FA and Feedback Bonanza - Notes from 2 ASCD Magazines and 2 Webinars

Articles Read:

1. ​"The Bridge Between Today's Lesson and Tomorrow's" by Carol Ann Tomlinson
2. "The Right Questions, The Right Way" by Dylan Wiliam
3. "Thoughtful Assessment with the Learner in Mind" by Jan Chappuis
4. "Formative Assessment in Seven Good Moves" by Brent Duckor
5. "Student-Owned Homework - By using homework for practice in self-assessment and complex thinking skills, we can put students in charge of the learning process." by Cathy Vatterott
6. "The Problem with Penalties - Punitive policies - where for not brushing your teet or for incomplete homework - are not very effective.  Positive guidelines work better." by Myron Dueck
7. "How We Drive Students to Cheat - Instead of bemoaning the fact that students cheat, we need to ask how our instructional practices may be encouraging them to do it." by Cris Tovani
8. "7 Keys to Effective Feedback" by Grant Wiggins (ASCD Sept 2012)
9. "Know Thy Impact - teachers give a lot of feedback, and not all of it is good.  Here's how to ensure you're giving students powerful feedback they can use." by John Hattie (ASCD Sept 2013) 
10. "Preventing Feedback Fizzle" by Susan Brookhart
11. "Feedback Part of a System" by Dylan Wiliam
12. "How am I Doing?" Jan Chappuis
13. "Making Time For Feedback" by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
14. "Feedback Is a Two-Way Street" by Cris Tovani
15. "What do we say when a child says, "Look at My Drawing" by Maja Wilson
16. "How do Know what Students Know" by William Himmele and Persida Himmele (webinar) 
17. Learning in the Fast Lane ​by Suzy Pepper Rollins  (webinar link)

"Making Time for Feedback" by Douglas Fisher and Nancy FreyPD around Formative Assessment:

• ​How to build teacher knowledge of different students' learning progressions, in relation to different topics and different levels of background knowledge, is one of the most important formative assessment challenges.  (This can be done by L@SW.)  ... Research shows us that formative assessment makes a different not only for student outcomes but also for principals and teachers looking to build stronger relationships in their schools and classrooms. (4) 

Great Quotes:

• ​​Because teaching is too complex to invite perfection, even the best teachers will miss the mark on some days, but in general, teachers who use sound formative assessment (hit the mark more often!) (1)
• "Yet when it comes to academic learning, we seem to discount the importance of that freedom for learnings to design their own methods, that forgiveness of form and grace, and that acceptance of failure.  We often forget to appreciate the inform desire for mastery or to trust a child's self-knowledge of how to get there.  And so we prescribe one method of learning, assign one task as homework, and simply require students to comply." (5) 
• You don't know it....YET.  (1, 3, 4, 5) 
• Skill vs Will - students who cheat lack something.  Usually they lack a sense of the relevance of what they're learning, or know-how, or timely feedback. (7)
• Thinking is messy.  As educators, we have to decide what we value and then match our instructional and assessment practices to those beliefs. (7)
• Remember, that "no time to give and use feedback" actually means "no time to cause learning." (8)
• Children do not need prizes or praise, but engagement and relationship - with other people and with the work they are doing. (15)
  • Research - kids given a book with a book mark at page 250.  1 group - when get to page 250, prize.  other group - when get to page 250, talk about the book with adults of your choice.  Prize group - read to page 250 and no further.  Adult conversation - read more, were more engaged and finished the book. 

What is Formative Assessment:

• a window into teaching and learning (17)​
• the bridge or causeway between today's lesson and tomorrow's (1)
• Paradigm Shift:  Hattie identifies that teacher's willingness to seek disconfirming evidence - to actively look for evidence of those parts of the learning that need additional focus - as the most crucial factors in helping each student learn.  If they all get it, it's time to push! (3) 
  • feedback thrives in conditions of error or not knowing - not in environments where we already know and understand.  Thus, teachers need to welcome error and misunderstanding in their classrooms.
• Formative Assessment is made up of a sequence of moves that invite a positive, ongoing relationship between teachers and their students.  those moves: asking effective questions, giving students adequate time to think and respond, and asking probing follow-up questions that deepen student understanding. (4)
  • IN the formative assessment-driven classroom, everyone is consciously engaged in practices that promote further learning, as opposed to those that merely assess students achievement (4) 
• Formate assessment is more than a march toward the known.  It's a process for uncovering deeper understanding, which means having access to evidence about what students are thinking. (4)
• a two-way conversation between student and teacher.  It provides an opportunity for students to think and talk about their learning and for the teacher to get inside their heads. (5)
  
