C18: Assessing Agency and Action

by Lu Gerlach

I’m sure many of you are scratching your head, thinking of ways to assess agency and action, since they are driven by internal motivation and being.  This is very true.  I am proposing one way of attacking this holistically.  It’s just my perspective at this point in time.  ​

About five years ago, one of my fourth grade students  told me, “Perspective is a debatable opinion.  It’s based on the information you have at that time.  Once you get more information, your opinion changes.”  Something tells me that this will be very true as I play with the relationship of agency and action more. 

I won’t lie, I debated on whether to present on this topic, since so much of what we are assessing are intangibles:  potential, motivation, growth, and so forth.  Yet, how can students monitor their growth if they have no success criteria to measure it against.  This is when I considered a success criteria for agency and action. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s an attempt to make it more tangible as our students take steps towards their better selves. 

Let’s make a go of it and try to apply it, so you can see it in action.  No pun intended. 

Here's a lower and upper elementary version of an agency success criteria.  They will help you students to begin thinking using agency until they are able to continue co-create their own success criteria. 

Initially, I considered putting agency and action together, but there were too many items.  Also, agency is the process that establishes action to happen.  I wanted to keep the ideas separate, so it was easier for students to see the relationship. ​
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​How do we bring them together?  Very easily.  You ask students to focus on 1-2 success criteria for the unit or specific duration of time.  I don’t think you want more, since the goal is mastery. Then, you pick some actions you think will help you to get there.  Remember, think of your content as well, since it will shape the learning outcome.  Let’s try it out!

An Inquiry into…

• ​The patterns of settlement and use of natural resources
• Impact of human use of resources on food chains
• The relationship between setting and creating a mood within a story
• How voice and word choice drive meaning
• The location of digit’s place determines its value

Agency goal

• I can identify and solve problems and advocate for change (human settlement and use of resources/ impact on ecosystems)

Action goal

• I support positive changes for social, environmental, and political issues through individual or group actions 
• I open my mind to solve problems differently

The goals students choose will be framed by the content you choose to partner together.  Will they need help in this process? Absolutely.  This process will need to be modeled, guided, and done together a couple times, before you can release your students.  It will be worth it though. 

Check out our guides, “Using Agency Daily” and “Using Action Daily” in our Resources section.  You’ve got this!