Welcome to our week 13 online class!

This is the first online class I have created, so please feel free to email me if you have any questions!

I have included all directions in this presentation. Throughout the presentation, you will need to stop to complete other activities. You will have links to padlets created for our class, articles to read, etc.

At several points, topics are best addressed through conversation. Because we are not together, we will use the discussion board section of D2L. At those points, I will give screen shots to show you where to find the posts.

This is a challenging and important topic. Please make a note of any questions you have; I will be happy to answer them later.

Have fun!Leanne

Consensograms

This is a consensogram. Participants post on the left of the page if they strongly disagree with the statement, post on the right if they strongly agree with the statement, or post somewhere in the middle. After everyone posts, it is easy to have a general idea of how participants feel without knowing specific names.

If we were in class, I would have 14 of these placed around the room. Everyone would walk around the room and put a check, smiley face (or frowny face), star, etc. to indicate your feelings on the topic for each one. I usually have small stickers and markers available.

How could you use this in your classroom? Using a consensogram is a great way to check for background knowledge and misunderstandings students may have about materials as a diagnostic before going into a topic. You can use a consensogram to test for understanding and misunderstanding during the middle of studying a topic to see if there might be a need for re-teaching. Finally, at the end of a topic you can pull the consensogram back out and compare with students how their understanding has shifted.

The statement you are evaluating typically goes here.

Consensograms

Please take a few minutes to go back to our class website. There is a section labeled ‘Consensograms’. I have created 13 online consensograms using padlet. Go to each link, and double-click to add your opinion to each one. (When you double-click, you can type or upload a file.) Posts can be anonymous. You can write your thoughts, put a smiley face, or just write 'me'. When everyone has visited the sites, we will have a good idea of the general thoughts of the class regarding these statements.

I hope you will use one of the previous suggestions or brainstorm your own way of using this tool in your classroom! It is not created specifically for gifted and does not promote critical thinking, but it is a great tool for any classroom!

The Divergent Thinker

Please take a few minutes to go back to our class website or Moodle and find the article on ‘The Divergent Thinker’. Also download or print ‘Microlab Directions’.

We are going to use the discussion board on D2L instead of having the discussion. The 3 discussion questions are posted on D2L. The Microlab is a protocol you may want to try in your classroom.

Please go to each question and post your answer. Then, for each question, respond to the answer of at least 2 other people. Be sure to include your first name and last initial to your posts. (The directions for the discussion board on the next 2 slides.)

Go to ‘Discussions’.

There are 3 questions for the Divergent Thinker article. Please post an answer for each one, and respond to at least 2 other people for each question.

Find our discussion topics for this week. You may need to scroll to the bottom of the page.

To compose your original response, select compose. To respond to others, click their response, and you will see the option to respond.

Be sure to select ‘Post’ after typing your response!

Differentiation

Consider what you learned during week 12. How would you answer each of the following:

Describe the relationship between teacher, students, and subject in a differentiated classroom. How might a teacher structure planning to insure differentiation is practiced in his/her classroom? How would you explain differentiation to parents and students? Create a metaphor, a diagram, a graphic to describe how teachers and students interact in a

differentiated classroom.

What questions do you have? Please write down your questions to share later.

Moodle and the Gifted Communication Center

As you know, we are moving to Moodle! Beginning now, all documents, information, etc. will be on Moodle rather than D2L.

Your lesson plan, attachments, student artifacts, and T2P are due tonight.

You may want to attach them while you are exploring Moodle. If you have any difficulty, please post everything in D2L and email me. It is new to me, too, but I will do my best to help you! If I don’t have the answer to your question, I will find it! Please take a moment now to explore Moodle!

Log onto the Portal, then select the ‘PD&E’ tool.

Find ‘My Courses’ on the right side of the page. Find and select GE-Gifted Endorsement, Part II.

Have fun exploring the site!

You should see Frequently Used Documents at the top of the page.

For each week, you will find a link to all documents needed.

If an assignment is due, you will also find a link to submit the documents.

While you are online, explore the new Gifted Online Communication Center (GOCC).

Go to ‘eClass C&I’.

Refer to the directions to learn how to access this for the first time: How to Access the Accelerated Programs in Portal_GOCC.

AssessmentThe topic for the next section (slides 12 - 35) is assessment!

There is an assignment at the end of this section. You are welcome to complete it with a group, a partner, or individually.

If you are planning to work with a group or partner, you may want to go through this section together.

Thinking About Assessment

If you are with a group, consider these questions individually, then discuss your thoughts.

