Here is a special gift for you all: the introduction to Inquiry Mindset Assessment Edition.

I wrote this book for a few reasons.

One, I had noticed something startling in how some of the teenagers I worked with were impacted by their assessment experiences throughout their schooling. They saw themselves as not capable. They saw their learning as a mix of letter grades and percentage scores. They compared themselves with those around them. Constantly. These experiences were having a huge effect on how they viewed themselves, their potential, and their future. It was distressing.

Two, I had noticed some of the teenagers I worked with had checked out of learning. They were great at making it look like they were engaged, that they were thinking, and that they were learning. In reality, they were out-waiting their teacher knowing someone else who was extroverted or engaged or keen would take the bait. These students were content with coasting and with leaving school with a series of decent grades yet no deep sense of learning, of growth, and of taking and using purposeful feedback. ON paper it looked like school worked for them but I questioned if this was the case.

And three, I had noticed that in many of the schools I worked with in implementing inquiry-based learning we would get to amazing places in inquiry and empowering students in taking on more agency over learning yet were slower to shift our assessment practice to be equally empowering.

This book aims to help in these areas.

Have a read of the introduction. I would love for you to share it with your colleagues and broaden the conversation at your school with this snippet from the book. Enjoy!