Quick FA Techniques

Good assessment is frequent assessment.

Any assessment is designed to provide a snapshot of student understand—the more snapshots, the more complete the full picture of knowledge.

On its best day, an assessment will be 100% effective, telling you exactly what a student understands. More commonly, the return will be significantly lower as the wording of questions, the student’s sense of self-efficacy, or other factors diminish their assessment performance. It sounds obvious, but a student is a human being with an entire universe of personal problems, distraction, and related challenges in recalling the information in the form the assessment demands.

This makes a strong argument for frequent assessment, as it can be too easy to over-react and “remediate” students who may be banging against the limits of the assessment’s design rather than their own understanding. Rather than re-teaching, sometimes all that is necessary is re-measuring.

It is a huge burden (for both teachers and students) to design, write, complete, grade, and absorb the data into an instructional design sequence on a consistent basis. So why not frequent, simple assessments?

Simple Assessments

The word “simple” here is misleading. Rather than describing the cognitive load on the student, it instead describes the complexity of the assessment form itself. The simpler the assessment—in terms of process and logistics—the more “purely” it can function as a tool to get at what a student actually understands, and help youidentify how to help them.

Then, due to their brevity, they’re simple to grade–in fact, you can grade them as exit slips–which makes taking the data and informing instruction (the whole point of assessment) a much simpler process as well.

1. New Clothes

Take a given topic—thesis statements, push-pull factors, the scientific process, etc.—and describe how it can be used in some way other than how you’ve been taught.

Example of Student Response: We’ve learned the scientific process by looking at how actual scientists study new things, but the scientific process would also make an excellent tool for detectives to use while pursuing criminals. It would allow them to observe data, form theories, test theories while collecting more data, and draw conclusions that can then be judged in a court of law.

2. Dos & Don’ts

List 3 Dos and 3 Don’ts when using, applying, relating to the content (e.g., 3 Dos and Don’ts for solving an equation).

Example of Student Response: When adding fractions, DO find a common denominator, DO add the numerators once you’ve found a common denominators, DON’T simply add the denominators

3. Three Most Common Misunderstandings

List what you think might be the three most common misunderstandings of a given topic based on an audience of your peers.

Example of Student Response: In analyzing tone, most people probably confuse mood and tone, forget to look beyond the diction to the subtext as well, and to strongly consider the intended audience.

4. Yes/No Chart

List what you do and don’t understand about a given topic—what you do on the left, what you don’t on the right, but you overly-vague responses don’t count. Specificity matters!

Example of Student Response: In learning about paragraph structure (Do Understand): what a topic sentence is, how many sentences a paragraph should have, that a paragraph should be about one idea; (Don’t Understand) how a paragraph can have a conclusion, how to know when I’ve given enough supporting details in the paragraph, how to revise a paragraph

5. Three Questions

Ask three questions about the topic, then rank them in terms of their importance/value.

Example of Student Response: Low Importance: Does the prefix “tri” mean 3? Medium Importance: Is the triangle the only 3-sided geometrical figure? High Importance: Why don’t triangles show up very often in nature (as so many other shapes do)?

6. Explain What Matters

Explain the most critical part of a given topic to a self-selected audience (must clarify) in two or fewer sentences. (Audience can be anyone!)

Example of Student Response: The most important part of a thesis statement is clarity and conviction, so I’ll explain that one to Jay-Z: A thesis statement is kind of like the hook or title of one of your songs–it delivers the message that the song goes on to explain. Feel me?

7. Big Picture

Diagram the context–where does it fit in and how does it function in its natural “bigger picture.” This is good for abstract or right-brain thinkers.

Example of Student Response: It is impossible to understand the rules we live by and how they’re formed without understanding the 3 branches of government.

8. Venn Diagram

Compare/Contrast a given topic to a tangent topic (e.g., the water cycle to distillation, symbolism to allusion, etc.)

Example of Student Response: A Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting symbolism and allusion, or tone and mood.

9. Draw It

Draw what you do understand.

Example of Student Response: A drawing of what an adjective thinks about a noun, or a how much smaller in size the thousandth’s place is compared to the ten’s place.

10. Self-Directed Response

Prove to me you understand in diagram, written, or related form in a way that a stranger would understand.

