Formative Assessment: Supporting Achievement of College and Career Ready Standards Margaret Heritage Conditions of Learning Symposium January 28, 2016 | San Ramon, CA

Session Objectives Gain a deeper understanding of formative assessment Practice identifying formative assessment in classroom practice

Builds on prior knowledge Panic zone Comfort zonelllllllllll Learning zone Builds on prior knowledge Comfort zone What students can do next with assistance Source: Colvin, 2009

Definitional Clarity

Discussion Read the definitions on Handout 1. On your own, decide what are three key ideas about formative assessment. With a partner, discuss why you made these selections. Nanette – after the small group discussion, I was planning a whole group discussion.

Formative Assessment Is…. Formative Assessment Is Not…. generating evidence intentionally in the course of continuous teaching and learning, engagement with learners through observation, discussion, questioning, and review and analysis of tasks/work giving a test at the end of an instructional cycle or on a predetermined basis (e.g., quarterly, annually) gauging how student learning is progressing while students are in the process of learning evaluating student achievement at the end of a sequence of learning using evidence to inform immediate or near-immediate teaching and learning using test data to make decisions about medium- and long-term instructional/curricular plans

Formative Assessment Is…. Formative Assessment Is Not…. providing ongoing descriptive feedback to learners assigning grades /reporting achievement involving students in the assessment process through peer and self-assessment telling students the results of a test

ASSESSMENT IN CA’s ELA/ELD FAMEWORK

One Size Does Not Fit All

Different Levels of Detail Quarterly Annual End-of-Unit Minute-by-minute, Daily, Weekly

Assessment in the System Formative assessment process Interim/Benchmark assessment Summative assessment (CDE ELA/ELD Curriculum Framework, 2014, adapted from Herman & Heritage, 2007)

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006) Extended periods of instruction Long-term goals

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006) Interim goals Monitoring progress What has been learned

Assessment Cycles (Wiliam, 2006) Short-term goals Informing immediate teaching and learning

Types and uses of Assessment: Short-Cycle Formative Methods Information Uses/Actions Minute-by-minute -Observation -Questions (teachers and students) -Instructional tasks -Student discussions -Written work/ representations -Students’ current learning status, relative difficulties and misunderstandings, emerging or partially formed ideas, full understanding -Keep going, stop and find out more, provide oral feedback to individuals, adjust instructional moves in relation to student learning status (e.g., act on “teachable moments”) Daily Lesson Planned and placed strategically in the lesson: -Observation, -Student self-reflection (quick write) -Continue with planned instruction -Instructional adjustments in this or the next lesson -Find out more -Feedback to class or individual students (oral or written) Week -Student discussions and work products -Student self-reflection (e.g., journaling) -Students’ current learning status relative to lesson learning goals (e.g., have students met the goal(s), are they nearly there? -Instructional planning for start of new week -Feedback to students (oral or written) CA ELA/ELD Framework, Fig. 8.3

A FEEDBACK LOOP

A Feedback Loop This is the start of a mini lesson

A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FEEDBACK LOOP

A Feedback Loop This is the start of a mini lesson

Learning Goals What students will learn (not what they will do) during a lesson – one or more periods of learning Conceptual, Analytic, Linguistic

Success Criteria Performances of learning Clearly understood by students Aligned to learning goal(s) What students will say, do, make or write

Spot the Difference Interpersonal Learning Goal Learning Experience Understand the chronicle of events that led up to the internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942 and the causal relationships among these events Create a timeline of the events leading up to the history of Japanese-American Internment Understand how authors use archetypes to help us quickly recognize characters Read two texts and identify which author uses an archetype and which author uses a stereotype Use graphical representations to analyze exponential functions Explore what happens to the graph of the function, f(x) = ax when the value of a changes Interpersonal

6th Grade Math Success Criteria Learning Goals Understand the structure of a coordinate grid Relate the procedure of plotting points in quadrants to the structure of a coordinate grid I can talk & write about plotting points on a coordinate grid using mathematical language I can plot and label points in each quadrant on a coordinate grid I can create a rule about coordinate for each quadrant

7th Grade Integrated ELD Learning Goals Success Criteria I am able to discuss the perspectives that are missing from a secondary source text about the Spanish Conquistadors’ exploration of Mexico I can explain the historical event I can explain the main participants in that event I can identify the perspective from which the text is written and explain how I know that I can explain which perspective are missing and how I know that Source: MCOE

Co-Constructing Criteria

Aligned to learning goals and success criteria A Feedback Loop Aligned to learning goals and success criteria This is the start of a mini lesson

A Feedback Loop Evidence in the ongoing flow of activity and interaction in the classroom This is the start of a mini lesson

A Feedback Loop Questioning Discussion Tasks Observation Peer feedback This is the start of a mini lesson

Evidence of Each What am I looking for? listening for? What am I Conceptual Linguistic Analytical What am I looking for? listening for? What am I looking for? listening for?

