Preparing for the New School Year #4

Planning for Students to Communicate Evidence of Learning to Others

After involving students in assessment it just makes sense to extend the process and have students collecting and communicating evidence of learning to others.

When students communicate with others about their learning, they come to understand what they have learned, what they need to learn, and what kind of support may be available to them. They receive feedback and recognition from themselves and from others that guide and support their learning. The process of preparing and presenting gives students an opportunity to construct their understanding and to help others make meaning of their learning.

Successful communication about learning includes:

• Students collecting, selecting, and preparing evidence of learning in relation to criteria and standards
• Students showing and demonstrating their learning using actual artifacts of their learning and showing how they have met the criteria and the standards

Active involvement by students means teachers' roles change from doingthe communicating to guiding the process and organizing students, who then show or demonstrate their own learning. 

Once students have collected evidence of their learning, a next step is showing their evidence to others since the presence of others influences what and how we present.

Students show the evidence to teachers. This process of communicating evidence of their learning assists learners to step back and reflect – to assess what they are doing and reexamine their current practices. Some of the ways learners present evidence of learning include sharing student work samples, professional portfolios, or postings online. 

When parents and others watch demonstrations of learning or attend student-parent conferences, it can help inform them about progress as well as serve to increase their appreciation of their son or daughter as a learner, his or her level of skill development, the breadth of the classroom and school curriculum, and the efforts needed on everyone’s behalf to make learning possible.In Conferencing and Reporting there are ten ways to involve students in communicating evidence of learning to others including parents and guardians as well as detailed information and reproducibles for student-parent-teacher conferences, IEP conferences and student-teacher conferences. This book will soon be available in French.

No matter what the format, it is important that learners identify what has been learned and what the evidence shows, then ask for specific feedback that can help them frame their own next learning steps.

Three Actions for Teachers:

1. Read Chapter 8 of Making Classroom Assessment Work. Pay attention to the process of communicating evidence of student learning during the term and do the end-of-chapter assignment.
2. Read Chapter 1 of Conferencing and Reporting with your colleagues. Adapt the ideas to use with your learners. Consider downloading free reproducibles here.
3. View this video selection of a fifth grade class making work sample selections to show their parents during their at-home student-parent conference.  

Two Actions for Leaders:

1. Read Chapter 8 in Leading the Way to Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide. Pay particular attention to the section at the end titled, “Being a Leader.” There are ideas for supporting teachers and for ‘walking the talk’ yourself.
2. Sign up to share a Professional Learning video with the colleagues you support on the topic of involving students, parents and teachers in Student-Involved Conferences.

If you need any assistance, please call our office and speak with our helpful staff. They will connect you to the resources and support that will best suit your learning needs.  

We hope you are enjoying these last days of August. The Leaders' Institute in Fredericton, NB, has been fabulous. We can’t wait to begin working with our colleagues in a variety of different locations over these last couple of weeks before school begins.

All our best,

Anne and Sandra

PS If you have questions or need help, just call 1.800.603.9888 or 250.703.2920.

Preparing for the New School Year #3

Planning to Involve Students in Assessment in the Service of Their Learning

Involving students in the classroom assessment process is incredibly important in terms of engagement, building relationships, motivation, and ownership. It also supports learners as they move from co-regulation to self-regulation. It also teaches important executive functioning skills. All this while it provides opportunities for students to link to prior knowledge, analyze, synthesize, critical thinking, creativity and collaboration. 

The principles, routines, and strategies of assessment for learning provide practical ways to accomplish it in today’s busy classrooms. Students are involved in the assessment process as they:

1. Co-construct criteria to deepen their understanding of quality and improvement over time.
2. Engage in self- and peer assessment in relation to criteria.
3. Set ‘next steps’ goals.
4. Collect evidence of their own learning.

Self-assessment is possible because, when students co-construct criteria with teachers' guidance, we give them the understandings of quality and the language they need to use as they self-assess. They begin to gain the experiences and the skills needed to self-monitor their way to success. These are teachable strategies based on sound principles backed up by a breadth of research.

Consider these three simple routines for involving students right from the beginning of the school year:

• Co-construct criteria around behaviours and key products.
• Have students use the language of the criteria to self-assess and peer assess.
• Use the criteria as a goal setting strategy.

In this example older learners co-constructed criteria around working together. Then the criteria was used as a self-assessment and to set a 'next steps' goal.

When working with very young learners, the teacher supported the students to co-construct criteria around reading new texts. Then the criteria was used as a self-assessment and a 'next steps' goal.

