Assessing Student Learning

1. Assessing Student Learning Implementing the CCSS with Fidelity EngageNY.org

2. Purpose of this Session • Participants will be able to: • Identify effective uses of EBC materials, tools, and handouts to assess student learning. • Describe how to use student work produced in the EBC unit to inform instruction. EngageNY.org

3. Lenses for this Session • Teachers • How can I use student work to inform my implementation of the EBC unit? • How will I know what students know and what they can do? • NT Members/Coaches • How can I teach robust analysis of student work? • Principals/Leaders • What feedback do I need to be able to give teachers about their use of these assessments to improve teaching and learning? EngageNY.org

4. EBC Unit Assessment Tools • Read the following documents from the EBC unit. • Forming EBC Checklist I and II • Evidence-Based Writing Rubric • Text-Centered Discussion Checklist • Discuss the following questions in your table groups: • What do these tools tell you about what students know and can do in this unit? • How could your school use one of these as a common assessment tool? EngageNY.org

5. EBC Assessment Tools Multiple touch-points Teachers and students Leverage student work EngageNY.org

6. Making EBC Checklist With a partner, use the EBC Checklist I (the short one) to discuss the claim you developed yesterday. For each indicator, discuss whether the claim succeeds in this area and explain why this is so. EngageNY.org

7. Talk about it! In your table groups, talk about the following: How did the tool and the checklist work together as you conducted the evaluation? What sorts of evidence did the tool provide for the different indicators? Where did you find it? How did you decide whether a claim met an indicator? EngageNY.org

8. Teacher Hat: Using Student Work to Inform Instruction EngageNY.org

9. Analyzing Student Work: What, Why, How? • What does the data say? • Make observations. • Frame the issue as a learning issue: “Students are struggling to…” • Why is this so? • Dive deep to get to the root cause. • Focus first on issues that are important and within an instructor’s control. • How will future instruction change to address the issue? • Develop an action plan for instruction. EngageNY.org

10. Analyzing Student Work: What, Why, How? What? • What do you notice about the sample claims? Make observations. Collect them. • Discuss: What themes emerge? • Decide: What is the learning issue? “Students are struggling to…” (There may be more than one. ) EngageNY.org

11. Analyzing Student Work: What, Why, How? Why? • Why, why, why? • What is a root cause? How? • What instruction can we design to address the learning issue, given what we have determined to be the root cause? EngageNY.org

12. Talk about it! How will you help teachers avoid these traps: • External locus of control: • “Our students just can’t…” • “Middle school teachers didn’t teach them to…” • No way out: • “There’s no time to…” • “There’s no way to…” • Non-specific/data-less solutions: • “I just observe them…” • “I know what they can do…” • “I’ll go over it again…” EngageNY.org

14. Discussion How can the EBC unit materials support teachers to look at student work to inform instruction? How will you support teachers, coaches, and leaders to maintain a growth mindset as they learn to do this work? EngageNY.org

15. Note to Principals This afternoon, be prepared to think about the development of an assessment calendar for the core proficiencies that includes: • A regular schedule of common assessment. • A post-assessment analysis and action planning session. • Structures for • Providing feedback on instructional action plans. • Observing instruction based on action plans. • Providing feedback on instruction. EngageNY.org