Use multiplication and division to solve problems Learning Goal Ricardo has 1,135 US stamps. He has 3 times as many foreign stamps as US stamps. How many stamps does he have altogether? Use multiplication and division to solve problems Set-up The students are working on writing expressions with parentheses and are given a word problem on the board, which they are to solve using expressions and parentheses: The teacher, Ms. Castro, pre-constructs the task in terms of "three steps" to solve the problem, in which in the students state that they need to identify the question, the clues, and keywords :

Success Criteria Set-up I can determine when and how to break a problem into simpler parts I can explain the relationship between multiplication and division I can explain what the problem is asking me to do Set-up The students are working on writing expressions with parentheses and are given a word problem on the board, which they are to solve using expressions and parentheses: The teacher, Ms. Castro, pre-constructs the task in terms of "three steps" to solve the problem, in which in the students state that they need to identify the question, the clues, and keywords :

Discussion How is this teacher eliciting evidence? What does she find out? What routinized practices are in place?

6th Grade Math Start of Lesson Middle of Lesson End of Lesson Strategy: Vocabulary “Whip Around” to elicit prior knowledge and see how students understand the concept Opening Question: What comes to mind when you think of coordinate graphing? Success Criteria: Targeted vocabulary use: origin, x-axis, y-axis, coordinates, quadrant (SC1) Strategy: Walk coordinates to label each location on large graph (SC2) Describe the process verbally using correct vocabulary (SC1) Strategy Plot and label points in four quadrants to individually-design a fictional town “Robertsville” (SC1, SC2) Strategy: Generalize quadrant locations for set of coordinates verbally and in writing-cooperative groups (SC3) Chart created rules for each quadrant & gallery walk (SC3) Strategy Reflection-self assessment (SC1, SC2, SC3)

Primary Math - Primary Conferencing Notes- -Observations of sentence structure -Sentence structure modeled -Student response to modeling Small group discussion Gabriela (learning goal and language feature of focus) Make connections to the work of others Defend and share their thinking Think about their thinking Explain explicitly Peer feedback Math Talk

Self-Assessment Heritage, 2010

Self-Assessment: Goal Setting Goals for Today as a Reader: Make predictions of what’s going to happen next. Goals for Today as a Reader: Get through the tricky spots.

Self-Assessment : Student Log What was successful about your learning today? What difficulties or problems did you encounter in your learning? How did you manage those difficulties? Were you successful? If not, what plans do you have for dealing with them in the next lesson? Whom do you need help from?

Discussion How are these students involved in self-assessment? What routinized practices are in place?

Interpret evidence in relation to goal and success criteria

How to Get There? Continuing with the planned lesson Immediate deliberate acts of teaching (modeling, questioning, explaining, prompting, telling) Planning instruction for subsequent lesson Feedback Sharing with students in language they can understand Goal oriented learning Examples

Feedback Should… Be related to learning goals and success criteria Be specific and clear Provide the learner with suggestions, hints or cues for how to improve rather than correct answers Focus on the task and not on the student Engage students’ thinking

Feedback Feedback is only formative if it is USED by students Teachers must allow TIME for students to use feedback Using feedback helps students develop LEARNING STRATEGIES 48

Discussion As you watch the video, what do you notice about the characteristics of this teacher’s feedback to her student? What role is the student playing in this interaction?

Peer Feedback

Peer Feedback Benefits giver as much as receiver Students internalize learning goal Gain insights into own learning Helps self-assessment Modeled and supported by teacher

Peer Feedback Students analyze the work of others, provide feedback on what they are doing well and determine potential next steps based on their observations.

Peer Feedback Interactive Ongoing Reference for future thinking and learning

Discussion As you watch the video, what do you notice about the characteristics of the students’ feedback? What routinized practices are in place?

Sharon “Formative assessment has not only changed me as a teacher but I believe it has changed the students as learners.” Heritage, 2010, p. 5

Shawn I used to do a lot of explaining, but now I do a lot of questioning. I used to do a lot of talking, but now I do a lot of listening. I use to think about teaching the curriculum, but now I think about teaching the student. Heritage, 2010, p. 4

Thank You!