who keep the oxygen supply system working - for the care of a single person. We are also expected to do our work humanely, with gentleness and concern. It's not only the stakes but also the complexity of performance in medicine that makes it so interesting and, at the same time, so unsettling."
So, what does it take to be good at something in which failure is so easy, so effortless? Teaching a lesson and moving on would be easy. Assuming they all got it...effortless. "Better" requires the time to assess and inform instruction based on results. "Better" requires professional development and seeking ways to grow and improve. "Better" requires that we take a look at our instructional practice and strategies against the assessment data to determine if what we are doing is working. Shame on the doctor who continues a course of treatment when the vitals are not improving and symptoms are not decreasing.
Let us refocus on our common formative assessments so that our kids will get BETTER!!!
Articles Worth Reading:
The Importance of Trust in a PLC
Tour of Your Chromebook - shared by +Stacey Schuh
When a Child gets Angry - We Punish - @pernilleripp
The Importance of Reading Aloud - +Katherine Sokolowski
(be sure to watch the video at the end of author, Kate DiCamillo talking about Reading Aloud)
There is a Book for That - Nonfiction Picture Books
The Neuroscience behind How Children Learn to Read
Helping Students Develop a Desire to Read at Home
Videos Worth Watching:
Rick Wormeli on Summative and Formative assessments:
Dylan Wiliam: 5 Strategies of Formative Assessments:
Kid Snippets - Math Class - I'm sure this teacher taught this!