  • When students have the chance to tell me what they need, they empower me to revise and rethink my instruction. ~Cris Tovani (14)
  • "It was only when I discovered that feedback was most powerful when it was from the student to the teacher that I started to understand it better." ~John Hattie​, Visible Thinking
  • "Can you tell me about this?" is the first question to ask...  Try to figure out intentions and ally yourself with the student... (15) 

Formative Assessment requires:

• ​Help student understand the role of FA (1)
  
  • FA helps students learn and that immediate perfection should not be their goal....Sustained effort and mindful attention to progress feed success (1) 
  • Sample message:
    • When we're mastering new things, it's important to feel safe making mistakes.  Mistakes are how we figure out how to get better at what we are doing.  They help us understand our thinking.  Therefore, many assessments in this class will not be graded.  We'll analyze the assessments so we can make improvements in our work, but they won't go into the grade book.  When you've had time to practice, then we'll talk about tests and grades. (1) 
  • Establish norms and routine for inviting student participation, especially for students who aren't familiar with assessment practices outside the normal experience of "doing school."  ... culture shock may students experience when they're expected to learn in this new and perhaps puzzling manner (4) 
  • Students will not accurately self-assess until we establish that mistakes in learning are necessary and acceptable. (5) 
• Begin with clear KUDs:
  
  • Standards Walls (17)
  • Concept map (EQ and progression of unit with movable arrow or star - We are here)
  • TIP - Academic vocabulary - Term- Information (define, sysnonym, describe) and Picture (34% increased retention rate); make it a giant foldable on the wall
  • Student Work that represents word done, goals met
  • Learning Targets and Success Criteria and Performance of Understanding (that matches your LT/SC) (10)
  • beginning of class is when most learning happens.  
  • Success Starters (hook, survey, ABC brainstorming, sorts, etc)
  • End of class used to reflect and build self-efficacy
  • ​With SE, 25% more likely to work harder, come to school, take academic risks
  • SE built via meeting short-term goals, mistakes, feedback, choice and control, valuable tasks, and rigor
  • Pre-assessment provides a dipstick check - gives teachers a reasonable approximation of who may experience difficulty, who may show early mastery, and who may bring misunderstanding to the unit. (1) 
  • Assessment forms an image of a student's emergent development. (1) 
  • Assessing thoughtfully means making sure we teach students how to accomplish the rigor embedded in our standards before we hold them accountable for having mastered that rigor. ...  When we take the standard apart and classify each part according to the type of learning it calls for, we can more clearly see what we need to teach.  Do my students understand the concept? What guidelines can I provide? What practice will they need? Do they understand what to look for? (3) 
  • Create authenticity of work - giving students an audience to whom they can demonstrate their learning is another way to create authenticity (7) 
  • What is the process behind the thinking that is required?  How do you make that accessible for all students? (7) The power of the teaching and learning is not in the right answer, but in the ability to teach students so they can get to the right answer independently.
• Make room for student differences.  DO THE WORK!!
  
  • Why are students getting the answers right or wrong - careful analysis is necessary (3)
  • Posing good questions means your questions invite or elicit a range of student responses. ... An effective question sizes up the context for learning, has a purpose related to the lesson and unit plan, and, ideally, is related to larger essential questions in the discipline. (4) 
  • IDeas from Learning in the Fast Lane (17):
  • Visible bow tie - individual work then group answer
  • Sticky note sorts (names on the back)
  • Cubes with different prompts
  • Sorts - show understanding
  • ABC brainstorming
    
• Provide instructive feedback (Inviting Students to Learn by Jenny Edwards)
  
  • Dylan William argues that feedback can double the rate of learning.
  • Overwhelming research that, when done right, feedback is likely the most effective tool educators have.  Grant Wiggins urges, "Less teaching, more feedback." or "Giving good feedback is good teaching - and the key to achieving greater learning."
    
