Fall 2012 Regional Meeting

1. Fall 2012 Regional Meeting Challenging and Supporting Students in preparation for the Transition to the new ‘Core Academic Standards’ Sharon R. Waite, Executive Director 1014 Northeast Drive Jefferson City, Missouri 65109 www.smcaa.org

2. The National Dialogue: Higher Standards Better Assessments Accountability Merit Pay

3. “Quality curriculum taught by quality teachers has the most potential to improve student achievement.” Beverlee Jobrack, Tyranny of the Textbook: An Insider Exposes How Educational Materials Undermine Reforms

4. New standards do not demand a scripted approach to curriculum…but that does not mean teachers can skip around and ‘cherry-pick’ the elements they like and dismiss those they prefer not to teach

5. CCSS have higher level of specificity • Teachers have flexibility on how to implement the standards BUT… • The standards are quite specific: Example: RI5.6 Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

6. The New Standards Require: • In-depth analysis and discussion on the standards as a whole (horizontally/vertically) • Consensus on the true intent of each standard regarding what students must know, be able to do and understand in order to demonstrate mastery or proficiency

7. ? Deconstruct Standards into Learning Targets Student Achievement Increases Have we given them (teachers and students) enough to “REALLY GET” the expected outcome? If the only task that is being emphasized is creating learning targets, will everyone come to a common understanding of what goes in the “?” box?

8. Some of us feel like this…

9. Why do we need to Unpack or Deconstruct Standards? - To identify what students need to know and be able to do. To guide daily instruction and assessment for learning. - To enable students to show mastery of the standards on common assessments and on the impending state summative assessment

10. Using Stiggins Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Using it Right, Doing it well Classify each standard in one of 4 ways: • Knowledge/Understanding • Reasoning • Performance Skill • Product

11. Knowledge/Understanding • Some knowledge/facts/concepts to be learned outright; some to be retrieved using reference materials; including Procedural knowledge – know how to do something (e.g., use scientific notation to represent very large numbers)

12. Reasoning • Thinking Proficiencies – using knowledge to solve a problem, make a decision, Plan…

13. Performance Skill • Behavorial demonstrations; where the doing is what is important; using knowledge and reasoning to perform skillfully (if a skill doesn’t really require using both some knowledge and some reasoning, it is probably Procedural knowledge and would be classified as Knowledge/Understanding)

14. Product • Where the characteristics of the final product are important; using knowledge, reasoning, and skills to produce a final product

15. Components in the various levels of Classifying Targets

16. 4 Questions that drive Deconstruction of the Standards • What knowledge will students need to demonstrate the intended learning? 2. What patterns of reasoning will they need to master, if any? 3. What skills are required, if any? 4. What product development capabilities must they acquire, if any?

17. Careful analysis and classification… • Ensures we maintain the intention and cognitive demand of the standard in scaffolding the learning. • Keeps us from reducing standards to a series of ‘knows’

18. Standards give the teacher a destination. Learning Targets are the route students take to reach that destination.

19. Learning Targets (Objectives) Are: Statements of what we want students to know, be able to do,and understand

24. Clear targets Impact on Teaching More focused instructional planning Sharpens teachers’ focus on the learning expectation Expectations rise Focus on quality rather than getting it done

25. Clear Learning Targets Impact on Teaching • Congruent activities • Relevant content specific vocabulary • Assists teachers in reflection regarding their lessons and learning that occurred • Strengthens connections with parents related to learning expectations for their child

26. Transitioning to the new standards teachers will need to: • Collaboratively underline/highlight key words to determine the meaning of the standard • Begin writing each learning target with the same classification as the standard it supports

27. Types of Learning Targets/Objectives • Knowledge • The facts and concepts we want students to know • Reasoning • Students use what they know to reason and solve problems • Skills/Performance • Students use their knowledge and reasoning to act skillfully • Product • Students use their knowledge, reasoning, and skills to create a concrete product

28. Without Clear LearningTargets We Can’t Do Any of the Following… Know if the assessment adequately measures what we taught. Correctly identify what students know and don’t know and their level of achievement. Plan next steps in instruction. Give detailed, descriptive feedback to students. Have students self-assess or set goals likely to help them learn more. Keep track of student learning target by target or standard by standard. Complete a standards-based report card.

