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Innovative Assessment Practices

11/1/2016

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Freshgrade Blog by Julia Peterson

“Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning—it is only through assessment that we can find out whether what has happened in the classroom has produced the learning we intended.” - DYLAN WILIAM

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There is an increasing consensus that student learning must shift away from its emphasis on static content and knowledge, and toward these fluid practical skills, as well as non-cognitive habits. “Dependability, persistence, ambition, curiosity and getting along with others matter as much as (or very often much more than) cognitive ability for success,” notes a recent report on social and emotional learning from Getting Smart, 
It’s not just testing that is being called into question: letter grades are also losing their relevance. First introduced in the late 19th century as a way to help schools manage an influx of immigrants, letter grades are increasingly seen as an unhelpful way of measuring or communicating learning. 
But despite frustration with testing and concerns about letter grades, schools know that measuring and communicating student progress remains as vital as ever – if not more. As the level and complexity of student learning have increased, technology is playing a critical role in improving assessment. Smart ‘adaptive tests’ adjust the difficulty of assessment items as students progress through them for more precise measurement. Other kinds of technology-enhanced questions such as drawing or arranging graphics or text “allow students to demonstrate more complex thinking and share their understanding of material in a way that was previously difficult to assess using traditional means,” notes the U.S. Department of Education. Indeed, future testing may be ‘stealth,’ unnoticed by students as it is integrated into the regular learning process: “The record of a student’s time-on-task, keystrokes and mouse-clicks collected by interactive ebooks, adaptive instructional software, and educational games provides a multitude of data for 7 inquiries@freshgrade.com educators to track a student’s learning progress, and offers the potential to blend instruction with both formative and summative assessments into one continuous process that engages the student,” observes former district technologist Gee Kin Chou.
In this context, what will it take to fix assessments and grades? By focusing on the intended purposes of assessment, schools and educators can take concrete steps to reimagine assessment. Those steps could very well lead us not only to better testing but better teaching and better schooling.​

​Purpose of Assessment

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Rather, assessment ought to be an indicator of, and even a means for, mastery of the content and skills that students need to be successful in college, career, and life. Good assessment serves three primary purposes:
  1. It improves instruction by giving feedback and direction to teachers and school leaders on what their students have learned and what they have not. Strong assessments give teachers a sense of their students’ progress and their needs so that they can pinpoint instructional needs for class and for individual students. It should also provide schools with a better understanding of what support and resources students and teachers need. With that information in hand, teachers and schools can target their resources and instruction. Ideally, schools would then waste fewer dollars and minutes on curriculum that is ineffective or that students are not ready to master.
  2. It enhances parental involvement by giving parents feedback and guidance on how much involvement is necessary and what kind. Sharing assessment data gives parents a sense of how their students are progressing and can even point them toward ways they can support student learning. Research has found that parent engagement, informed by specific information about student goals and progress, enhances student achievement. “Parents benefit from having information about key indicators—such as student attendance, growth in learning, and achievement—on which they can have an impact,” note the Harvard Family Research Project and the National Parent-Teacher Association. “These data open the door for meaningful conversations with teachers and students.”
  3. Most importantly, it increases student engagement, motivation, and ultimately learning. Assessments can and should inform not just adults but also students, whose ownership of their learning is critical to success in college and beyond. “Students who demonstrate ownership of learning can be successful in a wide range of learning environments,” note researchers David Conley and Elizabeth French. In fact, cognitive science research shows that even the act of testing itself can improve absorption and retention of information. Journalist Annie Murphy Paul calls this “affirmative testing” or “testing for learning,” citing research that shows that every time students recall knowledge, that memory becomes “stronger, more stable and more accessible” – and even improves retention for related information that wasn’t directly tested.

​Innovative Approaches To Assessment

  1. MASTERY-BASED ASSESSMENTS AND GRADING: Many schools are developing ways of assessing and grading students based on demonstrations and active applications of their knowledge.
  2. MEASURING SKILLS, NOT JUST CONTENT. With the increasing recognition that skills matter just as much – if not more – than content, schools are looking for ways to measure them.
  3. PROMOTING FEEDBACK AND REFLECTION. Educators experimenting with new approaches to assessment say that the most important thing is to provide students with feedback and opportunities to improve.

Conclusion

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Redesigning our systems of assessments and creating new, better tests can be daunting – but its effects could be inspiring. Imagine how public education might look and feel different if we approached assessment in this way:
  1. With assessments that relate to significant, specific learning goals — and with clearer, quicker communication of their results — schools would run on vivid student progress data, rather than on intuition. This would allow schools to make precise, well-informed decisions about staff, curriculum, and other resources.
  2. With regular, meaningful feedback about the impact of their instruction on student achievement, teachers’ days — and careers — would be more rewarding. They could tailor more of their work to students’ strengths, needs, and interests. Their work would be based on tests they not only tolerate but trust. Knowing that their time and energy is contributing to student learning, teachers’ lesson planning would be more energizing and fulfilling.
  3. During evenings and weekends, parents could focus their family conversations on learning, rather than pleading for information about what students did all day. Data about student progress would be paired with actionable ideas for how parents could advance that learning; these might range from extracurricular projects to local events to simply giving their students the time and space (and sleep) they need to learn.  
  4. Best of all, students would have their own long-term goals and what they needed to get there. They would understand what concepts and skills they had already mastered and which they had not. They would receive regular directional feedback and the support and resources they need to correct course. Their days would feel more engaging, their work deeper and more relevant, and their stake in their own learning clearer than a distant diploma or hazy vision of ‘college readiness.’

