REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LAB ~ APPALACHIA The Effects of Kentucky Virtual High School’s Hybrid Course in Algebra I on Teaching Practices, Classroom Quality, and Adolescent Learning Online Collaboration March 2010 Series Gauging Student Progress and Using Results to Design Next Steps

Goals For On-lineCollaboration Discuss formative assessment strategies and routines that move learning forward, Provide instructional structures where “feedback is focused on how students can improve related to learning goals,”

AGENDA  Technology Issues  February Results including comments about the KY Standards presentation  Formative Assessment  School Visit Results  Brain Research

Gauging Learning & Determining Next Steps  What do we know about learning?  What do we know about formative assessments?  What kind & how are we using formative assessments?

Formative Assessment “ In its purest form, formative tests are not graded and are used as an ongoing diagnostic tool; hence the instructor employs the results of formative assessment solely to modify and adjust his or her teaching practices to reflect the needs and progress of his or her students.” (Swearingen, 2002)

Formative Assessment (Continued) “Formative assessment helps students interpret feedback as a means of learning rather than as punishment or reward. Although we acknowledge the importance of performance, especially on standardized tests, student motivation for learning is more closely tied to formative assessment.” (Tunstall, 1996; Kafton, Buck, & Haack, 2006)

Formative Assessment (Continued) “Through this dialogue, or conversation, relationships form. Students begin to trust that they do not need to copy from the book to match what the teacher wants to hear. They can write down their thoughts, however ill- fashioned, and know future comments will direct the focus of learning.” (Kafton, Buck, & Haack, 2006)

Assessment For Learning “An assessment activity can help learning if it provides information that teachers and their students can use as feedback in assessing themselves and one another and in modifying the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged. Such assessment becomes “ formative assessment” when the evidence is actually used to adapt the teaching work to meet learning needs.” (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall, & Wiliam, 2004)

Maximizing Efficacy of Formative Assessment Necessary factors: Authenticity, Variety, Volume, Validity, Reliability Principals of Effective F. A.: Reflects an understanding of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over time. Clear, explicitly stated purposes. Requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes. Ongoing, not episodic. Part of a larger set of conditions that promote change. Educators meet their responsibilities to students. (Swearingen, 2002)

Examples of Formative Assessment Use questioning and classroom discussion as an opportunity to increase their students' knowledge and improve understanding. Ask thoughtful, reflective questions rather than simple, factual questions Give students adequate time to respond –Invite students to discuss their thinking about a question or topic in pairs or small groups, then ask a representative to share the thinking with the larger group (sometimes called think-pair-share). –Present several possible answers to a question, then ask students to vote on them. –Ask all students to write down an answer, then read a selected few out loud.

How are these activities making connections for students that regular note- taking does not do?

Examples of Formative Assessment (Continued) (Kafton, Buck, & Haack, 2006) Traditional ProcessRecommended ProcessExample Students fill in blanks. Students write/draw conceptions on any big idea listed. Slope is y = mx + b (misconception). Teacher uses checkmarks. Teacher responds with probing comments. How do the slopes of parallel lines compare? Teacher grades and hands back. Student revises, expands on previous conceptions. Will the slope of the line always be the same?. Students file sheet away. Teacher responds with probing comments. How does the graph of the line relate to the values in the table? The process ends, new topic introduced. The process continues with new topics being introduced. How do the characteristics of the graph of a quadratic function relate to a linear function?

Which of these two photos contains more formative assessment data? How do I gather formative data from these activities?

Formative Assessment in a Virtual Environment How do we create opportunities to formatively assess what this student knows?

Why Assess Formatively? Studies of formative assessment show an effect size on standardized tests of between 0.4 and 0.7 (larger than most known educational interventions). (Black and Wiliam, 1998).... Formative assessment is particularly effective for students who have not done well in school, thus narrowing the gap between low and high achievers while raising overall achievement. (NCFOT, 1999, ¶ 4)

School Visit Results Use of the learning cycle Transitioning from face-to-face to online instruction Use of tracking tools (scaffolded to open-ended) Use of multiple representations that connect the tabular to the algebraic form to the graph Use of mathematical literacy (vocabulary, writing and reading to learn) Use of mathematical discourse (questioning techniques that extend student thinking) Utilizing KYVS Alg I 40% of instructional time Use of other URLs & technologies

Exemplars from the School Visit KYVS Lessons used for new learning – disjunction and naming systems of equations: reflection and closure completed through an exit slip and a double entry organizer. Class openers reviewed material that connected with the online lesson (ex. - activated prior knowledge of conjunctions using a double entry organizer, new learning online, reflection completed the right side to determine what had been learned). Writing to learn: note-taking, admit and exit slips (ex. - what other questions do you have about Lessons 15.1 & 15.2), double entry organizer.

Exemplars from the School Visit Class opener has students to connect multiple representations of an equation written in slope-intercept form: Algebraic equation Graph discussing slope and y-intercept Tabular values to look for the change in y & change in x extending to ∆y/ ∆x with labeling on the table The online lesson extended graphing skills that made the same connections.

Exemplars from the School Visit Reading to learn: use of prefixes and root words with LINEAR, INCONSISTENT. Some word walls and number lines were up without classroom reference. When online, students were engaged with the online lesson(s). Lesson plans were sent in advance by seven teachers – thanks. Conferences were held with four Principals (others were unavailable) and each is committed to hybrid instruction and willing to support computer lab time.

Exemplars from the School Visit Quote from a student, “When I get lost in trying to answer questions on the tracking tool, I always rewind the lesson so that I can hear it again and try to find the answer.” All observed classes had students with earphones and structures were in place for distribution; signing in online was cut to a minimum. Online time is at a minimum when district curriculum maps require that topics covered do not match with the KYVS lessons (Probability, functions…); can still use for review and skill building.

"Brain-Based Learning"? “Hart pushes this analogy even further in order to drive home his primary point: if classrooms are to be places of learning, then "the organ of learning," the brain, must be understood and accommodated.” Leslie Hart, Human Brain and Human Learning (1983) “…higher-level cultural developments in arithmetic emerge through the establishment of linkages between this core analogical representation (the “number line”) and other verbal and visual representations of number notations.” Stanislas Dehaene Précis of “ The number sense ” 1997

"Brain-Based Learning"? When we extend knowledge by examining it in a deeper, more analytical way, the brain uses multiple and complex systems of retrieval and integration. Brain scans demonstrate that different parts of the brain become engaged when we use complex thinking and problem-solving (Sousa, 2001).

"Brain-Based Learning"? “While it may seem natural … to present information to students in sequential order until all of the content has been covered, this approach may in fact impede learning. Neuroscientists tell us that the brain categorizes new stimuli into concepts that are either familiar or novel, then combines these concepts to create new patterns of thinking and understanding-a concept referred to as patterning.” (Mariale Hardiman, 2002)

Reminders  Office Hours; Monday (9-10 EST) & Tuesday (1-2 EST)  Help Line: - Bb: KDE, Paula White: (#4512), - KDE, Kari Welch: (#4501), - KDE, Grace Yeh: (#4537), - Identify yourself as COHORT III HYBRID ALGEBRA TEACHER  April 15, 2010, Thursday, 3:30 EST, Online Discussion – viewing prototypes of hybrid instructional best practices