Example of Student Response: I wrote this chorus of a song I’ve been thinking of that would explain this character’s motivation….

Combining Terry’s ten with the ten we’ve blogged about can give teachers 20 great formative assessment strategies for measuring student learning. Be sure to click on the links and visit the blog posts to learn more about these formative assessment techniques.

11. The Popsicle™ Stick
12. The Exit Ticket
13. The Whiteboard
14. Corners
15. Think-Pair-Share
16. Two Stars and a Wish
17. Carrousel Brainstorming
18. Jigsaw
19. ABCD Cards
20. Basketball Discussions (C: PPPBounce)

Here are a couple more assessments you can use to elicit evidence of student learning.

21. Entrance Tickets – We’ve blogged about and explained The Exit Ticket, so why not have an Entrance Ticket? Here the teacher asks a question at the start of a lesson and students write their responses on index cards or strips of paper. She uses them to assess initial understanding of something to be discussed in that day’s lesson or as a short summary of understanding of the previous day’s lesson. The teacher designs the lesson around the fact that information on student learning will be coming in at the start of the lesson and can be used to improve the teaching and learning in that lesson. She designs the question so it is easily interpreted and analyzed, allows time for herself and/or the students to analyze the responses, and adjusts the lesson accordingly (if needed).

22. Keep the Question Going – With this formative assessment technique, the teacher asks one student a question and then asks another student if that answer seems reasonable or correct. Then, he asks a third student for an explanation of why there is an agreement or not. This helps keep all the students engaged because they must be prepared to either agree or disagree with the answers given and provide explanations.

All of these 22 formative assessment techniques are simple to administer and free or inexpensive to use. They provide the teacher with the evidence of student learning needed to make lesson plan adjustments and keep student learning on target and moving forward. They also provide valuable information for the students so they can adjust their learning tactics and know where to focus their energies.

PLUS:  40 ways to leave a lesson:  http://edc448uri.wikispaces.com/file/view/40_ways_to_leave_a_lesson.pdf

Smarter - Balance

The sample items and performance tasks are intended to help teachers, administrators, and policymakers implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and preparing for next-generation assessments. They provide an early look into the depth of understanding of the CCSS that will be measured by the Smarter Balanced assessment system. While the items and tasks are not intended to be used as sample tests, educators can use them to begin planning the shifts in instruction that will be required to help students meet the demands of the new assessments.

Our Assessment Goals if they are to aligned with SBAC:

·            UBD:  rubric, product development, process, over view of task

o   Consider how to spiral tasks throughout a unit and the year

·            Alignment: Daily instruction matches formative assessment matches summative/common assessments

·            Text Demand: 

o   Assess and reassess reading materials (are they grade level?)

o   How do we get them into grade level text?

o   What is the place for independent level texts?

o   How do we close the gap AND give access to grade level text?

·            Never one text

o   Mixed media on topics

§  How do you watch a video and take notes?

o   Visual Literacy

o   Include a wide range of reading and writing

·            Cold reads and think alouds

o   Assessments are not supported by the teacher – make sense of the prompt

o   Support with video after?

o   This needs to be modeled ongoingly.

·            Refine prompts: 

o   Prompt provides format, audience, topic, and purpose (FATP)

§  Prompts should use authentic readings and create authentic reasons to write.

§  Create reading assessments that support appropriate writing levels (scaffolds)

o   Aligns with formative assessment

o   Timed

§  build stamina for length of reading time and amount read in a certain period of time

§  How do I get students to do more in less time?

§  Build fluency with skills

o   Write good directions so they don’t need help from me – they have to figure out the prompt

o   Include a range of reading and writing

o   Refine our prompts to include: Multiple text responses

o   Aligns with formative assessment

·            Work toward independence; Gradual release of Graphic Organizer

·            How do I help kids who struggle without spoon-feeding the material?

o   Small group instruction based on meaningful evidence

·            Rethink accommodations for SpEd and ELL

Structuring a Writing Task:  3 parts

Part One: State what you want the students to do, carefully choosing your

                task verb. Be sure the students understand the task verb (analyze,

                explain, describe, compare, tell a story…) 

(Clear directions allow for independence from the teacher!  It also supports students who are not auditory by nature.)