No matter your role in schooling, it is time to move toward a vision of assessments that enhance learning. While the responsibility for shifting policies and practices rests with administrators and school leaders, individual teachers can make a difference. They can craft authentic assessments whose data capture true learning, administering only assessments whose results inform specific actions. Above all, teachers and schools can dissolve the boundaries between assessment and learning, by putting more measurement tools and transparent data directly in the hands of students; in this way, with the informed support of teachers and parents, students can guide their own learning and begin to master their own destinies.

Abridged from FreshGrade.com

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The Birch Bark House (Louise Erdrich) 

11/1/2016

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Cross Curricular Novel Study

BIRCHBARK HOUSE Grade 4 Novel Study UNIT PLAN

Overview of Unit Topic/Theme: This 20 lesson unit of 45 min lessons  is based on a novel study of the book The BirchBark House by Louise Erdrich.
This unit is cross curricular, focusing on both Language Arts and Social Studies.
We will be experimenting with inquiry based learning by having the learners choose one of 5 final projects to focus on. Guiding questions will be profiled by graphic organizers and note taking from oral stories will be the central exercises.  We will be focusing on comprehension strategies for the literary elements of Character, Plot, Setting ,and Cultural Study. We will be using graphic organizers, and we will be applying what we have learned and our reflective thoughts on our learnings to our final projects. Criteria for our final projects will be co-created, and we will be self reflecting on our finished projects. Final projects will be used as summative assessment tool for understanding/appreciation of First Nations culture and comprehension of oral stories.
Differentiation
This unit plan is designed for a grade 4 class with a wide variety of literacy levels. It incorporates graphic organizers with multiple ways to express learning for differentiation. Each chapter is read aloud for learners to comprehend, and 'so basically' summation discussions will be implemented at story breaks for learners to go deeper into their understanding. “Stop and Jot” protocols will be introduced allowing learners to request time to write down or illustrate key points. The use of exit tickets will encourage metacognition about the learning process. The creation of a final project to express their thoughts and deep learning about their inquiry question allows for diverse representations of their learning.
Final Project Options:
  1. Choose a significant event from the book and create a graphic novel, online puppet show (puppet pals app) or scripted play. (plot focus)
  2. Create a shoebox detailed diorama that shows how Omakayas lived. (setting focus)
  3. Create a character book. Make a list of all the characters in the story. Chose 10 who are most significant to the story. Write a paragraph for each one, describing what they look like and how they are important to the story. How are they related to Omakayas? Draw a picture of each character. (Character focus)
  4. Make a list of all the crafts mentioned in the Birchbark house. Choose one of them, try it out and demonstrate it for the class. You will hand in your example of work and a written description of how the craft is made. (culture focus)
  5. Make a list of all the food mentioned in the Birchbark house. Write a fancy menu including pictures for a restaurant that serves only food and drink that Omakayas ate. What would be a creative name for the restaurant? Research a detailed recipe for one of the dishes and include it in your submission. (culture focus)
Rationale for Unit:  This heartfelt novel study will be used to help learners create links between our culture and traditional First Nations culture.  Depending on the chosen final project, the learner will be focusing on various aspects of the book: Plot, Setting, Character, Culture (crafts or food) The exploration of these questions should result in reflection about their own metacognition and their own biases.  

Culminating Task(s): Culminating task will be the presentation of their final projects in a gallery walk, and a self assessment based on the co-created criteria. Projects will be marked on demonstrated depth of knowledge of the culture studied, attention to detail, and creativity of the project.

Resources:
  • Graphic organizers for daily journalling
  • The BirchBark House novel to be read out loud to the class
  • Exit slips
  • Arts and Craft supplies
  • iPads
  • Anchor Charts of graphic organizers
  • Anchor Charts of Say Something Protocols
  • Anchor Charts of final project questions

PROVINCIAL CURRICULUM

Core Competencies:
  • Communication
  • Thinking (creative, critical)
  • Personal and Social Personal awareness and responsibility,
Language Arts: Grade 4: Big Idea:
  • Exploring text and story helps us understand ourselves and make connections to others and to the world.
Curricular Competencies
  • Use a variety of comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading, listening, or viewing to construct meaning from text
  • Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding
  • Recognize the role of language in personal social and cultural identity
  • Use personal experience and knowledge to connect to text and deepen understanding of self, community and world
  • Demonstrate an awareness of the oral tradition of first peoples cultures and the purposes of first peoples texts
  • Identify how story in first peoples cultures connects people to land.
Content: Story/text:
  • literary elements
Strategies and processes:
  • Oral language strategies
  • metacognitive strategies
Social Studies: Big Ideas: Interactions between First Peoples and Europeans lead to conflict and cooperation, which continues to shape Canada’s identity.
Curricular Connections:
  • Construct narratives that capture the attitudes, values, and worldviews commonly held by people at different times or places (perspective)
  • Make ethical judgments about events, decisions, or actions that consider the conditions of a particular time and place (ethical judgment)
Content:
  • early contact, trade, cooperation, and conflict between First Peoples and European peoples
  • the fur trade in pre-Confederation Canada and British Columbia
  • demographic changes in pre-Confederation British Columbia in both First Peoples and non-First Peoples communities
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    Karina Strong is currently a full time Education student at VIU in the Post Bac program. Her undergraduate degree is in Social Work and Small Business Management. She is a professional Circus performer and owner of Vesta Entertainment, a multifaceted entertainment company on Vancouver Island.

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