    • less feedback that comes from you (self and peer)
    • more tangible feedback designed into the performance itself
  • Feedback needs to help students understand what to do to improve the next time around  - what are their particular steps int he learning process? (1)
    
    • use words that suggest the student is an active learner and will make decisions about how to go forward - "What were you thinking when you decided....​? What strategy will you choose?"
  • The best feedback practices must be specific, addressable, timely, ongoing, and content-rich (4)
  • Feedback should invite deeper reflection (4)
    
    • ​Did  feedback result in a better _____?  (15) 
    • Did feedback support the student's healthy view of him/herself as an _____? (15)
    • Did this feedback results in an understanding of what it means to ___ that the student can take with him/her and use from year to year? (15) 
  • Finding Time for Feedback (13):
    
    • Focus on ERRORS not the actual mistake - gives the knowledge to avoid the mistake in the future (mistake VS error in not checking your work)- errors are a lack of knowledge:
      
      • ​Factual Errors
      • Procedural Errors
      • Transformation Errors - incorrectly apply information to a new situation
      • Misconception Errors - 
    • Identify the pattern of errors - individual, small group, whole class?  Chart the information
      
      • The teacher does not identify every error found. ...Instead, we conduct an error analysis and determine areas of instructional need.  We look for a pattern of errors, not isolated or anomalous ones.
      • Global vs targeted errors (if most, teach all (unless you are sure)!)
    • Reteach differently and include prompts and/or cues
    • Lots of sources beyond the teacher (13 and 17)
• Make Feedback user-friendly
  
  • Student must understand the feedback if it is going to work (9)
  • Feedback must result in student thinking about how to improve - the ideal is to elicit a cognitive response from the learning not an emotional one (1)
  • The best feedback describes what the students has done and helps the student decide what to do next.  Good feedback not only motivates, but also transfers a sense of agency to the learner.
    
    • "I don't know how you will do this - I'm excited to see the direction you take."
    • Once you note a problem and discuss it, there are a dozen ways  you could work around it.  Frame possible solutions and then leave it in the student's lap (15).
  • Feedback is not
    • praise
      
      • students welcome praise - even want/demand it (9)
      • ​​If praise it combined with feedback, only praise is considered. (9)
      • Bottom line - give praise for other things, feedback about learning. (9)
    • judgement
    • inference
    • a grade or number on a rubric
  • Three levels of Feedback (9)
    
    • Task Feedback: clarifies what a student needs to do to improve his or her performance of that task
      
      • Your learning goal was to ___.  You ____.  Then you ____.   You did ______, but you ____(observations of what worked and didn't. neutral)  Please _____ and then ____.
    • Process Feedback:  describes the processes underlying or ralted to tasks such as strategies students might use to detect or learn from errors, cues for seeking information, or ways to establish relationships among ideas.
      
      • You're _____ and you've tried _____.  Can you see how this is not helping? Perhaps you could ____, _____, and _____. 
      • I asked you to ____.  I saw you do ____, but I didn't see _____.  Could you try that?
      • Any "compliment" should be around a controllable factor - you didn't give up OR you asked questions until you understood OR you were patient with your learning...
    • Self-regulation Feedback:  describes how learners can monitor, direct, and regulate their own actions as they work toward the learning goal.
      