You might also want to ask students to use the language of the criteria in their journals and reflections. It can increase their metacognitive thinking.

 

Teachers need to deliberately teach students how to self-assess in relation to the criteria so they learn to use the language of the criteria – the language of assessment and of learning – and become more specific. This helps them give themselves and others specific, descriptive feedback. This is an example of co-regulation leading to self-regulation. And it can save teachers huge amounts of time later as it prepares students to self-monitor their own learning and collect their own evidence of learning.

Three Ideas for Teachers' Next Steps:

1. Think about how you already involve students in assessment in the service of their own learning. What do you want to ‘tweak’ for the upcoming year? Make a plan.

2. Watch this video about co-constructing criteria.

3. Read Chapter 6 and 7 in Making Classroom Assessment Work. Pay attention to the ways students are involved in the assessment practice and consider how much they experience and learn in relation to curriculum goals and core competencies. Complete the tasks at the end of Chapter 6 and Chapter 7.

Three Next Steps for Leaders:

1. View this video so you can learn more about the process of co-constructing criteria as well as respond when people question the value of involving students in the assessment process.  
2. Join an online learning opportunity about this topic so you can support your colleagues' learning. We suggest co-constructing criteria, meaningful goal setting, and improving the quality of the feedback students receive.

If you need any assistance, please call our office and speak with our helpful staff. They will connect you to the resources and support that will best suit your learning needs.  

We will post the #4 in the next few days. We are looking forward to being in Edmonton, AB, very soon.

All our best, Anne and Sandra

 

PS If you have questions or need help, just call 1.800.603.9888 or 250.703.2920.

Preparing for the New School Year #2

Planning for Reliable and Valid Evidence of Learning

Planning the evidence of learning is critical to ensuring that teachers have what they need to guide instruction and make informed professional judgments about student learning and achievement.

Big Ideas:

In classroom assessment, evidence of learning is carefully planned so that it is reliable and valid – that is, collected from multiple sources – a process called triangulation of evidence.

Law 30 Evidence

It goes without saying that evidence of learning is important. It used to be that we thought “important evidence” was limited to numerical data. Now we know that everything a learner says, does, or creates is potential evidence of learning.

As you consider the learning destination – what students need to know, understand, do and articulate – ask yourself, “What could students do, create, or say that would provide evidence they know and understand, can do, and can articulate what is needed?”

Language Arts Evidence

Make a list.

Reflect upon it.

Add to it.

Think possibilities.

Remember these are working lists. They are in 'draft' mode which signals our flexibility. Our students show what they know in a variety of ways – and today’s students have an ever-increasing list to show what they know given the gifts of technology. As teachers we need to be open to evidence of learning that is far different than what we might have expected even just a few years ago.

Teachers – Taking Action

Performs Musical Works Evidence

1     Make your list in relation to the learning destination you worked on in the first 'Back to School' blog. Here are photographs of teacher’s lists of evidence of learning in relation to a variety of subject area learning destinations. Review them to stimulate your own thinking and your own list of possible evidence from multiple sources over time.






2      Read Chapter Five of Making Classroom Assessment Work  Pay attention to the process you can use to plan to collect evidence from multiple sources over time – the process of triangulation – in relation to the learning outcomes or standards so that the evidence of student learning they do collect is reliable and valid. Then do the task on page 54. Find a trusted colleague with whom to share your work. When we express our learning and ‘teach’ it to someone else, we learn more.

Leaders – Taking Action

High School Science

1.    Consider using Chapter Five of Making Classroom Assessment Work as a key learning resource in this area for classroom teachers. For leaders, use Chapter Five of Leading the Way to Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide. Pay attention to the process by which teachers plan to collect evidence from multiple sources over time – the process of triangulation – in relation to the learning outcomes or standards so that the evidence of student learning they do collect is reliable and valid.

2.    Download  Preparing for a New School Year: Building an Assessment Plan. It is a nine-page resource that provides a detailed ‘walk-through’ of the key steps for building an assessment plan.

Social Studies Evidence

3     Join an online learning opportunity about this topic. We suggest Topic 8 – Planning Reliable and Valid Evidence or Topic 9 – Collecting Evidence of Learning.

Call our office and speak with our helpful staff. They will connect you to the resources and support that will best suit your learning needs.    

Enjoy your learning!

All our best,

Anne and Sandra 

Mathematics Evidence

   

Preparing for the New School Year #1

Beginning with the End in Mind

No matter what our role, we are thinking about 'beginning with the end in mind' this time of year in North America. In this first of a series of five blogs are practical first steps for teachers and leaders as they prepare for the upcoming school year.

