Baseline - I have limited knowledge of the evolution of assessment theories in education. I am beginning to become a more reflective teacher. Being a teacher for eighteen years, and continuing to take relevant classes for licensure in teaching, I feel I have pretty good knowledge of academic content and developmentally appropriate curriculum. I understand authentic assessment, but need to make this more of my practice. Designing rubrics has never been easy. I am beginning to develop a professional development plan.
Ahead of the Curve by Douglas Reeves NOTES & PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
Chapter 1, pp.1-12 Using Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning Thomas R. Guskey
Large-scale assessment…
*does not guarantee success
*are designed for ranking schools and students
*results do not help T. modify approach or improve instruction
*results arrive too late to impact teaching
*lack detail needed to target specific improvements
The Best-Suited Assessments:
*guide instruction through quizzes, tests, writing assignments, and other assessments.
*results are immediate, relevant, easy to analyze per student
For Assessments to be Useful:
1. use assessments as sources of information for both teacher and student
2. follow assessments with high-quality corrective instruction
3. give students a second chance to demonstrate success
Test….concepts, skills, and give criteria to students (be aligned with state/district standards.
1. Sample tally of student errors on a classroom assessment (Reading Differentiated Tests 2010-2011)
Check for instruction problems, or assessment problems (does the item adequately address the knowledge, understanding, or skill they were intended to measure?)
Effectiveness in teaching is not defined by what the teacher does, but on what students are able to do.
If a teacher is reaching less than ½ of the students in the class, the teacher method if instruction needs to improve.
Follow Assessments with High-Quality Corrective Instruction designed to help students remedy whatever learning errors identified with the assessment.
High quality corrective instruction:
*is not restating the original explanation louder or slower.
*must accommodate differences in s. learning styles and intelligences.
*extends and strengthens any different approach you may have used in teaching skills initially
*provide enrichment or extension activities to broaden and expand learning. (GT)
Get reteach strategies from: other teachers, professional development, grade level meetings, local colleges and universities,…
WHEN to do the corrective instruction?
*class time
*review sessions
*with homework assignments
*By not allowing minor errors to become major learning problems, teachers better prepare students for subsequent learning tasks, and thus less time is required for corrective work.
Provide the students a second chance to demonstrate their success, in turn, gives students a chance to experience success in learning, and provide them with additional motivation.
Writing – T build in the writing process with drafts, feedback, revising, improving,
S. learn when their performance is less than successful, for then they can gain direction about how to improve!!!!!
What’s the purpose of the grade?
*Shouldn’t it be to provide an accurate description of how well students have learned, not how or when they learned the information (if reteaching/reinforcing was necessary).
Successful students typically know how to take corrective action on their own. (save assessments, review items missed, rework problems, look up answers, ask teacher). Less successful students rarely take that initiative.
Mastery Learning has a remarkably positive influence on students’ test scores and grade-point averages, as well as on their attitudes toward school and learning. Mastery Learning can lead to significantly positive increases in students’ academic achievement and self confidence. MASTERY PROGRAMS PRODUCE LARGE ACHIEVEMENT EFFECTS!
HAVE A CLASSROOM WHERE THE ASSESSMENTS BECOME AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL PROCESS AND A CENTRAL INGREDIENT IN EFFORTS TO HELP STUDENTS LEARN!!!!!!
Chapter 2, pp. 31-57 Involving Students in the Classroom Assessment Process Anne Davies
Four research-based cornerstones for thoughtfully and deliberately involving students in the classroom assessment process to support learning:
1. Formative classroom assessment: S. have higher achievement, learn more, and are more motivated) when s. are involved in assessment process (co-constructing criteria, self-assessing, giving themselves info. to guide (feed-forward) their learning, collect and present evidence of their learning, reflect on strengths and needs.)
2. Quality Feedback for Learning:
* Specific, Descriptive Feedback – formative; s. work is compared to criteria, rubrics, models, exemplars, samples, ro descriptions of excellence. It feeds-forward the learning.
