Unpacking the Expectations for Classroom Assessment and Instruction

1
Unpacking the Expectations for Classroom
Assessment and Instruction
Michigan Council for the Social Studies Annual
State Professional Development Conference

• Stan Masters
• Lenawee ISD
• February 19, 2008

2
POP

• Purpose
• Analyzing the new GLCEs and HSCEs for good
  classroom assessment and instruction, leading to
  increased student achievement
• Objectives
• Differentiate between the purposes of assessment
• Unpack expectations into targets
• Match targets to methods of assessment
• Develop a set of assessments for your classroom
• Procedure
• PowerPoint slides for presenting information
• Practice with the expectations
• Use of templates and protocols

3
Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

1. Clear Purposes
2. Clear Targets
3. Good Design Methods
4. Sound Communication
5. Student Involvement

4
Indicators of Sound Classroom Assessment
Practice(p.27)

• Skill in gathering accurate information
• Effective use of information and procedures
• ____________________________________
• Sound Classroom Assessment Practice

5
Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

1. Clear Purposes
2. Clear Targets
3. Good Design Methods
4. Sound Communication
5. Student Involvement

6
Deepening our ideas about
assessment

• What is the distinction between
• assessment for learning
• assessment of learning?

7
Purposes of Assessments
Adapted from Braveman, S. L. (Ed Week, March 17,
2004)

• assessment for learning
• diagnostic (given before instruction to
  gather information on where to start)
• formative (monitors student progress during
  instruction)

• assessment of learning
• summative (the final task at the end
  of a unit, a course, or a semester)

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Both are needed!

• Students need to know(p.34)
• Where they are going
• Where they are now
• How to close the gap
• Teachers need to find balance(p.35-36)
• to improve student achievement
• to communicate to various stakeholders

9
Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning (p.42)

• Where am I going?
• Clear targets
• Models of work
• Where am I now?
• Descriptive Feedback
• Student self-assessment/goal setting
• How can I close the gap?
• Lessons that focus on one target at a time
• Teaching self-reflection
• Student record-keeping

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So, do your students know what are the targets
for their learning?
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Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

1. Clear Purposes
2. Clear Targets
3. Good Design Methods
4. Sound Communication
5. Student Involvement

12
Where does curriculum come from?

• National content organizations documents
• State standards documents
• Local curriculum is then created from these
  documents
• Organized into units
• Determine essential questions and key concepts
• Aligned with state accountability assessments

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Backward Design Addresses All Three Parts of the
Curriculum Triangle
Content
Assessment
Instruction
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Problems with Our Curriculum

• It sits on a shelf.
• We go no further than creating units, activities,
  and/or projects.
• We rely on a textbook.
• Teachers disagree on the outcomes.
• There are too many outcomes.

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Kinds of Learning Targets Stiggins, Arter,
Chappuis, and Chappuis. (2006). Classroom
Assessment for Student Learning. Portland, OR
ETS.

• Knowledge The facts and concepts we want
  students to know and understand.
• Reasoning Students use what they know to reason
  and solve problems
• Skills Students use their knowledge and
  reasoning to act skillfully
• Products Students use their knowledge,
  reasoning, and skills to create a concrete
  product.
• Dispositions Students attitudes about school
  and learning.

(p. 75)
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Helpful Hints to Targets (p.64)

• Knowledge targets are identified in the noun/noun
  phrase found in the benchmark
• Reasoning targets are identified in the verb/verb
  phrases found in the benchmark
• analytical, compare/contrast, synthesis,
  classification, inference/deduction, evaluative
  (p.70)
• Skill targets always have knowledge targets
• Product targets have to be discerned apart from
  the product tasks we ask students to create
• Disposition targets reflect attitudes or feelings

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(BUT I WANT THEM TO DEEPLY APPRECIATE THE
USEFULNESSES OF BAR GRAPHS)
Organize
using
concrete objects, pictures, tallies, tables,
charts, diagrams, and graphs
data
KNOWLEDGE/UNDERSTANDING
REASONING
SKILLS
PRODUCTS
DISPOSITIONS
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Unpacking Examples

