Assignments vs. Mastery Checks: What’s the Difference?
Assignments and mastery checks are both important components of Modern Classrooms. But what’s the difference?
Assignments provide an opportunity for:
Practice: All the work which students complete in order to develop mastery.
Collaboration: Students should have the opportunity to ask questions and work with their peers if it fits the scope of the assignment.
Teachers exercise their own discretion on how or whether these are graded - Some teachers chose not to grade assignments, while others grade them for completion. Still others grade these for accuracy and don’t put in a final grade until students have an opportunity to revise.
Mastery checks, on the other hand:
Provide an opportunity for assessment: These are short, end-of-lesson tasks, which students use to demonstrate mastery.
Are Individual: Generally, these should be given individually, to ensure that students can execute an objective on a novel question without support.
Teachers exercise their own discretion if these are graded as “assessments” or “classwork.” Teachers generally consider these to be formative assessments. In a mastery-based classroom, teachers enter a grade after students have an opportunity to either revise or reassess. Policies around revision and reassessment are crafted by individual teachers, to reflect the unique nature of their discipline and the age-appropriate needs of their students.