Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Training

1. Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Training Richlands High School Session 4 3/9/11

2. For Review Review Hands-On activity from our previous session. In small groups, discuss the primary components of: • Big Ideas • Enduring Understandings • Essential Questions Report out

3. OCS CIA Planning Format Conceptual approach to planning Study of the curriculum Shift from “activities” to a focus on what students need to know and be able to do Study of the curriculum Examining connections and relevance Teacher collaboration Teachercollaboration Beginning with the “end in mind”

4. Curriculum Integration

5. Integration Opportunities • Intradisciplinary Approach • Interdisciplinary Approach • Between and among subjects • Between and among areas of emphasis • 21st Century Skills • Literacies • Technology • Relevant/ Real-Life Applications

6. Brainstorming • How and where do you or would you like to integrate the curriculum? • Report out

7. Integration Activity • Refer to Framework for Change (p. 1-2). • Review Twenty-First Century Content and Skills • How do we integrate this content and these skills into our existing curriculum areas? • Report out

8. Differentiation/Intervention

9. Differentiation/ Intervention • As you develop a unit of study consider your classroom and the group of students. • Ask yourself, “What opportunities will I supply that will: • Allow students to work on different tasks at different paces related to the same big idea and focus? • Allow students to receive additional assistance as needed based upon the child’s learning styles and needs?”

10. Differentiation • Complete the Pre-Assessment for Differentiated Instruction. • Are you an Expert, Practitioner, Apprentice, or Novice?

11. Resources for Differentiation • The Flow of Instruction in a Differentiated Classroom (p. 5) • Is this happening? If not, is it doable? • What are potential costs/barriers? • What are potential benefits? • Standards/ KUD Handout (p. 6) • Teachers facilitate learning for their students. • From Standards to KUD Handout (p. 7) • SOAR (p. 8)

12. Assessment

13. Assessment Plan • Within this unit of study: • How will I conduct formative assessments? • How will this unit of study be impacted by benchmark assessments? • What will be the summative assessment I include in order to “Begin with the end in mind?”

14. Defining Assessment • In your table groups, define, provide an example and discuss the following terms: • Pre-Assessment/Diagnostic Assessment • Formative Assessment • Benchmark Assessment • Summative Assessment • Complete a bubble map of your findings. • Report Out

15. Assessment: Open Discussion • What is a grade? • What do grades mean in school? After school? • Why do teachers grade? How do teachers grade? • What do grades actually reflect in terms of student ability and mastery? • What is the difference between grading and assessment? Which is more important?

16. Assessing Formative Knowledge • Complete the Post-Assessment Questionnaire • (p. 9-10)

17. What is the Power of Zero?

18. Let’s Look At 3 Questionable Grading Practices: • Averaging to obtain a course grade. • Giving zeroes for work missed or work turned in late. • Grading on a curve.

19. Temperature Readings in Richlands, NC Average: 55.2 degrees Is this information accurate for what really happened? * On Friday I forgot to take the reading.

20. The Case Against “Zero” • The four point scale is a rational system, as the increment between each letter grade is proportionate to the increment between each numerical grade – one point. • The common use of the zero today is based not on a four-point scale but on a 100-point scale. This defies logic and mathematical accuracy. Dr. Douglas Reeves, the Case Against Zero, Phi Delta Kappan, 2004

21. The Effect of Zero Mean = 68.8% +Does this accurately reflect what the student knows and can do? Median = 86% Mode = 86% Student A 86 86 86 0 86 Mean calculated with 50% instead of 0 = 78.8%

22. Accurate grades are based on the most consistent evidence . . . • Consider looking at the pattern of achievement, including trends, not the average of the data. • This means focusing on the median and mode, not mean, and weighing the most recent scores heavier than earlier scores. Median: The middle test score of a distribution, above and below which lie an equal number of test scores. Mode: The score occurring most frequently in a series of observations or test data.

23. Zeros Kill Averages! • Just 2 or 3 zeros are sufficient to cause failure for an entire semester, and just a few course failures can lead a student to drop out of high school. • Most sentences for punishment ultimately come to an end, while grades of zero on a 100-point scale last forever. • The mathematically accurate value of an F is 69, not 0. • It is almost impossible to overcome many zeros in a grading period. • If our lowest score was a 50, many would still fail, but many more would believe they can overcome their low averages. 93-100 = A (7 points) 85-92 = B (7 points) 77-84 = C (7 points) 70-76 = D (6 points) 0-69 = F (69 points!)

