1. Student Success and Effective Assessment ● Presented By: Jane Brouse

2. Agenda ● Overview of Growing Success ● Assessment for Learning and as Learning ● Best Practices ● Interactive Activity ● Wrapping it ALL up

3. Ice Breaker!  Assessment Is Like.... Choose an item from the sheet and share your thoughts on assessment  Be prepared to share…

4. Growing Success ● The “Growing Success” document has been developed and distributed for implementation by the Ministry of Education. ● At the core of the “Growing Success” document are seven fundamental principles to ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students:

5. The Seven Fundamental Principles ● To ensure that assessment, evaluation, and reporting are valid and reliable, and that they lead to the improvement of learning for all students, teachers use practices and procedures that: ● are fair, transparent, and equitable for all students; ● support all students, including those with special education needs, those who are learning the language of instruction (English or French), and those who are First Nation, Métis, or Inuit; ● are carefully planned to relate to the curriculum expectations and learning goals and, as much as possible, to the interests, learning styles and preferences, needs, and experiences of all students; ● are communicated clearly to students and parents at the beginning of the school year or course and at other appropriate points throughout the school year or course

6. The Seven Fundamental Principles ● are ongoing, varied in nature, and administered over a period of time to provide multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate the full range of their learning; ● provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful, and timely to support improved learning and achievement; ● develop students’ self-assessment skills to enable them to assess their own learning, set specific goals, and plan next steps for their learning

7. Reporting on Student's Strengths in Learning ● The following references to the curriculum documents need to be taken into consideration: ● Overall Expectations ● Fundamental Concepts ● Big Ideas ● Subject – Specific Processes ● Categories of Knowledge and Skills (achievement charts)

8. Performance Standards – The Achievement Charts ● The Ontario curriculum for Grades 1 to 12 comprises content standards and performance standards. ● Assessment and evaluation of student learning will be based on both the content standards and the performance standards. ● The content standards are the curriculum expectations, which describe the knowledge and skills that students are expected to develop and demonstrate. ● The performance standards are outlined in the achievement chart that appears in all the curriculum documents.

9. Achievement Charts Purpose ● provide a common framework that encompasses all curriculum expectations for all subjects/courses across grades; ● guide the development of high-quality assessment tasks and tools (including rubrics); ● help teachers to plan instruction for learning; ● provide a basis for consistent and meaningful feedback to students in relation to provincial content and performance standards; ● establish categories and criteria with which to assess and evaluate students’ learning. ● (taken from the Language Curriculum, pg. 17)

10. Categories of Knowledge and Skills ● Knowledge and Understanding: Subject-specific content acquired in each grade/course ● (knowledge), and the comprehension of its meaning and significance (understanding) ● Thinking: The use of critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes ● Communication: The conveying of meaning through various forms ● Application: The use of knowledge and skills to make connections within and between various contexts

11. Terminology ● The terms diagnostic, formative, and summative, are integrated into the phrases assessment for learning, assessment as learning, and assessment of learning. ● “Using the terms ‘formative assessment’ and ‘summative assessment’ can give the impression that these are different kinds of assessment or are linked to different methods of gathering evidence. This is not the case; what matters is how the information is used. Harlen (2006) ● Assessment for learning is used in making decisions that affect teaching and learning in the short term ● Assessment of learning is used to record and report what has been learned in the past ● The type of assessment is determined by what the information is to be used for

12. Assessment ● The purpose of assessment is to improve student learning ● Assessment for the purpose of improving student learning is seen as both “assessment for learning” and “assessment as learning”. ● As part of assessment for learning, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback and coaching for improvement. Teachers engage in assessment as learning by helping all students develop their capacity to be independent, autonomous learners who are able to set individual goals, monitor their own progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning. (Self Assessment)

13. Assessment for and as Learning ● Teachers need to: ● plan assessment concurrently and integrate it into instruction ● share learning goals and success criteria with students at the outset of learning to ensure that students and teachers have a common and shared understanding of these goals and criteria as learning progresses; ● gather information about student learning before, during, and at or near the end of a period of instruction, using a variety of assessment strategies and tools ● use assessment to inform instruction, guide next steps, and help students monitor their progress towards achieving their learning goals ● analyze and interpret evidence of learning ● give and receive specific and timely descriptive feedback about student learning ● help students to develop skills of peer and self-assessment

14. Dot - Mocracy ● Take some time to reflect on where you are regarding your assessment practices ● Use the dot-mocracy to share your area(s) of need. Check under Beginning, On My Way, or I'm There as a way of self assessing.

15. An Assessment Framework ● The three processes, as identified by Ramaprasad in Black and Wiliam (p. 7), are: ● establishing where the learners are going in their learning ● establishing where they are in their learning ● establishing what needs to be done to get them to where they are going.

