Byron Center Professional Development November 17, 2011 Erin Busch-Grabemeyer Elizabeth Nelson Common Assessments for Writing

OBJECTIVES 1. Develop a shared understanding of the principles, methods, and design of good writing assessment. 2. Recognize the power of assessment and collaboration as a key to affecting instruction. 3. Look at writing from the perspectives of student work and teacher instruction. Common Assessment Experts ________________ Rick Stiggins Mike Schmoker Robert Marzano Steve Chappuis Jan Chappuis Judith Arter Rick Wormeli Ken O’Conner Rick DuFour,

What’s the big deal? I am not a writing teacher! Isn’t this the job of the English dept.? Why do we need to use the same assessment? I don’t have enough time to cover one more thing!

Nearly 1/3 of high school graduates are not ready for college-level writing. Achieve, Inc., 2005

Only 1 out of 4 high school seniors is a proficient writer. Salahu-Din, Persky, and Miller, 2004.

The benchmark for good writing in the 19 th century was on “correctness” of mechanics versus the deep rhetorical thinking required today. Carnegie Report, 2010

The Information Age, full of high tech devices, is writing based.

Each phase of writing requires problem solving and critical thinking. Because Writing Matters, Carl Nagin and NWP

Writing can support learning and retention of knowledge in all disciplines Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

Good writing is essential For obtaining high school diploma college degree acquiring a good job participating in society.

Who is the stakeholder? How How we assess depends why on why we assess. Step 1

Why Assess? Accountability

Why Assess? Motivation

Why Assess? Monitor Progress

Why Assess? Provide Feedback

Why Assess? Inform Instruction

Why Assess? Judge Teacher Effectiveness

Why Assess? Determine Strengths

Why Assess? Determine areas of deficiency

Why Assess? Report to parents

Why Assess? Determine how many meet standards

Why Assess? Measure American students’ success

ASSESSMENTUSER Assessment for Learning (IN)FORMATIVE Assessment of Learning SUMMATIVEStudents Am I improving over time? Do I know what it means to succeed? What should I do next? What help do I need? Am I succeeding at the level that I should be? Am I capable of success? How am I doing in relationship to my classmates? Is the learning worth the effort? Teachers What does this student need? What do these students need? What are student strengths to build on? How should I group my students? Am I going too fast? Too slow? Too far? Not far enough? What grade do I put on the report card? What students need to be referred for special service? What will I tell parents? Parents What can we do at home to support learning? Is my child learning new things? Is my child keeping up? Is this teacher doing a good job? Is this a good school? District? Principal Is instruction producing results? Are students ready for the workplace or the next step in learning? How shall we allocate building resources to achieve success? Superintendent Are our programs of instruction producing desired results? Is each building producing results? Which schools need additional resources? How shall we allocate district resources to achieve success?

Formative Assessment Qualities Summative Assessment Qualities On-going, daily instructionAt the end..no “do over” Used to inform students and teachers what has been learned and what do students still need while the teacher is still teaching. Used to examine teaching strategies and curriculum strengths and weaknesses Informs both the teacher and the learner in order to adjust instruction along the way Informs instruction for next year or course design. May provide effective teaching strategies Focus is on understanding the taskFocus is on mastery at a given point Allows for immediate feedback to teacher and student Means to sift and sort students for placement

What we assess depends On our learning targets learning targets. Step 2

What did I want my students to learn? Step 2

learning targets A learning target is any achievement expectation we hold for students. It’s a statement of what we want the students to learn.

Is this of sound assessment design? How How do we know the assessment measures this? Step 3

SAD Sound Assessment Design  Create quality rubrics  Control for bias  Design the assessment so that students can self- assess and set goals

Do we have a shared understanding of what student learning should look like? What What is our inter-rater reliability? Step 4 Inter-rater reliability is dependent upon the ability of two or more individuals to be consistent.

This involves a change in focus from looking in focus from looking at our work to looking at our work to looking at student work. at student work. What What is our inter-rater reliability?

No one assessment can measure everything or do everything for all stakeholders There are many different kinds of writing assessments

Where am I going? 1.Provide a clear learning target 2.Use examples and models of strong and weak work Where am I now? 3.Offer descriptive feedback 4.Teach students to self assess and set goals How can I close the gap? 5.Design lessons to focus on one aspect of quality at a time 6.Teach students focused revision 7.Engage students in self-reflection and share in their learning 7 Practices of Assessment FOR Learning Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right, Using It Well by Rick Stiggins (2004)

Remember: You are not in this alone. Where do we begin?

Working Together will share the work load and allow you to create the best assessments.