Part Two: Provide a short word bank (list of 5-10 words that will work well in

       this writing task, but that the students would probably not have thought of

       by themselves:

(The words chosen can be differentiated OR higher writers can get the words, others can get words with definitions and/or pictures...)

Part Three: Provide 2 or 3 sentence frames that will work well in this writing task:

(Expectations for use can vary:  is it voluntary? used to plan and then revised out if possible? used.)

Ex: Sentence frame for argument:

Talking Testing - new website by many leading reading researchers.


In discussions of _____________, one controversial issue has been

___________________________. People who believe____________

claim that________________________________. On the other hand,

those who believe _____________________________ assert that

______________________________________________________.

My own view is __________________________________________

Examples of Performance Tasks: 

•  From Oregon (grade level performance tasks at all DOK levels)

Examples of Online Test Questions:

3-5^th Grades:

1.     What does Naomi learn about Grandma Ruth? Use details from the text to support your answer.

a.      Type your answer in the space provided

2.     Read the sentences from the passage. Then answer the question.

a.      “My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right in the middle was a big signature in black ink that I had somehow overlooked. It was smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said ‘Babe Ruth.’ I began to shake inside.”

b.     Click on two phrases from the paragraph that help you understand the meaning of scarred.

3.     Read this part of the text again.

a.       “It turns out my mother loved the name Ruth. That’s how I got my name and how my father got these: he let Ty Cobb name me after Babe Ruth.”  I tried to swallow but couldn’t. I hoped that she wasn’t going to say what I thought she was going to say.

b.     Then she said it.

c.      “In this shoebox are the ten baseballs Ty Cobb gave my father. They are signed by some of the most famous ballplayers in history, including one that has one single signature on it: Babe Ruth’s.”

d.     My grandma pulled the ball out, unwrapped it, and held it out for us to see. The ball was scarred almost beyond recognition. It had dog bite marks, dirt scuffs, and fraying seams. Right in the middle was a big signature in black ink that I had somehow overlooked. It was smudged now and faded, but it still clearly said “Babe Ruth.” I began to shake inside.

e.      But my grandma just looked at the ball and smiled sweetly. She said softly, “Even though it doesn’t look like much, this ball has brought our family a lot of joy in its time. I remember when I was your age, Naomi, I almost rubbed the signature right off from tossing it up and down all the time. You see, I’ve always felt that a baseball should be used for a lot more than looking. My dad, your great-grandfather, used to say the same thing.”

f.       Select three sentences that show that Naomi is worried she has done something wrong.

6-8^th Grades:

1.     How does the author emphasize the point that the TAM program was a positive influence on the sisters’ lives? Use details from the text to support your answer.

2.     Highlight the parts of the text that provide evidence to support the idea that the Tuskegee Airmen were historically important.

3.     What does the author mean by “the sky is no longer the limit”? How does the meaning apply to the Anyadike sisters? Use details from the text to support your response.

High school:

1.     Read the sentence from the text. Then answer the question.

a.      “Nanodiamonds are stardust, created when ancient stars exploded long ago, disgorging their remaining elements into space.”

b.     Based on the context of the sentence, what is the most precise meaning of disgorging?

2.     Which of the following best identifies what the discovery of diamond icebergs teaches us about the nature and properties of diamonds?

a.      Diamonds have a changeable state of matter.

b.     Diamonds can reach sizes larger and heavier than the Earth.

c.      Diamonds found on Earth can originate from distant parts of space.

d.     Diamonds help scientists better understand the formation of galaxies.

3.     Read this sentence from the passage.

a.      “Besides being beautiful to contemplate, space diamonds teach us important lessons about natural processes going on in the universe, and suggest new ways that diamonds can be created here on Earth.”

b.     Explain how information learned from space diamonds can help scientists make diamonds on Earth. Use evidence from the passage to support your answer.

c.      Type your answer in the space provided.

Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam

5 Key Strategies & TALK:

1. LT/SC (Chapter 3):  30 second share, group discussion on LT/SC
2. Eliciting Evidence of Learning (Chapter 4):  ABCD Cards, Exit Tickets, Diagnostic Questions
3. Provide Feedback that moves learning forward (Chapter 5):  Find & Connect, * * Wish
1. Feedback is more effectively recieved with they are in control of what they are working on.
4. Ownership of Learning:  Stop/Slow Signals, ? Strips, Traffic Lighting, Self-assessment
5. Accountable for Group Learning:  Carousel, Think/Pair/Share, Jigsaw

Embedded Formative Assessment by Dylan Wiliam
*Very informative and helpful book - highly recommend reading it!

Notes:

Chapter 2 - A Case for Formative Assessment:

• The best teachers fail all the time because they have such high aspirations for what their students can achieve (generally much higher than the students themselves have) (29).
• Formative assessment could be called cognitively guided instruction!
• When teachers set rules about how they would review the data and the actions that were to follow before they assessed their students, the gains in achievement were twice as great as those cases in which the follow-up action was left to the judgement of the individual's teacher once the data had been collected.  Interestingly, when teachers produced graphs of the progress of individual students as a guide and stimulus to action, the effect was almost 3 times as great as when this was not done (35).
• We concluded that the research suggested that attention to the use of assessment to inform instruction, particularly at the classroom level, in many cases effectively doubled the speed of student learning. ... Student with which the teachers used formative assessment techniques made almost twice as much progress over the year (37).
• Formative  Assessment:  the process used by teachers and students to recognise and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning (37).
• Formative and summative make much more sense as descriptors of the function that assessment data serve, rather than of the assessments themselves (39).  (Change name to assessment for learning.)
• Assessment functions formatively to the extent that evidence about student achievement is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers to make decisions about the next steps in instruction that are likely to be better, or better founded, than the decisions they would have mde in the absense of that evidence (43).
• Questions:  Where are learners in their learning?  Where are they going?  How will we get there?  (Look at chart on page 46.)

Chapter 3:  Clarifying, Sharing, and Understanding Learning Targets and Success Criteria:

• Ensuring that all students know what quality work looks like has a profound impact on achievement gaps (55).
• Learning Targets and Success Criteria are ..."useless to those who don't understand what is meant (58)
• The advantage of developing the learning (targets) with the students is that doing so creates a mechanism whereby students can discuss and come to own the LT/SC, making it more likely that they will be able to apply the LT/SC in the context of their own work (59).
• LT/SC must be generalizable - transferable...they are best when "students are able to tranfer their learning to novel contexts."  Ex:  instead of "write instruction on how to change a bicycle tire" use "To be able to write clear instructions"  Context of learning:  Changing a bicycle tire.  (More examples on pg 61.)
• During learning, it is useful to build a degree of generality into scoring rubrics so as to promote transfer.  (Task-specific rubrics are generally more appropriate for summative assessment.) (62)
• Process criteria are particularly important in helping student become owners of their own learning (64).
• How?  (Opportunities to talk about quality work appear to be unlimited (67).)

1. Look at samples of other students' work and engage in a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each.  Co-construct a scoring rubric.
2. Create a "what not to write/do" list...
3. Return essay with copies of 3 best essays attached.  Read the essays and compare/contrast with own essay.  Revise and edit and resubmit. 
4. Student generated questions for tests - hard and sheds light on their thinking. (68)
5. WALT / WILF / TIB - We are learning to... / What I'm looking for is... / This is because... (69)

Chapter 4 - Eliciting Evidence of Learners' Achievement

• Teachers must acknowledge that what their students learn is not necessarily what they intended, and this is inevitable because of the unpredictability of teaching.  Thus,  it is essential that teachers explore students' thinking before assuming that students have understood something.  However, generating questions that provide these powerful insights into students' thinking is far from straightforward (75).  Goal of questions:  you cannot get the right answer for the wrong reasons.
• Sharing high-quality questions may be the most significant thing we can do to improve the quality of student learning (104)
• Grading vs FA - ...does the teacher find out whether students have understood something when they are still in the class, when there is time to do something about it, or does the teacher only discover this once he looks at the students' notebooks?  Viewed from this perspective, grading can be seen as the punishment given to teachers for failing to find out that they did not achieve the intended learning when the students were in front of them (78)!
• How much students learn depends more on the quality than the quantity of talk (79).
• Less than 10% of the questions that were asked by teachers in these classrooms actually caused new learning.
• 2 reasons to ask questions:  to cause thinking and to reveal thinking (provide information for teachers about what to do next) (79).  
• When teachers allow students to choose whether to participate or not - for example, by allowing them to raise their hands to show they have an answer - they are actually making the achievement gap worse, because those who are participating are getting smarter, while those avoiding engagement are forgoing the opportunities to increase their ability (81).  
• It is better to assume that students do not know something when they do than it is to assume they do know something when they don't (95)
• How? (82-94)

