Engaging Assessments for Student Success

Assessments?Grading?Fun?What if? Dottie Record August 16, 2011WA-ACTE Summer Conference

Session learning targets • I can distinguish between formative and summative assessments • I can improve my teaching using formative assessments • I can make grading meaning to students • I can put rigor into FACSE classrooms

“What has been my experience using common assessments”

Big Ideas • Assessment provides evidence to inform important instructional decisions • The assessment process and results can be used to benefit student learning

Paradigm Shift Previous Mission: • Assessment and grading procedures were designed to help some students . • Success was marked by the rank students achieved by graduation. New Mission: • Assessment and grading procedures are designed to help all students. • Success is marked by competence in content areas.

Bloom’s New Taxonomy New Old

Learner TargetsBloom’s New Taxonomy

Two Types of Assessments • Summative Assessment Assessment OF Learning Formative Assessment Assessment FOR Learning

Summative Assessment • Assessment of Learning • Summaries of how much students have learned at a particular point in time (or not learned) • Most traditional way of evaluating student work • “Good summative assessments—tests and other graded evaluations—must be demonstrably reliable, valid and free of bias” (Angeio and Cross, 1993)

Formative Assessment Assessment FOR Learning • Track Progress towards learning targets • Happens while learning is still underway • Reveals to students increments of achievement and how to do better next time

Formative Assessment Defined • According to W. James Popham “Formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers and students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they’re currently doing.”

Formative Assessment: • What it is • A planned process • Ongoing • Assessment-Elicited Evidence • Teachers’ Instructional Adjustments • Students’ Learning tactics Adjustments

Formative Assessment: • What it isn’t • Unplanned • A one time test • An interim test (Benchmark, periodic, etc) • Instructional Adjustments based on a feeling or student cues • A quick “Magic Bullet”

Formative Assessment: • What it does for Students • Fosters Motivation • Promotes Understanding of Goals and Criteria • Helps learners know how to improve • Develops the capacity for self-assessment • Recognizes ALL education achievements • Focus on how students learn

Why It Works • A firm research basis • A theoretical framework • Practical strategies and techniques for implementation • A process for planning changes to current practice • On-going support for the change process through embedded professional development

Every Student is a Winner The student is the most Important user of Assessment information whose information needs must be met.

Four Guiding Questions • What do we expect students to learn? • How will we know students learned? • What will we do when students do not learn? • What will we do when students do learn? (Durfour, Dufour, Eaker, & Mony, 2010, p.119)

Teacher’ Role • Identify the standard • Deconstruct the standard to enabling targets • Transform to student friendly language • Create high quality and accurate assessments • Use assessments with students to track growth

Students’ Role • Strive to Understand what success looks like • Use assessment to understand how to do better next time.

Seven Strategies to Use FORLearning Teach one facet at a time – start small Use student-friendly targets from the beginning. Show samples/models of strong and weak work Use continuous descriptive feedback Teach students self-assessment and goal setting Teach focused revision – how to improve Teach student self-reflection to promote growth

21st Century skills • Creativity and Innovation Skills • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills • Communication and Collaboration Skills • Core Subjects and 21st themes Source http://21stcenturyskills.org

21st Century skills • Learner centered • Balance of formative and summative assessment • Content-specific, technology enhanced • Ongoing and rooted in teaching strategies • Used as evidence of student performance-portfolios • Students, parents and teachers collaborate to monitor student progress

Gelatinous Egg Whites and Sugar • Learning Target: •Intellectual intern will precisely send forth spongy candy into receptacle. • Feedback • Student involved assessment

Student Friendly Targets • Activity • Converting Learning Targets to Student – Friendly Language • I can Language

Student Friendly Targets in Your Classroom • Start with textbook made summative assessments and match them up to standards • Don’t be afraid to remove items that don’t match standards • Most SD/State standards have been unpacked – written in student friendly language

Target Selected response Essay Performance Personal comm. K R S P Target/Method Match

Rule • SIMPLE TARGET, SIMPLE TASK • COMPLEX TARGET, COMPLEX TASK

Where is YOUR Assessment Target? • Your need to raise your assessment target to that same higher level, and aim for it! • If you hit it, you are teaching to the unit’s benchmarks

Providing Feedback The most powerful single modification that enhances student achievement is feedback. The simple prescription for of feedback’” (Hattie, 1992, p. 9).

Providing Feedback Feedback should be corrective in nature; that means that it provides students with an explanation of what they are doing that is correct and what is incorrect. (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001, p. 96)

Classroom Practice: Rubrics asFeedback Rubrics clarify thinking and define tasks; the goals and criteria are clear to everyone ahead of time.” (Osborne, 1998, p. 1)

Rubrics as Feedback • Rubrics are scoring guides that set • performance standards for tasks that: are complex and multifaceted. • can be broken down into categories. • have characteristics that can be described across a range. • When using rubrics, judgments are less about the quality of the person and more about the quality of the work (Osborne, 1998).

Creating Quality Rubrics • Practicality • Is it easy to use by teachers and students? • Will students understand it? • Can students use it to self assess? • Is the rubric manageable? • Technical quality/Fairness • Is it valid (measures what it should) and reliable (different raters will give the same score)? • Is it fair?

Rubrics as Feedback Clean Refrigerator Rubric

Rubrics as Feedback • 4 Entire refrigerator is sparkling and smells clean. All items are fresh, in proper containers(original or Tupperware/Gladware with lids), and organized into categories. Containers are not sticky and do not have drips, spills, or hardened food items on outer surfaces. • 3 Refrigerator is generally wiped clean. All items are relatively fresh, in some type of container (some lids are missing or don’t fit) and are sitting upright.

Rubrics as Feedback • 2 Some of the shelves are wiped clean, although there are some crusty spots. There are some suspicious smells. Items are in containers of some sort, but there seems to be some green stuff growing in some of them. • 1 Items stick to shelves when they are picked up. The smell lingers long after the refrigerator door is closed. Several items need to be thrown out, container and all.

Student Involved Assessment

Incorporating Student Involvement What is student involvement? • It is anything that helps students • Understand learning targets • Engage in self-assessment • Watch themselves grow • Talk about their growth • Plan next steps for learning Why should we involve students? • Motivation • Greater understanding of criteria • Students monitoring improvements through record keeping

Student Self-Assessment When students regularly identify their strengths and areas for improvement, they are primed to describe the next steps in their learning” (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2004, p. 367.)

Students are able to: • Examine evidence. • Formulate a goal statement. • Make an action plan. • Identify when assistance is needed. • Determine a time frame for assessments

Application • Which strategy will you apply to your classroom during the 2011-12 school year? • What steps will you need to take as you plan the application and implementation of this strategy? • What kind of information do you still need?

Engaging Assessments for Student Success