Teachers - Beginning with the End in Mind

One of the first actions classroom teachers take as they prepare for the new school year is to build an assessment plan that will guide instruction over the coming months. Here are three key steps:

Step #1

The first step of an assessment plan is preparing to begin with the end in mind. To prepare to do this, ‘deconstruct’ what students need to learn into groups of 'big ideas' that make sense to the teacher. Then, develop summary statements in student friendly language to guide teaching. Each of the statements in these examples represents a collection of individual outcomes or standards.

Step #2

Next, consider what lessons, learning tasks, and activities will support students to learn what they need to know and understand, do, and articulate. Collect a variety of ideas so that once you meet your students you can select the best ones given their needs, interests, and challenges.

Step #3

Gather or create samples of student work to illustrate quality and development over time (these are sometimes called learning progressions). Samples of student work are important for three reasons:

1. They inform the teacher about quality  expectations and learning progression or development over time.
2. They can be used to help students understand quality and expectations.
3. And lastly, they inform professional judgment and can support teachers to inform parents about expectations and quality.

    Research and practice supports these powerful yet simple ideas. You can find out more about this process by reading Chapter Three and Chapter Four of Making Classroom Assessment Work in English or in French. Secondary teachers might prefer to read Chapter One in A Fresh Look at Grading and Reporting for High School.

Leaders - Beginning with the End in Mind

Leaders, you can support your teaching colleagues by using the three steps above as a professional learning focus. As you think about the upcoming months, here are three more actions you can implement in support of the learning of your colleagues:

Action #1: Download Preparing for a New School Year: Building an Assessment Plan. It is a nine-page resource that provides a detailed ‘walk-through’ of the key steps for building an assessment plan.

Action #2: Arrange for access to this online learning focused on using samples in support of learning.

We will post the #2 in the next few days. Isn't this a great time of year? We love new beginnings. We hope this is the best year ever.

All our best,

Anne and Sandra

PS If you have questions or need help, just call 1.800.603.9888 or 250.703.2920.

From Reporting to Informing: Students and the Language of Assessment

Reporting is a hot topic in Canada today. It is important for parents to be informed about their child’s learning and achievement in school. Many jurisdictions are revisiting their evaluation, grading, and reporting practices. In the past, the options were limited to report cards using a symbol system – codes such as A, B, 84%, 3 – that are sent home periodically. Parents and teachers meet to interpret the information and provide additional information face-to-face.

Things are changing. Today a printed report card and an online grading program have ceased to be the only or even best option for informing parents about student learning. Districts may still use online grading programs and other similar technology as part of their student management system but many are questioning their value in reporting to parents. It just doesn’t make sense to limit the information flow to numerical data.

These days inexpensive, well-designed technology is making the flow of continuous, high quality information possible – e-Pearl from Concordia University is just one example. Students upload evidence of their learning such as work samples, audio and video recordings, self-assessments and so on. Peers, teachers, parents and others can view the evidence of learning and give feedback. In teachers' hands, these tools change the conversation because the evidence of learning no longer needs to be ‘encoded’ and available only 3 or 4 times a year. And, when students are deeply involved in the classroom assessment process, they have the language of assessment and are able to explain what they have learned and how they know they have learned it.

When one considers how curriculum across Canada has expanded in breadth and depth, it makes sense that reporting is moving beyond marks, numbers, and grades. Learning outcomes are complex. For example, most policy documents in Canada talk about evidence of student learning being triangulated – from multiple sources over time. Since evidence of learning is potentially anything a child does, says, or creates, it makes sense that students and teachers would find ways to use this evidence to demonstrate learning and achievement to parents as part of the reporting process. This way of thinking about evidence of learning helps ensure that teachers' professional judgments are both valid and reliable.

On April 12, 2014, during Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with the World, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Michael Absolum from New Zealand shared the following slide and talked about moving from Reporting to Informing. He talked about one of the projects in New Zealand where they have been working to support schools to accelerate learning through using assessment in the service of learning and shared this video link. Notice the student’s role in helping his parents know where he is in his learning and how they can help him learn. At one point the student talks about his responsibility to inform parents using evidence, “…anything to kind of prove, yes I can do this. This is an example of how I’ve done it.” Michael Absolum summarized by noting that they saw a significant shift occurring when students were able to articulate the important ideas – when they could inform others about their learning.