What questions or concerns do you have about creating assessments? What training experiences have you had regarding assessment at the

university or in workshops or in your school’s initiatives? What techniques for assessment do you use in your class regularly? Which ones really work for you and why?

If we were together, you could discuss this in small groups or pairs. Each group could then write 2 thoughts on a post-it note to share with the class. This would be an informal pre-assessment, or diagnostic assessment, of your knowledge of assessment. (Students do well with this because the post-it notes are anonymous. )

Diagnostics do not have to be written pre-tests. The consensogram is a group diagnostic, while the post-it notes show more specific questions and thoughts.

ASSESSMENT

The Basics of Assessment

There are three types of assessment used in education.

1. Diagnostic Assessment (indicator of what you know and need to know)

If at all possible diagnostic assessment should be carried out at the beginning of a course or topic or project to aid learning by establishing what the background knowledge(prior knowledge and experience, misconceptions, interests and/or learning style preferences) students have.

It has a double purpose (a) to help teachers in their planning and (b) to give students a preview of the work ahead.

2. Formative Assessment

Formative assessments should be carried out throughout a topic or course or project to aid learning by providing feedback on students’ status as learners.

It has a double purpose: (a) to help teachers adjust their ongoing instructional

procedures and (b) to help students adjust their current learning

tactics.

The formative assessment process is like a course correction for a space craft.

• No one is penalized for needing such a correction; in fact failure to do so has serious implications. For that reason formative assessment is usually not used for grading purposes.

• On-going• Improves instruction• Provides feedback to

students• Checks for

understanding

Examples of Formative Assessments

• Nonverbal clues• Pretests• Value lineups• Retelling• Think pair share• Charting• Key questioning• Traffic signal procedure• Response Cards• Thumbs • Interactive writing• RAFT• What other ones have you used?

Brainstorm

Go to the padlet web page and post 3 types of formative assessments you use in your classroom. (A link is on our website under ‘Other Links for Week 13.’) If you are with a group, you can brainstorm, then choose your favorite three types. Be sure to put the first name and last initial of each person.

A protocol to share ideas is the Wagon Wheel. We are not able to do this online, but I have posted the protocol. You may want to try it in your classroom!

3. Summative Assessment

Carried out at the end of a topic, course or project and to be truly summative it should reflect coverage of the enabling knowledge and sub-skills of each target curricular aim. It is used (a) to determine the degree of final understanding, improvement, and level of competency of students and (b) to assign students a course grade or certify their competency.

Examples of Summative Assessments

• End of course tests and exams• Culminating performances (a

speech, musical recital, formal reading, or skill demonstration)

• Large scale products (portfolios, papers, independent research, exhibitions, paintings,)

If you are with a partner or group, discuss each of the following. If not, consider each question.

• Compare diagnostic, formative and summative assessments. (U)

• Contrast diagnostic, formative and summative assessments. (U)

• List three types of formative assessment. (M)• Which form of assessment do you think you are most

comfortable with in your classroom? (I)• Looking at the types of formative assessment in this

PowerPoint and those your colleagues brainstormed, choose several and create an acronym to remind yourself of these. (M & S)

• Which type of assessment should be most useful to students? (U)

All three types of assessment:

• Can use objective and subjective methods• Can employ performance• Can be formal or informal

What is the basis of comparison in assessments?

• Norm-referenced assessment is relative to the student body taking the assessment. It is an effective way of comparing students and is grading “on the curve”. It does change.

• Criterion referenced assessment occurs when candidates are measured against defined and objective criteria. Often used to determine if someone is competent. It does not change.

• A Norm-referenced test indicates whether the test-taker did better or worse than other people who took the test. (SAT, COGAT)

• A Criterion Test indicates whether someone passes or fails or how a student fares against a standard that is communicated ahead of time.

(CRCT, benchmarks)

Note: This is an important topic. The percentile rank for a norm-referenced test indicates the percentage of people who earned a lower score than yours. The highest percentile rank is 99% for that reason. Also, these tests are re-normed at least once every 10 years.

About 5-10 years ago I saw an interview with a student at Harvard. He said the average SAT score of current Harvard students was higher than the average SAT score of Harvard students 30 years ago, so the students were getting smarter? What did he not understand about norm-referenced tests? Did he prove a point?

Two important characteristics for tests concerning gifted issues are

• Validity is the quality of a test which tells how much it measures what it claims to measure – the degree to which a test actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

• Reliability is the quality of a test which measures its consistency- refers to the accuracy or consistency of a test

• No test can be completely reliable and completely valid. In fact the more reliable the less valid and vice versa.

