Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Learning To improve student learning Colleen Anderson

More Than Just Content…

Characteristics of Effective Instruction For deep conceptual and procedural knowledge…. Student-centered Classrooms Teaching for Understanding Assessment for Learning Rigorous and Relevant Curriculum Teaching for Learner Differences

In this session, we will… • Compare formative assessment and other assessments • Provide the operational definition of formative assessment. • Review the research base for formative assessment. • Look closer at the attributes of assessment for learning • Focus on the use of learning progressions in lesson planning • Write clear learning targets in kid friendly language. • Identify success criteria and formative assessment practices for parts of a learning progression

Assessment Path in Iowa STATE Tests required by law DISTRICT State assessments plus other end-of-course or standardized tests CLASSROOM A teacher – student system of feedback, made a part of daily instruction

Assessments in Iowa ACT, SAT, NAEP Classroom Tests and Quizzes - Graded ITBS, ITED, IELDA, Alternate End-of-Course, District-wide Formative Assessments Department or Building-wide Tests INSTRUCTIONAL SENSITIVITY – How close is it to instruction?

????????????????? Write your definition of Formative Assessment

If assessments are more instructionally sensitive, – closer to instruction – fewer bad educational things happen in the classroom.

Formative Assessment(Assessment for Learning Formative Assessment is a process used by teachers and students as part of instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of core content. As assessment for learning, formative assessment practices provide students with clear learning targets, examples and models of strong and weak work, regular descriptive feedback, and the ability to self-assess, track learning, and set goals.

Formative Assessment (Assessment for Learning) is instructively sensitive.

The Promise of FA • Effect sizes of 0.4 to 0.7 in meta-analysis (Black & Wiliam, 1998) • No report of negative effects following an enhancement of formative practice was found. (Black & Wiliam, 1998) • Formative assessment helps lower achievers more than other students – reducing the gap. (Black & Wiliam, 1998) • Even a single FA practice used in a 15-week unit of study can result in an effect size of 0.34. (Brangart-Drowns, Kulik & Kulik, 1991) • If a teacher used formative assessment practices twice a week, they resulted in an effect size gain of 0.85, or a percentile gain of 30 points on a standardized test. (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1986) • In a study of over 500 students, those students who practiced self assessment strategies as a part of formative assessment practices in the classroom, outperformed students who did not use self-assessment strategies (effect size of 0.40). • It represents evidence-based IDM – or just good sense. • Conclusively, formative assessment does improve learning.

5 ATTRIBUTES OF EFFECTIVE FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT • Learning Progressions • Learning Goals And Criteria For Success • Descriptive Feedback • Self- And Peer-assessment • Collaboration

Review of Attributes

Jigsaw Article • Attributes of Effective Formative Assesment by Margaret Heritage 1. Learning Progressions 2. Learning Goals and Criteria for Success 3. Descriptive Feedback 4. Self- and Peer-Assessment 5. Collaboration

Learning Progressions: What Are They? • a carefully sequenced set of building blocks that students must master en route to mastering a more distant curricular aim • constructed on the basis of some sort of backward analysis • What do students need to know and do to master the skill or understand the concept? • What are the pre-requisite skills and concepts students should have?

Characteristics of Learning Progressions • Clearly articulate the sub-goals • May vary from teacher to teacher – fine grained • Developmental rather than grade level – vertical articulation rather than horizontal • constructed on the basis of some sort of backward analysis • What do students need to know and do to master the skill or understand the concept? • What are the pre-requisite skills and concepts students should have? • From novice to expert • Connects knowledge, content, and skills

Learning Progressions: What They Are NOT • Unerringly accurate • The same sequence for all students – not all kids learn in the same way. • Some need small increments • Some learn in different order • Some bring more or less prior knowledge and skills • Not necessarily better if more complex • Needs to be “user friendly” and doable

How Are They Used? • Learning progressions provide the framework for pre-assessments, formative assessments, differentiation tasks, and summative assessments. • They keep the unit developer focused on the learning targets – essential concepts and skill sets – when designing instructional activities. • Help focus on what MUST be taught – essential concepts and skill sets / the “big ideas” – rather than the insignificant when designing instructional activities.

Clear Learning Targets • Kid friendly language • Defined success criteria • Examples of good work • Examples of not-so-good work • Rubrics/Scoring Guides • Exemplars

Descriptive Feedback • Focused on learning goal • Non-judgmental • Indicates areas of strength • Identifies where improvement is needed • Indicates how or what a student might do to make the improvements

Self- And Peer-assessment • Meta-cognitive thinking • Focused on one aspect of learning target • Students must be trained • Students must clearly understand the learning target being assessed • Non-judgmental

Collaboration • Classroom climate • Safe • Everyone can learn • Rapport • Partnership in learning

Formative Assessment, So…What is it? • Assessment for learning • It is a PLANNED process. • It is used by both teachers and students • Takes place DURING instruction. • It provides assessment-based feedback to both teachers and students. • It helps teachers and students make adjustments that will improve student achievement.

