Examining Student Work

1. Examining Student Work Middle School Math Teachers District SIP Day January 27, 2016

2. Examining Student Work • Explore looking at student work as a strategy for teacher learning. • Engage in examining student work. • Discuss implications for teacher learning. • Learn about possibilities for future work.

3. Why look at student work? • Reflect on evidence of student learning. • Reflect on intent of task. • Reflect with colleagues. • Reflect on evidence of effective teaching. • Increase teachers’ knowledge. • To have focused conversation on teaching and learning.

4. Purposes for Looking at Student Work • Determine the nature and extent of student understanding. • Determine the implications for instructional practice. • Clarify learning expectations.

5. Context for Examining Student Work • NWEA (Fall 2015) Percent of students at or above grade level benchmark (50th percentile) District 5th Grade: 26% 6th Grade: 24% 7th Grade: 29% 8th Grade: 30% • PARCC (Spring 2015) Percent of students meeting or exceeding standards - District 5th Grade: 11% 6th Grade: 12% 7th Grade: 16% 8th Grade: 20% • Major gap between white and African American performance

6. Bringing Equity to the District Teachers at each grade level administered the identical task to their students and brought samples of student work to the meeting. • Purpose: To determine the nature and extent of student understanding. • Are students using multiple representations to solve problems and making connections among the representations? • Are students showing mastery of grade level standards from 1st semester? • Are patterns of understanding consistent throughout the District? • What are the implications for future instruction?

7. Ground Rules for Looking at Student Work • Be in the spirit of dialogue. • Understand the expectations of the task related to the CCSSM. • Focus on the evidence, not what you think the student knows or can do. • Put your stake in the ground AND be ready to move it. (Implications for future instruction) • Be aware of personal biases.

8. Today’s Work • Complete Task as a grade level group and complete discussion questions as a group. • Prior to reviewing student work, review the discussion questions and read about purposeful feedback. • Trade student work and partner up for review and discussion. • Come back together and discuss as a grade level. • Look at specific samples to provide feedback. • Summarize major takeaways from today’s work. • Provide next steps for examining student work.

9. Looking at Student Work: • Complete the task as a group. • Determine the knowledge and skills required to complete the task successfully (show mastery) • What was this task designed to assess? • When were these concepts taught-developed? • Review the CCSSM related to this tasks. • What are the most important “Big Ideas” related to the task?

10. Looking at Student Work : Observation and Collaboration • Trade your entire set of work samples with another teacher. • Pair up with another teacher-Someone who does not have your work samples. • Look at student work samples with a partner and discuss: • What skills, knowledge, and understandings do the students demonstrate? • What is the evidence?

11. Discussion Tips • Focus on the purpose of the task-The Common Core State Standard expectations. • Stay focused on the evidence provided by the student. • Separate observations from inferences. • Think about formative (non-evaluative) feedback. • Make sure to discuss classroom implications.

12. Step 3Review the Discussion Questions • What are the patterns or trends across the samples? • What are the misunderstandings and understandings? • What is the EVIDENCE? • What implications for instruction do these misunderstandings suggest? • What formative feedback could be given to students? (No Grade)

13. Consider Your Feedback Findings from research (Hattie 2009) show that: • Students given only grades made no gain from the first assessment to the second. • Students given only purposeful comments related to the specific task scored on average 30% higher on the next assessment of the same concepts. • Giving grades alongside comments cancelled the beneficial effects of the comments. Research conclusion: If you are going to grade a piece of work, you are wasting your time writing careful diagnostic comments. Providing more formative feedback and fewer grades increases student achievement.

14. Purposeful Feedback • Comment-only marking provides students with a focus for progression instead of a reward or punishment for their ego (as a grade does). • Comments should make it clear how the student can improve. • When giving written feedback, highlight successes in the student’s work along with the areas where some improvement is necessary.

15. With Your Partner • What are the patterns or trends across the samples? • What are the misunderstandings and understandings? • What is the EVIDENCE? • What implications for instruction do these misunderstandings suggest? • What formative feedback could be given to students? (No Grade)

16. With Your Partner • 2 samples that show that the student has mastered the standards expectations/meets or exceeds standards. • 2 samples that show that the student does not “get it” • 2 confusing samples • 2 interesting or unusual samples

17. Group Share • What are the patterns or trends across the samples? • What are the misunderstandings and understandings? • What is the EVIDENCE? • What implications for instruction do these misunderstandings suggest? • What formative feedback could be given to the students? (No Grade)

18. Group Share • 2 samples that show that the student has mastered the standards expectations/meets or exceeds standards. • 2 samples that show that the student does not “get it” • 2 confusing samples • 2 interesting or unusual samples • What implications for instruction do each of these categories suggest?

19. As a Grade Level GroupProviding Purposeful Feedback • Look at one work sample that needs improvement and provide purposeful feedback to the student to move their understanding forward. • Look at one work sample that shows mastery of the concept(s) and provide purposeful feedback to this student in order to deepen their understanding.

20. Going Forward • Give students meaningful tasks. • Provide comment-only feedback more often that evaluative feedback. • Look at the work through the lens of moving toward mastery of the CCSSM rather than merely providing a grade in Skyward. • Work together as a building level math team to evaluate student work on a regular basis.

21. Looking at Student Work: Format • Identify the purpose, focus, or goal for looking at student work. • Select student work that relates directly to the goals and outcomes. • Engage in discussion of participants’ interpretations and understanding of the student work samples. • Reflect on the implications and applications of what is learned to teaching.

22. When to Examine Student Work • At weekly PLCs • During grade-level meetings • During ongoing study groups • In cross-grade group meetings • As part of a building-wide professional development effort

23. Samples of Student Work • Several samples from different students • Samples from one student over time • Randomly selected • Representative of low-medium-high quality work • Representative of specific student misconception • The work represents a confusion or question for the teacher

24. All Teachers What are the big “takeaways” from this examination of student work?

25. All Teachers What are your next steps regarding examination of student work?