Formative assessment

1. Formative assessment Assessment as and for learning

2. Reflections What new ideas have you bumped up against? What ideas are you thinking about moving forward with? What are some things you are thinking about working on?

3. What is formative assessment? • Ongoing/imbedded in instruction • Provides feedback to both teacher and learner • Informs instruction • Provides next steps for students • Develops students’ awareness of their own learning (metacognitive) • Prompts attention to individual needs

4. Why formative assessment? • Research indicates that the use formative assessment practices enhances student achievement and creates a classroom culture of success (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Brookhart, 2001; Gipps, 1994). • With formative assessment both teachers and students have a voice in the assessment process and students develop responsibility for their learning (Arter, 2003; McMillan, 2003).

5. Why formative assessment? • Formative assessment helps all students but particularly low achievers. Thus it helps to close the gap while raising achievement overall (Black & Wiliam, 1998).

6. Assessment as and for learning • “Assessment for the purpose of improving student learning is seen as both ‘assessment for learning’ and ‘assessment as learning’. • As part of assessment for learning, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback and coaching for improvement. (Growing Success, p. 28)

7. Assessment as and for learning • Teachers engage in assessment as learning by helping all students develop their capacity to be independent, autonomous learners who are able to set individual goals, monitor their own progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning.” (Growing Success, p. 28)

8. Features of formative assessment • Pays attention to detail - what do students know, what can they do, what are next steps? • How do students understand the concepts taught? • What are their understandings? • What are misconceptions? • What experiences do they have that connect?

9. Forms of formative assessment • Conferencing • Observation and feedback on observations • Portfolios • Reflective journals • Questioning, listening and responding • Evaluative, interpretive, hermeneutic listening (Davis, 1996)

10. The importance of observation In the primary grades: “Young children show their understanding by doing, showing, and telling. Assessment strategies of watching, listening, and asking probing questions are needed to capture this.” (Early Math Strategy Expert Panel Report)

11. The importance of observation It’s not just for primary grades– Observation recognizes that learning is a process and that components of this process can be observable. • Observations should be recorded • Not all students can be observed at the same time

12. Your turn • Share in twos or threes at your table • What are some examples of formative assessment in your context?

13. Formative assessment in Ontario classrooms • Drawing on three research projects • CIIM Research Project • What counts in math: Professional learning communities focused on assessment • Changer des pratiquesdansl’action : uneexpérience en enseignement des mathématiques

14. Curriculum Implementation in Intermediate Math (CIIM)

15. Assessment strategies

16. Assessment strategies

17. What might this look like in classrooms?

18. Angela • Uses her students’ math journals to get a sense of students’ understanding and to monitor her teaching: • “They help me analyze my program as well so I can say ‘you know what, I’m really spending too much time in procedural stuff but not enough in another area’. . . . So it helps me balance what I’m doing better”. (Angela, interview)

19. Math Forum • Student work in pairs on a problem • Teacher circulates, probes, prompts, questions, listens, observes, takes notes • Pairs of students present solutions, others paraphrase the strategies and ask questions • Tug of war 1: 4 frogs on one side had a tie with 5 fairy godmothers on the other side. • Tug of war 2: 1dragon had a tie with 2 fairy godmothers and 1 frog. • Tug of war 3: 1 dragon and 3 fairy godmothers on one side and 4 frogs on the other side. • Who would win the 3rd tug of war?

20. Claire • Claire explained that a high proportion of students had been identified by the school as special needs or at-risk students • “Formative assessment is really, really important. And it's their formative assessment and it's their understanding of what they know and what they don't know and what they need to learn. And so I really rely on that a lot” (Claire, interview).

21. Quizzes • Quizzes used as formative assessment • Written feedback • Assistance during the quiz • Clicker quizzes • Students choose an option and key it in • Students then try to convince their partner of their choice • Students respond to the question again

23. Terry • Supportive, collaborate department • A risk-taker • “They [the students] see me sometimes struggling and having issues sometimes with the technology or the manipulatives. So it’s okay. You have to be fearless, you have to try these things and if it messes up it’s alright, just keep trying.” (Terry, interview)

24. Using mathematical thinking tools • Moving students from linear to quadratic relationships - working in groups building models, using graphing calculators, whole class discussions

25. Questioning, listening, responding • “What kind of relation is this?” • “Why is it linear?” • “How do you know?” • “If you were in grade 3 or grade 4, and I said ‘why is this a linear relationship’ and you didn’t know anything about slope or first differences or anything, how would you explain it, do you think?”(Terry, Grade 10 teacher)

26. What counts in math: Teachers talking assessment

27. Teacher study groups (PLC’s) • Two-year project (Nov 2008 – May 2010) • Two school boards • 42 teachers of mathematics in Grades 4 – 12 • We met in groups of 8 – 12 teachers to discuss the ways that they are incorporating new ideas in their assessment practices (audiotape the discussions) • The purpose was to share their practices and negotiate their dilemmas

28. Practices • Performance tasks • Rubrics and creative non-rubrics • Group assessments • Self assessment • Peer assessment • Journals • Portfolios

29. Negotiating dilemmas • Jason: This is my number one question is ‘Do you need to record that somewhere?’ Number two – ‘How should you record that?’ and number three, um, you know, ‘What will we do with it if we had it recorded?’ • Barbara: Yeah, yeah, exactly and, I mean, it’s not always going to be something you would use to move forward. It depends on what it is, right. • Jason: Yeah. • Barbara: But, but if we’re using formative discussion or formative assessment, then you do want to use it to figure out where you go next, whether it’s where you go next with that student or with everybody. And I think that’s really an issue. Like how do you keep track of that? (District A, November 28, 2008)

30. A little over a year later • Jason: So, I really want to go deeper into this whole idea of the assessment for learning, in terms of having a record of the ongoing conversations we have with kids while they're learning. And so we don’t know if this [the recording sheet] is the right way because it's quite a bit of tracking and detail, but we’re experimenting with it and we’re trying it out. (District A, January 21, 2010) • Brian: The coding is good . . . and I could develop something that maybe only I can understand but then I look back and I think okay, yeah I see it. And maybe something similar to what Claire does, everything on one sheet: learning skills, [curriculum] expectations, everything on one sheet. (District A, January 21, 2010)

31. Changer des pratiquesdansl’action : uneexpérience en enseignement des mathématiques

32. Focus on moving from telling to listening Focus on • Building collaborative problem solving communities – in the professional development setting and in the classroom • Developing teachers’ and students’ understanding of mathematics • Shifting practice to focus on listening to students’ mathematical thinking

33. Dilemmas from you • “Teachers in our board are being asked to provide descriptive feedback to students - both orally and written. They are wondering about an easy way to be able to track the feedback so that they can see whether the student is making any use of the feedback that is given.” • “How to support teachers whose content knowledge for teaching mathematics is often very fragile? It is very challenging to get them to try anything outside of their comfort zone.” The math content piece is still the most important one! (chat pod, oct 17)

34. Teachers’ mathematical knowledge • Developing teachers’ mathematical knowledge is essential for developing the ability to pose questions and listen and respond to student thinking • This can be enhanced in a variety of ways • Looking at students’ work and seeing the ways that students solve problems • Working collaboratively • Engaging in mathematical investigations • Supporting them so that they have the confidence to explore mathematical ideas within the context of their own classrooms

35. Thank you Now please move to break out by role Post your assessment dilemmas on the dilemma depots throughout the afternoon/evening (or on the wiki)