• K - H2.0.1
• 1 - H2.0.2
• 2 - H2.0.4
• 3 - H3.0.2
• 4 - G4.0.1
• 5 - U3.2.3

• 6 - W3.1.3
• 7 - W3.1.10
• 8 - U5.3.4
• WHG - 6.1.4
• USHG - 6.2.2

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Practice Unpacking

• Choose a outcome (benchmark/expectation) that
  your students will learn and you will teach in an
  upcoming unit of instruction.
• Write the outcome at the top of your
  target/method planning sheet.
• Complete the left hand side of the chart.
• Knowledge/understanding, reasoning, skills,
  products, dispositions
• Check your understanding of the targets with a
  partner
• As a group
• Dialogue about your interpretation of the
  identified targets
• Determine and note if there are any targets that
  need to added, changed, or deleted

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Unpacking for the Student

• Targets are clearer for the student when they are
  put into positive I can statements.
• They may be unpacked to include more concrete
  understandings

I CAN
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Create I Can Statements

• Using your previous unpacked learning outcome,
  create I can statements for your students.

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Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment

1. Clear Purposes
2. Clear Targets
3. Good Design Methods
4. Sound Communication
5. Student Involvement

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Assessment StudyDonegal School District,
Donegal, PAhttp//www2.yk.psu.edu/jlg18/dragon/
index.html

• Baseline data for 1999-2000
• collected 661 tests/assessments during targeted
  collection period
• randomly selected 20 or 142 for a sample

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Findings

• Testing of low-level cognition (understanding and
  comprehension levels on Bloom's Taxonomy)
  predominated all types of testing at all levels.
  (75.5)
• 2. Traditional formats of multiple choice, true
  and false, matching, fill-in the-blank
  predominated all other formats. (80)
• 3. Short answer writing was never scored using a
  rubric. (0)
• 4. Essay formats are very rarely used (.05) and
  when used rarely were scored with a rubric
  (.02).

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Findings

• 5. Rubrics that were available were often poorly
  crafted with checklist formats sometimes (33)
  being represented as rubrics.
• 6. Problem-solving at any level above
  comprehension was rarely required (.04), never
  scored with a rubric (0) and problem-solvers
  were rarely called upon to write to justify or
  explain process or appropriateness of answer to
  problem posed (.04).
• 7. Performance items were most often score sheets
  for projects where students had a tangible
  product to be evaluated. Rubrics rarely existed
  for such performances (.14).
• 8. Performances never (0) involved a written
  explanation of the process used or anything else.

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Plan of Action

• Professional development on assessment
• Unpacked expectations for assessment
• Developed a standards template for designing
  assessment tasks
• Met in teams to analyze assessments

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Purposes of Assessments
Adapted from Braveman, S. L. (Ed Week, March 17,
2004)

• assessment for learning
• diagnostic (given before instruction to
  gather information on where to start)
• formative (monitors student progress during
  instruction)

• assessment of learning
• summative (the final task at the end
  of a unit, a course, or a semester)

Ma and Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle
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Talking PointsPresentation by Jay McTighe,
November 30, 2007, Macomb ISD

• Students should be presumed innocent of
  understanding until convicted by evidence.
• Prior knowledge is like the largest part of the
  iceberg.
• Think photo album versus snapshot when it comes
  to assessment

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Formative Assessment TechniquesSource Fisher,
D. and Frey, N. (2007). Checking for
Understanding. Alexandria, VA ASCD, pp. 5-12

• Main points
• Aligns with enduring understandings
• Allows for differentiation
• Focuses on gap analysis
• Leads to precise teaching

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Formative Assessment techniques

• Oral Language
• Accountable talk, nonverbal cues, value lineups,
  retellings, think-pair-share, whip around
• Questions
• Response cards, hand signals, personal response
  systems, Socratic seminars
• Writing
• Interactive writing, read-write-pair-share,
  summary writing, RAFT
• Tests
• Multiple choice with misconceptions as
  distracters, short answer with word banks,
  true-false items with correction for the false
  items

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Methods of Assessment
Stiggins, Richard J, Arter, Judith A., Chappuis,
Jan, Chappius, Stephen. Classroom Assessment for
Student Learning. Assessment Training
Institute, Inc., Portland, Oregon, 2004, p. 91-93.

• Selected response
• one answer is correct sometimes taken from a
  list
• Extended written response
• constructed into sentences criteria given for
  quality
• Performance assessment
• observed product of learning criteria given for
  quality
• Personal communication
• interaction with student uses checklist or
  criteria

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Organize
using
concrete objects, pictures, tallies, tables,
charts, diagrams, and graphs
data
KNOWLEDGE/UNDERSTANDING
REASONING
SKILLS
PRODUCTS
DISPOSITIONS
Selected Extended Written
Selected Extended Written Performance
Personal
Performance Personal Communication
Extended Written Performance
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Activity

• Individually
• On your right hand side of the chart of your
  target/method planning sheet, list the methods
  that would be the best matches for the targets
  you have identified.

