1. Assessment Information
Aligning Instruction and Assessment

2. Four Critical Questions that Guide a PLC
1. What are students supposed to know and be able to do?
PRIORITIZED and UNWRAPPED CORE STANDARDS
2. How do we know when our students have learned?
COMMON FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
3. How do we respond when students haven't learned?
DATA TEAMS /INTERVENTION
4. How do we respond when students already know the content?
DIFFERENTIATION/EXTENSIONS
The PLC process is guided by four critical questions that are credited to DuFour, The work you will be undertaking in PLCs to affect student achievement will be to prioritize and unwrap Core Standards, create common formative assessments, plan interventions with differentiation of the curriculum in mind.

3. A High Impact Initiative: The Utah Core State Standards
Accomplishment begins with a focused set of action steps!
Data Teams (PLCs)
Common Formative Assessments
“Unwrapping” the Standards
Priority Standards

4. Priority Standards Carefully selected subset of all standards
Used for common formative assessments/Data teams (PLCs)
Students MUST know and be able to do by the end of the year
Remind them that it is what students need to know AT THE END OF THE YEAR. They will have opportunities to teach and reteach these standards throughout the year.

5. The “Unwrapping” Standards Process
1. “Unwrap” standards and indicators to identify important concepts and skills to be taught
2. Represent the “unwrapped” concepts and skills on graphic organizer

6. Step 1: Underline Nouns, Circle Verbs
Carefully read through your selected standard
Underline the key concepts (important nouns or noun phrases)
Circle the skills (verbs)

7. Step 2: Create a Graphic Organizer
Example: RI 4.2 Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details; summarize the text
SKILLS –DO (Verbs)
CONCEPTS-KNOW (Nouns)
Rigor (Bloom’s/DOK)
Determine
Main idea of text
Explain
Main idea
Support
Main idea with key details
Summarize
Text
How can the “unwrapped” standards help you clarify and scaffold your instruction?

8. SAGE Elementary ELA Blueprints: 42 Items
Grades 3, 4 & 5
Reporting Category/Strands
Reporting Category /Strands Percentage
Reading Literature
22%
Reading Informational Text
Writing
26%
Listening
15%
Language
TOTAL
100%
Note: The percentages shown represent target aggregate values; individual student experiences will vary based on the adaptive algorithm.

9. SAGE Secondary ELA Blueprint: 42 Items
Grade 6
Reporting Category/Strands
Reporting Category /Strands Percentage
Reading Literature
20%
Reading Informational Text
25%
Writing
Listening
15%
Language
TOTAL
100%

10. Depth of Knowledge
Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is an essential component of English language arts instruction and assessment, and is fully supported by the new Utah Core Standards. As such, DOK is integrated in all ELA item design throughout the Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence (SAGE) and their respective blueprints. All students will see a variety of DOK and item difficulty on the summative SAGE.

11. It’s NOT about the verb...
The Depth of Knowledge is NOT determined by the verb (like in Bloom’s Taxonomy), but by the context in which the verb is used and the depth of thinking required.

12. Same Verb—Three Different DOK Levels
DOK 1- Describe three characteristics of metamorphic rocks. (Requires simple recall)
DOK 2- Describe the difference between metamorphic and igneous rocks. (Requires cognitive processing to determine the differences in the two rock types)
DOK 3- Describe a model that you might use to represent the relationships that exist within the rock cycle. (Requires deep understanding of rock cycle and a determination of how best to represent it)

13. Webb’s Four Levels of Cognitive Complexity
Level 1: Recall and Reproduction
Level 2: Skills & Concepts
Level 3: Strategic Thinking
Level 4: Extended Thinking

14. DOK Level 1: Recall and Reproduction
Requires recall of information, such as a fact, definition, term, or performance of a simple process or procedure
Answering a Level 1 item can involve following a simple, well-known procedure or formula

15. Skills/Concepts: DOK Level 2
Includes the engagement of some mental processing beyond recalling or reproducing a response
Items require students to make some decisions as to how to approach the question or problem
Actions imply more than one mental or cognitive process/step

16. Strategic Thinking: Level 3
Requires deep understanding exhibited through planning, using evidence, and more demanding cognitive reasoning
The cognitive demands are complex and abstract
An assessment item that has more than one possible answer and requires students to justify the response would most likely be a Level 3

17. Extended Thinking: Level 4
Requires high cognitive demand and is very complex
Students are expected to make connections, relate ideas within the content or among content areas, and select or devise one approach among many alternatives on how the situation can be solved
Due to the complexity of cognitive demand, DOK 4 often requires an extended period of time

18. Resources for DOK
DOK Matrix
DOK Question Stems

19. Common Formative Assessments

20. Improve assessment literacy through a deeper understanding of the assessment design process
Understand how CFAs are the centerpiece of an integrated standards and assessment system
Explore how the implementation of the CFA process improves instruction for all students.
Create first-draft items for a CFA

21. Big Ideas Assessment is driven by purpose
Formative assessment involves both process and product
Assessment design is specific to the learning goals (prioritized, unwrapped standards)
CFAs only focus on priority standards
Feedback system is also a critical component of CFAs-so students understand the process and are able to see their learning and growth.
Make sure you only emphasis the priority standards in your CFAs. If you feel your assessment should include a “rail”, reconsider your priority standards or include those on the mid-checkpoints.

22. Interdependent Practices
Standards-Assessment Alignment Diagram
CFAs are the Centerpiece of an integrated standards-assessment system

23. Assessment of and for learning
Read pages of Common Formative Assessments by Larry Ainsworth
Jigsaw and share learning.
All read page (Formative and Summative Assessments Defined)
#1 read Pages (Changing the Traditional Instruction-Assessment Cycle)
#2 read pages (Assessment of Learning)
#3 read pages (Assessment for Learning)

24. Formative vs. Summative
Assessment FOR student learning
How can we guide learning?
Often non-graded
Moving picture of their learning
A process during learning
Assessment OF learning
What have students learned?
Typically graded
Snapshot of their learning
An event after learning
Formative (Doctor Visit)
Summative (Autopsy)

25. Common Formative Assessments
What the Experts Say:
Focus on student learning
Are team-created or agreed upon
Results are collaboratively analyzed and action taken
Immediate feedback provided for students and teachers
Students have multiple opportunities for success

26. Grade Level Team Planning
Review your priority standards for your GL. Identify those that match the focus for an upcoming unit of study
Review your benchmark pre-test data.
Determine a priority standard that you need to focus on as a GL Team
Each team member independently construct one multiple-choice question that assesses the selected priority standard.

27. Next Collaboration Time
Come prepared with your 1 multiple choice (or other) question to share with your team
Be prepared to discuss the DOK of the item you wrote
As a team, you will fine tune your questions.
Determine DOK levels
Write one question collaboratively
Write one constructed response question collaboratively
Create a scoring rubric for the constructed response question
Be prepared to practice using tools and techniques to evaluate and improve the quality of CFAs

28. Common Formative Assessment Support
Common Core Resources
Unpacking the standards-North Carolina Documents
Clark County School District Common Core Supports
K-12- A document for each grade level that describes the core in user-friendly terminology. It also has key questions that students would need to be able to answer to show mastery of the core.
2. Says they have unwrapped standards, but they are really resources for accessing and understanding the core (not unwrapped as we understand it). It does have I can statements, essential questions, and big ideas for each standard. It is a treasure-trove of great resources on the core.