Conditions of Learning Symposium

January 28, 2016 | San Ramon, CA

Margaret Heritage

Formative Assessment: Supporting Achievement of College and Career Ready

Standards

Session Objectives

Gain a deeper understanding of formative assessment

Practice identifying formative assessment in classroom practice

Comfort zonelllllllllllComfort zone

Learning zone

Panic zone

Source: Colvin, 2009

Builds on prior

knowledgeWhat

students can do next with assistance

DEFINITIONAL CLARITY

Discussion

Read the definitions on Handout 1.

On your own, decide what are three key ideas about formative assessment.

With a partner, discuss why you made these selections.

Formative Assessment Is….

Formative Assessment Is Not….

generating evidence intentionally in the course of continuous teaching and learning, engagement with learners through observation, discussion, questioning, and review and analysis of tasks/work

giving a test at the end of an instructional cycle or on a predetermined basis (e.g., quarterly, annually)

gauging how student learning is progressing while students are in the process of learning

evaluating student achievement at the end of a sequence of learning

using evidence to inform immediate or near-immediate teaching and learning

using test data to make decisions about medium- and long-term instructional/curricular plans

Formative Assessment Is….

Formative Assessment Is Not….

providing ongoing descriptive feedback to learners

assigning grades /reporting achievement

involving students in the assessment process through peer and self-assessment

telling students the results of a test

ASSESSMENT IN CA’s ELA/ELD FAMEWORK

One Size Does Not Fit All

Different Levels of Detail

Quarterly

Annual

Minute-by-minute, Daily, Weekly

End-of-Unit

Assessment in the System

Formative assessment process

Interim/Benchmark assessment Summative assessment

(CDE ELA/ELD Curriculum Framework, 2014, adapted from Herman & Heritage, 2007)

• Extended periods of instruction

• Long-term goals

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006)

• Interim goals• Monitoring progress• What has been

learned

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006)

• Short-term goals• Informing immediate

teaching and learning

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006)

Cycle Methods Information Uses/Actions

Minute-by-minute

-Observation -Questions (teachers and students)-Instructional tasks-Student discussions-Written work/ representations

-Students’ current learning

status, relative difficulties and

misunderstandings, emerging or

partially formed ideas, full

understanding

-Keep going, stop and find out

more, provide oral feedback to

individuals, adjust instructional

moves in relation to student

learning status (e.g., act on

“teachable moments”)

Daily Lesson Planned and placed strategically in

the lesson: -Observation, -Questions (teachers and students)-Instructional tasks-Student discussions-Written work/ representations -Student self-reflection (quick write)

-Students’ current learning

status, relative difficulties and

misunderstandings, emerging or

partially formed ideas, full

understanding

-Continue with planned

instruction-Instructional adjustments in

this or the next lesson-Find out more-Feedback to class or

individual students (oral or

written)

Week -Student discussions and work

products-Student self-reflection (e.g.,

journaling)

-Students’ current learning status

relative to lesson learning goals

(e.g., have students met the

goal(s), are they nearly there?

-Instructional planning for start

of new week-Feedback to students (oral or

written)

Types and uses of Assessment: Short-Cycle Formative

CA ELA/ELD Framework, Fig. 8.3

A FEEDBACK LOOP

A Feedback Loop

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FEEDBACK LOOP

A Feedback Loop

Learning Goals• What students will learn

(not what they will do) during a lesson – one or more periods of learning

• Conceptual, Analytic, Linguistic

Success Criteria• Performances of

learning• Clearly understood by

students• Aligned to learning

goal(s)• What students will say,

do, make or write

Spot the Difference

InterpersonalLearning Goal Learning Experience

Understand the chronicle of events that led up to the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942 and the causal relationships among these events

Create a timeline of the events leading up to the history of Japanese-American Internment

Understand how authors use archetypes to help us quickly recognize characters

Read two texts and identify which author uses an archetype and which author uses a stereotype

Use graphical representations to analyze exponential functions

Explore what happens to the graph of the function, f(x) = ax when the value of a changes

6th Grade Math

Learning GoalsUnderstand the structure

of a coordinate grid

Relate the procedure of plotting points in

quadrants to the structure of a coordinate grid

I can talk & write about plotting points on a coordinate grid using mathematical language

I can plot and label points in each quadrant on a coordinate gridI can create a rule about coordinate for each quadrant

