Lesson 2: Assessment Basics

Part 6: Practicum and Homework

A. Looking for the Big Ideas in Practice

Spend some time over the next week looking for evidence of the eight big ideas in practice in your school. Analyze
your notes at the end of the week. Where is there evidence of strength and where is there room for growth? Name one
step you might take to support and increase implementation of strengths and one step you might take to target an area
for growth.
1. Assessment serves different purposes at different - Its the beginning of the semester and many teachers spoke
times: it may be used to find out what students
about informally gathering information about what students
already know and can do; it may be used to help
can do but mostly by observations
students improve their learning; or it may be used to -English classrooms gather a writing piece but are unclear
let students and their parents know how much they about how to articulate and use this data other than to read it
have learned within a prescribed period of time.
-Reports cards passed out
-Sticky notes created by students to show daily learning,
teacher placed in three different categories, students are to
find sticky note the following day and identify area of
improvement.
2. Assessment must be planned and purposeful.
- MATH 9 Math chapter quiz Summative
- ENGLISH 12 Summative Test
- BIOLOGY 12- Read text listed process to begin to
gauge understanding.
-Added unknown content vocabulary to voc. Scribbler.
- Watched animation
- Questioning to determine students understanding
- Then students wrote paragraph to demonstrate
understanding. Teacher read and provided feedback.
- Role played the process
- Questions to support improvement
using feedback and previous work.
- Quiz Friday
3. Assessment must be balanced, including oral,
- The English department is trying to increase this
strands emphasis in conjunction with CSI goal to
performance, and written tasks, and be flexible in
improve speaking & listening. We are trying to
order to improve learning for all students.
reduce the heavy emphasis using written tasks.
4. Assessment and instruction are inseparable
because effective assessment informs learning.

One teacher planned but often deviated to students needs and

strengths sometimes adding more practice.

5. For assessment to be helpful to students, it must

inform them in words, not numerical scores or letter
grades, what they have done well, what they have
done poorly, and what they need to do next to
improve.

- Written feedback on written paragraphs.

- Verbal feedback in whole class conversations
- one on one conferencing to help students problem
solve in math.
- Students had model of completed process to selfassess where learning needed to improve.
-Written feedback on thesis statement practice to
highlight strengths and what they need to do next.
-Teacher asked students to identify a strength and one
area to improve then to work on one piece to revise
based on feedback.
-Teacher one-on-one conferenced to see evidence of
improvement.

6. Assessment is a collaborative process that is most - Students worked with a variety of collaborative
partners.
effective when it involves self-, peer, and teacher
teacher
moved them into different teams often.
assessment.
- Students had model of completed process to selfassess where learning needed to improve.
- Sticky notes feedback (self-assess & teacher
assessment)
- Biology teacher used this in a cyclical method to
determine with students when summative would
happen.
7. Performance standards are an essential component -Teacher redid outcomes to read as
I can..,statements
of effective assessment.
-Rubrics in evidence on assignments with
teacher/student created criteria.
- Some conversations with students to explain or to
ensure understanding and provide direction.
8. Grading and reporting student achievement is a
-Teachers considered grades that were 49, 59, 69, 74, 79,89
and thoughtfully made professional judgements and were
caring, sensitive process that requires teachers
encouraged to consider reviewing exams or asking students to
professional judgment.
redo or review work to improve scores affect their options
and successes.
-Many teachers working hard to improve report card
comments.
Strengths:
I think we are trying hard to provide multiple opportunities
for students to improve learning of outcomes and are giving
more and feedback
Areas for Growth:

It seems that summative grading is mostly planned

(sometimes after the assignment has been given) but often
formative is instinctive to inform teachers about students
capabilities and preplanning for a variety of purposes would
move teachers forward.

Next Steps:
1. Work on the quality of feedback from teachers.
2. Pre-planning of assessment (both formative and
summative) that is purposeful.
3. Generate more conversation and work on better
understanding of formative assessment.

2A) Homework Assignment

Review Chapter 4: Standards on page 68 in Talk about Assessment. List five key ideas from the chapter that
will serve as discussion starters in Lesson 3.
Chapter 4: Standards
1. One of the dangers of outcome based learning is that curriculum can become
fragmented. Students can suffer when they are deprived of the rich engagement that
comes from working on complex, meaningful tasks. Instead, they are faced with
small, isolated exercises, matched to one or two specific learning outcomes. Also,
teachers suffer because they are overwhelmed with record keeping.
2. True learning involves more than demonstrating isolated bits of knowledge or skill at
any given moment in the classroom. True learning is a gestalt. That is to say, when

3.

4.

5.
6.

students understand a significant concept or master a set of skills, the whole of that
learning is more than the sum of its parts. Note: * when students have truly
mastered skills they can generalize their learning to new situations.
Well-designed culminating performance tasks provide students with opportunities to
synthesize a number of skills and concepts they have learned during a unit or term,
but also require them to apply learning in a new and innovative way. So, planning
units of study around rich assessment tasks ensures that teaching and learning
remains focused on significant and enduring concepts and skills, rather than on
numerous outcomes.
Criterion-referenced assessment aims to close the gap or range between high- and
low- achieving students instead of norm-referenced assessment that emphasized the
gap between high- and low- achieving students. It can also help eliminate competition
and may, in fact, foster cooperation among students. All students are encouraged to
strive for success.
Great chart 4-4
Performance standards for assessment tasks should represent a challenging yet
achievable level of performance for most students. Standards must be very carefully
applied to students with learning difficulties. While all students can be successful,
many of them need to be shown small, achievable steps to get started.

2B) Homework Assignment

Review Chapter 2 & 3: on page 24 & 44 in Advancing Formative Assessment. List five key ideas from the
chapter that will serve as discussion starters
1. What we mean by sharing learning targets and criteria for success, however, is that
students comprehend what those objectives mean. We want students to understand
that they will learn how to get a better grasp on the meaning of what they read, why
that should be a goal for them, and what it feels like to do that.
2. Having a vision at the end point makes the journey possible. Teachers must give clear
directions, showing and discussing a variety of examples and analyzing why they are
good examples or why some are better than the other, and using rubrics with specific
criteria. These help students have a clear target, descriptions, and examples to use to
self-assess during their work.
3. Learning to recognize the ways that teachers and students share learning targets
requires
systemic observation based on a clear understanding of the many effective ways this
sharing can happen. (walk through documents interesting and useful 2.2, 2.3,2.4.
Page 37-39

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4. Feedback is a teachers response to student work with the intention of furthering learning.
Effective feedback is a teachers response to student work using the criteria for good work that
were part of the learning target. Effective feedback observes where the work
5. Feedback creates opportunities for students to grow by giving them insight about
their work that
they might not be able to come up with on their own. Effective feedback is a teachers
response to student work using the criteria for good work that were part of the
learning target. Effective feedback observes where the work did as good job of
meeting the criteria and where it did not. Effective feedback suggests ways the
student could go about understanding the reasons for those observations, building on
strengths and improving weaknesses.

6. Teachers should receive formative feedback often, in situations not tied to

evaluations, and while
there is still time to improve before an evaluation.