* Evaluative Feedback - summative; tells how learner has done compared to others, or in relation to what was to be learned. (uses letters, numbers, checks, symbols, encoded.) They will understand whether they need to improve or not, but will not have enough information to understand how to improve. (When we are threatened, or perceive ourselves to be threatened, our brains are too busy defending themselves to engage in learning.) Rewards are a form of evaluative feedback. They are sometimes used as a way to motivate, but they do not provide specific feedback. They may actually demotivate students, interfere with learning, and potentially disrupt relationships among teachers and students in the learning environment.
* Motivation – When s. are involved in the assessment process they:
- develop a sense of ownership and commitment to their learning.
- make choices about what to focus on next in their learning.
- engage in learning.
- experience fewer discipline problems.
(When s. make choices about their learning, their engagement and achievement increase.)
* Summative Evaluation of Student Evidence – An essential cornerstone; it requires sufficient evidence that students have achieved the intended learning. Evidence should be triangulated, and collected over time. Look at a greater range of s. work; it increases the validity of teachers’ judgments and limits the need for external evaluation.
STRATEGIES FOR INVOLVING LEARNERS IN THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Four specific strategies:
1. Define learning destinations so that students understand their achievement goals. (state/show criteria/learner outcome/standard so students know the target)
2. Involve students as partners in co-constructing criteria. (keeps s. motivated, engaged, involved, informed, and identifies the needs of the group (use s. samples) Step by step process: brainstorm, guide, make and post a T chart, use the criteria to guide s. work, revise as needed) ex. p43 RESEARCH CONFIRMS: when s. are involved in assessment, more learning takes place!
3. Multiply the amount of feedback students receive to “feed-forward” their learning. Together, set criteria. S. can assess themselves, exchange projects and get assessment from a peer, and have the teacher assess also. Research shows s. seek feedback when it is easily available and when their work can be improved.
4. Engage students in collecting, selecting, reflecting on, and presenting evidence of their learning. Much like a student learning portfolio, with standards attached, can show learning to share with parents at conferences. S. select goal.
IMPLICATIONS FOR ME!!!!
1. Rethink student led conference work samples to really reflect growth.
2. Students help to select criteria for a HOBBY REPORT, PowerPoint presentation, etc.
Chapter 3, pp. 58-77 Assessment for Learning: An Essential Foundation of Productive Instruction, Rick Stiggins
1. Assess Accurately 2. Use the Assessment Process and its results Productively. (S. must see themselves as capable learners who make sound decisions that will lead them to greater levels of achievement.)
THE KEYS TO ASSESSMENT QUALITY
Key 1: Start with a clear purpose for assessment – a sense of why we are assessing.
Key 2: Include a clear achievement target – a vision of what we need to assess.
Key 3: Design an assessment that accurately reflects the target and satisfies the purpose.
Key 4: Communicate results effectively to the intended user(s).
Chapter 4, pp. 78-101 Common Formative Assessments: The Centerpiece of an Integrated Standards-Based Assessment System Larry Ainsworth
Chapter 5, pp. 102-125 Designing a Comprehensive Approach to Classroom Assessment Robert J. Marzano
Four research-based findings regarding effective classroom assessment, which form the bases of a five-step process for designing a comprehensive system of classroom assessment:
Finding 1: Classroom Assessment Feedback Should Provide Students With a Clear Picture of Their Progress on Learning Goals and How They Might Improve.
Finding 2: Feedback on Classroom Assessments Should Encourage Students to Improve
Findings 3: Classroom Assessment Should Be Formative
Findings 4: Formative Classroom Assessments Should Be Frequent
1. Reconstitute state and national standards.
2. Design a scale that measures learning over time, and rewrite the standards according to the scale.
3. Teachers design formal and informal formative assessments using the scale.
4. Use a “value added” approach to judging student performance.
5. Redesign report cards.
October, 2011
October, 2011
Understanding by Design, Chapter 9 synopsis Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Stage 3: Planning for Learning pp191-226
Stage 3 is about planning for appropriate learning activities. We should focus our thinking on who the learners are, and what they will need, individually and collectively, to achieve the desired results (Stage 1) and perform well at the tasks proposed (Stage 2).