24. A = 100 –31 B= 30 – 24 C = 23 – 16 D = 15 – 8 F = 7 – 0 What if we reversed the proportional influences of the grades? That “A” would have a huge, yet undue, inflationary effect on the overall grade. Just as we wouldn’t want an “A” to have an inaccurate effect, we don’t want an “F” grade to have such an undue, deflationary, & inaccurate effect. Is keeping zeroes on a 100-pt. scale is just as absurd as the scale seen here? Imagine the Reverse…

25. Supporting Research . . . “When we record 50% for student zeros in our grade books, we are not giving students something for nothing. We are adjusting the grade intervals so that any averaging we do is mathematically justified and more importantly, that any grade we determine from the pattern of grades is a valid indicator of mastery. A zero has an undeserved and devastating influence, so much so that no matter what the student does, the grade distorts the final grade as a true indicator of mastery. Mathematically and ethically this is unacceptable.” -Rick Wormeli, 2006

26. The Problem With the Zero on a 100 point Grading scale • Very Simple Math • (100 + 0)/2 = 50F • (4 + 0)/2 = 2 C • So, how many perfect scores does it take to raise a 0 to a C on a 100 point scale?

27. Answer:3! (100 + 100 + 100 + 0)/4 = 75

28. A Simple Change If the lowest score on a 100 point scale is not 0, but 50 . . . (100 + 50)/2 = 75 C

29. 100 4 90 3 80 2 70 1 60 0 50 -1 40 -2 30 -3 20 -4 10 -5 0 -6 A (0) on a 100-pt. scale is a (-6) on a 4-pt. scale. If a student does no work, he should get nothing; not something worse than nothing. How instructive is it to tell a student that he earned 6-times less than absolute failure? Consider being instructive, rather than punitive. -Doug Reeves, The Learning Leader, 2006 Consider the Correlation

30. Is This Grade Inflation? Are students getting points for having done nothing? The student will still get an F (50%) for the assignment. Giving a 50 equalizes the influence of each grade in determining the overall grade.

31. What About Missing Work? “. . .the appropriate consequence for failing to complete an assignment is to require the student to complete the assignment. That is, students lose privileges—free time and unstructured class or study-hall time—and are required to complete the assignment.” -“The Case Against Zero”, Doug Reeves, 2004

32. “Low Grades Don’t Motivate” “Low grades push students farther from our cause, they don’t motivate students. Recording a “F” on a student’s paper won’t light a fire under that student to buckle down and study harder. It actually distances the student further from us and the curriculum, requiring us to build an emotional bridge to bring him or her back to the same level of investment prior to receiving the grade.” -Guskey (documented by Guskey and Bailey)

33. Zeros as Punishment Despite evidence that grading as punishment does not work (Guskey, 2000) and the mathematical flaw in the use of the zero on a 100-point scale (Reeves, 2004), many teachers routinely maintain this policy in the mistaken belief that it will lead to improved student performance. Defenders of the zero claim that students need to have the consequences for flouting the teacher’s authority and failing to turn in work on time.” -Reeves, 2008 Educational Leadership Vol. 65 #5

34. Grades as Weapons “. . . some teachers consider grades or reporting forms their ‘weapon of last resort.’ In their view, students who do not comply with their requests suffer the consequences of the greatest punishment a teacher can bestow: a failing grade. Such practices have no educational value and, in the long run, adversely effect students, teachers, and the relationship they share.” Guskey, Thomas R. (Editor) Communicating Student Learning: The 1996 ASCD Yearbook ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 1996, 18

35. Research-based decision making “No studies support the use of low grades or marks as punishments. Instead of prompting greater effort, low grades more often cause students to withdraw from learning.” Guskey and Bailey, Developing Grading and Reporting Systems for Student Learning, 2005, 34-35

36. Pulling the Pieces Together “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

37. Construct a CIA plan for oneunit of study within your curriculum. • Begin by pulling the goals and objectives together from the curriculum to create: • A focus of study • Big Ideas • Enduring Understandings • Integration opportunities • Differentiation/Intervention focus • Formative/Benchmark/Summative Assessment

38. Next Session • March 14, 2011 (Locked in Workday) • Bring one completed CIA Plan (see p. 13-15) Next Steps Introduction to Curriculum Management System • Rubicon Atlas • http://www.rubicon.com