The Power of Learning Targets Transform Learning in the Classroom

1. The Power of Learning TargetsTransform Learning in the Classroom Ken Mattingly Rockcastle County Middle School Stephanie Harmon Rockcastle County High School Representing PIMSER K-12 Outreach

2. Group Norms • Start and end on time • Put cell phones on silent • Be respectful of all comments • Everyone participates • Exercise the rule of “two feet” • You may not agree with me …and I’m okay with that!

3. Who’s in the Room Please stand for the role that best represents your current position: • Classroom Teacher • Resource Teachers (curriculum coaches, academic specialists, etc.) • Building level administrators • District level administrators • Others

4. Our Roadmap for Today Implications of Senate Bill 1 Stephanie’s Journey Where have we been? Where are we going? Preparing for Day 2 Ken’s Journey

5. Tools T-chart Things I want to remember How will this impact my classroom/school district?

6. Why are we here? Questions you have about Learning Targets

7. Why are we here? • Senate Bill One—March 2009 KRS 158.6453 • (4) (a) The assessment program to be implemented in the 2011-2012 academic year shall be composed of annual student assessments and state and local program reviews and audits in selected content areas. • (b) The state student assessments may include formative and summative data……. • (8) Local school districts may select and use commercial interim or formative assessments of develop and use their own formative assessments to provide data on how well their students are growing toward mastery of KY academic core content. Nothing in this section precludes teachers from using ongoing teacher-developed formative processes.

8. What Does Senate Bill 1 mean for the Classroom? • A shift in how assessment is used • Formative & Summative • Becoming assessment literate • SB1 requires that KDE provide professional development programs that support assessment literacy

9. Point of View Senate Bill 1 defines what it means to be assessment literate and the types of assessments that should be included in instruction. Explain what assessment means from the viewpoint of an administrator, a teacher and a student.

10. Point of View Table Share Pair & Share

11. SB 1 Talking Points • Assessment Literacy • How assessments are defined/described

12. Balanced Assessment • What does it look like? • How is it developed? • Assessment for Learning vs. Assessment of Learning

14. Targets, Assessments, & Grading What do I do with targets after I have them? Ken Mattingly B.A. – University of Kentucky M.A. – Eastern Kentucky University National Certification in Early Adolescent Science ken.mattingly@rockcastle.kyschools.us

15. My Job… • To show you the process I have taken to incorporate Classroom Assessment for Student Learning into my classroom practices. • To give examples of how I used it to sharpen my focus on what my students learn, how they learn it, and how they are assessed. • To show you how I have taken CASL and transformed the way I assess my students and report their successes and shortcomings.

16. I will do that by… • Sharing a year-by-year synopsis of my progress. • Introducing you to ways of linking targets to activities and summative assessments. • Sharing examples of formative and summative assessments that focus on learning targets. • Presenting a method for using targets as the structure for a standards-based grading scale. • Sharing examples of student opportunities to demonstrate target mastery that allows them to take ownership of their learning.

17. Rockcastle County Middle School • 625 students grade 6-8 • 2 teams per grade level • 70% Free and reduced lunch • 2007 AI – 95, 2008 AI – 98, 2009 AI – 105 • Science P+D%: • 2007: 70 • 2008: 73 • 2009: 84

18. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning • Assessment of Learning • Summative, documents individual or group achievement, occurs after learning, sorts students into groups, primary motivator is threat of punishment or promise of rewards • Assessment for Learning • Formative, promotes increase in achievement, occurs during learning, help teachers diagnose and respond to student needs, primary motivator is the belief that success in learning is achievable. • Classroom Assessment for Learning, p. 33

19. What are targets, really? • Statements of intended learning. • The building blocks for student attainment of the standards. • Principal driver of classroom instructional decisions. • The framework for classroom assessment practices.

20. Year One: In the beginning The Long and Winding Road

21. What do we want to assess? • Start with the end in mind. • What do we want students to know and do? • Sources :Common Core Standards, POS, CCD, not CCA • Turn those documents into manageable chunks of information • Take standard and break into the learning pieces that when put together form the scaffolding for performance of the standard (Deconstruction) • Knowledge, Reasonings, Skills, Products • These are the pieces that give your instruction direction and you want to assess

22. Side Note on Deconstruction • Taking standards and deconstructing them is hard and time consuming. • Decisions often have to be made on what is essential learning. • There will be differences of opinion on how standards break out. • Put the book away when deconstructing • Don’t let this step frustrate you and keep you from implementing AFL.

24. Learning/Achievement Targets Statements of what we want students to learn and be able to do.

25. Student Friendly Learning Target Example • Standard: SC-07-4.6.2 Students will: • describe the transfer and/or transformations of energy which occur in examples that involve several different forms of energy (e.g., heat, electrical, light, motion of objects and chemical). • Explain, qualitatively or quantitatively, that heat lost by hot object equals the heat gained by cold object.