1. Resist temptation to fall back on comfortable and familiar techniques.
2. Ask yourself: What kinds of instructional approaches, resources, and experiences are required to achieve your goals (Stage 1 & 2)? Stage 3 essential questions are: What do learners need, given the desired results? What is the best use of time spent in and out of the classroom, given the performance goals? Focus on learning, not on the teaching.
3. Consider the ongoing use of assessment as a key to improving learning.
4. Design your lessons so teacher and learners can get the feedback they need to rethink, revise, and refine their work.
THE BEST LESSON DESIGNS ARE ENGAGING AND EFFECTIVE.
Engaged learners will find the lesson thought provoking, fascinating, and energizing. It pulls them all deeper into the subject. Engaged means hands-on, involves mysteries or problems, provides variety, and offers opportunities to adapt or personalize the challenge, balances cooperation and competition, self and others, has meaningful challenge, and involves authentic accountability for results..
Effective means that the learning design helps learners become more competent and productive at worthy work. Students develop greater skill and understanding, greater intellectual power and self-reflection, as they reach identified goals. Learning is effective when work is focused on clear and worthy goals, students understand the purpose of the work, models and exemplars are provided, they can monitor their progress, limited fear and maximal incentive to try hard, take risks, and learn from mistakes, activities like students’ experiences to the real world, and many opportunities to self-assess and self-adjust based on feedback.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BEST DESIGNS FOR LEARNING:
1. Clear performance goals
2. Hands-on approach throughout; less front-loaded “teaching” than typical
3. Focus on interesting and important ideas, questions, issues, problems
4. Obvious real-world application; meaning for learners
5. Powerful feedback system; opportunities to learn from trial and error
6. Personalized approach, with more than one way to do the major tasks, and room for adapting the process and goal to style, interest, need
7. Clear models and modeling
8. Time set for focused reflection
9. Variety in methods, grouping, tasks
10. Safe environment for taking risks
11. Teacher role resembles that of a facilitator or coach
12. More of an immersion experience than a typical classroom experience
13. Big picture provided and clear throughout, with a transparent back-and-forth flow between the parts and the whole
WHERETO : serves as a tool for checking the elements of the design rather than a sequence for how to construct the design. WHERETO REPRESENTS A WAY OF PLANNING AND TESTING UNITS rather than a formula for building them.
W – WHERE AND WHY. Make the goals clear to learners, and tell them why it is worth learning. Students don’t need to know about the teaching, but they do need to know what the learning requires them to eventually do. The work must be purposeful from the students’ point of view. Where are the students going to, and where are they coming from? Use of a K-W-L chart is effective and efficient.
H – HOOK AND HOLD. Find powerful, thought-provoking “hooks” for engaging all students in the big ideas and performance challenges. Developing understandings requires students to work hard, not just take in, memorize, and give back. Tap intrinsic motivation. The H asks us to act on our knowledge about engagement (and disengagement) to achieve our goals as teachers. The most engaging and effective courses can be organized around controversies or opposing arguments. Use weird facts to provoke interest. Provide a mystery. The best lectures keep us engaged by raising questions and providing interesting insights and anecdotes. Don’t front-load too much information; instead let an essential question give rise to the “itch” for the information in the students’ minds.
E – EXPLORE AND EXPERIENCE, ENABLE AND EQUIP. It is the teacher’s job to equip and enable the learner to eventually perform with understanding. Students cannot transfer their understandings to new situations if we as teachers don’t equip them to. Good design involves providing enough real or simulated experience to enable understanding to grow. Use graphic organizers to plan as a teacher, but also to help the students organize ideas.
R – REFLECT, RETHINK, REVISE. How will you guide students to rethink their understanding of important ideas, improve their products and performances through revision based on self-assessment and feedback, and encourage students to reflect on their learning and performance?
E – EVALUAGE WORK AND PROGRESS. How will students be guided in self-assessment, self-evaluation, and adjustment, identify remaining questions, set future goals, and point toward new learning? Self-understanding is the most important facet of understanding for lifelong learning. Successful people have the capacity for honest self-assessment, clarity about their understanding, self-monitor and self-adjust, and do this in timely and effective ways. Metacognition should be integrated into the curriculum as this internal dialogue needs to be made aware to our learners.
