Formative Assessment Institute On-line Survey Results September 2007

1. Formative Assessment InstituteOn-line Survey ResultsSeptember 2007

2. Please identify your position:

3. Please identify your position:

4. Please identify your position: - Other • 6-12 literacy coordinator • School Psychologist • Title I Math/Elem • Data Administrator • Secondary Instructional Strategist (SPED)

5. - Districts participating in Survey(This information will be used for grouping and determining differentiated instructional groups) • Carbon Co SD #1 • Converse #1 • FCSD #25 • Fremont #24 • Fremont Co. S.D. #1 • Fremont County District # 14 • Johnson County SD #1 • Laramie County SD #1 • Lincoln County #1 • Natrona • NCSD #1 • Park County School District #1 • PCSD#6 • Platte #2 • SCSD #1 • Sheridan #1 • Sheridan Co School Dist2 • Sublette County #1 • Sweetwater County SD #2 • Weston County SD #1 • Sweetwater County SD #2 • Washakie County #1

6. Differentiation of the groups is necessary to meet individual district needs. Select the grouping you feel would be most beneficial.

7. Select the one response that you believe to be the most appropriate for each question.

8. I know the five levels of learning targets and develop assessments accordingly.

9. I have unpacked the standards and know what to assess at all different levels of Bloom’s.

10. I write learning targets for every unit I teach.

11. My students know, in advance, what their targets are for every unit.

12. I work with other teachers to discuss learning targets and student accountability.

13. No matter what content area I teach, I work with students during every unit to discuss strong and weak student work examples.

14. I have developed rubrics for student work and they are posted in my classroom.

15. I meet regularly with my peers to discuss strong and weak student work.

16. I use a protocol of looking at student work in meetings with my peers.

17. My students know my expectations of strong and weak student work.

18. I use descriptive feedback to help students better hit their learning target.

19. I use descriptive feedback to reflect on student strengths and weaknesses.

20. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). • The food was great! I felt the breaks were most useful when on our own during a set amount of time to do a task. Overall, the Institute was enjoyable in all areas. • Food was wonderful, room was crowded. Breaks ever hours are wonderful. • Given the large number of participants, I feel that the conference went as well as could be managed. Smaller areas to work with our own team would be preferred but the space is just not available. Breaks were important, and I found that they were built in regularly. • I felt the logistics were handled quite well given the number of participants in attendance. • Food was great! Thanks. The room was too crowded. The breaks were adequate. • It was hard to hear at times in the room with so many people. The food was great. Breaks were fine. I heard several people mention offering bottled water. • Handled well for the amount of participants. • I am more of a meat and potatoes guy but things were OK.... The survey...administrator can't answer them like ateacher?? • It was pretty crowded in the room, and more restroom area was needed. I was impressed with the food and also impressed at how quickly the lines went through - although, it was difficult to get back to the table to actually eat.

21. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • Well done • The food was great. but the training room was a little small • I thought that separating into smaller groups was more effective. It allowed for more discussion and fewer side bar conversations. • Room and food were fine. It is a long way to Lander. • The room was crowded, could the meetings be split into different dates for different districts. The food was adequate. The breaks were ok, but some of the word time was too long for assigned tasks to be completed, and therefore turned into too much break time. • Facilities and schedule were adequate. • Excellent food and timing for breaks / lunch. • I was fine with all of the above. • Every thing was good except the size of the room--it was way too crowded and noisy for team talking--we couldn't even hear from one end of our tables to the other during discussion without yelling, which added to the mayhem.

22. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • It was a little crowded. • The room was very crowded. Food and breaks were fine. • Need to find a way to control the noise. Sidebar conversations distract from the presentation. Perhaps different seating combined with break out rooms would help. Thanks for bringing in the soda machine! • The room, food, and breaks were all wonderful! • I felt things were well planned and comfortable. The food was terrific. • No problems. Breaks every hour or so are good. The food was excellent-the hotel needs to be commended. • A bit crowded as far as moving in and out, etc., goes, but workable. Food was fine (except for breakfast on two days). Breaks were fine. • It's nice to have tiomely breaks from sitting so long. Thank you for the Diet Pepsi! • I thought everything was just fine except for the congestion on the last day during the lunch line in the hallway. • The pilars in the room hampered viewing of screens...possibly more screens for viewing. Food was excellent...gained weight. Breaks were timely

23. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • The room was not the best place for a large group. We learned to get around it. • The overall conference was well designed. The parking lot theme was great. Breaks were spaced well as it kept us fresh and able to continue on. • A bit crowded for working in groups, but you only have so much space so this may not be correctable. • The training room was a bit crowded, but the food was awsome. I enjoyed the smaller groups on the last day, however, I feel strongly about keep same districts together. • I don't feel we were treated like adults or professionals. Unfortunately, not all of the attendees acted like professionals or adults. • Room was a little crowded; this was OK, except made it difficult for team discussion due to noise level. **Survey - would have liked an option for "time to work in this area", instead of "need follow-up training", which was the closest answer provided. • Fine • The facility was just fine; the food was very good...breaks...perfect. Thank you • Thank You. I think it went well. It is hard to come back in that big of group after only a few minutes of talking. The group is so large. Maybe we can be given a couple of discussion items at a time in order to keep transition times at a minimum. It went much better when the big group was divided into three groups. We were in the back and had difficulties hearing and seeing at time.

24. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • The room was too small to accommodate the number of people that were there. There was not much room to move. • The food was great. The rooms, though crouded, were comfortable. I thought the smaller group format, was a bit more participant friendly, though I would had likes to stay with my team. There were sufficient breaks. Nice job! • I think it is a real opportunity for such a large group of people to gain additional and new knowledge. I have no complaints other than trying to keep school or district teams together so they can match the information to their individual needs and knowledge levels. • It was a large room and because of this seems easy for those of us at the back to get side tracked. The breaks and food were good. • The group was too large the first two days to be effective, but the last day break out sessions were wonderful • I thought the training room was fine. Lots of folks in one space, but it worked. The food was OUTSTANDING. I complimented the cooking crew several times. More frequent breaks with strict time lines.

25. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • There are so many people crammed into that space, that at times it felt like we were falling all over each other. In the afternoon it was too warm and we sat for longer periods of time. • Not many outlets for laptops available. • Space was pretty cramped... I always felt like I was tripping over someone, their chair or their laptop cords. • I felt we had plenty of breaks and the food was great. I liked being grouped with the people from my district, but when we were broken into the three smaller groups, it seemed more focused and individual questions could be addressed. • The room was fine. The breaks could be a bit longer because of lack of enough bathrooms, or just put in a few more to allow for that. • Too large a group for the facility. • I felt somewhat cramped in that the room was overly crowded, and it was not easy to move around. It was also extremely loud, and when working in groups, I couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the table. There were times I gave up trying to hear and just sat. • The training room was a little cramped but did not cause me any discomfort. The breaks were more than adequate and were greatly appreciated. Over all I was very pleased with the logistics.

26. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • Food good Sometimes we had an activity break and then another activity I think that is too much movement in a roll • The room was a bit crowded, but workable. The speaker system had some glitches, however the staff was flexible and handled this inconvenience with grace. The food was good and the lines moved fairly well. The breaks were fine, not too long, not too short. • Great training! • Logistics were great. • The logistics were great other than the issue of the noise in one large room when we had our team work time. • Great location and well thought out breaks and information. • Room was fine, maybe cut the breaks down to 10 minutes so we can get done quizker, felt like a lot of wasted time was spent on introductions and breaks • Everything was very good. Presentors need to use the microphones. • The facilities were good considering the large group size. It seemed like we took a lot of breaks. I would rather work hard and get out earlier.

27. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • I thought the Institute was set up well, food was great, breaks were fine, facility is fine. It was fabulous. • I felt that everything was well instituted. • Need some drinks that don't have caffeine. • The space was very limiting--noise level and crowded. • Day three was the best with grouping and activities planned. Day one and two were informative and necessary but delivery could have been a bit more diversed. • Room was too small for that big of a group. • Food was great, the room was cramped but that is understandable, and I appreciated the timing of the breaks. • More frequent breaks or opportunities to change state. I realize this is difficult with such a large group, but it might help keep people focused. • My only suggestion is to keep in mind that some of us attending are "vegetarian" eaters. • I did this already and sent it to you. • The food was great. The level of noise in the room was distracting but I'm not sure the presenters could do any more about that.

