Providing Quality Feedback Presentado por M-E Via and Sandra Whitaker

Literature Circle What are the essential understandings of your article? What questions about assessment does your article address? What questions would you ask now?

Jigsaw Share: The essential understandings of your articles. Discuss: The collective ideas about assessment and quality feedback.

Establish clear performance targets Be clear about what we expect student to know, understand, and be able to do as a result of our instruction Determine how students will demonstrate the intended knowledge, understanding, and proficiency Developing students’ understanding is the primary goal of teaching Understanding: the ability to apply facts, concepts, and skills appropriately in new situations

Establish clear performance targets Curriculum: not just the content to be covered, but the desired performances of understanding Conceptualize the learning goals and objectives as performance applications Students need to demonstrate their understanding Create targets for teaching and learning A source of evidence that students understand, and are able to apply, what we’ve taught.

Establish clear performance targets Importance of instructional clarity Student’s attitudes and perceptions toward learning are influenced by the degree to which they understand what is expected of them and what the rationale is for various instructional activities Establishing performance targets helps identify curriculum priorities, enabling us to focus on the essential and enduring knowledge

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Involve students in authentic work Demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a manner that reflects the world outside the classroom Example: Diagramming sentences may help students understand sentence structures and parts of speech, but it is not really an authentic activity. Few people outside of school diagram sentences. Example: Engaging in purposeful writing (persuading an outside audience) helps students use their knowledge and skills in ways much more aligned with the demands of real life.

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Authentic work in schools calls for students to apply their knowledge and skills resulting in a tangible product or performance These products have an explicit purpose and they are directed toward an identified audience Often provides opportunities for making interdisciplinary connections

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Basic knowledge and skills provide an essential foundation for meaningful application. The “basics” are not ends in themselves – the serve a larger goal They enable students to thoughtfully apply knowledge and skills within a meaningful, authentic context.

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances When learners perceive classroom activities as meaningful and relevant, they are more likely to have a positive attitude toward them Students often seem more willing to put forth the effort required to do quality work.

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances What we assess sends a strong signal to students about what is important for them to learn Using authentic performance tasks lets the students know that we expect them to apply knowledge in ways valued in the world beyond the classroom

Publicize Criteria and Performance Standards Use a rubric, a rating scale, or a performance list Spells out the qualities that we consider to be most important in student work Authentic classroom performance tasks RARELY have a single, correct answer Our evaluation must be based upon judgment and guided by criteria

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Shift from “What did I get?” to “Now I know what I need to do to improve.” Evaluative criteria are essential for summative evaluations, and they also have a role in improving performance Remove the mystery of how work will be evaluated Highlight the elements of quality and standards of performance toward which students should strive Have students use the scoring tools themselves

Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Provide models of quality work Show multiple samples of work (all levels) and let students analyze the differences and identify the characteristics that distinguish the excellent examples from the rest Students learn the criteria through tangible models and concrete examples Students become more self-directed with a clear conception of excellence

Teach Strategies Explicitly Effective performers use specific techniques and strategies to boost their performance Explicitly teach thinking and learning strategies Direct model approach Introduce and explain the purpose of the strategy Demonstrate and model its use Provide guided practice for students to apply the strategy with feedback Allow students to apply it independently and in teams Regularly reflect on the appropriate uses of the strategy and its effectiveness

Teach Strategies Explicitly Incorporate thinking and learning strategies into tangible products Poster, bookmarks, visual symbols Ask students to think out loud by explaining their reasoning and problem solving strategies Discuss the effectiveness of strategies when solutions are presented This provides practical and concrete support as students acquire and internalize performance enhancing strategies

Use Ongoing Assessments for Feedback and Adjustments QUALITY is the result of regular inspections (assessments) along the way, followed by needed adjustments based on the information obtained from the inspections. Deep understanding or high levels of proficiency are achieved only as a result of trial, practice, adjustments based on the feedback, and more practice. Use assessment to guide improvement throughout the learning process instead of waiting to give feedback at the end of instruction Identify problems and weaknesses, then provide more coaching and opportunities to practice or revise Non-graded quizzes, practice tests, the writing process, formative performance tasks, review of drafts, peer response groups Ensure that assessment enhances performance and does not simply measure it

Document and Celebrate Progress Challenges The gap between our goal of higher standards of performance for all and the realization that some students are functioning well below these lofty standards Students believing that the target is beyond their grasp and may not put forth the needed effort There are no easy solutions to this dilemma Encourage small steps Celebrate incremental achievements Document growth/progress Focus on what students CAN do and how they have IMPROVED as a way of spurring continued growth

Document and Celebrate Progress Portfolios: If a test/quiz is a snapshot of what a student can do at a specific point in time, the portfolio is more like an album showing growth and change over time For students: Tangible way to display and celebrate student work Students use it to highlight the progress they have made and identify related goals for future improvement For teachers: Document student progress and achievement Reflect on the successes and adjust their instructional strategies Enhance school – home communication Students assume greater ownership

In review… Establish Clear Performance Targets Strive for Authenticity in Products and Performances Publicize Criteria and Performance Standards Provide Models of Excellence Teach Strategies Explicitly Use Ongoing Assessments for Feedback and Adjustment Document and Celebrate Progress

Using Trouble Slips

T-Chart What constitutes quality feedback? What are the (perceived) barriers to providing quality feedback?

Rubrics Provides criteria of what counts (teacher expectations) at the beginning of an assessment/project/assignment to guide students Gives student informative feedback about their works in progress and gives detailed evaluations of their final product Provides various levels of quality with descriptions of strong, middling and problematic work Allows for more ongoing student self-assessment

Timely and Clear Feedback

Types of rubrics Holistic – no specific criteria, single score Ex. healthy vs not healthy Analytic-Trait – isolates criteria into separate scales providing multiple scores Ex. Specific health problems

Do’s Limit the number of learning targets to what is do- able for students. Customize rubrics for your specific assessments. Use descriptive criteria to define the levels of your rubric. Phrase rubric in kid-friendly language. Give examples that will make the criteria clear.

Don’ts Rely too heavily on counting to determine levels (quality vs. quantity). Score what is easy to score rather than what is most important. Focus on mechanics, organization and presentation in lieu of content.

Take a Break

Write Around How can teachers effectively use both teacher and peer feedback in the classroom? What is the teacher’s role in peer feedback?

Share Write Around Ideas

Feedback is intended to be a tool to encourage improvement is timely and ongoing is specific is based on mutually understood goals

When teachers provide quality feedback to their students, there is a significant increase in both motivation and achievement.

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