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Transcript of Assessment For Learning: Secondary Damian Cooper (905) 823-6298 [email protected] NESA Spring...
Assessment For Learning: Secondary
Damian Cooper
(905) 823-6298
NESA Spring Educators ConferenceApril 4, 2011
Session Outcomes Review the research base behind current assessment
directions Examine the importance of metacognition, feedback,
and self and peer assessment. Understand the critical role played by “assessment for
learning” in providing students with the information they need to improve
Learn about research-based “assessment for learning” strategies that are proving to be effective in improving student learning
Share with colleagues how these strategies may be appropriate to my own classroom
Time to Talk About Assessment
Identify for yourself your #1 issue or concern about classroom assessment at your school.
Share your concerns at your table. Which of these are shared by the
majority at your table?
Mission: to sift and sort students
Mean
Mission: excellence from ALL
Range of Competent Achievement
If the new goal of education is success for all, then we have no choice but toDifferentiate Instruction & Assessment
Instruction Students bring different
knowledge & experience to school
Students learn at different rates
Students learn in different ways
Assessment Not all students are
able to demonstrate their learning in the same way
Not all students respond the same way to test pressure
Some students need more scaffolding than others
Research on Effective Assessment
•The provision of effective feedback to students
•The active involvement of students in their own learning
•Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment
•Recognition of the profound influence assessment has on motivation and self-esteem
•The need for students to be able to assess themselves and understand how to improve
Crooks, 1988; Black & Wiliam, 1998
The Big Ideas of Classroom Assessment
1. Assessment serves different purposes at different times: it may be used to find out what students already know and can do; it may be used to help students improve their learning; or it may be used to let students, and their parents, know how much they have learned within a prescribed period of time.
Assessment for Learning“Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence.” Black, Wiliam et al. 2004
Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning includes those tasks that are designed to determine how much learning has occurred after a significant period of instruction. The data from such assessments is often used to determine report card grades.
When the classroom culture focuses on rewards, gold stars, grades, or class ranking, then (students) look for ways to obtain the best marks rather than to improve their learning. One reported consequence is that, when they have any choice, (students) avoid difficult tasks. They also spend time and energy looking for clues to the “right answer”. “Inside the Black Box”, Black & Wiliam, 1998
“…assessment which is explicitly designed to promote learning is the single most powerful tool we have for both raising standards and empowering lifelong
learners.” Assessment for Learning: Beyond the Black Box, 1999, University of Cambridge School of Education
Differing Assessment Purposes
Assessment for Learning
TryoutsPractices
Assessment of Learning
GamesPlayoffs
Time to Talk About Assessment
Discuss the distinction between assessment for learning” and “assessment of learning” as it relates to current practice in your classroom
But we must begin with the question, “What constitutes essential learning for students in the 21st. century?”
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such understanding possible
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Plan Backward from What’s Essential…
Worth being
familiar with
Important to know and do
Enduring understandings
Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe,
Understanding by Design
Assessment Types
Traditional quizzes & tests
-paper/pencil
Performance Tasks & Projects
-open-ended
-complex
-authentic
Oral Assessments
-conferences
-interviews
-oral questionning
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 1: Identify targeted understandings
Stage 2: Determine appropriate assessment of those understandings Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
“Backward Design” Program Planning
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction that make such understanding possible
Wiggins and McTighe, Understanding by Design
Time to Talk About Assessment
Discuss the essential skills that Jeff can assess through the G7 task that could NOT be assessed through the written examination.
Time to Talk About Assessment
Evaluate the quality of the G7 task, using the Checklist for a Well-Designed Performance Task.
Grading Co-operative Group Tasks
Assessment of Learning
“Assessment of learning includes those tasks that are designed to determine how much learning has occurred after a significant period of instruction. The data from such assessments is often used to determine report card grades.
Grade teams need to collaborate to… Identify the set of critical
assessment tasks
Agree upon the relative weighting of each task
Establish the criteria by which each task will be assessed
Develop common, high quality scoring tools that capture the essential indicators of quality performance
Periodically engage in moderation of student work
Collect banks of exemplars, several for each level, for each task
Assessment for Learning“Assessment for learning is any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students’ learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence.” Black, Wiliam et al. 2004
Diagnostic Assessment
Engage students with a hook: “If you won the lottery…”
Activate prior knowledge Assess current skills and understanding in 3 ways:
-through written work
-through performance assessment and observation
-through oral assessment: questioning, conferencing, discussion, etc.