28. Please give us some feedback about the logistics of the Institute (training room, food, breaks, etc). (Continued) • It was a very large group, and I felt confined. The schedule, food and location was good. • Logistics were fine. • The tables seemed to small to adequately use my computer. Other than that it was fine. • Over crowded. I like to spread out and do authentic work. • The training room was great. The food was excellent and the breaks were frequent enough for me. • Food for meals and breaks was excellent. • I think the logistics of the Institute worked well. The food was terrific. It would be nice to have a bit more space in the room for all the people. • The group was too large, it did help to break the groups up on the last day and work with us in smaller groups. Yet these smaller groups were kinda big too yet better. • Adequate • The room was not big enough to accommodate all the participants. Breaks and food were great. • Great

29. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? • Unpacking the standards and working with my school level peers. Anytime we could work together as our school was beneficial. • I enjoyed the keynote speaker, and the breakout sessions. • I learn best when examples of implementation of skills are provided. This can be through video, written scenario, etc. The examples are most appreciated when they cover a range of ages and skills. • I picked up the greatest amount on the first day and then the first half of the 2nd day. • The chance to talk with teachers and other administrators about training topics. • Sitting down together with a team and coming to a consensus about a plan of action district-wide. Brainstorming ideas to promote/encourage a catalyst for change. • Exploring the assessments are offered in our district and analyzing them. • We had pretty much done most of this session...We did learn at the unpacking stage. I am still concerned folks are unpacking standards and the PAWS descriptors are more important • The greatest opportunity came from the time spent with my district team. • Discussion with peers

30. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • Meeting with our groups and discussing how to better implement FA in our schools • Since we have already unpacked our standards, probably the session regarding the cognitive complexity (graphic organizer with topic, reasoning skills, etc.) • The presentation by Doctor Popham was great. The group work time was also very helpful. • The learning targets and questioning sessions. • Opportunity for extended conversation with my team. • Bloom's Taxonomy and assessment matrix. • Setting student learning targets • The Standards Unpacking • I found the content helpful but the best learning occurred in meetings with my coworkers. • I wish we could have worked on learning progressions from unpacked standards or unpacked assessment descriptors. Without this piece, we will not design the formative assessment system that will complement all of our Body of Evidence work. • Chance to work as a district team to discuss learning targets and developing essential maps and assessment plans

31. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • The greatest learning opportunity was talking with the people from my district and discussing what needs to be done at home. • Being able to dialogue with my building team or with our district's team. • I would like to become an expert in learning targets and developing high level assessments and questins based on Bloom's taxonomy. • Unpacking standards; Bloom's refresher (including verbs). • Unpacking the standards. • The assessment matrix and being able to discuss things with my team. • Working with our district group on the FAI forms: This was the most useful portion of the training! Action Plan dist. ass. summ. assess Ass matrix Action plan dist. writing Action plan • The discussion about summative and formative assessments was very helpful to me. • The item that I appreciated was when we were discussing having students rewrite the standard in their own words. • A basic understanding of FAI was quickly done.

32. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • FAI gave me a clearer picture of what formative vs. summative assessments are. Learning the importance of the students knowing where they are going was helpful. • Unpacking the standards with Bloom's Taxomony • The break-out sessions; esp. the "legacy" session. • Unpacking standards • Hard look at what assessments are being used and how they can be used more effectively. • The breakout session topics-- I loved hearing from Jim Popham too. • Visiting with other teachers. • I really think we benefitted from the time together to fill out the assessment matrix, plan for assessment needs, practice unwrapping standards and identify learning targets. Much of what was presented was very useful to us. • Work on the definition of Formative Assessment in a way that staff got a good hold of what it is and the benefits. • The greatest learning opportunity for me was the reflection I had on good teaching practices.

33. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • See above comments • Working with our team on the assessment chart. That was an eye-opener. • I liked the session where we unpacked the standards and looked at Bloom's taxonomy. The time to visit with our districts was invaluable. • Collaboration with my school team • The second two days were the best as far as learning is concerned. The time spend having conversations within our districts and schools was the most helpful. • We're starting from ground zero, so unpacking standards was very helpful. We are now moving to learning targets at our school. • Team time. • I gained the most when we trained in 3 different groups and when we were in our principal, IF, and staff group. • Learning targets • I liked the breakout sessions best. The overview offered by Dr. Popham was effective in spite of his cultural insensitivity.

34. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • Ability to work with our school's team. • Dialogue with about current assessments given in our district and how to align curriculum with those assessments. Also the dialouge about how to begin the process of realigning curriculum • I have to say I didn't learn much. It was all stuff we have covered extensively in our district and building. • the learning targets were great, makes you rethink your teaching strategies • The interaction with the team. Listening to Dr. Popham. • The team activity looking at our district assessment system was really good. • I think working with our school team on the curriculum mapping and those sorts of things was the most valuable. • The bloomes taxonomy section provided the greatest opportunity. • Keynote speaker. • Unpacking the standards and the brief mention of curriculum mapping. • Future goals....upcoming learning. • Looking at all of our district assessments both formative and summative and seeing that we need to develop formative assessments and upwrap the standards.

35. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • I felt the unpacking standards was very helpful. • I enjoyed listening to Dr. Popham, I also enjoyed unpacking the standards. • Popham's presentation was tremendous. One particular point, however, stood out. His recommendation was to use the PAWS descriptions, not the state standards, when designing instruction and assessment. Will his recommendation be addressed and/or followed? • Working together as a district to determine which of our assessments were summative and which were formative. • The morning of the second day of training is when I learned the most, then it felt like we went backwards from there. • The first day was the most benificial to me. The second and third day was a review. • Keynote speaker; third day work • Unpacking the standards, writing things in kid language, "First Grade" • Unpacking standards. • Hearing Popham speak was powerful, as well as unpacking the standards.

36. In the September FAI training, what area offered you the greatest learning opportunity? (Continued) • Time to meet and discuss with team. • I liked how we were instructed on something and then we were allowed time to try it out and practice as well as discuss things with our cohorts. • The Keynote speaker was great and entertaining. The small groups on the last day were hard to get into because I did not know anyone in my group - but eventually I met people and was able to share with educators from other districts even though I was uncomfortabe at first. • I enjoyed Dr. Popham. • From a personal perspective, Dr. Popham's presentation was extremenly helpful. I learned more about the PAWS design and how it could be an instructionally sensitive large scale assessment. I also appreciated the discussion about the variety of definitions for formative assessments. This really did provide a good foundation for the rest of the discussions. The greatest learning opportunity from a District perspective was the time to review and analyze our assessment matrix as well as work collaboratively to decide on next steps. • I felt like we did not learn anything. This was not what we intended to get from the institute. Our principal was there. He said we will give it one more shot and if it is not on Formative Assesment we are done. We can be more effective in our classrooms.

37. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? • I would take out the session on questioning. • Things were crowded and we needed more time to discussion the issues that were most important to our districts. • Once the foundation was laid for our conference, I would have liked more time to plan and reflect with my own district/building team. • Make it a two day presentation, the third day seemed to "drag" when compared to the first two. I don't believe it was thy way due to the content presented, I was just overloaded at that point in time. • Less lecture and more directed conversations, please. • I thought the "ice-breaker" activities could have been shortened. While great learning takes place and there are good analogies for activities, we are away from our students and need to maximize the learning time we have. Let's get to the meat of the training:) • Have fewer participants. Could there be more opportunities to meet? Would people be willing to adjust to different days? • it would be in Casper • It felt like you were shooting at a moving target - if I could change one thing, it would be to have a solid plan with confident leadership. (I realize that you were using formative assessment to try to best fit the days to the best use, but at times it "felt" like you didn't know where you were going.)

38. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Recieve one example of a specific learning target and what formative assessments would be used. • I wish there was more basic information because I'm a first year teacher in Wyoming, so I was unfamiliar with many aspects of the discussions • I probably would have been helpful to have surveyed the potential audience to know at what level they were comfortable with the material. Differentiation would have been possible and the conference more meaningful. • Most of what was presented was a bit of a review. We have been doing PLCs for the last two years district wide. It does help to hear it again. Going deeper into the process will be helpful. The other thing could be taking a standard and upacking it as a group then comparing to what the trainers would say, or providing us with exemplars. • The amount of time spent to unpack standards. The amount of time spent to look at the district assessment rubric - which really is done based on state and federal guidelines and nothing is really negotiable. • Condense material into one full-day session. I felt the first day did not have enough meat, and the next two days could have been merged into an extended day session.

39. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Less introductory work, more meat! • Nothing • I know this was a basics training, but hopefully this survey will show that many of us are far beyond the basics--perhaps we need to be divided into 2-3 groups with different target goals. • Larger room. • The presenters would be experts in assessment rather than staff developers. They were very nice and tried hard but they don't have the knowledge to move our state and district forward. I want to understand how to determine learning progressions from our unpacked standards. Once the skills are identified in learning progression I want to develop formative assessments for the identified skills. We need experts to answer our questions. • There were too many "elementary" game-like activities; I'd cut to the teaching of the material and discussing with peers right away! • I feel the last day's break out sessions were not as effective. We were not able to discuss with our district teams how it would be relevant to us. The groups were let out at different times, and due to the reorganization of groups, districts no longer had a "home base" to set there things and meet and discuss. We ate is small clusters, where we could find room. I feel we get more out of it if we are allowed to remain in district or building (teacher, IF, Admin.) teams.

40. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • If I were in your shoes, I think I would do away with the parking lot where people can put up whining comments. A parking lot or a question box for valuable questions related to our content areas of learning would be fine. But an open ended parking lot just allows people to whine. • Less time on establishing group protocols and crowdbreakers. More time on essential knowledge. Crisper pacing. • The Lead in Speaker's offensive joking about Native Americans. • Other people's complaining! • Working more with district committee. When we were broken into groups all but two of PCSD#6 educators were in one group. I was one that was not with the district and felt like I missed out on essential discussions. • I would limit the time on the "parking lot," specifically the talk about personal, comfort needs. It is what it is. If there are discussion questions that are pertinent to the group, then incorporate in the presentation or discussion times. • Possibly shortening the overall day to a maximum of six hours which includes the lunch time. • Perhaps moving along a little more quickly. I am not from a teaching background, but found the information easy enough to understand and more time on application would be appreciated.

41. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Perfect world-smaller groups and keeping our district team together. • I'm not sure I know what I would change or if I would change anything. • Less "get to know each other" activities, esp. the group norms for working in a large group - would have liked to have skipped this entirely. • Less time using metaphorical activities and examples. Eliminate the parking lot. • Probably what I mentioned above... I would like to see us bring our own assessments and use rubrics to evaluate them. It is so easy to say you are doing the right thing but often we fall short at the application level. Thank you for doing this. • The content of the training. You have a roomful of experienced and recently trained teachers...going over ED101 for 3 days was frustrating for us. Teach us how to make good formative assessments and how to do it quickly so we can make those assessments as we are working with students. That will be worth sitting for. • I would love to see us spend more time working together to unwrap standards, identify learning targets, discuss assessment plans etc. Now that introductions have been made, I think less time can be spent on "getting to know you" activities."

42. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Think the trainers did a good job. May want to have less breaks with the understanding that if people needed to step out that was ok... then for the group as a whole, could maybe finish sooner on a daily basis or the second day of the two day sequence. • I would have liked my principal to be there as she would have offered the leadership our team needed. She couldn't come because of staffing problems but I believe will attend next time. • The large group • I would have made sure our building principals would have attended. • I would have liked more differentiation. There are many of us that have been to the PLC trainings and most of the information presented was review. This assessment training is a huge time commitment and I was ready to know more about learning targets and learning various ways to write/use formative assessment. Addressing the commitment to TIME is also relevant. I understand the importance of showing strong/weak examples of student work to kids, but how do you convince teachers that it is time well-spent and not just another instrusion upon their content area time? • Get a speaker who knows his audience before comments are made just to get laughs as Mr. Popham did with the Native American people, when in this area we try to bring a positive relations with our communities on and off the Reservations and this stupid person takes us back to square one. Please don't tell me that TIE supports this!!

43. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Differentiate strands between administrators and teachers frequently • Dr. Popham was not worth whatever amount he was paid to come speak. His lecture was boring, disjointed, MUCH too long and, at times, rather offensive. • I was in the perfect spot to plug in my computer, but I wonder how that is going to work next time if more people bring their computers. There weren't very many outlets. We had a couple of tables around us that continued to talk during presentations, and that became very distractive on the last day. There isn't too much that you can do when adults don't want to follow the norms. • I really did not like the upacking of the standards. If they are well written to begin with, why change the wording. It seemed tedious and would take a large amount of time. Also, not everyone will replace each word the same. I think a good teacher explains to the students what is expected anyway. • No keynote by James Popham. • The location..we need a larger space. Also, we seem to be covering the same material, but with a slightly different twist every time. for instance...I have now seen the Seinfield video clip at least 4 times in the last year and a half. We continue to do the same ice-breakers, and the same group activities. This year, we have gone through Marzano strategies twice. It would be more beneficial for me if we covered more FAI strategies. I know what FAI is...but how exactly do you change your lessons/teaching strategies on the fly? That's the information i was looking for in this training.

44. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • Stop side conversations! There were several times when the side discussions in the back corner were very distracting. • room very noisy hearing was a problem • The unpacking of standards-- most of us have done that adnauseam. • Distance from home. • Smaller conference size- there are too many district teams involved. • I need to know the steps after you have the learning targets. What do formative assessments look like? How do you use them in a collaborative team? • Less on background - more on formative assessments. • just shorter breaks, you could have probably done the first session in 2 days • I have a doctorate in education leadership with a focus on curriculum and assessment and am a trainer/consultant for standards and assessments. I personnally would like to be in the "meat" of the assessment training sooner. Finally, I would think the presentation would be a little more effective if it had a little more "Wyoming" flavor to it. As a state, we are extremely assessment literate and data savey. I would recommend that you "customize" the professional development work a little. Finally, The institute was "promoted" as being geared more towards secondary (7-12) which is what our district honored. You may want to adjust your delivery to account for your audience a little bit.

45. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • For people who have had PLC training, it was all pretty repetitive. • I would change the size of the crowd. • I have no comment at this time. • More work communicating targets to students and giving descriptive feedback. • See logistics above. • The training would be better if it was done in a smaller group session. That is a big group to present to and the facilities do not accommodate that many people. • Less getting to know you activities and more content. • Two days of training instead of three. • I think more attention should have been paid to differentiating the presentation. Many of us have unpacked standards and are comfortable with taxonomy models and would have preferred to move on to something else. • More comfortable chairs. • To already have the groups split by need. The September institute was a great deal of review.

46. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • More information on formative assessment and how to help teachers becomre better at it, not learning strategies. • Would have left out some of the "building context" stuff--e.g. first afternoon and much of second day activities. p.s. I don't think your choices above make much sense. • Work with your team. Spending too much time explaining what your school does or doesn't do. • Three days was a little too long for training. I am looking forward to the upcoming two day training opportunities. • Do away with parking lot-what a bunch of nonsense people complain about! • Nothing - everything was good. • Each participant should be assigned to 2 small groups for activities. One group could be their familiar district group - the second group should be at our level matched with several districts - like elementary, middle school, high schoool. We should switch back and forth doing activities in both groups as needed. In this way we discuss and bond with our district's participants and formulate programs that will work for us. While with the other group we can share and step outside ourselves to see how things work differently in other places.

47. If you could change one thing about the September FAI training, what would it be? (Continued) • I would have brought my laptop. • Our District has done quite a bit with curriculum mapping, unpacking standards, PLC's, and Blooms Taxonomy. Reviewing those concepts would have been appropriate. It seemed as if we spent too much time on some of them however so the activities dragged. I am confident that now that you have this information about what we know about designing formative assessments that you will be able to adjust. Smaller groups work better for me as a learner. • We were very frustrated because we felt that the training was not on Formative assesment but on models of teaching. We have all taken several classes on Bloom's, and models of teaching. We want Formative Assesment training.