34
Purposes of Assessments
Adapted from Braveman, S. L. (Ed Week, March 17,
2004)

• assessment for learning
• diagnostic (given before instruction to
  gather information on where to start)
• formative (monitors student progress during
  instruction)

• assessment of learning
• summative (the final task at the end
  of a unit, a course, or a semester)

35
Methods of Assessment

• Selected response
• Extended written response
• Performance assessment
• Personal communication

AUTHENTIC
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Authentic Academic Achievement

• Construction of Knowledge producing meaning
  from prior experiences
• Disciplined Inquiry cognitive work for
  in-depth understanding
• Value Beyond School meaning apart from
  documenting competence

Newmann, Secada, and Wehlage, A Guide to
Authentic Instruction and Assessment, 1995
37
Seven Standards forAssessment Tasks

• Organization of Information
• Consideration of Alternatives

• Disciplinary Content
• Disciplinary Process
• Elaborated Written Communication

• Problem Connected to the World Beyond School
• Audience Beyond the School

Newmann, Secada, and Wehlage, A Guide to
Authentic Instruction and Assessment, 1995
38
Examples of Assessment Tasks

• Students will design a poster showing the history
  of a major city of a U.S. region.
• Students will conduct a lab experiment on states
  of water, recording observations of freezing and
  thawing points.
• Students will tell about three different events
  in their week, identifying correctly when each
  occurs.
• Students will collect data on the number and type
  of forest animals and create an graphic
  representation of the populations.
• Students will make a PowerPoint presentation to a
  younger audience about a tribe of Michigan Native
  Americans.
• Students will write a persuasive essay about a
  position on a current monetary or fiscal policy
  that addresses unemployment.

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Components of an Authentic Assessment Task

• What new prompt will you use to trigger old
  learning from prior instruction?
• A prompt is the stimulus material given to
  students at the time of assessment which
  activates prior knowledge relevant to the task.
• While carrying out the assessment task, the
  student uses the prompt to produce discourse, a
  performance, or a tangible object.
• A prompt could be presented through various
  media, e.g., print, auditory, or visual.
• Prompts might also take various forms, e.g.,
  reading, graphic, motion picture, recording, map,
  data set, etc.

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Example of Prompt

• Letter from an Immigrant
• Dear Marta,
• I hope you received my letter telling you that I
  am now an American
• citizen. We have an election for mayor in my city
  in one month. I will be
• able to vote for the first time in my life. I
  have learned as much as I can
• about the two candidates for mayor. I think that
  Bonnie Kalinowski is
• clearly my choice.
• I wanted to learn more about American history to
  I am going to night
• school. I go two nights a week after work.
• I must stop for now. I have homework for my
  class! I will write again
• soon.
• Sincerely,
• Jacob

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Components of an Authentic Assessment Task

• What directions will you give to the students
  completing the task?
• The students being assessed are the audience for
  these directions.
• These directions should be included just as they
  would be given to students at the time they are
  directed to perform the assessment task.
• They should include a very clear statement of the
  product students are expected to generate as a
  result of performing the assessment task as well
  as the criteria that will be used to gauge the
  quality of student work, i.e., the scoring
  rubric.

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Example of Directions

• We have been learning about how important the
  right to vote is. Jacob as a new American citizen
  is certainly excited about gaining this right. He
  needs help, however, finding ways to take a more
  active part in the election. Write Jacob a letter
  explaining why you think it is important for him
  to become involved in the election campaign.
  Then, describe three different ways he could help
  Ms. Kalinowski become mayor. Make sure to explain
  your suggestions clearly.

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Components of an Authentic Assessment Task

• What procedures will you use as the teacher
  administering the task?
• The steps to be followed by the teacher in
  conducting the assessment should be listed, and
  each step should be briefly elaborated.
• These procedures should be written so that
  another teacher, new to the assessment task,
  could carry them out.

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Example of Procedures

• Read aloud the prompt with students. Ask the
  students if there are any questions regarding the
  reading. Then, go over the directions for the
  assessment task and the rubric. Finally, provide
  time for the students to complete the extended
  response individually.