      • I'm impressed you _____ when you became stuck on ____.  But in this case, that strategy didn't help, did it?  What else could you do?  (student) Great, try that and tell me how it works.
      • You checked your work and found out you got the wrong answer.  Any idea why you got it wrong? What strategy did you use?  Can you think of a different strategy to try?  How will you know if your answer is correct?
  • Feedback only works if it passes CARE (6) :
    
    • Care - evokes concern on the part of the learner
    • Aim - aligns with the ultimate objectives
    • Reduction - reduces the undesireable behavior 
    • Empowerment - learner has control over the factors that lead to the mistake and are capable of understanding the situation and feedback. (6) 
  • 7 Keys (8):
    
    • Goal-referenced
      
      • Frame: The point of the ____ task is for you to _____.  So when you look over your work, ask yourself _____?
      • Frame: As you _____ today, remember that the aim is to _____.  This means you will need to ______.  Self-assess your work against ____. 
    • Tangible and Transparent
      
      • Point out evidence FIRST.  
        • Ex:  Did you hit the ball?  NO - (feedback will be more welcome)
        • If evidence isn't clear, video or audio tape it
    • Actionable
      
      • carefully observe and comment on what is observable and then provide actions to take.
      • Effective feedback is given DURING the learning - there is still time to act on it. (12)
    • User-friendly (specific and personalized)
      
      • Be cautious of highly technical feedback and/or too much feedback 
      • Effective feedback does not do the thinking for the student.  "When teachers provide students with more guidance than they need, feedback doesn't deepen learning." (12)
      • Imagine and describe the student's intentions is a way of framing the feedback so that it is accepted.  By labeling the student's confusion as "interesting" they are more likely to be interested as well (15).
      • Normalize confusion/mistakes - all writers find, express, clarify and shape their writing (15) 
    • Timely
      
      • Means they have the opportunity to use it to improve their work
      • Use: technology, peer review, small group work
      • Know when NO feedback is best...sometimes feedback can paralyze a student if they are in the flow or haven't worked on the task long enough. (15) 
    • Ongoing  
      
      • Effective feedback addresses partial understanding. ... Feedback can only build on learning; if the learning isn't there, the feedback isn't going to move it forward. (12)
    • Consistent
      
      • This requires alignment across teachers and staff - "students have to be trained to be consistent the same way we train teachers, using the same exemplars and rubrics."
• Assess persistently
  
  • A great teacher is a habitual student of his/her students.  ...the teacher is constantly watching what students do, looking for clues about their learning progress, and asking for input from students about their status.  ... They are taking notes on what they see and hear in order to analyze and find trends that further inform instruction. (1) 
• Engage Students with Formative Assessment
  
  • Students benefit from examining their own work in light of rubrics that align tightly with content goals and point toward quality of content, process, and product - or in comparison to models of high-quality work that are just a bit above the student's current level of performance.  They benefit from providing feedback on peer's work, as long as the feedback is guided by clear criteria and a process that enables them to provide useful suggestions. (1)
  • Students need to be involved in thoughtfully examining teacher feedback, asking questions when the feedback is not clear, and developing plans that specify how they will use that feedback to benefit their own academic growth. (1)
    • Assessment Dialogue Form:
      • My Opinion - My strengths are... What I think I need to work on ... 
      • Feedback - Strengths.... Work on ....
      • My Plan - What I will do now...
  • We must teach students how to receive feedback so that they see what they know (their strengths) and what they don't know (their gaps) and engage more deeply in seeking feedback or additional learning. (9)
  • Goal to hear students say:
    • Here are 4 goals I'm working on right now.  In this piece of work, here's evidence that I'm competent with the first and 3rd goals.  If we look at my work from a month ago and then at this most recent piece, I can show you evidence of my progress with the second toal.  I can also tell you two things I"m going to work on this week to make sure I become more confident and more skilled in working with the 4th goal. (1) 
  • Students respond to feedback in 8 ways (11):
    
    • By changing behavior:  increased effort OR exerting less effort
    • By modifying the goal:  reduce aspiration OR increase aspiration
    • By abandoning the goal:  decide the goal is too hard OR the goal is too easy
    • By rejecting the feedback: ignoring it OR missing it
• ​​Look for patterns:
  
  • The goal is to ... find patterns in the students' work that point the way to planning classroom instruction that both moves students along a learning continuum and is management.
• Plan instruction around content requirements and student needs
  
  • Formative Assessment > Pacing Guides and unit plans
    
    • We must ensure that our pacing guides accommodate the teaching and learning needs that our diagnostic assessments have identified (3) 
    • When we blast through the curriculum, we model for students that they can rush through it, too.  We reduce the opportunities to support students in their learning, so they internalize that it's OK to not really understand and still move on.  They become more willing to accept learning at that level.
  • there is little point in spending time on formative assessment unless it leads to modifications of teaching and learning plans.  In other words, formative assessment is a means to design instruction that's a better fit for students needs, not an end in itself. (1) 
  • It is wasteful of time, resources, and learner potential not to make instructional plans based on that understanding (1) 
  • It is important to know the type of problem that is standing in the way of mastery so that we can plan appropriate next-step instruction (3).
    
