Assessment as PD PLC’s at Work

1. Assessment as PDPLC’s at Work Charles P. Allen High School Professional Development September 28, 2007

2. Our PLC’s Three Big Ideas: • Ensuring that students learn • A Culture of Collaboration • A Focus on Results

3. Ensuring Students Learn • Our PLC groups should address: • What do we want each student to learn? • How will we know when each student has learned it? • How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?

4. Points to Ponder • What is the difference between assessment and evaluation? • What is assessment “for” learning? • What is assessment “of” learning? • What is assessment “as” learning? • What are some purposes of assessment?

5. Some things to Remember: • We are already “effective.” We are striving to become “more effective!” • The success of our PLC Model depends “not on the merits of the concept itself, but on the commitment and persistence of the educators within it.” ~ Dufour

6. Break-out Groups Team Lists Sohael Abidi - Math

7. Break-out Groups Team Lists Andy Allen - Science

8. Break-out Groups Team Lists Chris Hall – Social Studies / Art

9. Break-out Groups Team Lists Allison Walker – English / Tech.

10. The Essential PLC Conversation Elements • How good is good enough when achieving a learning target? • How do we know? • What are the benefits of descriptive feedback vs. a mark? • What are the characteristics of an effective assessment task? • What is the difference between assessing understanding of a concept and understanding of a procedure? • How can you design a task that uncovers student understanding or misunderstanding of a concept or procedure? • How do we assess problem solving and communication?

11. The Assessment Task • Working on your own, complete the task . • In small groups(2-3) discuss the following: • What is the purpose of the task? • Is it better suited to assessment “of” or “for” learning? • Which mathematical process skills are needed to complete the task? • For which grade level is this appropriate? • What strengths or misconceptions would you anticipate will emerge as students complete the task? • De-brief as a whole group.

12. Social Studies & Art Editorial Cartoon Instructions: Explain the artist’s message in the cartoon. Use evidence from your experience to indicate whether the message is valid.

13. Science Examine the food web. Explain in detail what effect the ‘overfishing of cod’ would have on the population of leopard seals.

14. The following story is from the award winning short story anthology The Things They Carried . “Stockings” by Tim O’Brien(Vietnam War veteran , born 1946) • Question: For some readers, the most memorable stories are those with believable characters. Comment upon whether the character Henry Dobbins becomes a real person for you? Justify your answer with reference to the author’s use of characterization. • The following four point rubric will be used to evaluate your response: -Knowledge and Understanding of the Story -Communication and Support of your Argument -Understanding and Use of the Language of Literature (terminology- eg. symbolism) -Matters of Correctness (ex. vocabulary, grammar)

15. Math r A square is inscribed in a circle of radius ‘r’ as shown in the figure. Find a mathematical expression (in terms of ‘r’) for the area of the shaded figure and show how you derived this expression.

16. Sorting Student Work • Working in groups of three, sort the student work into 3 piles: high, medium, low • Discuss the following as you sort: • What does the work show about what the student does or does not understand about the math? • Discuss whether the teacher has to infer what the student understood about the task. • Are there any unique solutions?

17. Group De-Brief after the Sorting • Is there a difference between what students understand and what they communicate about that understanding? High inference vs. low inference • What might make it easier to sort and assess student responses? • Do we need to bullet-proof every assessment task we give to students? • What is the consequence of too much scaffolding when we design tasks? • How would we make a task more open-ended?

18. Feedback to Students • Examine the “Feedback” Map provided by your Facilitator • Discuss your thoughts • Take the sample of student work provided by your facilitator. • Individually, write descriptive feedback to the student on the copy you have been given. • Write 1-2 positive things that the student understood about the task and then write a prompt to point the student in the direction of their next step in completing the task. The prompt could be in the form of a question or a challenge to take the problem further. The written feedback should be specific to the task. • Share your feedback with your small group and then with the whole group.

19. Feedback to the Class • If this were your class what feedback or next steps would you take? • How would you respond to the class as a whole? • Share ideas with the whole group.

20. PLC’s and Assessment • Read the two handouts provided by your facilitator. • Reflect on the articles. Discuss as a group.

21. Using Rubrics to Score Problem Solving and Communication • Review the CAT3 rubric for problem solving and communication which your facilitator has passed out along with a sample student paper. • Use the rubric to score the paper for problem-solving and communication. (2 separate scores) • Discuss with the whole group.

22. Using Rubrics • In your small group, score the class set of student work using the rubric. Agree on a mark for problem-solving and a mark for communication for each student paper. • Discuss the scores you are assigning to student work and give reasons.

23. Using Rubrics • Group De-Brief: • What is the advantage of having a separate score for communication? • Why assign a rubric score of 1for no work shown? • What is the difference between holistic and analytic scoring? • Why is holistic scoring more suited to performance tasks which involve problem solving and communication?

24. Reflect on the Essential Elements of “PLC Discussion” after the Activity • How good is good enough when achieving a learning target? • How do we know? • What are the benefits of descriptive feedback vs. a mark? • What are the characteristics of an effective assessment task? • What is the difference between assessing understanding of a concept and understanding of a procedure? • How can you design a task that uncovers student understanding or misunderstanding of a concept or procedure? • How do we assess problem solving and communication?

25. Next Steps: Common Assessment and Professional Learning Communities • Get together with teachers of the same course or grade. • Design performance assessment tasks. • Share the problem-solving/communication scoring rubric with students. • Administer the tasks to students. • Come together frequently as a group to score student work using rubric, discuss feedback and student performance issues. Dig deeper when students have problems the tasks. • Monitor and track student achievement over time in problem solving and communication. • Establish a professional learning community within your school or join together with colleagues at other sites for this purpose.