The ABC’s of Instruction Using assessment to improve performance

1. The ABC’s of InstructionUsing assessment to improve performance

2. Ross Danis • International Clinical Professor • Seton Hall University • S. Orange, NJ, USA • Associate Dean of Education • Drew University • Madison, NJ, USA • On the web at rossdanis.com • E mail: at rossdanis@ymail.com

3. THE NOTES WERE SOURBECAUSETHE SEAMS WERE SPLIT

4. What are our “bagpipes” for assessment? • What is our experience with the word? • How does assessment work with students, teachers, and schools?

5. The Bagpipes of the Past • Coercion • Intimidation • Rewards or punishments linked to evaluative judgments • Infrequent or vague feedback • Limited personal contact and involvement

6. The new Bagpipes of AssessmentThe primary purpose of assessment is to improve performance, not merely audit it.

7. Emily • Read the writing sample • Watch the Interview • Discuss • Report out

8. Key Distinctions • Assessment • Evaluation

9. And…. • Assessment for Learning • Assessment of Learning

10. Our Goals • To assess student achievement by knowing how to select and develop classroom assessments that fit each unique context. • To frame “Learning Targets” to underpin sound classroom assessments. • To manage and communicate assessment results involving students when appropriate and in ways that promote learning.

11. Framing • We will frame standards of effective practice and provide a cognitive structure that will assist you in extending your repertoire of sound practices.

12. Indicators of Sound Classroom Assessment (1.4) • Read the Indicators of Sound Classroom Assessment Practice • Engage in a small group discussion that is focused on the five components of sound classroom assessment. • Decide as a group, which areas are likely to pose the greatest challenge and why. • Report out to the whole group in order to determine patterns or themes.

13. If we want to use assessment as a tool for learning, students need to • Know where they’re going • Know where they are now • Know how to close the gap

14. Where am I going? • Provide a clear and understandable vision of the learning target. • Use examples and models of strong and weak work.

15. Where am I now? • 3. Offer regular descriptive feedback. • 4. Teach students to self-assess and set goals.

16. How can I close the gap? • 5. Design lessons to focus on one aspect of quality at a time. • 6. Teach students focused revision. • 7. Engage students in self-reflection, and let them keep track of and share their learning.

17. These Strategies are a Progression • The seven strategies just presented unfold in a classroom over time. Students will have trouble with later steps ( such as self assessment) if they have not had experience with earlier steps.

18. Assess What? • “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” • One can't “know where they are now” and “know how to close the gap” unless they “know where they are going.”

19. What’s in a name! • Content Standards • Benchmarks • Goals • Outcomes • Enduring Understandings • Essential Learnings • Essential questions

20. Curriculum is not the text • Curriculum is not the text • Curriculum is not the text • Curriculum is not the text • Curriculum is not the text • Curriculum is not the text

21. Learning Targets Statements of intended learning in each subject at each grade (or course) level.

22. Learning Targets • In small groups, identify the • Benefits to parents • Benefits to teachers • Benefits to students

23. How are Learning Targets Organized? • Varies by country, by district, and by school. • You must understand your own curriculum framework. • Good curriculum guides are critical to good assessment

24. Articulation • Horizontal ( across grade levels) and vertical ( through grade levels) articulation is essential to use assessment as a tool for learning. Knowing how to “posthole” is critical.

25. What is “Postholing” • Essential learnings • Key concepts • Critical attributes • Foundational principles

26. Let’s take the first steps together • Individually, identify between four or five key learnings in a specific subject at a specific grade level. • In other words, what knowledge/understanding should students have after having taken a particular subject at a particular grade level.

27. Next step… • Put the “Learning Targets” in student friendly language. These “Learning Targets” are statements that begin with “I can.” • “I can multiply two digit by two digit numbers.”

28. Why is this important? • Minimizes curriculum drift. • Reduces redundancy. • Allows families to learn together and reinforce what is taught in school. • Creates an opportunity for inter and multi disciplinary teaching and learning across grades and subjects.

29. And one more step • Gather in small groups, organized by grade level and share with one another your understanding of the key Learning Targets at that grade level. • Gather in small groups, organized by single subject across grade levels ( if possible) and share Learning Targets in your discipline across grade levels or courses.

