Dynamic Assessment

Poehner & Lantoff Dynamic Assessment
Here are my notes on this wonderful chapter:
Dynamic assessment (DA) – an approach
To assessment & instruction in the language classroom (via the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) theory).
Sociocultural theory element that is not specifically called DA by Vygotsky but the description he gives about this element is similar
Formative Assessment (FA) I thought I knew what this was until I came to the end and realized that this doesn’t sound like the ones the State of Alaska provides on their EED website. Even though in the abstract of this article it says that compared to Summative Assessments (learning outcomes, high stakes and systematic, static), Formative assessments “feed back into the teaching and learning process….” These sound to me like activities in the subject addressing each standard with a scoring guide, which I see as practice tests, that the state provides for teacher use foe each testing grade.
DA is a procedure
***P235…”to convince testers to redirect their efforts from concerns with the current state of children’s development to prognosis of theory potential (i.e., future) development.”(!!!)- Vygotsky did this.
And on p. 238 where Leontiev is quoted to have said that “American researchers are constantly seeking to discover not how the child cane to be what he is, but how he can become what he not yet is.’”
Section III that “This is an irrelevant question.” About the amount of each – development and environment- concerning persons. I said- WHOA!
I thought of action research teaching in section IV p239.
On p. 241 last of section IV that, “…require the same kinds of adaptations that will be expected of them in daily life.”
Assessment by teaching p242- reminds me of MAORI ARTICLE
Pp 242 referred to Newman and Holzman about development which sounds like the ILPs we’re doing- and also sounds like a good resource
In section VI DA and L2 development seemed to describe my type of language (re) learning- with “mediation in the ZPD (p243).” And that development in the ZPD is …’revolutionary…’”
I liked that they said that assessing without mediation… leaves out part of the picture- the future…” – so I need to see Lantolf and Poehner 2004, as they said.
I still like the explanation and examples they gave for Formative assessment, in that it serves teachers in four ways (p251). I see there are types of FA and that those used in the classroom can be done in a hit and miss fashion- as an author said that the author quoted. Whereas training is critical.
It’s scary to think teachers are inadvertently creating whirlpools for their learners due to this lack ….me
After reading the part about using assessments for instruction, then I realized that ZI too do this with the adopted curriculum chapter’s tests.
I agree with the part that teachers may have good openings but lack the theoretical understanding…. Thus fails to accurately intervene in the developmental process…. And lack of understanding of the relationship of assessment to learning.
On page 255 section 3 From FA to DA- I feel like I’m here.
I also liked the point that the authors shared from other authors about deciding not guessing what was right/important, and that their answers needed to be supported with good reasons, which can be better when done through collaboration- p258.