Benefits of Focus Activities

1. Benefits of Focus Activities • Help students focus and pay attention • Eliminate distracters • Open “mental files” • Provide choices • Encourage self-directed learning

2. Use your number sense to discover the value of each shape. Puzzle 1 Algebraic Logic Puzzle Discover the value of each of the shapes. The total weight is 32. Clue: Rules to remember: The right and left sides of each horizontal beam must balance. Each shape has a unique and consistent weight within the puzzle and no shapes weigh zero. There are no ‘useless’ clues. All weights are either one- or two-digit, positive whole numbers. A piece hanging below the fulcrum does not affect the balance between the left and right arms. Although this piece has its own definite weight. Size of pieces has no relation to weight. - 2 = +

3. There are three parts to any research-based lesson: • Beginning– ‘check for’ and ‘build’ background knowledge of each student; (BL) • During– teach and actively engage each student in new content – making connections to prior knowledge; (DL) • End– check for understanding - provide each student with an opportunity to summarize (in their own way) and practice the essential knowledge and skills conveyed in the lesson. (EL)

4. Personal Learning Goals • I will recognize the benefits of obtrusive, unobtrusive, and student, and student-generated assessment; • I will understand strategies to create assessment for learning and assessment of learning; • I will support my peers by offering constructive feedback to improve their efforts; • I will create assessment samples that will best elevate learning for my students; and • I will enjoy working with my colleagues!

5. Matter! SAMPLE Pre-assessment that includes differentiation

6. Premise of the Workshop As the United States continues to compete in a global  economy that demands innovation, the U.S. education system must equip students with the four Cs: 1. critical thinking and problem solving, • communication, • collaboration, and • creativity and innovation. "For as long as assessment is viewed as something we do ’after’ teaching and learning are over, we will fail to greatly improve student performance, regardless of how well or how poorly students are currently taught or motivated." Grant Wiggins, 1998

7. Mix itUpin the Box • Listen for the topic and the amount of time; • Silently mix around the room; • When directed, pair up with person closest to you; • In pairs, Partner A shares and Partner B listens; • Partner B responds to what he/she heard by paraphrasing: “LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I UNDERSTOOD YOU TO SAY”; • Record summary of partners response; then • Switch Roles

9. Thinking inside the Box What is an action taken by you, your grade-level/department or your school that you attribute to resulting in increased achievement for each student impacted by the action last year? What is the process used to create classroom assessments? What do people ‘do’ with the results? Look at the picture above. How does this picture relate to your role as a teacher? Complete this sentence: The image is like my teaching in that_______ Reflect on yesterday’s workshop…what is an action you, your grade-level/department or school should consider based on your experience?

10. What is an action taken by you, your grade-level/department or your school that you attribute to resulting in increased achievement for each student impacted by the action last year? What is the process used to create classroom assessments? What do people ‘do’ with the results? Look at the picture above. How does this picture relate to your role a teacher? Complete this sentence: The image is like my teaching in that_______ Reflect on yesterday’s workshop…what is an action you, your grade-level/department or school should consider based on your experience?

21. NUTS TO YOU!!! Advanced PASS Proficient Nearing Proficiency NOT PASS Novice

22. http://rubistar.4teachers.org

23. Self-Assessment Tool Setting objectives & Providing Feedback

25. A s s e s s m e n t Instructional Capacity

27. Personal Learning Goals • I will recognize strategies that have improved achievement for our students; • I will use data to focus additional improvement efforts to reach more students; • I will support my peers by offering constructive feedback to improve their efforts; • I will decide which structures will best elevate learning for my students; and • I will enjoy working with my colleagues!

31. Page 8 WHAT’S MY RULE?Theme: Sports Rule: Bowling Terms

32. WHAT’S MY RULE?Theme: History and Social Science Rule: Things you’d find on a globe

33. WHAT’S MY RULE?Theme: Geometry Rule: Plane figures with less than 5 sides.

34. WHAT’S MY RULE?Theme: _______________ Rule: _________________________ STUDENT CENTERED APPROACH

36. Learning in the 21st Century: Transforming Assessment for Data-Driven Decision Making Prepared Especially for the Professional Learning Community of the GREAT FALLS PUBLIC SCHOOLS by Dan Mulligan, Ed. D. August 2010

37. “If you don’t know where you are and you don’t know where you are going, anything you do will get you there”

38. HUNT for SOLUTIONS Record your responses on the last page…

39. At MONTANA Schools: 1. The % of POVERTY students scoring Advanced on the Math CRT in 2009. 2. The % of All students scoring Advanced on the Math CRT in 2009. 3. According to the Silent Epidemic, the % of U.S. dropouts who would have stayed in school if learning was more interesting and real-world. 4. According to the Silent Epidemic, the % of U.S. dropouts who felt they were ‘too far behind’ by the end of elementary school. 5. The % of All students scoring Advanced on the Reading CRT in 2009. The % of LEP students scoring Advanced on the Reading CRT in 2009. 7. The % of All students Graduating On-Time in the Class of 2009. 8. The % of American Indian students Graduating On-Time in the Class of 2009. 9. The % of FEMALE students Graduating On-Time in the Class of 2009. 17 35 80 51 45 6 84 67 86 SOLUTIONS: 6, 17, 35, 45, 51, 67, 80, 84, 86

40. Minority Student Achievement in Suburban Schools~Toward Excellence with Equity, Ronald Ferguson, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, 2007 • Survey of all students in 15 middle and upper income school districts in 10 states; • Examined family characteristics, opinions about quality of instruction, achievement motivation, course-taking, effort, comprehension, GPA and other factors; When I work hard, it is because my teacher tells me I can do well. (“Yes,” instead of “Maybe” or “No”) (Grades 1 – 6)

41. A s s e s s m e n t Instructional Capacity

42. Summarizing and Note Taking • Approaches to this strategy in the classroom: • Teaching students the rule-based summarizing strategies, • Using summary frames, and • Teaching students reciprocal teaching and group-enhanced summary. • What does it look like? • Take out material that is NOT important for understanding, • Take out words that repeat information, • Replace a list of things with a word that describes the things in the list (e.g., use trees for elm, oak, and maple). • Find a topic sentence. If you cannot find a topic sentence, make one up.

43. Summarizing and Note Taking • Generalizations form the research: • Verbatim note-taking is, perhaps, the least effective technique. • Notes should be considered a work in progress. • Notes should be used as a study guide for tests. • The more notes that are taken, the better.

44. Instructional Strategies that Facilitate Successful InclusionMust … • Supply students with STRUCTURE and ORGANIZATION • Encourage student COMMUNICATION and COLLABORATION • Provide students with VISUAL and HANDS-ON learning experiences

45. C O V E R Allow students to personalize their notebook with a cover collage. Preserve with packing tape.

46. Table of Content Samples