T – TAILOR AND PERSONALIZE THE WORK. Differentiate instruction to accommodate the various developmental needs, learning styles, prior knowledge, and interests of students. Tailor the learning plan to maximize engagement and effectiveness for all learners. Differentiate learning in terms of content, process, and product. Content – content standards remains the same when we plan in Stage 1. Process – meet learner needs by varying the resource materials, and allow learners options as to how they work (alone, in a group) or how they present learning (orally, visually, or in writing). Product – appropriate choices of products and performances for assignments and assessments.
O – ORGANIZE FOR OPTIMAL EFFECTIVENESS. Sequence the learning experiences in the best way to develop and deepen student understanding, while minimizing misconceptions, and maximizing engagement and effectiveness. A powerful sequence is desired here.
Overall, make sure that the big ideas are still present, and that the design leads to successful long-term understandings that can be transferred to other areas. Use 6 facets to remind you of the kinds of understanding-related work that needs to happen in Stage 3 to support performance aims from Stage 2. These 6 facets can be used to construct a design for learning, and also to help list possible activities for your plan. They are explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. See pages 223-224 for general questions in these 6 facets to help get your ideas started for your design.
How my district is changing curriculum to comply with the new Common Core Standards.
Teachers on the Language Arts Curriculum Committee were able to attend a meeting at CESA11 last year to learn how the standards were changing. Last summer, our K-5 staff spent time working with our new reading curriculum, which includes reading, spelling, language skills, and writing. K-5 spent time writing our grade level guarantees. Our guarantees tell what we will all teach this year. We did look at Common Core Standards and found that most of the Common Core requirements will be met through the LEAD21 curriculum at grade 4. Our curriculum director told me that the rest of our common core work will be done at our summer workshops, 2012. These workshops are paid time by the district in June, with voluntary attendance.
I was able to attend a Math Common Core Standards meeting at CESA11 last year. We use Investigations curriculum, and our curriculum coordinator told me that the company has moved forward in aligning their curriculum to Common Core. They have new student workbooks, and teacher inserts for our teacher manuals. We will have paid summer Math Curriculum days in June to look at the updates and begin wrapping our brains around the changes. I think our biggest adjustment will be the expectations that students know their facts (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) at a younger age.
Social Studies – I have not seen the Social Studies Common Core. As far as I knew last summer, they were still being written. We may be allowed time to work with Social Studies in June. I don’t teach Science, and am unsure about Common Core in this area.
TEAM TEVA-Teacher Leadership - Third Semester
Karen Hull
Amanda Schmidman
Janet Anderson
Stage 1: Desired Results
Established Goals: Students will integrate teacher leadership into practice. Students will apply teacher leadership into the workplace setting and communicate via technology.
Students will. . .
1.Explore leadership possibilities in school
2. Identify key stakeholders and the impact/pressures exerted on school system
3. Make connections between current trends and personal workplace
4. Develop political awareness of educational trends
5. Modify their PDPs
6. Develop professional portfolios
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
1. Students will post on D2L how their district is changing curriculum to comply with the new Common Core Standards; students will also reply to at least one other post on the topic. (DUE Sunday, October 30 by midnight.)
2. Students will write about RtI and reflect on the changes necessary in their schools/classrooms and how RtI can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. (Reflection due to dropbox by Sunday, October 16 by midnight.)
3. Students will identify one group of stakeholders in their district. Students describe the impact and/or pressure exerted by the group of stakeholders and the effect it has on the district. Students will share ideas on D2L for comments and support. (Post on D2L by midnight of Sunday, November 20. Continue the discussion throughout the semester.)
4. Students will share 2 grant options on googledocs (Post by midnight, Sunday, November 6.)
5. Students will continue to modify, as needed, their professional development plans and portfolios. (Ongoing all semester.)
6. Students will write up a reflective summary on what they were able to share with their own district from all activities this semester. (Send to dropbox by midnight, Sunday, December 4.)
Stage 3: Learning Plan
Common Core: Students will discuss on D2L how their districts are changing to comply with common core standards. Post one from your school. Respond to two others. Keep the responses and conversation going.
RtI: Students will write about and reflect on the changes necessary in their schools/classrooms and how RtI can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Share something you are doing personally.
