Montgomery Middle School

1. Montgomery Middle School • Agenda • To Discus the reasons for Looking at Student Work • To discuss the benefits of the ATLAS protocol • Introduce the steps of the ATLAS Protocol

2. What’s we can learn by Looking at Student Work? PURPOSE • What kind of information we can learn from looking at student work? CONTEXT • Who should be learning together from the student work?

3. The kinds of information can we learn from student work The PURPOSE may be to learn about: • The quality of student work • Teaching practice • Students’ understanding • Students’ growth

4. Who should be learning together from the student work? The CONTEXT may be: • Department or grade level meetings • Interdisciplinary teams • Like Course Teachers • Inquiry or study groups • Vertical Teams • Whole faculty meetings

5. A key component of LASW is focused, effective collaboration.

6. Our FOCUS in this session… In our work together today, we will: • Practice the ATLAS protocol for examining multiple samples of student work. • Experience a process for presenting the use of the ATLAS protocol at a PLC or staff meeting. • Experience the power of LASW collaboratively.

7. The ATLAS protocol… • Establishes a non-threatening, non-evaluative environment for educators to explore what students can teach us about teaching and learning through their work • Works well with multiple student work samples, and allows a school to examine a “slice” of teaching and learning

8. What kinds of student work can be examined using ATLAS? • Multiple students’ work from same or different assignments • Single or multiple grade levels • Single or multiple departments • Any assignment that requires students’ open-ended responses or creative products Focus of Inquiry

9. The steps of the ATLAS Protocol … • Background about samples, then a close look at the work • Literal descriptions • Interpretations • Implications • Debrief

10. What we mean by “literal description”… We want to take time to: • Notice what is physically present (or absent) in the work, without judging it. • Help one another see what’s going on in the work, prior to interpreting the data.

11. The kind of student work are we examining today … • Three students’ work from same assignment, pulled randomly from class sample by teacher • An open-ended student response • To an On-Demand task • District developed Screening Assessment Focus of Inquiry

12. What was the assignment? “An On-Demand Writing Screening Assessment, used to allow students to demonstrate their current ability level of writing a Fictional Narrative.” Work samples and prompts used with permission of the MMS Literacy Department

13. Steps of the ATLAS Protocol • 1 – GettingStarted • Background info • Examine student work closely. Make notes. 5 minutes

14. Steps of the Modified ATLAS Protocol • 2 – Describeliterally • “What do you see?” • What is on the students’ documents?” 5 minutes

15. Steps of the Modified ATLAS Protocol • 3 –Interpret the work • Look for patterns • Draw inferences • Raise questions • “I wonder…” 5 minutes

16. Steps of the Modified ATLAS Protocol • 4 – Consider implications for practice • “What are logical next steps, based on what we’ve seen?” 5 minutes

17. Steps of the Modified ATLAS Protocol • 5 – Debrief the process • Use the graphic for reflections • Share one comment each 5 minutes

18. Reflections As a result of this activity, focused around Looking at Student Work, where are you now in your thinking about the use of this tool? • Have you learned anything new today? • What additional supports do you think you’ll need to use the Atlas Protocol? • How should be done improve this presentation?