1. Pose - Pause ("1-2-3-4, gotta wait a little more/ 5-6-7-8, don't start now you gotta wait")- Pounce - Bounce
2. Popsicle sticks
3. I don't know = If you did know, what would you say...  OR I'll come back to you after 2 more people share, listen carefully so that you'll know then.
4. Wait time 2-3 seconds...
5. Think - pair - share
6. Listen interpretively  (instead of evaluatively - for the right or wrong answer) - What such teachers seek to learn from the students' response is not, "did they get it?" but rather, "What can I learn about the students' thinking by attending carefully to what they say?"
7. Question Shells:  Instead of "Is a ...?" ask "Why is a ... a ..."  Ex:  "Why is a square a trapezoid?" or instead of "What is a prime number?" ask "Why is 17 prime and 15 not?"
8. Hot seat questioning
9. All student responses (should take 1-2 minutes) - white boards/page protectors, thumbs, fingers,  (Instead of do you understand...ask is this correct? ), ABCD cards/Corners - hold up the card to indicate what you think is right / go to corner and discuss (or get retaught), Exit tickets
10. Hinge Questions (100) - "...design each lesson with at least one "hinge" in the instructional sequence.  The hinge is a point at which the teacher checks whether the class is ready to move on through the use of a diagnostic question.  how the lesson proceeds depends on the level of understanding shown by the students, so the direction of the lesson hinges at this point (101)."

Chapter 5 - Providing Feedback that Moves Learning Forward

• The students receiving the constructive feedback learned twice as fast as the control-group students...(108)  Comment only was better than scores only AND scores and comments.
• Teacher praise is far more effective if it is infrequent, credible, contingent, specific, and genuine.  It is also essential that praise is related to factors within an individual's control (111).
• The greater the mindfulness, the more the learning (111) - Connected to "struggle" in studio work.
• Students given the scaffolded response (only given the minimum amount of support to get them unstuck and to make progress) learned more and retained their learning longer than those given full solutions (111).
• Feedback - oral over written - that was given in class with time to use it improved their work more so than other types of feedback (113).
• Possible Responses to feedback (115):  exert more/less effort, increase/decrease aspiration (goal), abandon goal, and/or reject feedback.
• Dimensions of Attraibutions of Success/Failure (pg 117)
• Feedback functions formatively only if the inforamtion fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance (120).  Think of coaching... feedback moves learning forward.  Effective feedback provides a recipe for future action... 4 key elements:  1.  setting the desired state/ 2.  establishes the current state / 3. compares the current with desired state / 4.  means of bringing the current state in line with the desired state.
• Never grade students while they are still learning.  As soon as students get a grade, the learning stops.  ~Alfie Kohn
• Grades should be used as infrequently as possible.
• GREAT GRADING IDEA - 125
• Feedback should cause thinking (instead of emotional response).  Feedback should be more work for the recipient than the donor (129)  Feedback should relate to the LT/SC that have been shared with the students.
• How?

1. Grading scheme for improvement (128)
2.  Minus, equal, plus - work is decreasing, staying the same, or getting better + comments
3. Three Questions  - read work and respond with three questions. Students respond to the questions...
4. 5 wrong answers - find them.  OR Dot in the margin = something wrong...

Chapter 6 - Activating Students as Instructional Resources for One Another

• Working in a group provides:  motivation, social cohesion (students care about the group), personalization (students learn more from peers), and cognitive elaboration (those who provide help in group settings are forced to think through the ideas more clearly) (134).
• The effect of peer tutoring can be almost as strong as one-on-one instruction from a teacher (134)
• There must be group goals AND individual accountability.
• How?