Success Criteria

7th Grade Integrated ELD

Learning GoalsI am able to discuss the perspectives that are missing from a secondary source text about the Spanish Conquistadors’ exploration of Mexico

I can explain the historicalevent

I can explain the main participants in that event

I can identify the perspective from which the text is written and explain how I know that

I can explain which perspective are missing and how I know that

Success Criteria

Source: MCOE

Co-Constructing Criteria

A Feedback Loop

Aligned to learning

goals and success criteria

A Feedback Loop

Evidence in the ongoing

flow of activity and interaction

in the classroom

A Feedback Loop

QuestioningDiscussion

TasksObservation

Peer feedback

Evidence of Each

Conceptual

LinguisticAnalytical

What am I looking for?What am I listening for?

What am I looking for?What am I listening for?

What am I looking for?What am I listening for?

Learning Goal

• Set-upUse multiplication and division to

solve problemsRicardo has 1,135 US stamps. He

has 3 times as many foreign stamps as US stamps. How many stamps does he have altogether?

Success Criteria

• Set-upI can determine when and how to break a problem into simpler partsI can explain what the problem is

asking me to doI can explain the relationship

between multiplication and division

Discussion

How is this teacher eliciting evidence?

What does she find out?

What routinized practices are in place?

Start of Lesson Middle of Lesson End of Lesson

Strategy: Vocabulary “Whip Around” to elicit prior knowledge and see how students understand the concept

Opening Question:What comes to mind when you think of coordinate graphing?

Success Criteria:Targeted vocabulary use: origin, x-axis, y-axis, coordinates, quadrant (SC1)

Strategy: Walk coordinates to label each location on large graph (SC2)

Describe the process verbally using correct vocabulary (SC1)

StrategyPlot and label points in four quadrants to individually-design a fictional town “Robertsville” (SC1, SC2)

Strategy: Generalize quadrant locations for set of coordinates verbally and in writing-cooperative groups (SC3)

Strategy: Chart created rules for each quadrant & gallery walk (SC3)

StrategyReflection-self assessment (SC1, SC2, SC3)

6th Grade Math

Primary Math - PrimaryConferencing Notes--Observations of sentence structure-Sentence structure modeled-Student response to modeling

Small group discussion

Math Talk

Peer feedback

Self-Assessment

Heritage, 2010

Self-Assessment: Goal Setting

Goals for Today as a Reader: Make predictions of what’s going to happen next. Goals for Today

as a Reader:Get through the tricky spots.

Self-Assessment : Student Log

• What was successful about your learning today?

• What difficulties or problems did you encounter in your learning?

• How did you manage those difficulties? Were you successful? If not, what plans do you have for dealing with them in the next lesson? Whom do you need help from?

Discussion

How are these students involved in self-assessment?

What routinized practices are in place?

Interpret evidence in relation to goal and success criteria

How to Get There?

•Continuing with the planned lesson

•Immediate deliberate acts of teaching (modeling, questioning, explaining, prompting, telling)

•Planning instruction for subsequent lesson

•Feedback

• Be related to learning goals and success criteria

• Be specific and clear• Provide the learner with

suggestions, hints or cues for how to improve rather than correct answers

• Focus on the task and not on the student

• Engage students’ thinking

Feedback Should…

Feedback• Feedback is only formative if it

is USED by students

• Teachers must allow TIME for students to use feedback

• Using feedback helps students develop LEARNING STRATEGIES

Discussion

As you watch the video, what do you notice about the characteristics of this teacher’s feedback to her student?

What role is the student playing in this interaction?

Peer Feedback

Peer Feedback• Benefits giver as much as receiver

• Students internalize learning goal

• Gain insights into own learning

• Helps self-assessment

• Modeled and supported by teacher

Peer FeedbackStudents analyze the work of others, provide feedback on what they are doing well and determine potential next steps based on their observations.

Peer Feedback

Interactive

Ongoing

Reference for future thinking and learning

Discussion

As you watch the video, what do you notice about the characteristics of the students’ feedback?

What routinized practices are in place?

“Formative assessment has not only changed me as a teacher but I believe it has changed

the students as learners.”

Sharon

Heritage, 2010, p. 5

• I used to do a lot of explaining, but now I do a lot of questioning.

• I used to do a lot of talking, but now I do a lot of listening.

• I use to think about teaching the curriculum, but now I think about teaching the student.

Shawn

Heritage, 2010, p. 4

Thank You!