Using a Content Progression to Develop Comment Codes that Support Formative Feedback Emily Lai & Daisy Vickers

Presentation Overview Context and background How are the codes being developed? How might teachers use the codes? How might the codes support formative feedback? Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.2

Context/Background Researching Personalized Assessment, Teaching, and Learning (PATL) Integrated learning system Several components –Teaching resources –Learning resources –Assessment resources –Professional development resources Mechanism for integration is a shared learning progression in math Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.3

PATL Assessment Resources Online game (auto-scored) Online performance tasks (auto-scored) Classroom activities (teacher scored) Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.4

How are the codes being developed? Content progression: Geometric measurement of area Grades 2-4 Based on research from math education field –Progressions for the Common Core State Standards in Math (University of Arizona Institute for Mathematics and Education) –Doug Clements and Julie Sarama (SUNY, Buffalo) –Michael Battista (The Ohio State University) –Jere Confrey and colleagues (North Carolina State University, Friday Institute) Used the research to extract levels that represent successively more sophisticated understandings and ideas Mapped multiple strands (geometry, area, length) Identified performance indicators/behaviors, as well as common errors/misconceptions where possible Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.5

The Content Progression: Geometric Measurement of Area Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.6

How are the codes being developed? Classroom activities ‾ Teacher scoring, based on observation and student work Online performance tasks –Automated scoring, based on activity stream data Designed to collect relevant evidence defined by the progression A single activity can elicit a wide range of student responses Each potential response mapped to a “weblet” of the content progression ‾ Weblet is a node of connected/adjacent stages ‾ Weblets identify potential student errors and misconceptions at particular levels or stages Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.7

Example activity Look at the shape below. How much space or area does this shape cover? Write a number sentence that tells how you know. You can use: Square tiles (1 inch or 1 cm) Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.8 = 1 square inch

Possible student responses Student BehaviorProgression Stage Potential Error/ Misconception Student uses tiles to cover the interior of the square. Visualization of 2D shapes as collections of area composites Student uses 1 cm tiles instead of 1 inch tiles, or uses a combination of both types. Student may not completely cover the interior of the shape. Student counts the number of square units in the interior of the shape. Area is additiveStudent may miscount, lose count, or count some tiles twice. Student may count only the squares on the diagonal. Student writes a number sentence using addition or multiplication. Abstract intuitive formulas Student computes the perimeter instead of the area. Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.9

How might teachers use the codes? In observing/evaluating student work, teachers may select some number of comment codes For the online performance tasks, codes could be auto assigned Comment codes specific to particular stages or levels of the progression, but some overlap may occur (e.g., routine counting errors) Enter observations into Student Profile –Digital reporting tool –Interactive display based on teacher questions/decisions –Bayesian Inference Nets to aggregate evidence within and across assessment components Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.10

How might teachers use the codes? Student Profile will display information on student location on the progression (e.g., “weblet”) Student Profile will also identify comment codes – errors and misconceptions Could be used to identify specific follow-up activities/resources Student-facing version of the Profile Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.11

How well do the codes support formative feedback? Needed/planned future research: Validate content progression Verify alignment of assessment/learning activities to the progression Validate the assessment activities – are they eliciting the targeted student behaviors and responses? Explore consistency/accuracy of teacher scoring/assignment of comment codes Explore perceived utility of comment codes by teachers Explore perceived utility of comment codes by students Explore impact on student learning Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.12

Looking for Pilot Schools! For 2014/2015 school-year If you’re interested in being a PATL pilot school, please contact Amy Reilly Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.13

Thanks! Emily Lai Daisy Vickers Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.14