Classroom Assessment FOR Student Learning

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Classroom Assessment FOR Student Learning

• May 31-June 1, 2007

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Day 1 - Agenda

• Welcome and introductions
• What is formative assessment?
• Why should I use it?
• How can I use it effectively?

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Day 2 - Agenda

• What do urban students say about
• good teachers?
• High vs. low risk activities
• Teaching styles- whats yours?
• Partnership Principles Guiding our interactions
  with students
• Making the change
• Three case studies throughout the day

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Types of assessment

• Assessment OF Learning
• How much have students learned as of a
  particular point in time? (Summative)
• Assessment FOR Learning
• How can we use assessment information to help
  students learn more? (Formative)

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Formative Assessment

• All those activities undertaken by teachers and
  by their students that provide information to
  be used as FEEDBACK to modify the teaching and
  learning activities in which they are engaged.
• -- Black Wiliam, 1998

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Overview
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Overview
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We should assess to

• Gather evidence to inform instructional decisions
• Encourage students to try to learn

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Expected benefits

• Profound achievement gains for ALL students
• Largest gains for low achievers gap reduction
• Increased motivation to learn

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Successful students

• Confidence
• Optimism an expectation of a positive result
• Strong desire to succeed
• High level of effort
• Risk taking

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Failing students

• Pessimism expect failure
• A sense of futility, hopelessness
• Waning effort
• Self-criticism in failure
• Fear of risk taking
• Frustration and anger

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Old days

• If a student gave up in hopelessness and stopped
  trying, it was the students problem not the
  teachers or the schools
• Accountability provide an opportunity to learn

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Current practice

• Society says to its schools
• LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND
• Accountability Assure student learning

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Think pair-share

• Think of a bad assessment experience from your
  past. What made it bad? How did you feel?

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Think pair-share

• Now, think of a positive assessment experience
  from your past. Why was it positive?

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Video Clip - Shirley Valentine

• As you watch, think about how Shirleys
  assessment experiences at school affect her.

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QUICK WORDSMaxine K----------, you the
poet,warned our workshop that Julythat you were
tired and did not careto mask your words to
studentsthose three days.I did not know a
teachercould kill a confidence in wordsso
quickly, just with words.
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You found the pain within my poema cliché. It
was for you and so became for me. I learned
from youthat day to distrust the heartssmall
pouring in the nightbecause poetry is hard
work. You were right it has taken me nine
years since then to write four poems.This one
is just to sayThat the power my words did not
have thenYours did. Like mine, they came too
quickly.--Marilyn B. SmithWashington English
Journal, Spring 1990
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Big Ideas

• Assessments must be accurate
• Results must be used effectively
• These are key to make sure students react
  productively to assessment results.

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Productive response to assessment results

• I understand the results
• I know what to do next
• Im OK
• I choose to keep trying

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Counterproductive response to assessment results

• I dont understand
• I dont know what to do now
• Im no good at this anyway
• I give up

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New Idea

• Formative assessment can and should be done by
  students, as well as by teachers.
• The key to improvement is how students and
  teachers use assessment information.

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What can teachers do?

• Questioning
• Feedback in grading
• Peer- and self-assessment
• Formative use of summative tests
• Black and Wiliam, Working Inside the Black Box,
  2004

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• 1. Questioning

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Questioning

• Researchers found
• Most questions check only for basic knowledge
  and understanding.
• The questions require repetition of memorized
  facts.
• Teachers wait less than a second after asking a
  question.

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Questioning

• Suggestions
• Spend more time framing effective questions
  (plan ahead!).
• Use Blooms taxonomy as a guide.
• Increase wait time even if it feels
  uncomfortable.

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Questioning

• Results
• Teachers learned more about students prior
  knowledge and misunderstandings.
• Students learned a more thoughtful answer was
  required.
• Students began to feel more comfortable
  offering answers, even if they gave a wrong
  answer.