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Components of an Authentic Assessment Task

• What scoring rubric will you use to evaluate the
  quality of the students task?
• The assessment task should provide for individual
  student accountability.
• The scores are cumulative each higher score
  entails the criteria of the lower scores. Each
  higher score requires that something be added to
  the quality of student work not required for the
  next lower score.
• The criteria for each score should specify how
  good is good enough for that score to be
  assigned.

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A rubric is

• a set of scoring guidelines/criteria that
  describes a range of possible student responses
  for a particular assessment task.

Adapted from Arter and McTighe (2001). Scoring
Rubrics in the Classroom. Nolet And McLaughlin
(2000). Accessing the General Curriculum.
47
A rubric contains

• a scale that indicates the points that will be
  assigned to a students work (different levels of
  proficiency) and
• a set of meaningful descriptors for each point on
  that scale. (Descriptors establish the continuum
  of competence along which a learner moves towards
  proficiency.)
• Rubrics are frequently accompanied by examples
  of products or performances illustrating the
  different score points for proficiency (anchor
  papers).

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Why use a rubric?

• Communicate appropriate standards and
  expectations for students (what will count)
• Provide feedback to students and parents
• Guide and focus instruction
• Promote student self-assessment and goal
  setting
• Improve grading consistency
• --judgments become more objective, consistent,
  and accurate

Stiggins, Richard J, Arter, Judith A., Chappuis,
Jan, Chappius, Stephen. Classroom Assessment for
Student Learning. Assessment Training
Institute, Inc., Portland, Oregon, 2004, p. 200.
49
Features of High-Quality Rubrics

• ContentWhat counts?
• Look fors (essential traits), quality over
  quantity
• ClarityDoes everyone understand what is meant?
• PracticalityIs it easy to use by teachers and
  students?
• Technical quality/fairnessIs it reliable and
  valid?

Stiggins, Richard J, Arter, Judith A., Chappuis,
Jan, Chappius, Stephen. Classroom Assessment for
Student Learning. Assessment Training
Institute, Inc., Portland, Oregon, 2004, p. 201
and 203
50
Holistic or Analytical Rubrics?

• Holistic Rubric
• Gives a single score or rating for the entire
  product or performance based on an overall
  impression of a students work.
• Used with summative assessments and standardized
  tests.

• Analytical Rubric
• Divides a product or performance into essential
  traits or dimensions (Look Fors) so they can be
  judged separately. Provides a profile of
  strengths and weaknesses.
• Used with formative assessments

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Example of Rubric
BENCHMARK SCORE SCORE SCORE SCORE
Wow! You've Got It! Nearly There! Oops!
Describe how citizens can participate in election campaigns. (VI.3.LE.1). The student clearly explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes three ways in which they can participate. The student explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes two way in which they can participate. The student explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes one way in which they can participate. The student either explains why citizens should participate in elections or describes one way in which they can participate.
0 the criteria for a score of 1 have not been
met.
52
Example of Rubric
BENCHMARK SCORE SCORE SCORE SCORE
1 2 3 4
Describe how citizens can participate in election campaigns. (VI.3.LE.1). The student either explains why citizens should participate in elections or describes one way in which they can participate. The student explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes one way in which they can participate. The student explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes two way in which they can participate. The student clearly explains why citizens should participate in elections and describes three ways in which they can participate.
0 the criteria for a score of 1 have not been
met.
53
Activity

• Individually
• Begin planning the assessments for the outcomes
  that you have unpacked for your unit
• summative, authentic assessment tasks
• formative assessment tasks

54
POP

• Purpose
• Analyzing the new GLCEs and HSCEs for good
  classroom assessment and instruction, leading to
  increased student achievement
• Objectives
• Differentiate between the purposes of assessment
• Unpack expectations into targets
• Match targets to methods of assessment
• Develop a set of assessments for your classroom
• Procedure
• PowerPoint slides for presenting information
• Practice with the expectations
• Use of templates and protocols

55
Questions?

• Stan Masters
• Coordinator of Curriculum, Assessment,
• and School Improvement
• Lenawee Intermediate School District
• 4107 North Adrian Highway
• Adrian, Michigan 49921
• 517-265-1606 (phone)
• 517-265-2953 (fax)
• stan.masters_at_lisd.us
• http//www.lisd.us/curriculum/