One of the best parts of my job is presenting with my friend Pete Ferguson. We get to talk with teachers and administrators about how “relationships matter” in teaching and learning. I made a short-ish (36 minute) screencast of my part of the presentation. In this video, I discuss some potentially important (I think) connections between teacher/student relationships and classroom assessment.

Short summary: teachers and students both need feedback about learning, and they need to use that feedback to improve learning. Students who may feel the least capable/confident probably need this kind of feedback the most, but they may not be too thrilled about doing these assessments. So how can teachers try to make sure that students will participate in classroom assessments authentically, and increase the chances that students will USE feedback from those assessments? Relationships!