30. Develop a plan • Only you know your circumstances well enough to understand what has to take place in order to develop a plan to design, develop, distribute, and use, Learning Targets. • This could take a year to complete but it will have an enormous impact on your capacity to effectively use assessment as a tool for learning.

31. The Nuts and Bolts of Standardized Tests • More than the required tests from the state or the country. Classroom tests can be considered standardized if they are administered to all students in the same grade or course.

32. Standardized Tests 2 • Norm- Referenced: This means that student scores are referenced to a norm group. Includes percentiles and grade equivalents. They do not reflect what each student has learned, but how much, compared to all other students. • Criterion-Referenced Tests: Shows how learning compares to performance on specified learning targets. Sometimes called “Standards-based.”

33. Part 3: Assessment Methods • Four Basic Categories: • 1. Selected Response and short answer • 2. Extended Written Response • 3. Performance Assessment • 4. Personal Communication. All are legitimate when use correlates highly with the learning target.

34. Extended Written Response • Comparing two pieces of literature for example. • We score in one of two ways: A Rubric or pointes provided for specific pieces of information provided.

35. Selected Response • Formats include multiple choices, True/False, Matching, Fill in questions.

36. Performance • Based on observation and judgment. We look at a performance or product and make a judgment about its quality.

37. Personal Communication • Gathering information about students through personal communication is just what it sounds like- we find out what students have learned through interaction. This includes conference, class participation asking questions during instruction. Checking for understanding in real time and making adjustments to teaching.

38. Which Method? • Which assessment method would you choose for each of the following: • 1. Ability to write clearly and coherently • Group discussion proficiency • Reading Comprehension • Using Specified procedures • Proficiency conducting investigations in science.

39. Portfolios • A collection of artifacts put together to get at the full story. To help students, teachers, and others understand in depth one or more aspects of student learning. • Portfolios are collecting and communicating devices, not a method of assessment such as performance assessment.

40. Portfolios as learning experiences • Teachers or students ( or both) can author a portfolio. When the subject is the author, and when they assemble and share portfolios, they perform acts of metacognition that deepen ability to learn, desire to learn, and the learning itself

41. Portfolio as Story • Every story needs a theme- a struggle, achievement, competence, celebration- to guide the selection of components, artifacts, and data.

42. Growth Portfolios • Students select evidence related given target at two or more points in time. • Annotations explain the level of achievement each artifact represents. • The student writes a self-reflection to summarize growth.

43. Achievement Portfolios • Document achievement at a point in time. • They include the best and most recent data organized by the learning targets each represents. Certain targets call for multiple samples to demonstrate level of achievement, while others need only one.

44. Competence Portfolios • Offer evidence in support of a claim to have attained as acceptable or exemplary level of achievement. • Sometime referred to as an “Exhibition of Mastery.” • Sampling is an issue. Want to show a high level of achievement is sustained, not

45. Portfolio Contents: Focus on Targets • All forms of assessment (tests, performance, personal communication) can be included. • All kinds of learning– knowledge, dispositions, skills- can be the focus of evidence. • Portfolios can reflect a single learning target, a series of learning targets, or all learning targets.

46. Artifacts • Clearly identify the learning targets about which the portfolio is intended to communicate. • Sampling: Need enough artifacts to ensure that accurate information is being provided. The size of the sample depends on the learning targets at the focus of achievement. • The selection process is strengthened by the dialogue between and among the students and the teacher.

47. Self Reflection • Do not pass over this step • Once students have pointed out what they have learned; have justified the claim with evidence; and set goals for the future, what is left? • Open ended self-reflection that goes beyond the goals • (Refer to 11.2 and 3)

48. Conferences • 1. Offering Feedback • 2. Setting Goals • 3. Planning and Intervention • 4. Demonstrating Growth • 5. Communicating achievement • (Conduct mock conference) • Provide Sample forms 12.2. 3. and 4.

49. Concept:Planning Backwards“What would it look like if we succeeded?”

50. Planning Backwards: “How do we identify what we value most, then measure what matters?”