Activity A • Use a prepared learning progression. • Collaboratively decide if you would change it. • Choose one grade level span and write the learning target in “kid” friendly language. • Identify the success criteria to measure student success. • Be prepared to share your learning target and success criteria.

Clear Learning Target From a listening essential skill set of the Iowa Core Curriculum at the primary level: Listen for information and understanding Kid Friendly Language The students will listen for what the person is talking about. By listening carefully, the student will describe how the person feels about the topic. After listening carefully, the student will retell important information learned from listening to someone talk. After listening carefully, the student will share more information about the topic heard. • Process information, ideas, and opinions to determine relevance • Connect information to prior knowledge and personal experiences

Clear Learning Target with Success Criteria 90% of what the brain remembers is derived from visual images Once students get involved in the activity they can lose track, so VISUAL success criteria keeps everyone focused.

Success Criteria Success criteria are to remind children of those aspects of the task on which they must focus. They are not a simple fix-it list and they don’t ensure quality – this must be done through modelling, feedback, questioning etc…..

Success Criteria From a listening essential skill set of the Iowa Core Curriculum at the primary level: Listen for information and understanding Kid Friendly Language I can say what the person is talking about. By listening to the person. I can say what the person is thinking or feeling by listening to the person. I can share what I already know about the same thing the person is talking about. • Process information, ideas, and opinions to determine relevance • Connect information to prior knowledge and personal experiences

Product Success Criteria Product’ success criteria are unhelpful e.g. ‘your answers will be correct’. They focus on end points or products. They are what the teacher wants and don’t indicate for the children how the learning objective will be fulfilled. ‘I’ll know it when I see it’ approach that leads to being reactive rather than proactive. E.g. the correct answer/5 page research report/annotated bibliography

Process Success Criteria ‘Process’ success criteria are helpful. They explain how the learning objective will be achieved. Children are actively engaged in the process of learning. The criteria act as memory aides of necessary ingredients. Success Criteria:I know what part of an object vibrates.I know we hear sounds through our ears. I can retell in my own words what I heard.

Key principles of success criteria Process success criteria are more powerful than product success criteria Success criteria need to be planned in advance Planning success criteria leads to more focused activities and less over planning of activities Success criteria should be generic for all children regardless of their task, as long as they all have access to the same learning objective (there is sometimes an exception in mathematics or more than one way to approach a problem) Success criteria need to be gathered from the children to give them ownership

Activity A • Groups share out learning targets and success criteria

Activity B Have students write their understanding of vocabulary or concepts before and after instruction. Use a prepared learning progression. Collaboratively decide if you would change it. Choose one grade span and collaboratively identify appropriate formative assessment practices to use during instruction as you check for student understanding or skill. Be prepared to share your ideas.

Activity B Share out an appropriate formative assessment practice to use during instruction as you check for student understanding or skill.

Formative Assessment, So…What is it? • Assessment for learning • It is a PLANNED process. • It is used by both teachers and students • Takes place DURING instruction. • It provides assessment-based feedback to both teachers and students. • It helps teachers and students make adjustments that will improve student achievement. • It’s collecting data about current student learning and using it to make instructional and learning decisions.

So…What it is NOT • It is not another graded test. • Not benchmark assessments • Not end-of–course assessments • Not a matter of looking at test data and deciding what to do next time/next year • It is most effective when it is not a part of the grading system. • It is not probing and charting. • It is not random observations. • It is not just good instruction.

Formative Assessment Examples Invite students to discuss their thinking about a question or topic in pairs or small groups, then ask a representative to share the thinking with the larger group (sometimes called think-pair-share). Ask all students to write down an answer, then read a selected few out loud. Have students write their understanding of vocabulary or concepts before and after instruction.

What it does… Gives students specific feedback on their progress toward the learning goal. Encourages students to improve – descriptive feedback.

Use the Tips or Create Your Own

Activity C Think of an information literacy skill that you currently teach. Using the Assessment Tips and Assessment Samples from the toolkit, create a Formative Assessment that you could use. Share out with your table.

“Assessment should always have more to do with helping students grow than cataloging their mistakes.” Carol Tomlinson

The Promise of FA Kids who are taught in classrooms with formative assessment will learn more than kids who are taught in classrooms without formative assessment.

Colleen Andersoncolleen.anderson@iowa.gov 515-281-3249

Mary Cameronmary.cameron@iowa.gov 515-281-3927

Assessment for Learning