1. Secret student (norms etc)
2. Trailing Edge - each group is given the grade of the lowest-scoring member of the group.  "If the score is taken as an indication of how well the group worked as a group, then the awared score seems more reasonable.")
3. C3B4Me
4. Peer evaluation of HW
5. HW help board  OR corners
6. 2 stars and a wish - if on sticky notes, teacher should use doc camera to show effective/useful sticky notes and not.
7. Group questions - must have one.
8. Error classification - classify the errors that were made and find someone who didn't make them!
9. What did we learn today?  (Connect to LT/SC) - groups can produce a list and then share one.
10. I - You - We reflection:  Each student records something about his/her own contributions, something about other individual's contributions, and an evaluation of the quality of the work of the group as a whole.
11. Group based test - like KV's homework structure
12. If you've learned it, help someone who hasn't... "The students who learn most in group work are those who give help and those who receive it, provided the help is in the form of elaborated explanations rather than just answers (143).

Chapter 7 - Activating Students as Owners of Their Own Learning

• All students can improve how they  manage the learning process and become owners of their own learning.
• We intuitively grasp that teachers do not create learning; only learners create learning (145).
• Students can develop sufficient insights into their own learning to improve it (146).
• Using self-assessment in these 25 classrooms had almost doubled the rate at which students were learning (147).
• There is another way to think about motivation - not as a cause but as a consequence of achievement (149).
• "Flow" ...arise through a match between one's capability and the challenge of the task.  When the level of challenge is low and the level of capability is high = boredom.  when the level of challenge is high and the level of capability is low = anxiety.  When both are low, the result is apathy.  However, when both capability and challenge are high = "flow" (150).  C:  "Just right" books
• Assessment can imporve instruction, but it can also impact the learner's willingness, desire, and capacity to learn (151).
• Goals;  1.  share LT/SC so that they are able to monitor their own progress toward them / 2.  Promote the belief that ability is incremental rather than fixed / 3.  Make it more difficult for students to compare themselves with others in terms of achievement / 4.  Provide feedback that contains a recipe for future action / 5.  Use every opportunity to transfer executive control of the learning form the teacher to the students to support their development as autonomous learners (152).
• How?

1. Compile list of what they have learned.
2. Traffic Lights - red, yellow, green cups  (Green indicates confidence that the intended learning has been achieved.  Yellow indicates either ambivalence about the extent to which the intended learning has been achieved or that the objectives have been partially met.  Red indicates that the student believes that he or she has not learned what was intended.  Students rate themselves and then teacher says, "Reds over here with me; greens help the yellows; yellows make sure that greens understand this as well as they think they do."  (Also, mark pages of review packet with red, yellow, green)
3. Learning Logs:  Today I learned... I was surprised by... The most useful think I will take from this lesson is... I was interested in... What I liked most about this lesson was... One thing I'm not sure about is... The main thing I want to find out more about is....After this session, I feel... I might have gotten more from this lesson is...

Epilogue - Why Formative Assessment?

• Indications suggest that it is more, and better, general education for more of the population that will guarantee America's future prosperity (159).
• Marianne Williamson (1992) writes, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."  We now know that the teacher is the most powerful influence on how much a student learns and that teachers can continue to make significant improvements in their practice throughout their entire careers (162)."

Thursday, I watched a webinar on Formative Assessment given by Dylan William (author of Inside the Black Box and Minute by Minute...)

Below are the big ideas:

Webinar notes - Webinar featuring Dylan William: 

 

Big Ideas:

• What children learn is unpredictable….
• Assessment is the bridge between teaching and learning….
• Use evidence about achievement to make decisions about our instructions.
• Metaphor:  Pilots navigate (origin, destination, plan the route, monitor progress make adjustments to the course as conditions dictate) VS Teachers instruct/assess 
• Changing classroom practice is more than providing a tips/techniques for teachers.  What kinds of support do teachers need to implement these types of techniques:  Slow down, provide choice, and create accountability.

What is FA?  Research says...

•  long cycle – 4-6 weeks, monitor student progress, “weighing the pig doesn’t fatten it” – are we headed in the right direction?  Grades – improves thinking about learning, but not learning itself.
• shorter the cycle, the bigger the impact!  The closer the measurement is to the learning, the more impactful it will be.  We use the cues, but not systematically.