16. An Assessment Framework ● The five strategies, adapted from Black and Wiliam (p. 8), are: ● identifying and clarifying learning goals and success criteria ● engineering effective classroom discussions and other learning tasks that elicit information about student learning ● providing feedback that helps learners move forward; ● through targeted instruction and guidance, engaging students as learning resources for one another; ● through targeted instruction and guidance, helping students understand what it means to “own” their own learning, and empowering them to do so.

17. It's YOUR Turn! ● At your table groups, read through the Assessment for Learning and as Learning Practices ● Think critically about the ones you are using and the ones that you need to work on ● Have a discussion at your table about the plus /minuses / issues with these practices ● Be prepared to share with the large group

18. Learning Goals ● A learning goal is a specific expectation re-phrased in student friendly language ● Learning goals are separate from the activity instructions ● Learning goals tell students why they are learning what they are ● Learning goals are written in kid friendly language ● Learning goals need to be visible in the classroom and displayed throughout the learning

19. Success Criteria ● Success criteria summarize the key steps or ingredients that students need in order to fulfill the learning intention or goal, the main things they need to do, include or focus on ● Effective Success Criteria... ● Are linked to the learning goal ● Are specific to an activity ● Are discussed and understood prior undertaking the activity ● Provide a scaffold and focus for students while engaged in the activity ● Are used as the basis for feedback and peer/self assessment

20. Where Do We Begin? ● Decide on the Big Idea

21. You Have Got to Go BELOW the Surface

22. Benefits for Students ● Students are more focused and interested, creating a positive learning environment ● Students are able to discuss their own work ● Students are able to talk about how they are learning rather that what they are learning ● Success can be achieved by all students ● Empowers students to become independent learners

23. Benefits to Teachers ● Teachers understand individual's learning needs ● Teachers and students are working towards a common goal that both understand ● Planning is more effective, focused and thoughtful ● Feedback becomes more focused and individualized

24. Breaking It Down! ● WALT (We are learning to...) ● We are learning to create learning goals and success criteria ● WILF (What I am looking for...) ● I can identify the writing forms curriculum expectations ● I can break the expectations down into student friendly language ● I can develop success criteria to enable students to be accountable for their learning ● I can use the example on my table as an anchor

25. Video Clip ● http://stream.hpedsb.on.ca/CST/growing_succ ess/Learning_intentions_and_success.html

26. Interactive Activity ● Complete the following activity: ● Look at the overall expectation and locate the specific expectations that cover this ● List the 'big ideas' and fundamental skills that would coincide with the expectations ● How could you assess these skills, concepts or strategies? Look at the achievement chart for assistance. Be sure to think about how you will assess your students in all areas of the achievement chart ● Record your ideas on chart paper ● Be prepared to share your work

27. Why Use Descriptive Feedback? ● provides opportunities for the student to make adjustments and improvements toward mastery of a specified skill or strategy ● Aligns teaching with the learning goals ● Drives your instruction ● Differentiates student programs ● Helps teachers to meet the needs of all learners in the classroom

28. Descriptive Feedback ● students and teachers knowing and being clear about the learning goals ● teachers offering descriptive feedback and students acting on it ● meaningful student involvement where peer and self review are regularly practiced ● deep questioning that promotes dialogue among students and teachers. ● Specific ● Relates directly to the learning ● Comparison to models, samples, exemplars ● Related to performance, not personal ● (adapted from Davies, 2000)

29. I'm Not Gonna Lie... ● Feedback sometimes feels like this...

30. What is Descriptive Feedback? ● helps teachers compare students’ academic levels and then use this information to effectively program to help students move closer to meeting the expectations ● provides teachers with opportunities to give specific, timely, results based, individual assistance to scaffold student learning ● provides students with the knowledge of where they and what they need improvement in ● provides students with a clear idea of what their next steps need to be

31. Descriptive Feedback ● “Just as budding athletes need to ● play real games, students ● need authentic contexts for ● assessment. If students do no ● more than practice skills or ● take small tests that prepare ● them for larger ones, they are ● not likely to participate in the ● Runs enthusiastically” ● “Seven Practices for Effective Learning” ● Educational Leadership, Nov. 2005, page 12

32. Providing Feedback that Moves Learners Forward ● “To be effective, feedback needs to cause thinking. Grades don’t do that. Scores don’t do that. And comments like “Good job” don’t do that either.” “Classroom Assessment: Minute by Minute, Day by Day” Educational Leadership, Nov. 2005, page 22

33. Focused Reading  Read “Why Every Student Needs Critical Friends” by Amy Reynolds  Educational Leadership/November 2009

34. TABLE Talk ● Discuss your thoughts regarding this article. ● Do you see this working with your students? ● What skills do you think students would need to be successful 'critical friends'? ● Record your thinking. ● Be prepared to share with the large group

35. Resources ● Be sure to check out my Wikispace for further readings and information regarding Growing Success

36. THANK YOU! ● It has been my pleasure to chat with you this afternoon about assessment! ● Thank you for inviting me! ● Enjoy your evening!