    • Errors due to incomplete understanding -> Teachers can introduce the new information immediately or when it becomes developmentally appropriate (be patient until then)
    • Errors due to flaws in reasoning -> 
      • Think carefully about the type of reasoning involved and then help students recognize typical errors for that particular pattern of reasoning.  
      • Teachers should help students understand the salient features of the pattern of reasoning and let them examine examples of flaws so they can more easily recognize them before the students begin practicing with the pattern of reasoning in the context of the given subject.  
      • Teachers can give students time to analyze examples of typical flaws as well as examples of good reasoning before asking them to practice the reasoning again themselves.
    • Errors due to misconceptions -> Basically students have learned or internalized something that they believe to be correct but that isn't.  The lesson must dislodge them.  Misconceptions are stubborn.
      
      • Create an awareness of the misconception by providing students with an experience - demonstration or reading passage - that runs counter to the misconception.  Ask questions - Where does this experience contradict what you think is right? Finally, have  students explain why the misconception is incorrect.
  • Only spend time on formative assessments if you are going to use them to plan instruction.  If not, they are a waste of time. (3) 
• Repeat the process
  
  • 
    

Questioning - all notes from article #2 unless noted:

• Questioning is key to formative assessment (4) 
• Paradigm Shift:
  • The whole idea that students should always answer teachers' questions correctly is actually rather odd.  If the students are answering every one of the teacher's questions correctly, the teacher is surely wasting the students' time.  If the questions are not causing students to struggle and think, they are probably not worth asking.  As i say to students, "Mistakes are evidence that the questions I asked are tough enough to make you smarter."  Of course, the best teachers have always said that making mistakes is OK, but recent research has shown that making mistakes in learning is actually better than not making mistakes.
    • Misconceptions and students' prior knowledge are at the very heart of the learning process in a formative assessment-driven classroom.  If teachers don't create a space for students to express both their understandings and their misunderstandings, students who are too embarrassed to express a potentially incorrect answer will simply remain silent. ... By failing to tag responses that evoke those misconceptions, teachers reduce the power of formative assessment to uncover difficult learning steps along the way.  A teacher needs to know where kids get stuck and why. (4)  
    • STudents arent' expected to find the "right answers" to the questions; they are expected to share the well-informed perspectives and understandings they have gained from the unit of study AND to learn from other who may have differing ideas/understandings (7) 
  • Questioning should...make students' voices louder and teachers' hearing better.
• ​Participation is not voluntary.
  
  • If it is, assessment data is only based on the volunteers.
• NO Hands Up
  
  • "No hands up is the most significant thing a teacher can do. (2)"
  • Randomization devise:
    
    • Equity Sticks
    • Technology - app Renaye showed
  • All-Student Response Systems
    
    • ​Ex: White boards, fingers, Index Cards, Exit tickets, clickers
    • Anonymous - trends VS Names - grouping
    • Time --> quick write/draw --> inside outside circle (bounce to outside)
    • Strategies:
      
      • The Ripple Effect (16) 
      • Chalkboard Splash (16)
      • Debate Team Carousel (My opinion / After reading classmates responses, new idea / After reading  classmates responses, aguement against my idea / Final opinion)
      • PIcture Notes / Picture - Pause - Points = (Illustrations of article, Illustration most important to remember or main idea / Caption) Interesting - while drawing they clarified ideas (16) 
  • Sequence: ask question, PTT, randomly call on students
• Statements instead of Questions:
  
  • Make a statement that students are expected to respond to or expand on.
• PAUSE: 
  
