When you observe and listen to students engaged with Journey North, and when you conduct formal or informal interviews, you have a unique window into their thinking, how they solve problems, their depth of understanding, and their abilities and attitudes. You can also identify gaps or misconceptions. As students work together, you can choose to be a silent observer and listener or you can ask probing questions (as you would do in an interview). See Open-Ended Questions.

You can choose to make general observations with a set of learning goals in mind (that is, documenting many things for each student) or focus on a specific assessment topic, such as asking “good” questions, and track that behavior for the whole class.

Consider using Post-it notes or sticky address labels to document your observations. You can then remove notes on individual students and stick them on a page in individual assessment folders. If you’re focusing on one standard (such as asking good questions), you can use a whole-class rubric (see a sample). Consider documenting interviews with a video/audio recorder so you can revisit them later.

You can document evidence of student progress toward learning goals by using a checklist or scale , rubric, or anecdotal notes during or after these types of sessions.