Most important parts of the FA:

• Engagement (no place to hide) and 
• responsiveness (using the responses to make adjustments or not)….

Unpack FA:  three questions:  Where are we going?  Where are we now?  How do we get there?

1.  Where are we going?  
   1. Clarify, Share and Communicate  (Learning Target)  This is essential BUT consider these cautions:
      1. Not always possible to be that clear….reacting to poetry!  A whole horizon of goals that are OK. 
      2. Telling them where they are going can ruin the journey/problem.  
      3. Uninspired teaching/teacher if start every class period with a learning objective
   2. LT:  all students benefited, but the lowest students benefited the most from LT and reflective feedback.  Sharing learning intentions (codes of success/ what good work in a subject looks like) closes the achievement gap.
      1. When they find mistakes in other people’s work, they are far less likely to make those same mistakes in their own work.
      2. Provide students the chance to design their own tasks/tests.  More effective form of test preparation
2. Where are we now?
   1. Engineering effective questions, discussions and tasks to find out where students are right now.  Sometimes a statement will lead to more thoughtful discussions than a question.
   2. The RIGHT questions are hard to create on the spot - we need to spend time planning these.
      1. When we ask a question and we get the answers we are looking for, we are tempted to assume it is for the right reasons.  What assumptions are we making?
      2. You cannot give effective feedback unless you ask the right questions in the first place.  It’s hard to come up with these questions…that’s what we should spend time planning!
      3. No Hands Up – more important – (if hands – 2 classrooms:  1) volunteers who are getting smarter and 2) avoiders that are missing out on getting smarter!  Creates bigger and bigger gap.) 
         1.  Random picking,
         2. “IDK” – “Great I’ll come back to you.” Get 3 answers and then say, “Which of those did you like more and why?”
         3. Every 20 – 30 minutes – get response from every student.  (clickers, dry erase boards, etc…)
3. What will we need to do to get there?
   1. Providing feedback that will move learning forward is essential.  Goal:  not feedback about what happened in the past, but feedback about how to improve in the future.  Students should be able to use it in future learning/efforts.
      1. Tells learners what they need to do and HOW to do that.  Causes thinking  - as soon as feedback causes an emotional reaction, learning has stopped.
      2. 4 Responses to feedback:  A) change behavior, B) change goal (increase or decrease level of complexity), C) abandon goal ("math is stupid"), D) reject feedback
      3. Do grades result in the response we want?
         1. If there is a grade, students don't read comments.  We have to stop doing the things that take too much time and don't produce the results we want.  What is that?  Grading!  We grade too much and it doesn't impact learning in a positive way.
         2. How do we get students to read comments? 
            1. Write comments and give them to groups.  Have groups match the comment with the paper/project.  Explain why.
            2. Vague comments:  5 problems are wrong - find them
            3. Feedback should be more work for the recipient than teachers! Make sure your feedback causes them to do something!!  This means there has to be time allotted to respond to feedback.
            4. Give the same amount of feedback to all students.  How to improve and how to get even better.  "There is no there!"
            5. Goal:  less feedback, high quality feedback, and time to respond to the feedback.
   2. Create students as learners and resources for each other.
      1. When students are involved in their own learning and the learning of others, they have better retention both in the long and short term.
      2. Activating students as owners of their learning (independence and autonomy, increased freedom of choice and personal responsibility):
         1. Doubles the speed in student learning
         2. Idea:  Learning portfolio (shows your journey, effort leads to progress, smart is not something you are, it is something you become.  Looking back reinforces this idea.) – not performance portfolio (latest and best work)-
         3. What did you find + easy / - hard, challenging / Interesting or weird
      3. Training students to pose questions after a piece of learning.  Encourage students to ask questions, “In your group, find out if anyone has a question that you cannot answer in your group.”  Or “Put a question on a slip of paper and then sort questions and answer them.”  “We went over complex material, you must have at least one question.”
         1. **Making students ask questions as they are learning has a lot of research backing it.****
      4. Resources for each other:
         1. Idea:  always have a "pre-flight" check list - buddy is responsible and held accountable for signing off on checklists....

·         Keeping Learning on Track – NWEA resource.