Cloze Procedure
Using Assessment Data to Differentiate Instruction
Examine the data from diagnostic assessments to group students according to their strengths and needs
Use mini-lessons followed by practice to address these needs
Identify individual students who are most “at risk”
Use a combination of groupings to increase understanding …
Purposeful Grouping of Students
Heterogeneous groups to provide support and to consolidate new learning
Homogeneous groups to deepen learning and to provide specific instruction to struggling learners
Flexible grouping to ensure all students work in their “zpd”
Using Assessment Data to Differentiate Instruction
Schedule time to conference with individuals or small groups of students who need the most support
Plan this time strategically as a routine part of your instruction
Using Assessment Data to Differentiate Instruction
Time to “Talk About Assessment”
Discuss this approach to diagnostic assessment:
-how closely does it align with your current practice?
-how does it differ?
-what elements of this model could be adapted to your own class?
-what challenges do you anticipate?
-how might these be solved?
Differentiating Instruction Teachers need to fully understand
accommodation, modification, and substitution
To develop skills, simplify the content e.g. Simpler texts, less depth/breadth, etc.
To master content, present using a different mode suited to student’s strengths e.g. Graphics, audio, video, manipulatives, etc.
Differentiating Assessment Content standards:
learning outcomes
Performance standards: rubrics/checklists
Student products & performances
Assessment conditions
Must be within student’s “ZPD”
Keep consistent for all students
May be adapted to be within student’s “ZPD”
Differentiating Assessment
Differentiating Assessment
Differentiating Assessment
Differentiating Assessment
Differentiating Assessment
Tiered Assessments
Design task @ grade level, to demonstrate proficiency, independently
Adapt or modify task to increase challenge: less structure, more choice, greater sophistication, etc.
Adapt or modify task to reduce challenge: more structure, less choice, less sophistication, etc.
Reporting to Parents
Grade level at which student is working
Achievement level at which student is performing
Degree of support provided
Learning outcomes
(incl. IEP ref. if applicable)
Rubric levels
Anecdotal comments
Time to Talk About Assessment
To what extent are the preceding descriptions of instruction, assessment and reporting for diverse learners consistent with current practice in your school or classroom?
Components of Assessment for Learning (Black & Wiliam, 2003)
Oral questioning
Marking as feedback
Peer and self-assessment
Formative use of summative tests
Components of Assessment for Learning (Wiliam, 2007)
Clarifying learning intentions and sharing criteria for success
Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning
Providing feedback that moves learners forward
Activating students as owners of their own learning
Activating students as instructional sources for one another
Components of Assessment for Learning (Cooper, 2007)
1. Do I routinely share learning goals with my students so they know where we are heading?
2. Do I routinely communicate to students the standards they are aiming for before they begin work on a task?
3. Do I routinely have students self and peer assess their work in ways that improve their learning?
4. Does my questioning technique include all students and promote increased understanding?
5. Do I routinely provide individual feedback to students that informs them how to improve?
6. Do I routinely provide opportunities for students to make use of this feedback to improve specific pieces of work?
Time to Talk About Assessment
To what extent are these 6 “Look For’s” evident in your classroom or school?
Time to Talk About Assessment
What is your assessment of Jackie’s instructional & assessment practices?
+? -? Interesting?
Assessment for Learning: am I already doing it?
Do I routinely share learning goals with my students so they know where we are heading?
Math Class Learning Goal: You will demonstrate that you
understand the relationship between the numerator and the denominator in a fraction.
At the end of the lesson, Linda points to the poster on the classroom wall and asks her students: What did you learn in this lesson today?
Their exit slip is to answer on a “leaf” and post it on the “knowledge tree”
Linda told me that the most effective AFL strategy for her has been to write the learning goal for each day’s lesson on the board.
Assessment for Learning: am I already doing it?
Do I routinely share learning goals with my students so they know where we are heading?
Do I routinely communicate to students the standards they are aiming for before they begin work on a task?
Most students can hit the target if they can see it clearly and it stays still for them. Rick Stiggins
Clear Targets
Clarity of curriculum standards High quality assessment tasks Rubrics to describe what quality looks
like Checklists to enable students to monitor
their own progress Anchors to show students what quality
looks like
Using Rubrics in the Classroom
Use a rubric analytically to provide feedback to students when conducting diagnostic or formative assessment– I.e. focus on the indicators and don’t worry about
the overall level
Use a rubric holistically for summative evaluation purposes– I.e. Ask, “What set of indicators best describes the
student’s overall performance at this time?”
