Thank you to everyone who has registered and is planning to register for Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with the World. It is exciting to see the rapidly growing list of registrants. We are thrilled with the response with registrations coming in from all across Canada!
The Canadian Symposium is also a first! We are gathering those who work on behalf of classroom educators - our Ministry of Education colleagues, superintendents, and national organizations – to take a close look at what we are doing across Canada right now as each jurisdiction works to meet their own unique needs.
Another delegate I want to feature – knowing that many of you are familiar with her work – is Sue Brookhart. Sue also led the United States team to the International Symposium in Norway. She writes about assessment topics for teachers, administrators, and other educators. Here are some links that you might enjoy following:
· Assessing Creativity
· Starting the Conversation about Grading
· The Many Meanings of Multiple Measures
Sue is the lead for the team from the United States which also includes Heidi Andrade, Margaret Heritage, Maria Ruiz-Primo and Caroline Wylie.
Think about how fabulous the conversations will be as we gather the international delegates together with 250 Canadian educators for Friday, April 11 (eve) and all day Saturday, April 12, 2014, in Fredericton, NB! You can register here.
All my best,
Anne
PS For those of you who would like to attend all five days – we were only able to invite 36 people from across Canada to the Canadian Symposium. It is my hope that the conversations we are currently engaged in online and plan to continue in Fredericton, NB, in April will grow and include more and more people over time. How can you get involved right now? Considering joining me as part of the online conversation!
Tagboard: https://tagboard.com/AforLConversation/160953
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Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Monday, 2 December 2013
Discover Michael Absolum and Clarity in the Classroom
Michael Absolum is a member of the New Zealand team attending the
International Symposium in Fredericton, NB. He will also be sharing his ideas and perspectives during the Saturday morning plenary at Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with the World.
As I followed the links Michael provided to the Assessment for Learning conversation, I found myself once again enjoying the amazing collection of resources on the New Zealand Ministry of Education website.
I also found his blog. You might enjoy reading the blog entry titled, Evaluation is the Thing. The other thing you might want to know is that Michael wrote a powerful book titled, Clarity in the Classroom: Using Formative Assessment for Building Learning-Focused Relationships. You can find it in New Zealand hereor you can find a Canadian version here. You can also find it on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. Check and make sure you are getting the version you want.
You can also download some interesting templates on his website. He has provided both the blank templates as well as some examples of the template in use.
Enjoy the gifts!
All my best,
Anne
PS Registration for Canada in Conversation with the World has been busy. It is going to be so much fun!
More Gifts! John Gardner - International Delegate from UK
We are so excited that registration for the Canadian Conference - Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with The World begins today!
I hope you can join us!
I hope you can join us!
For each day of this month of gifts and gift giving, I am going to feature an International colleague who will be part of the Canadian conference in Fredericton, NB April 11 (eve) and April 12, 2014. John Gardner is a member of the UK team.
John Gardner was a founding member of the Assessment Reform Group and helped prepare many of their amazing resources, which can be downloaded here. Currently he is a member of the United Kingdom team to the International Symposium and works in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England. One of the links he provides on his delegate page takes us to a paper he co-authored focused on Assessment and Social Justice. It examines the role assessment plays within a social justice context.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Another International Delegate - Dany is from Canada
Dany Laveault was selected for the first International Conference on Assessment hosted by Rick Stiggins in 2001. Since that time he has represented the Canadian perspective on assessment for learning at every International gathering including the one to be held in Fredericton, NB in April 2014. He, along with Ann Sherman, have been instrumental in preparing the application for a SSHRC grant. When you visit his delegate page you will find out more about him, as well as accessing his report to EQAO in Ontario, in French, as well as download a report on Early Reading Strategy (2003) for which he is a panel member. You can also watch an interview about his work and find out a little more about one of the Canadian team delegates to the International Symposium.
