Helping students see assessments as learning tools is often a challenging goal, especially in the Upper School grades when "everything counts." Nevertheless, giving frequent and small assessments or quizzes is an effective classroom tool when learning new material. Likewise, so is talking with a peer or an adult about a new subject. It is well established that when we explain what we know, it helps the information to be stored in our long-term memory.

 

I encourage parents to learn what the current topic is in each class your child is taking. Look at the syllabus, the teacher website/ebackpack page,  the classroom packets given to you at our Back-to-School nights and make it a practice to encourage your child to talk about what he or she learned on the subject thus far. Research clearly indicates this will help with the learning process.