Learning Project Day ELA

1. Learning Project DayELA April 6, 2011

2. What is our purpose today? • Refine our understanding of ELA • Engage with student exemplars and rubrics and designing constructive feedback • Plan – put knowledge into action

3. agenda 9:00-10:15 Exemplars and feedback 10:15 – 10:30 Coffee break 10:30 – 11:00 Reviewing the pieces 11:00 – 12:00 Working together 12:00 – 12:45 Lunch 12:45 – 2:00 Working together 2:00 – 2:10 Coffee break 2:10 – 2:45 Gradebookand reporting 2:45 – 3:00 Parking lot and reflection

4. Digging in Feedback and exemplars

5. Generating feedback • Find a partner who teaches in a different school • Read the student exemplars together • Generate feedback or questions you might share with students (20 minutes)

6. Digging deeper • In your pairing, consider the following questions: • What is important when offering feedback? • What makes the process most successful? • When is feedback ineffective? • What additional information is important when crafting feedback? (10 minutes)

7. Observations and wonders

8. Consider… • Timely and specific feedback is the greatest contributing factor to growth in learning and skills.

9. The learning continuum • These exemplars are from grade five and six students. The grade five samples were written in the fall and the grade six were written in April. They represent both males and females. • Can you sort the samples into grade levels? (5 minutes)

10. Enhancing our feedback • The rubrics you have been given articulate the criteria for this writing assignment at each grade level. • With your partner, consider: • How will your feedback change now that you have more information? • How and when can you imagine delivering feedback to the students? • How could you use the rubrics as Assessment as Learning, Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning? (20 minutes)

11. Groups of four • Combine with another group and share your thoughts, findings and feedback. • Consider: • How can we use feedback to move every student forward? • (10 minutes)

12. Feedback… • Comes before, during, as well as after the learning • Is easily understood and relates directly to the learning • Is specific, so performance can improve – not simply “do more” or “do better” • Is not simply “making corrections” which is an ineffective practice • Involves choice on the part of the learner as to the type of feedback and how to receive it • Is part of an ongoing conversation about the learning (timely) • Is in comparison to models, exemplars, samples, or descriptions • Originates from both teachers and learners • Is about the characteristics of learning and not about characteristics of the student

13. Feedback ideas • Traffic lights/ coloured cards (red, yellow, green, orange and blue) • Dart boards (bulls eye, getting there, working on it, needs improvement) • Highlighter (Pink – Tickled pink, Yellow – Goal area) • Error analysis – 3 wrongs and a right • Conversations, journal entries, rubrics, emails, peer feedback sessions • Sharing writing – group revision

14. How rubrics can be used in the classroom: • Before students are introduced to rubrics, they share what they already know about quality in the skill or product you are focusing on. • Students use the rubric to practice judging the quality of anonymous work. • Some assignments come home marked with descriptions of strengths and areas for improvement, rather than grades. The wording reflects the concepts in the rubrics. • Students use the rubric to judge the quality of their own work: they identify strengths and set goals for improvement. • Comments may focus on one or two features of quality rather than all criteria represented on the rubric. • Students have the opportunity to track their achievement and share their progress with their parents.

15. Reviewing the pieces Unit planners, BDA charts, rubrics, etc.

16. Goal Areas • Compose and create - expressive strand and includes speaking, representing and writing • Comprehend and respond – receptive strand and includes listening, viewing and reading • Assess and reflect – reflecting on self and others and setting goals for language learning

17. emphasis • In the C and C goal area, the greatest emphasis rests on the work students do before producing a product • In C and R, this emphasis shifts to the work students do during their interaction with texts

18. Minimum of five units in five contexts Five Contexts: Personal and Philosophical Social, cultural and historical Imaginative and literary Communicative Environmental and technological

19. What we do with students before, during and after engaging in a text will determine their growth, engagement and success.

20. How do these supports help? • Unit planner and/or pacing guide – 6 strands • BDA charts – focus on learning strategies, essential questions, enduring understandings and knowledge • Sorting documents – menu for tracking learning; tasks, strategies and criteria • Completed rubrics and task sheets – what do the rubrics tell us?

21. Rubric exploration • With a partner, choose a rubric at your grade level and explore it. What does it tell us about our BDA charts? Our Learning Plans? • How can we use them formatively? Summatively? • How do we make them clear to students?

22. What do we have left to do? Sharing the load…and using what we already have Working together

23. Grade book and reporting

24. Rubric Templates in ELA Comprehend & Respond Specific Criteria Compose & Create Specific Criteria Information & Ideas Text Structure & Features Respond to & Interpret Text Message & Meaning Organization & Coherence Style & Language Choices

25. Rubric for Narrative Text – Grade 5

27. Grade Book

28. Report Card

29. Parking lot and reflection

30. 3 things I have learned about ELA and planning • 2 things I feel great about • 1 thing I still need to continue to practice

31. Thank you and safe travels!!