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• 2. Feedback through grading

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Feedback is most effective when it points out
success and is designed to stimulate correction
of errors relevant to the task.-- Bloom
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Every time teachers give feedback to students,
they convey messages that affect students
opinion of themselves, their motivation, and
their achievement.- Dweck, 1999
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Grades as Feedback

• Grading every piece of work is misdirected. A
  numerical grade does not show students how to
  improve their work. Further, students ignore
  comments when grades are given.
• -- Butler, 1998

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(No Transcript)
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Feedback through grading

• Researchers found
• Grades have a negative impact on student
  learning.
• Students dont pay attention to comments when
  scores are also given.
• When teachers give comments only, students
  focus more on improving their work.
• Scores do not tell students how to improve.

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Effective Descriptive Feedback

• Suggestions
• Describe features of the work or performance
  instead of giving a score or letter grade.
• Relate it directly to learning targets and/or
  standards of quality.
• Point out strengths, areas for improvement and
  give specific information about how to improve.
• Give students a chance to respond to comments.

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Feedback

• Results
• Students engaged more productively in improving
  their work
• More time devoted to revising selected
  assignments so that emphasis is on feedback for
  improvement
• Reduced competition among students
• New ways of recording grades/scores

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• A comprehensive review of research studies of
  feedback found that feedback improved performance
  in 60 of the studies. In the cases where
  feedback was not helpful, the feedback turned out
  to be merely a judgment or grade with no
  indication of how to improve.
• -- Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall Wiliam, 2004

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Praise as feedback

• When we praise children for their intelligence,
  we are telling them that this is the name of the
  game Look smart dont risk making mistakes. On
  the other hand, when we praise children for the
  effort and hard work that leads to achievement,
  they want to keep engaging in that process. They
  are not diverted from the task of learning by a
  concern with how smart they might -- or might not
  -- look.
• -- Dweck, 1999

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Activity Descriptive or Evaluative Feedback?
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Record Keeping

• How do you keep a grade book if you dont grade
  everything?
• Video Clip

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• 3. Peer and
• Self Assessment

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Peer and Self-Assessment

• Researchers found
• Students can achieve a learning goal only if
  they understand the goal.
• Students must know what they need to do to
  reach the goal.
• Students dont know how to think about their
  own work.

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Peer and Self-Assessment

• Suggestions
• Develop clear learning targets in kid-friendly
  language.
• Show students examples of good and bad work.
• Use rubrics formally or traffic signal icon
  informally.

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Clear learning targets
The more teachers can show the relevance of
what theyre doing to the life of the student,
the betterYou also have to make clear the goal
of every lesson. The student must know what he or
she is supposed to achieve at the end. --
Csikszentmihalyi
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Whats a target?

• A learning target is any achievement expectation
  we hold for students. Its a statement of what we
  want the students to learn.
• (This is usually now directed by state
  standards.)

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Clear Appropriate Targets

• Are the student learning targets stated?
• Are they clear?
• Is the match between the stated learning targets
  and what is on your assessment clear?
• Is there a clear connection between the learning
  targets and state/district standards? (Hopefully,
  yes on this one!)

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Kinds of Achievement Targets

• Master factual and procedural knowledge
• Use knowledge to reason and solve problems
• Demonstrate mastery of specific skills
• Create quality projects
• Acquire positive affect (disposition)

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Examples of Targets

• Knowledge
• understands the concepts of absolute and
  relative errors in measurement.
• Reason
• establishes relationships based on evidence and
  logical argument
• Skills
• uses effective transitions between paragraphs

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Examples of Targets

• Projects
• constructs a pictograph to represent information
• Disposition (Positive Affects)
• develops an appreciation for art

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Converting Learning Targets to student-friendly
language

• Identify an important learning target
• Identify word(s) needing clarification
• Define the words
• Rewrite the definition as an I can statement,
  in terms students will understand
• Try it out on students or a colleague and
  refine as needed
• Include students in this process

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The process in action

• Students should be able to make predictions in
  text.
• Word to be defined prediction
• Prediction A statement saying that something
  will happen in the future.
• Student-friendly language I can make
  predictions. This means I can use information
  from what I read to guess at what will happen
  next.