26. Student Friendly Learning Target Example • I can give examples of energy. • I can give examples of energy transfer. That means when energy is moved from one object to another. • I can give examples of energy transformations. That means when energy is changed from one form to another form. • I can describe the exchange of energy between hot objects and cold objects.

27. Impacting My Classroom? • Formulated targets for a unit. • Put those targets on the bulletin board. • Read them to the students the first day of the unit. • Never referred to them again.

28. So What Was The Benefit? • I had to examine my standards in greater depth. • I learned what I needed to learn about my content. • I was more aware of the specifics I wanted my students to know. • My students had at least a casual exposure to what they needed to learn.

29. Working Group Discussion • How would developing learning targets change the instructional environment in your school? • What challenges do you foresee with developing learning targets?

30. Year Two: Implementing Targets Now We’re Getting Somewhere

31. Students who can identify what they are learning significantly outscore those who cannot. • Robert Marzano

32. Clear, Student-friendly Targets • Turn knowledge, skill, reasoning, and product pieces into “I can” target statements. • Targets should use student-friendly language. • Targets should be attainable. • Provide clear, stationary targets for students to aim at and they will hit them. • Give students a copy of learning targets for the unit.

33. Using Targets for Post-Assessment Development • Matching the assessment method to the type of target. • Determining adequate sampling size. • Assessment format considerations: open response vs. multiple-choice, time constraints • Quality of questions, information value of incorrect answers

34. Working Group Discussion • How do you determine the questions that are on your assessments? • What is the benefit, if any, for common summative assessments? • How would you have to prepare your faculty for this process?

35. Year Three Targets as the driving force of instruction.

36. Using Targets for Pre-Assessment Development • Targets can easily be turned into questions for a pre-assessment to see where students are at the beginning of a unit. • Develop questions that give students an indication of what they are to learn. • Pre-assessment as feedback throughout unit.

37. Linking Lessons to Targets • Each learning experience should be explicitly linked to a target. • Students are introduced to the target at the beginning and ending of the experience. • Each learning experience is evaluated for its effectiveness at moving students toward mastery of the target.

38. Year Four How can I identify problems before it’s too late?

39. How do I know my instruction is “good”? • The students seem to enjoy the activities? • I think they understand it? • When I get back their unit test results? • When the state test scores arrive? • By the number of parent compliments or complaints? • What my peers/administrator say about me?

40. Formative Assessments • Assessments conducted during learning to promote, not merely judge or grade, student success • Provide information to teacher and student on student performance. • Supplies opportunities to make mid-course corrections to learning experiences.

41. Research on Feedback • Quality of feedback matters. Specifically descriptive ,criterion-based feedback is better than numerical scoring or letter grades. • Emphasis on the importance of learning leads to greater learning vs. looking good or being compared to others. • Descriptive feedback that focuses on strengths and weaknesses is most effective • Classroom Assessment for Learning, p. 40

42. My Philosophy on Formative Assessments • FA does not count as a grade • Feedback is generally descriptive or otherwise informs on attainment of mastery • Blanks, I don’t knows, IDC’s, etc. are unacceptable (You have to develop a classroom culture of this) • Returned to students and compared to “good work” to inform them of where they are • Followed by a discussion of how to close the gap to mastery

43. Working Group Discussion • What are your thoughts on not grading formative assessments? • How would your classroom have to change in order to incorporate it? • As a learner, what makes you feel an assignment is worth doing?

44. Year Five Into the Grading Abyss

45. Summative Feedback • Before using targets: score 65% • Student knows what questions they got right/wrong • Kept the score and went on, maybe reviewed, but still went on • No diagnosis of problems and ways to address them – perhaps taking a test again but no plan as to what to focus on • No idea on student or teacher’s part of strengths and weaknesses

46. Summative Feedback • After using targets: score 65% • Get results broken out by target • Students know what they do well and what they need to work on • Students have opportunities to work on identified targets and gain understanding before trying again to show mastery • Diagnostic tool to show strengths and weaknesses by student and class

47. Re-testing • Students have received summative assessment results by target • Identify targets needing improvement • Work on target practice in preparation for re-testing • Re-test only over identified targets • Evaluate results, rinse, and repeat!

48. Summary of Targets and Assessments • Learning targets form the backbone of instruction and assessment program • LT allow for focused development of pre- and post-assessments • LT give clear direction to selection and development of instructional activities • LT provide students with clear learning goals and a format for organized feedback on their performance

49. My Take Home Message • Learning targets inform students and teachers specifically what the learning intention is • They can be used as a basis for instructional design and assessment formulation • Formative and summative assessments should provide feedback to all parties on how to improve understanding • Students should be given multiple opportunities to develop and show mastery of learning targets • Standards-based grading gives students the chance take ownership of their performance

50. The Teacher I Was . . . Stephanie Harmon Rockcastle County High School BS – Cumberland College MS – Eastern Kentucky University Rank I – Union College stephanie.harmon@rockcastle.kyschools.us