 

As I listened, along with almost a hundred other Canadian educators, to this New Zealand account, I thought about similar experiences here in Canada. For example, colleagues and I worked with a group of elementary schools on Vancouver Island. They were involving students in student-parent-teacher conferences in the early 1990s. The same comment turned up in that research – when students knew the language of assessment and could provide evidence of their own learning, everything changed (Davies et al, 1992). It was a ‘game-changer’ because suddenly students had the language to articulate what they had learned, what they needed to learn, and their learning goals. They could be partners in the reporting process. Students were more specific and were able to show their learning more thoroughly than the report card alone. School leadership noted that parents responded in very powerful and positive way. One school reported that over a seven-year period parents' approval ratings on surveys were consistently over 97%.

Another example is Lisa McCluskey (2002), an early childhood educator working in Edmonton who deliberately supported students to ‘learn the language of assessment.’ In one video clip Sarah, a five-year-old student, describes what writers at different points in their writing development do. Sarah says, as she points to one of the writing samples, “This is where I am. I sound it out. I try to keep them nicely written. I try to make the right words. I try to keep the letters with a space before they start. And I’m going over here (pointing to the next writing sample in the continuum).” This is a powerful example of students learning the language of assessment. This is what enables students to become partners in the assessment process.

And, this work isn’t only being done in elementary schools. Lisa Hogan, a secondary Science teacher, describes how students self-assess. One of her Grade 8 students says, “We’re supposed to tell her what quality work it is – whether we think it is high quality work or low quality work. She needs to see why we think that. So those arrows, we move them to where we think the quality work is and type in the arrow what the quality work is. Here I have complete sentences. Over here I use correct punctuation and spelling. Just so she knows we know what we’ve done is quality work.”

As I reflect on students learning the language of assessment, I think about how important it is. Whether you consider self-regulation, co-regulation, meta-cognition, student-involved moderation of work samples, self-assessment, peer assessment, embedded formative assessment, motivation, engagement, instructional rubrics, or some other aspect of deep student involvement in the assessment process, it is clear. Language is the great connector. Students need to learn the language of assessment. And this means they need to be taught.

One of the best ways to teach students the language of assessment – the language of learning – is to co-construct criteria with them and involve them in examining samples of work to better understand quality. When teachers deliberately and with intention make time to ask students to select samples of work and compare the work to the criteria asking, “How does your work meet the criteria? How does it not yet meet the criteria? What will you do differently next time?” (Gregory et al, 2011) students learn more and learn the language of assessment. And, students are able to use the language of assessment to inform others about their learning.

Instead of simplifying the evidence of learning to mere quantitative measures, the evidence is expanded to show more of the learning. The qualitative evidence – the messy stuff – can be included because students are also involved. And that evidence of learning can be used to show ‘proof’ of what students know, where they are in their learning, what they’re learning next, and what help is needed to make a difference (Herbst & Davies, 2014).

And technology, instead of limiting the information to numerical data, “improves the quality and richness of the information and helps the information flow” (Absolum, 2014). Reporting becomes transformed as students work with teachers to ‘report’ their learning to parents.

All my best,

Anne

PS A word of caution though - the best way to change report cards is very carefully and very collaboratively. If you are a  leader considering making changes to the reporting process and report cards, I recommend you spend some time with the ideas in Leading the Way to Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide and Transforming Schools and Systems using Assessment: A Practical Guide.

References

AAC (2002). RE-focus (Lisa McCluskey's class video). Alberta Assessment Consortium: Edmonton, Alberta.

Absolum, Michael (2014). The role of teachers in the assessment of learning: Professional judgment, the reporting process and the potential for change. Presentation at Assessment for Learning: Canada in Conversation with the World (April, 2014). Accessed at: http://assessment4learning.com/canadian-conference.

  

Davies, A. Cameron, C. Gregory, G. and Politano, C. (1992). Together is better: Collaborative assessment, evaluation and reporting. Winnipeg, MB: Portage and Main Press.

Gregory, K., Cameron, C. and Davies, A. (1997/2011). Knowing What Counts: Setting and Using Criteria, 2^nd Ed. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing. (Outside of Canada - Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press).

Davies, A., Herbst, S. and B. Reynolds (2012). Transforming Schools and Systems Using Assessment for Learning: A Practical Guide for Leaders 2^nd Ed. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing. (Outside of Canada - Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press).

Davies, A., S. Herbst and B. Reynolds. (2012). Leading the Way to Making Classroom Assessment Work: A Practical Guide for Leaders. 2^ndEd. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing. (Outside of Canada - Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press).

Herbst, S. and Davies, A. (2014). A fresh look at grading and reporting. Courtenay, BC: Connections Publishing. (Outside of Canada - Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press).