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Your Turn

• Select a key learning target from your content
  standards that would need to be rewritten in
  student-friendly language. Follow the process to
  convert it to student-friendly language.
• Word(s) to be defined
• Definition
• Student friendly language I can _________. This
  means I can ___________________.

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Analyze your own assessments for clear targets

• 1. Analyze your test item by item
• Identify and write down what learning each item
  assesses.
• 2. Organize your learning targets into a test
  plan
• Write down the target, the number of questions
  assessing it on the test and the number of points
  available for each target.

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• 3. Question your test plan Is this a
  representative sample of what you taught and what
  you expected students to learn?
• - Does the number of points for each learning
  target represent its relative importance within
  the whole? Are some learning targets
  over-represented or under-represented?
• - Does the number of points for each target
  represent the amount of time you spent on it
  relative to the whole?
• - Are some of the targets you taught left out?

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• 4. Adjust your test plan
• - As needed, adjust the numbers in the of
  points column to reflect the amount of time you
  spent teaching each learning target and its
  importance in the content as a whole.
• - As needed, add or delete learning targets to
  reflect what you taught and what you deemed most
  important.
• 5. Draw conclusions about your assessment
• - What does this tell you about the matches among
  whats written in your curriculum, what you
  taught and what you assessed?

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Student self-assessment

• Students look at examples of strong and weak work
• Students discover where they fit on the rubric

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• Engaging in peer assessment and self-assessment
  is much more than just checking for errors or
  weaknesses. It involves making explicit what is
  normally implicit, and thus it requires students
  to be active in their learning.
• -- Black Wiliam

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Informal self-assessment Traffic Icon

• Green I get it everythings clear its
  completed.
• Yellow Im not sure Im having some problems
  its partly completed.
• Red I have no clue Im having lots of problems
  I havent even started.

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Using Rubrics

• Start slow they dont have to be difficult
• Create key rubrics with colleagues (ex. writing
  math problem-solving, etc.)
• Dont be afraid to include students in the
  development process

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Rubrics - Getting Started

• 1. Gather anonymous samples of strong and weak
  student work. Number the samples.
• 2. Sort the work into piles strong, middle and
  weak. This can eventually lead to a three or
  five-point rubric.

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Rubrics continued

• 3. Transfer all descriptions for strong samples
  and look for commonalities that refer to similar
  characteristics. (clusters)
• 4. Decide on a holistic vs. analytical rubric

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Rubrics continued

• If holistic, write short descriptive statements
  for each cluster and group them under the heading
  strong
• If analytical, work with each cluster of skills
  separately to form the basis for each trait.
  Write short descriptive phrases to represent each
  main idea in each cluster

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Rubrics continued

• 5. Use the same clusters as identified in the
  strong chart to group characteristics in the
  weak phrases. Weaknesses should be parallel to
  the strengths.
• 6. Follow the same procedure for creating the
  middle point.
• 7. Assign 2 and 4 to the examples of student work
  that fall between the descriptors.

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Emilys Example 1

• Computers are a thing of the future. They help
  us in thousands of ways. Computers are a help to
  our lives. They make things easier. They help us
  to keep track of information.
• Computers are simple to use. Anyone can learn
  how. You do not have to be a computer expert to
  operate a computer. You just need to know a few
  basic things.
• Computers can be robots that will change our
  lives. Robots are really computers! Robots do a
  lot of the work that humans used to do. This
  makes our lives much easier. Robots build cars
  and do many other tasks that humans used to do.
  When robots learn to do more, they will take over
  most of our work. This will free humans to do
  other kinds of things. You can also communicate
  on computers. It is much faster than mail! You
  can look up information, too. You can find
  information on anything at all on a computer.
• Computers are changing the work and changing
  the way we work and communicate. In many ways,
  computers are changing our lives and making our
  lives better and easier.