Saturday, 30 November 2013
Lisa Rodgers: New Zealand International Delegate
You might want to explore some amazing resources from New Zealand. Lisa Rodgers is a member of the New Zealand team - you can find out more about Lisa if you follow the link. She is on the Literacy and Numeracy Task Force.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Education has a fabulous websitewith many, many assessment resources. You might like to view some of the Reports on formative assessment or view Exemplarsfor several different subject areas. Each section includes a description of what the work shows, relevant curriculum links, the learning context, and ‘where to next.’ For example, for dance, if you explore Level 3 you will see a progression of development, clip 5 shows students as they practise the Te Tangi a te Manu pattern. There are also many other resources to support educational leaders. These interviews with educators give us insights into how New Zealand is responding to the challenges that face us all. One example is Louise Miller’s interview about pedagogical leadership in mathematics as a mentor-teacher. Lisa Rodgers is a member of New Zealand’s team to the International Symposium and will be a part of Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation With the World.
Monday, 21 October 2013
Be Careful... Self-Regulation of Learning? Behavior?
I've been hearing a lot about self-regulation lately but the conversation seems to have taken a turn. I'm used to reading research focused on self-regulation of learning. Assessment - particularly assessment for learning - is an integral part of self-regulation.
But the conversation and the strategies I've been hearing about don't seem to be comprehensive enough. So today I went looking to find out what was going on. It was interesting to see that the self-regulation that is being talked about in some circles arises out of the world of teaching self-management of behavior. This is certainly important and I know there are vulnerable learners who benefit an immense amount from this work.
On the other hand, I think we need to be careful not to assume that self-managing behavior is enough for all our learners. We need to go further - we need to teach students, in a very deliberate fashion, how to self-monitor their way to success. That is what we do when we show students samples, engage in conversation about quality, and co-construct criteria for important products or processes - evidence of learning. When we mindfully build the language of assessment in this way, we teach students the language they need to self-monitor their learning. We also teach students what quality looks like so they can aspire and achieve success! This is self-regulation of learning and assessment for learning is the pathway that will get us there.
If self-regulation is of interest to you, you might want to read this seminal article by Pintrich and DeGroot (1990). If you are interested in the shift from focusing on behavior to focusing on learning strategies, you might want to read this classic piece by Lorrie Shepard. It is titled, The role of assessment in a learning culture.
But the conversation and the strategies I've been hearing about don't seem to be comprehensive enough. So today I went looking to find out what was going on. It was interesting to see that the self-regulation that is being talked about in some circles arises out of the world of teaching self-management of behavior. This is certainly important and I know there are vulnerable learners who benefit an immense amount from this work.
On the other hand, I think we need to be careful not to assume that self-managing behavior is enough for all our learners. We need to go further - we need to teach students, in a very deliberate fashion, how to self-monitor their way to success. That is what we do when we show students samples, engage in conversation about quality, and co-construct criteria for important products or processes - evidence of learning. When we mindfully build the language of assessment in this way, we teach students the language they need to self-monitor their learning. We also teach students what quality looks like so they can aspire and achieve success! This is self-regulation of learning and assessment for learning is the pathway that will get us there.
If self-regulation is of interest to you, you might want to read this seminal article by Pintrich and DeGroot (1990). If you are interested in the shift from focusing on behavior to focusing on learning strategies, you might want to read this classic piece by Lorrie Shepard. It is titled, The role of assessment in a learning culture.
Rethinking Assessment of Learning
Teachers are working hard to make sense of grading and reporting structures in order to better reflect what students know, do and say. They are rethinking assessment of learning to better communicate their informed professional judgment about what students have learned. There was a powerful research study done by the Assessment Reform Group called, Teachers Role in the Assessment of Learning (2007). You can download a copy here. You might also enjoy watching this 17-minuteweb conference clip with your professional learning community.
All my best,
Anne
PS You will need to sign in but please know your contact information will not be used unless you sign up for a newsletter and in that case it will ONLY be used to send you the newsletters.
PPS I am having a wonderful time with friends and colleagues in Yellowknife, NWT this week. Here is an unfinished painting I am working on... gosh those Northern Lights are so incredible! I'm trying to figure out how to capture even part of their beauty with watercolours:-)
PPS I am having a wonderful time with friends and colleagues in Yellowknife, NWT this week. Here is an unfinished painting I am working on... gosh those Northern Lights are so incredible! I'm trying to figure out how to capture even part of their beauty with watercolours:-)
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