Two other important test characteristics for gifted issues are

• Fairness –no bias for or against any individual because of gender, culture, language or experience

• Test Ceiling —maximum score allowed on the test; Many group intelligence tests have a low ceiling.

www.hoagiesgifted.org/why_test.htm

Note: The CogAT is a norm-referenced ability test. It is not an actual IQ test; those are individual and must be administered by a psychologist. However, the SAS score is considered comparable to an IQ score. It is norm-referenced by age within 3 months, and the ceiling is 150.

Consider and/or Discuss

• What are the four issues of test characteristics that we in gifted should be most concerned about?

• Thinking about what you know about our eligibility process, do we use criterion referenced or norm referenced materials to determine eligibility?

Task Rotation on Formative Assessment

TASK ROTATION (ch. 20)Teachers present students with four different learning style tasks to differentiate instruction and thinking.

MASTERY TASKS: remember and describe

UNDERSTANDING TASKS: reason and explain

SELF-EXPRESSIVE: imagine and create

INTERPERSONAL: explore feelings and relate personally

Note: I think a few people are confused about Windows Notes, questioning, and task rotation. When you ask discussion questions or give short formative assessment tasks, that is really questioning in the 4 learning styles. Please read chapter 20 on task rotation, and we will discuss the strategy when we are in class.

MASTERYNouns are words that name a person,

place, idea or thing. Underline the nouns in the sentences I have given

you. Next write each noun in the correct column of this chart:

PERSON PLACE THING IDEA

INTERPERSONALAsk your family to help you make a list of the first words you even spoke when

you were a baby. Look over your list. What do you notice about the first

words?

UNDERSTANDINGBefore you can use better nouns, you

must be able to find the nouns. Find the hidden nouns in these sentences and

explain how you discovered them.1. Lethargy is difficult to combat.

2. Those fallacies are often believed.3. Did you write those six formulas?

SELF-EXPRESSIVENow try this: Write sentences that are

full of nonsense words like “My beautiful snagrid won the portgret”

Write your sentences so that a friend could easily spot the nouns, no matter how many nonsense words are in the

sentence.

Third Grade Science: Rocks

Mastery Task:Describe the characteristics of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.

Interpersonal Task:Which rock is your favorite? Why?

Understanding Task: Explain the rock cycle. How do rocks change?

Self-expressive Task:Create “What rock am I?” riddles or write a song about the three types of rocks.

Third Grade Math: Area

Mastery Task:How can you find area? If the length is 4 feet, and the total is 12 square units, what is the width? Draw the shape and label the sides.

Interpersonal Task:When is it easier to count? When is it easier to multiply?

Understanding Task: How is area related to multiplication and addition?

Self-expressive Task:Create your own house on graph paper and write the square units for each room.

Other Information on AssessmentPlease save and review the following documents. If you

have any questions, please let me know! Thanks!

Eligibility and Evaluation: Important Principles to Keep in Mind GCPS Board Policy Statement on Test Security Gifted Referral Eligibility and Tip Sheet Lists of Tests 2013 Riverside publishing security policy

Practice! You may do the assignment individually or with a partner/small group. Please choose one learning style, and complete all the activities in that style. This should be saved as a PDF and posted on the appropriate web page. (A link is provided for both the assignment and the page to post it.)

You are welcome to work together; please include all names on your document.

Consider:How could you use Task Rotation in your classroom?

Task Rotation on Formative Assessment

Reviewing and Previewing Strategies by Learning StylesNorth Gwinnett Cluster

2013-2014 Since this class is online, I was not able to have you sign up for your choice of style. I began with the jigsaw assignments, so you would have the opportunity to work with those who were not in your previous expert groups. I realize you are at different schools, but the assignment is not as involved as the previous projects. During week 14 you will be previewing this information individually. On week 15, you will have some time to meet with expert groups before meeting in jigsaw groups to share. (A document with this table is also linked to our website.)

 Mastery

 Amy Roark Carolina

Groom Tammy Sutton Brenda Bryant Holly McKinnon

 Understanding

  Lynda Rowe Pam Reynolds Brittany Deegan

Linda Chambers

LaToya Brumfield

 Interpersonal

  Ree Aguirre Brittany Dykes Lisa Westpheling Tendayi Taylor Whitney

Johnson

 Self-

Expressive 

Melissa Sanford

Martha (Dea) Manotas

Brittany Martin Claire McCall Angie

Matheny

 Four Style

 

Stacey Speicher Nikita Wilcox Shea Criss Diana Matos

 

Happy Holidays

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with family and friends!

I look forward to seeing you in 2014!