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Emilys Example 2

• So there I was, my face aglow with the
  reflection on my computer screen, trying to come
  up with the next line for my essay. Writing it
  was akin to Chinese water torture, as I could
  never seem to end it. It dragged on and on, a
  never-ending babble of stuff.
• Suddenly, unexpectedly - I felt an ending
  coming on. I could wrap this thing up in four or
  five sentences, and this dreadful assignment
  would be over. Id be free.
• I had not saved yet, and decided I would do so
  now. I clasped the slick, white mouse in my hand,
  slid it over the mouse pad, and watched as the
  black arrow progressed toward the file menu. By
  accident, I clicked the mouse button just to the
  left of paragraph 66. I saw a flash and the next
  thing I knew, I was back to square one. I stared
  at the blank screen for a moment in disbelief.
  Where was my essay? My ten-billion-page
  masterpiece? Gone?! No - that couldnt be! Not
  after all the work I had done! Would a computer
  be that unforgiving? That unfeeling? Didnt it
  care about me at all?

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• I decided not to give up hope just yet. The
  secret was to remain calm. After all, my file had
  to be somewhere - right? Thats what all the
  manuals say - Its in there somewhere. I went
  back to the file menu, much more carefully this
  time. First, I tried a friendly sounding category
  called Find File. No luck there I hadnt give
  the file a name.
• Ah, then I had a brainstorm. I could simply go
  up to Undo. Yes, that would be my savior! A
  simple click of a button and my problem would be
  solved! I went to Undo, but it looked a bit
  fuzzy. Not a good sign. That means there is
  nothing to undo. Dont panic dont panic
• I decided to try to exit the program, not
  really knowing what I would accomplish by this
  but feeling more than a little desperate. Next, I
  clicked on the icon that would allow me back in
  to work processing. A small sign appeared,
  telling me that my program was being used by
  another user. Another user? Whats it talking
  about? Im the only user, you idiot! Or at least
  Im trying to be a user! Give me my paper back!
  Right now!

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• I clicked on the icon again and again - to no
  avail. ClickclickclickclickclickCLICKCLICKCLICK!
  !! Without warning, a thick cloud of smoke began
  to rise from the back of the computer. I didnt
  know whether to laugh or cry. Sighing, I opened
  my desk drawer, and pulled out a tablet and pen.
  It was going to be a long day.

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Emilys story

• Share Emily Video

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• 4. Formative Use of Summative Tests

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Formative use of Summative Tests

• Researchers found
• Students tend to use passive reviewing
  techniques.
• Students are not always sure what they need to
  study.
• Summative grades do not help students improve.

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Formative Use of Summative Tests

• Suggestions
• Make sure assessments are accurate.
• Have students reflect on their tests in order
  to see strengths and weaknesses.
• Have students prepare for tests by generating
  and answering their own questions.

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Possible Assessment Methods

• Selected Response/Short Answer
• (Multiple-choice, true/false, matching, fill in
  the blank, label a diagram)
• Extended Written Response
• (Writing in response to a question)
• Performance Assessments
• (Demonstrating skills, developing products)
• Personal Communication
• (oral exams, oral questions/answers, conferences,
  interviews)

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Target-Method Match

• When selecting an assessment method, choose the
  one that will provide the most accurate
  information with the highest degree of
  efficiency. 

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Self-reflection and goal setting

• Students use test plans as a basis for evaluation
  of strengths and areas of study.
• Students complete self-evaluation and
  goal-setting form on the basis of test or quiz
  results.
•    (See handouts) 

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Formative Use of Summative Tests

• Results
• Assessments are more accurate and efficient.
• Summative tests become part of the learning
  process.
• Students are better prepared for tests.

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Students must know

• Where am I going?
• Where am I now?
• How can I close the gap?

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Where am I going?

• Students must know the learning targets
• Teachers must communicate them to students in
  kid-friendly language
• Students must know assessment expectations (ex
  rubrics)

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Where am I now?

• Teachers must provide accurate classroom
  assessments that match the learning targets
• Students must learn to self-assess

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How can I close the gap?

• Teachers need to provide descriptive feedback to
  students
• Formative use of summative tests
• Design lessons that focus on one aspect of
  quality at a time
• Engage students in self-reflection and let them
  keep track of and share their learning
  (portfolios, etc.)

