Role of Assessment The student's grade should not necessarily reflect how many answers he got wrong or right on his tests or how his projects compared to the rest of his class; instead, they should be a measurement of the progress he has made over the course of his education. This means that the teacher must initially assess the student's typical work output at the beginning of classes, to use as a reference point for progress made during the course.

Additionally, each time a new subject is begun in class, the teacher should try to obtain some idea of the students' initial abilities at comprehending it, what Popham refers to as pretest data (14 Popham). In my experience as a student, acquiring automaticity is difficult due to the concentration and practise required to develop it. This is especially problematic when the set of skills or knowledge being learned is decontextualised.

For this reason, it is important for the teacher to make the students aware of the application of what is being learned, its necessity in furthering the class, and its relationship to other concepts. For example, memorising the organelles of animal and plant cells in biology often seems a rote and meticulous task. The teacher should explain to the students some of the benefits of having such knowledge, and how it relates to larger operations such as cellular respiration, homeostasis, or photosynthesis.

Keeping these in mind, and the material relevant and applicable, they should be related back to when automatising knowledge of the organelles. Indicating the true purpose of education is not drilling, or teaching a lot of useless facts (which one can find on the Internet anyway), nor submission to established societal values, but leading out that which already is within. An educator, then, is a person who helps one achieve the fullness of one's potential without trying to impose his own viewpoints.

These lower-level concepts should serve as Vygotskian tools for understanding larger ones. Once they have been internalised by the student, critical comprehension and application may be instigated. It is at this point that the teacher must pay special attention to the students' individual learning abilities and interests, so that she may begin to cater to them. Her expectations and input should be gauged upon her knowledge of the students, so that she can provide appropriate assignments and feedback.

In Relational Zone, Lisa Goldstein concisely articulates this: I will give several examples of this. First, the student should be able to make connections between his personal interests and musings: if he likes graphic novels or songwriting, his English course might allow him to study those forms of narrative. If he is interested in sports, then his anatomy course should allow him to explore the basic concepts of sports nutrition.