Bell Ringer

1. Bell Ringer Jot down an example of formative assessment that you use in your classroom, keeping in mind: What did the assessment do for you as a teacher? What did it do for you as a student? Partner Speaks: Turn to a partner, talk through the ideas you’ve jotted down (one person speaks while the other is listen and then vice versa). When we share, whole group, you will be asked to share your partner’s idea, not your own.

2. Formative Assessment: Linking Assessment, Instruction and Learning Julia Rawlings Kentucky Department of Education

3. Today’s Guiding Questions: • How can Formative Assessment improve student learning? • How can/does it inform/impact classroom practices? Keep in mind as we move through the presentation: • What is this doing for me as a teacher? • What is this doing for me as a student?

4. Student-friendly Learning Target: As a result of today’s learning,I will be able to effectively implement formative assessment strategies into my classroom for the purpose of increased student achievement.

5. Today’s formative assessment strategies: • Partner Speaks (bell ringer) • Sticky Bars (vignettes) or Agreement Circles • Card Sort (closed and open) • Concept Cartoons • Human Scatterplots • Odd One Out • Four Corners • Traffic Lights (cards, cups, dots) • Three-Two-One

6. Vignettes – Is It or Isn’t It Formative Assessment? Working in pairs, read each vignette and decide if it is or isn’t an example of formative assessment – record your response to each one, individually, on a sticky note. Post your sticky notes on the chart paper with the respective vignette number on it. Sticky Bars – an anonymous way for teachers see class responses, to make student’s ideas public and allow students to “see” differing responses. Another option – Agreement Circles – students stand in a circle as you read the vignette aloud, have people who AGREE move to the center, they face their peers still standing in the circle and match themselves up with those who DISAGREE, small groups engage in discussion to defend their thinking (after hearing defense, students can reposition themselves) – the idea is to get everyone inside or on the circumference of the circle.

7. Commit and Toss • Anonymous technique used to get a quick read on the different ideas students have in class. This is a very “safe” formative assessment (sense of relief, I’m not alone, see the “wrong” answers can be just as valuable, etc.).

8. Commit and Toss (or fold) Emma is standing 3 meters away from a regular mirror placed flat on the wall. She can see her body from the waist up in the mirror. She steps forward so she is 1 meter away from the mirror. How will this affect how much of her body she can see in the mirror? • She will see less of her body. • She will see more of her body. • She will see the same amount.

9. Card Sort • Choose a set of terms related to your content • Have students “group” or “sort” the terms based on their own system, characteristic or category. Sort based on your own preexisting ideas about the concept. • Discuss with your partner why they should be grouped a specific way.

10. Tale of Two Cities Book the First: Recalled to Life Instructions: Group the following words into categories. If you don’t know the meaning of a word, you must do your best to use your group’s shared knowledge to figure it out.. Each word must be used once. After you group the words, label each category appropriately. (Categories must be based on the word meanings, not other characteristics.) Write a sentence on the label card that summarizes why you think those words belong together. grave revolution expostulation confidential mud shoemaker England violent epoch dispatch knitting blunderbuss

11. Concept Cartoons • Cartoon drawings that visually depict children or adults sharing their ideas about common, everyday phenomena. • Students decide which character from a cartoon they agree with most and why. • Discussions arise from their selection and their ability to justify the response they’ve chosen (sometimes there is no single right answer)

12. Concept Cartoon: Seeds in the dark Jan said “the seeds won’t start to grow if I put them in the dark cupboard. Mark said “they will start to grow better under a bright light.” Andy said “the amount of light doesn’t make any difference.” Caroline said “they will start to grow better in the dark.”

13. Human Scatterplots • Quick, visual way for teachers and students to get an immediate classroom snapshot of students’ thinking and the level of confidence students have in their ideas. • For each response a student can choose from, they also have to choose the degree of understanding they have for the response.

14. Sophie’s Weight Sophie stood with both feet on the bathroom scale. She recorded her weight. She lifted her left foot and stood on the scale with only one foot on it. Which best describes what happened to the reading on the scale? • The weight shown on the scale increased. • The weight shown on the scale decreased. • The weight shown on the scale stayed the same. Explain your thinking. Describe the reason for the answer you selected.

15. Odd One Out • Combines similar items and challenges students to choose which item in the group does not belong. Students are then asked to justify their reason for selecting the item that does not fit with the others.

16. Muddiest Point Teacher asks students to jot down what the most difficult or confusing part of a lesson was for them. Now, its your turn to tell me the muddiest point for today’s lesson and put them into the “muddy points” basket.

17. Traffic Lights (cards, cups, dots) • Used to determine students levels of understanding • Students are given three different colored cards, cups or dots, asked to self-assess their understanding about concepts or skills they are learning, and hold up (card), place on top (cups) or sticker (dots) what best matches their understanding -Red – STOP, I need help! -Yellow – HELP, I’m not sure about this! -Green – I’m good to go with this topic!

18. Discussion and Debrief: How can/does it inform/impact classroom practices? • What did this formative assessment do for me as a teacher? • Discovered misconceptions of group or individuals • Uncovered students’ “thinking” about the concept • Based on student thinking, I will re-teach or move on based on student responses • Provides information/basis for how to re-teach • Provides “teachable” moments • What did this formative assessment do for me as a student? • Allowed me to “see” others thoughts on the concept • Allowed me to “re-evaluate” my own thinking • Allowed me to take control of my own learning

19. Student-friendly Learning Target: As a result of today’s learning,I can effectively implement formative assessment strategies into my classroom for the purpose of increased student achievement.

20. Three – Two – One • This provides a structured way for students to reflect on their learning. • Students respond in writing to three reflective prompts; providing six response -three of the first -two of the second -one final reflection

21. The Overview and Structure Professional Learning Communities

22. Four week structured process: • Week 1 – deconstruction of standards and creating congruent student friendly learning targets. • Week 2 – assessments to measure mastery of the deconstructed standards • Week 3 – Constructing/critiquing instructional activities congruent with deconstructed standards • Week 4 – Analysis of student work and analysis of assessment results

23. Week 1 • Facilitator will guide teachers through the deconstruction process using district protocol (knowledge, reasoning, skills, products) • Once standards are deconstructed, teachers will create student friendly learning targets from the deconstructed standards • Use the deconstructed standards to create a draft of a KCCT-like assessment (MC and ORQ)

24. Week 2 • Each member will bring their draft assessment for review • Using the assessment protocol sheet, each teacher will review another teacher’s draft assessment. • Teachers will provide written (protocol sheet) feedback of the assessment they reviewed.

25. Week 3 • Teachers will bring an instructional activity for the deconstructed standards. • Each member will share the activity they brought. • Team members will provide feedback using the quality instruction protocol sheet.

26. Week 4 • Teachers will bring a completed item analysis for a recent assessment (item analysis sheet) and a few examples of student work (student work protocol sheet) from the unit. • Teachers will work with a partner and follow the steps of the student work protocol sheet. • Teachers will participate in debriefing around the item analysis and student work protocol sheets.

27. Any questions, comments, clarifications? • What information do you still need regarding formative assessment in the classroom? PLCs?