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CALIFORNIA I went down to my Grandmas
house in California and I got to ride hourses, I
swimmed, went to a party, I went shopping, saw
old friends, I went to the new Merine World, and
I had a lot of fun. I drove down there in a
car with my uncle and drove back with him. He
went down to visit his mom and dad so it worked
out pretty good. I use to live in California
till a year ago. it was a 30 min. drive away
from San Francico I live in Walnut Creek. I went
to school at Walnut Acresfor 4 years, sense 2
grade. Then moved to Oregon and we bought a gas
station. When I got to go I was glad and happy
my mom let me. I HAD FUN!Grade 6
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A LITTLE MOUSE STATUE Every time I walk in my
room, or pass my dresser, I see something thats
very special to me. It is a little statue of a
mouse. His tiny hands are expanded as far apart
as they allow themselves to be. And, at the
bottom of the statue, it reads, I love you this
much.I believe I was four years old when my
grandma took me over to her bedroom closet one
day and got my statue off the very top shelf.
Then with extreme care, she unwrapped a small
object and handed it to me. It was the mouse
statue. Ever since then, even now, I have him
placed on my dresser to admire. Every time I
pass my dresser, or stand next to my dresser
dressing or putting on earrings, I think of my
grandma.
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I think of the way my grandma always expanded her
arms and said, I LOVE YOU THIS MUCH just like
the little mouse statue does. And Id do the
same. Then wed hug each other followed by
enormous kisses. Her gentle and kind smile, the
glitter in her eyes and the way she allways stuck
up for me if I was in a fight with my mom are all
things I remember about her. Today, she still
takes me special places, and shes always their
if I need someone to talk to or get advice
from. I will always treat my statue with the
most of respect, just like my grandma asked me
to. And, I will always treasure its unique way
of making me feel close to my grandma, even when
shes not around, every time I glance at him.
And who knows, maybe one day Ill be giving him
to my granddaughter!!!Grade 6
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I have become a better writer this year. I have
learned to put more focus in my writing and stick
with one topic. I think about my topic before I
write, and I share my writing in a writing group.
That is something I did not like to do at first,
but now I do.I think my writing has a lot more
voice now. Voice is the part of your writing
that shows how you feel about your topic because
the thoughts and feelings come from your heart.
This year we read Charlottes Web, and that is a
book that I think has a lot of voice. I try to
find just the right word to say what I mean and
not just the first word that comes into my mind.
The way I have grown the most is that I like to
write a lot more than I used to, especially
poems. I think I could be a poet if I wanted to,
and I think my writing shows that.

• Reflection

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For students to improve, they must

• Know what high quality work looks like
• Be able to objectively compare their work to the
  standard
• Have a store of strategies to make work better
  based on their observations
• --Royce Sadler, 1989

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Classroom Assessment FOR Student Learning

• DAY 2

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Day 2 - Agenda

• Recap Day 1/Answer questions
• What do urban students say about good teachers?
• Case study 1
• High vs. low risk activities
• Teaching styles- whats yours?
• Partnership Principles Guiding our interactions
  with students
• Case Study 2
• The change process
• Case Study 3
• Wrap up

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Using formative assessment

• Improve questioning
• Feedback through grading
• Peer and self-assessment
• Formative use of summative assessments

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Students must know

• Where am I going?
• - learning targets
• - assessment criteria (rubrics)
• Where am I now?
• - accurate assessments
• - peer and self-assessment
• How do I close the gap?
• - descriptive feedback
• - formative use of summative tests
• - self-reflection

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What do urban students say about good teaching?
Interviewees described mean good teachers and
mean bad teachers funny good teachers and
funny bad teachers and boring good teachers
and boring bad teachers. If a teacher had the
six qualities that students identified as those
of a good teacher, then demeanor, sense of humor,
and charisma -- as well as any other personal
characteristic -- were unimportant. -- Corbett
Wilson, 2002
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Good teachers

• Make sure that students do their work
• Control the classroom
• Are willing to help students whenever and however
  the students want help
• Explain assignments and content clearly
• Vary the classroom routine
• Take the time to get to know the students and
  their circumstances