29. Deconstructing Standards into Achievable Learning Targets

30. Standards Based Model Design an assessment congruent to the standards and learning targets on which students will demonstrate their understandings Select the standard that students need to know • Unpack the standards • Design congruent daily learning targets

31. Standards Based Model Use data from assessments to give feedback, re-teach or move to next level • Design congruent formative assessments • Plan congruent instructional strategies to assure that each student has appropriate learning opportunities

32. NAEP’s First Computer-based TestGrades 8 - 12 Evaluated criteria: (Two writing tasks) • Development of ideas • Organization of ideas • Use of language Results: ¼ Advanced or Proficient • 3% Advanced • 24% Proficient • 52% Basic • 20% Below Basic 700 students in 25 public schools in Missouri, among 50,000 assessment participants DESE 9/14/12

33. CCSS are not test-prep standards Their aim is to teach students how to ‘think’ and raise the bar on their level of comprehension and their ability to articulate their knowledge. This requires an in-depth examination and a revamping of ‘how’ we teach on a daily basis…

34. Backward Design Process • Identify • desired • results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

35. Assessment By first analyzing and classifying the standards we can then moreskillfully select/design more efficient, effective, valid, and reliable forms of assessment to measure students’ progress toward mastering standards. Stiggins, 2004

36. Assessment/Feedback for deeper understanding… • Requires we take a closer look at the purpose and intention of “gathering evidence of learning.” • Summative Assessment tells us what students know • Formative Assessment tells us what students don’t know • Feedback informs students about how they are doing in their efforts to reach a goal

37. Summative Assessment… The assessment tool that informs us whether or not students have mastered the Intended/expected outcome of the learning target. Ultimately, they “Get It” or they Don’t.

38. The New Standards Present New Challenges:How to create assessments that resemble how professionals are performing relevant tasks in their work today. Example: In a science classroom: Instead of typewritten lab reports, lab groups share their data via a Google Docs spreadsheet and give a presentation that is run like scientists’ lab meetings: Students respond to comments and moderate the discussion about their findings. Going beyond the lab report, lets students demonstrate their abilities to communicate and defend their ideas to many people (not just the teacher). This models how many people now do their work: creating shared documents that are authored by many people, not just the work and thoughts of one individual.

39. Evaluate classroom assessments: • Do they go beyond simple Recall? • Do they require students to apply knowledge/skill/understanding to complex tasks that would be found in today’s world of work ? • Do they require students to transfer knowledge/skill/understanding across concepts?

40. Or use a single reference to examine such questions as: What words did an author use to characterize what happened next in a story? Teachers, are quick to say they already ask those kinds of questions. “Yeah, I always ask what happened next.” But that's not the question. The question was, 'what words did the author use?' This requires an inquiry and a determination by the reader/student.

41. Teachers’ role Redefined from provider of information to facilitator of inquiry • Providing background knowledge equalizers • Skillfully providing questions that prompt students to examine content to greater depths in order to understand more complex concepts

42. Formative Assessment by Definition… Assessments that provide information on how students are learning as a concept is being taught, so that teachers can adjust their instruction and methodologies to address misconceptions/misunderstandings as they facilitate the mastery of a particular learning target.

43. Are our Formative Assessments: • Requiring students to “Think” • Requiring students to “Make Connections” • Designed to reveal Misconceptions/Misunderstandings

44. While Re-structuring our curriculum to meet the demands of the new standards is absolutely critical… We must also step back and ask a very important question regarding student learning…

45. Have we been missing the boat? Wiggins contends that: “Advice, evaluation, grades – none of these provide the descriptive information students need to reach our goals.” 7 Keys to Effective Feedback Educational Leadership September 2012

46. Wiggins further states that for teachers and students alike: “If I am not clear on my goals or if I fail to pay attention to them, I cannot get helpful feedback (nor am I likely to achieve my goals).” Grant Wiggins, 7 Keys to Effective Feedback Educational Leadership September, 2012 p. 13

47. Teaching for deeper understanding requires we consider FEEDBACK… Information about how we are doing in our efforts to reach a goal.

48. Effective Feedback does not… • Include value judgments • Recommendations on how to improve • Give advice

49. Effective Feedback does… • Report on what is observed based on a clear statement of goal(s) • Provide information about the effects of a student’s actions as related to a given goal (user-friendly, specific and personalized) • Provide information that is stable, accurate, trustworthy, tangible and transparent • Occur in a timely, on-going, and consistent manner

50. To Be Useful Feedback Must Be Consistent • This requires teachers to be on the same page about what high-quality work is • Teachers much work together to become more consistent (over time) to formalize their judgments in highly descriptive rubrics supported by anchor products/performances