Assessment for Learning
Assessment of Learning
Assessment for Learning: am I already doing it?
Do I routinely share learning goals with my students so they know where we are heading?
Do I routinely communicate to students the standards they are aiming for before they begin work on a task?
Do I routinely have students self and peer assess their work in ways that improve their learning?
Math Class Pete has his students use “Traffic Light” signs at
the start of a lesson on equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages to assess prior knowledge.
Teacher: Do you know what the word “equivalent” means?
Students show either the red or green side of the “traffic light” in response.
He orally checks a sample of the “green” responses to see if they do, in fact, understand the term.
Music Class Students had been practising in groups of 3, playing a 3-
part jazz composition. At the end of the lesson, each group performed and the teacher required peers to assess what they heard. Here is some of the conversation:
Rachel: Holly went too fast.Sam: You all need to listen more to each other.Teacher: Now, who hasn’t given any feedback yet? Tam, tell
Emma’s group how they did, and remember to be specific.
Tam: Emma’s fill was really good. Everyone was in good time.
Teacher: Are you sure about that, Tam? (Tam hesitates….)Michael, what did you think about Emma’s group?Michael: They all started out together, then Freddy seemed to
get lost, but then they finished together.Teacher: Good feedback, Michael. Emma’s group, do you
agree with what Michael said?
Self and Peer Assessment Assessment for learning ONLY
Requires training and modelling
Focus assessment on what was taught
Begin with short sessions
Needs to be part of your routine
Time to Talk About Assessment With your colleagues, discuss current
use of self and/or peer assessment in terms of purpose, frequency and design in your classroom or school.
Assessment for Learning:am I already doing it?
Does my questioning technique include all students and promote increased understanding?
Do I routinely provide individual feedback to students that informs them how to improve?
Do I routinely provide opportunities for students to make use of this feedback to improve specific pieces of work?
Provide tons of feedback … Oral & written feedback
tell students how to improve – marks DON’T
Establish classroom routines that create opportunities for teacher & peer feedback
Provide feedback ALONE on formative assessments; do NOT include marks
Provide tons of feedback … Needs to cause thinking: don’t provide the
“answer” Must not be evaluative Must direct students towards improvement Must make reference to specific quality
indicators (a rubric or checklist) Must include an expectation that it will be
implemented Must include strategies for checking that it has
been implemented
Some Final Thoughts...
“Not everything that can be counted, counts AND not everything that counts can be counted”
“You can’t nourish a starving child by constantly weighing it”
“You won’t have much luck with your crops if you keep pulling them up to check on their roots”
Commitment to Action
Spend a few moments reflecting on today …. What was your most significant learning? What specific actions do you plan to take
immediately and/or between now and June 2011? Who will be involved? What results would you like to see from these
actions? How will you assess the effectiveness of these
actions?
Suggested Reading
1. Black, Paul and Wiliam, Dylan. “Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment”, Phi Delta Kappan, October, 1998 A seminal article on the value of formative assessment that summarizes effective assessment practices as described in 250 studies in the UK, the US, Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Africa.
2. Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve Teaching and Learning, Nelson Education, 2007.
3. Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: High School Strategies and Tools,
Nelson Education, 2010 4. Davies, Anne. Making Classroom Assessment Work, Connections Publishing,
2000 A short and very useful overview of the basics of assessment in today’s classrooms, with particular relevance to elementary schools.
5. Marzano, Robert J. Transforming Classroom Grading, ASCD, 2000
An excellent examination of past and present trends in classroom grading practice.
6. O’Connor, Ken. How to Grade for Learning 3rd. Edition, Skylight, 2009
A solid treatment of the grading dilemmas that arise in intermediate and senior grades.
7. Stiggins. Richard. Classroom Assessment for Student Learning, Assessment
Training Institute, 2004. An in-depth “textbook” for students of assessment, organized according to principles of assessment, assessment methods, and communication.
8. Wiggins, Grant. Educative Assessment, Jossey Bass, 1998
A comprehensive publication from a true expert in the field, this work provides all the background to Wiggins” approach to classroom assessment.
9. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. Understanding By Design, ASCD, 1998
A concise and very readable guide to designing program from an assessment point of view.