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Case Study 1
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• Students have to change from behaving as passive
  recipients of the knowledge offered by the
  teacher to becoming active learners who can take
  responsibility for and manage their own learning.
• -- Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall Wiliam, 2004

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High Risk vs. Low Risk

• Teaching methods can be classified according to
  the amount of risk they entail and how much they
  facilitate active learning. Risk involves such
  things as the potential for particular methods to
  fail, generate controversy, take up too much
  class time, become unpopular with student and
  colleagues, or to not accomplish the goals for
  which they were designed.
• -- Bonwell and Eison, 1991

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High vs. Low Risk methods

• High Risk
• Longer to complete
• Less structured/ unknown variables
• Abstract
• New to students (and/or colleagues)

• Low Risk
• Shorter
• Well-structured
• Concrete
• Familiar to students (and colleagues)

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Low Active methods

• Low Risk
• Show a film or video for the period
• Lecture the entire class
• Use a computer slide show to present a topic
• Read important passages from the text to class
• Give a lecture to summarize important points
  covered in the unit

• High Risk
• Invite a guest lecturer of unknown quality
• Have students ask questions at the beginning of
  class to use to organize a lecture for the
  session
• Show a film or video you have not previewed
• -- Grasha, 2002

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High Active methods

• High Risk
• Role playing
• Skits that illustrate content designed by
  students
• Simulations
• Presentations by students
• Students interview guest speaker
• Unstructured small group discussion
• Students design and run session

• Low Risk
• Structured group activity
• Pairs of students discuss ideas
• Demonstrations
• Student debates on issues that are prepared in
  advance
• In-class writing assignments
• Structured small group discussion
• Field trips

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• For the teachers, courage is necessarymany
  teachers described the new approach as scary
  because they felt they were going to lose control
  of their classes. Toward the end of the project,
  they spoke not of losing control but of sharing
  responsibility for the students learning with
  the class.
• -- Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall Wiliam, 2004

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• Impact of student-involved assessment
• from teachers and students
• Video clip

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Teaching Styles

• What is your
• personality style?
• How does it impact
• your teaching?

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Equality

• Partnership involves relationships between
  equals. Each person's thoughts and beliefs are
  held to be valuable, although each individual is
  different. All participants in a learning session
  are recognized as equal partners, and
  consequently no one's view is more important or
  valuable than any one else's.

100
Choice

• Because partners are equal, they make individual
  choices and make decisions collaboratively.
  Student choice is implicit in every communication
  of content and, to the greatest extent possible,
  the process used to learn the content.

101
Voice

• Partnership is multi-vocal rather than univocal,
  and all individuals in a partnership require
  opportunities to express their point of view.
  Indeed, a primary benefit of a partnership is
  that each individual has access to a multiplicity
  of perspectives rather than the singular
  perspective of the teacher.

102
Reflection

• Offering students the freedom to consider ideas
  before adopting them is central to the principle
  of reflection. Indeed, reflective thinkers by
  definition have to be free to choose or reject
  ideas, or they simply are not thinkers at all.
  Reflection holds the potential of providing an
  opportunity for students to think about and to
  ask profound questions about what, how, why and
  who.

103
Dialogue

• In a partnership, one individual does not impose,
  dominate, or control. Partners engage in
  conversation, learning together as they explore
  ideas. It means that teachers embrace dialogue
  rather than lecture. Teachers avoid manipulation,
  engage students in conversation about content,
  and think and learn with students as everyone
  moves through content being discussed.

104
Praxis

• The purpose of partnership is to enable
  individuals to have more meaningful experiences.
  In partnership relationships, meaning arises when
  people reflect on ideas and then put those
  actions into practice. It means that teachers
  should offer numerous opportunities for
  participants to reflect on the practical
  implications of new content being learned.

105
Reciprocity

• In a partnership, both individuals learn from one
  another. Partners bring new ideas and ways at
  looking at situations, learning together as they
  explore each others ideas. It means that
  teachers also learn from students.

106
The Change Process

• Why is change so difficult?