Grant Writing: Students will share 2 grant options, online if possible, on googledocs.
Stakeholders: Students will identify and define a group of stakeholders and the impact and/or pressures exerted on the public school system, (parents, students, school board, administration) on D2L.
School/district Leadership: Students will choose one topic or activity from the semester to share with their team, school or district (Ubuntu, technology, Common Core, RtI, stakeholders, ASCD, Teaching Tolerance, online grants, etc). Reflection/analysis due in Dropbox.
Fourth Semester, 2012
Areas of Curriculum Development and Assessment that I have put in my reflections include:
* Team Level Backward Planning in Math
* Discussing Math Scores from Unit Tests and sharing teaching strategies
* Adding student worksheets to math promethean so they are gone over in class instead of collected and corrected without the student present.
* Inquiry Projects - We are moving forward in this. My students have participated in 5 inquiries, and will do at least one more. (As a grade level our goal was to do 4 this year.) They LOVE it!
* SOC Meetings - We meet within a RtI team to discuss student behaviors and progress. We keep track on a grade level document. We brainstorm ideas, interventions, and move forward to help students grow and learn.
* Sharing Unit Test Scores in Reading to discuss needs of students and strategies of teachers.
Karen Hull
Amanda Schmidman
Janet Anderson
Stage 1: Desired Results
Established Goals: Students will integrate teacher leadership into practice. Students will apply teacher leadership into the workplace setting and communicate via technology.
Students will. . .
1.Explore leadership possibilities in school
2. Identify key stakeholders and the impact/pressures exerted on school system
3. Make connections between current trends and personal workplace
4. Develop political awareness of educational trends
5. Modify their PDPs
6. Develop professional portfolios
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
1. Students will post on D2L how their district is changing curriculum to comply with the new Common Core Standards; students will also reply to at least one other post on the topic. (DUE Sunday, October 30 by midnight.)
2. Students will write about RtI and reflect on the changes necessary in their schools/classrooms and how RtI can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. (Reflection due to dropbox by Sunday, October 16 by midnight.)
3. Students will identify one group of stakeholders in their district. Students describe the impact and/or pressure exerted by the group of stakeholders and the effect it has on the district. Students will share ideas on D2L for comments and support. (Post on D2L by midnight of Sunday, November 20. Continue the discussion throughout the semester.)
4. Students will share 2 grant options on googledocs (Post by midnight, Sunday, November 6.)
5. Students will continue to modify, as needed, their professional development plans and portfolios. (Ongoing all semester.)
6. Students will write up a reflective summary on what they were able to share with their own district from all activities this semester. (Send to dropbox by midnight, Sunday, December 4.)
Stage 3: Learning Plan
Common Core: Students will discuss on D2L how their districts are changing to comply with common core standards. Post one from your school. Respond to two others. Keep the responses and conversation going.
RtI: Students will write about and reflect on the changes necessary in their schools/classrooms and how RtI can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. Share something you are doing personally.
Grant Writing: Students will share 2 grant options, online if possible, on googledocs.
Stakeholders: Students will identify and define a group of stakeholders and the impact and/or pressures exerted on the public school system, (parents, students, school board, administration) on D2L.
School/district Leadership: Students will choose one topic or activity from the semester to share with their team, school or district (Ubuntu, technology, Common Core, RtI, stakeholders, ASCD, Teaching Tolerance, online grants, etc). Reflection/analysis due in Dropbox.
Fourth Semester, 2012
Areas of Curriculum Development and Assessment that I have put in my reflections include:
* Team Level Backward Planning in Math
* Discussing Math Scores from Unit Tests and sharing teaching strategies
* Adding student worksheets to math promethean so they are gone over in class instead of collected and corrected without the student present.
* Inquiry Projects - We are moving forward in this. My students have participated in 5 inquiries, and will do at least one more. (As a grade level our goal was to do 4 this year.) They LOVE it!
* SOC Meetings - We meet within a RtI team to discuss student behaviors and progress. We keep track on a grade level document. We brainstorm ideas, interventions, and move forward to help students grow and learn.
* Sharing Unit Test Scores in Reading to discuss needs of students and strategies of teachers.