  • We all need time to process information, to "transfer files" from our short-term to our long-term memory and back again.  Processing speed varies according to the nature of the information we're asked to process and our degree of familiarity with it. (4)
    
    • Wait time
    • Protocols for participation: think-pair-share, journal entries
    • Pausing requires preparation (stop watch)
  • The goal of pausing is to slow the process down (4) 
• Responses to answers:
  
  • Bounce  - probe student responses
    
    • Probing suggests there's always more to know and say (4) 
    • Probing is about collecting more substantial evidence to make decisions about what to teach, reteach, or even preteach for a particular group of students.
    • Bouncing creates a larger feedback loop - you are depending upon more students to plan for next instruction.
  • "I'm confused by what you are saying."
• PLAN questions:
  
  • Goal:  questions should elicit evidence of student thinking so that we can give useful feedback.  YOu can't give useful feedback without finding out what's going wrong in the first place.
  • Plan for instructional traction: Do the wrong answers give us information about what problems further instruction should address? If the item doesn't have any diagnostic power, further planning is necessary (3).
  • If we pose thoughtful questions and give students an audience for their learning, they're less likely to feel that what we're teaching is a waste of time - and they won't be so inclined to cheat (or not participate). (7) 

Grading:

• ​Students make decisions every day about who they are as learners, whether to try, and whether they're good at specific subjects or school in general on the basis of what we do in response to their assignments and assessments. ... If students receive a grade on their practice work, those who don't do well will tend to conclude that they aren't very good at a task or subject. ... (our goal is to communicate) ...They aren't good at it ... YET.  Grading too soon in the learning process can lead students to the damaging inference that being good means not having to try and that if you have to try, you aren't smart in the subject. (3) 
• Assessing thoughtfully means giving students sufficient time and opportunity to practice and improve through further instruction and feedback before holding them accountable for having mastered the learning target. (3)
• once we remove the threat of the bad grade, we free students to embrace the struggle that is necessary for deeper learning (5) 
• Why grading doesn't work (6):
  • students don't care about the 0 
  • makes behavior and compliance more important than learning 
  • grades can sabotage the accuracy of existing grades leaving students overconfident or frustrated.
  • grades more aligned to socio economic factors (poverty, violence, utilities/space, low self-esteem, negative school views (student and family)) than effort or ability. 
  • Effort grades:  "Years of graded homework results may teach students that giving the impression of exerting effort yields a better grade than does actually striving to learn. ... effort grades are likely including a variable that is neither accurate nor asked for by governing education authorities."
• Instead of low grades, give Incompletes and Interventions​ - incompletes stand until the assignment is completed and if incomplete, one or more interventions must be used.
  

Homework - all quotes from article #5 unless otherwise noted.

• ​Because the new standards call for deep thinking and application of complex knowledge, ...they must be developed and constructed in ways that are meaningful to the learner. To reach that goal, we must change our mind-set and overhaul the practice of homework.
  
  • shift to demonstrating complex and sophisticated learning.  So ​rote practice is out; task complexity is in.
  • the focus is on learning, not working...
  • shift how we see mistakes: 
    • must reinforce the mind-set that struggle andpersistence are part of the learning process.
• ​Homework is a way to obtain formative feedback about learning
  
  • student self-diagnose their level of understanding of the homework - place themselves in groups according to their needs, complete a checklist, write a learning goal, complete an exit ticket from the day's learning, etc. 
  • Time spent learning requirements: study checklist, rubric, writing samples
  • Time to track your own progress toward mastery / update reflections and data folders / set goals
• Alternatives to routine homework"
  
  • In-class quizzes (David) - hints of what you COULD study, students track quizzes, can re-take, use quiz scores to group
  • Personalized Projects - choice, purpose, ownership (planning sheet: www.ascd.org/e10314dueck1)

Grading Committee: Research

Questions to Discuss:

• Do we want to survey the staff?  (Sample Grading Survey taken from 2 sources.)
• 1st conversation:  What meaning do we want grades to convey?  Who is the primary audience?  
• Discuss principles before policy.  Discuss constants before change (EL, 76)  (Don't get side tracked by other conversations until this one is established (EL14).)  Use these discussion points to start a conversation about grading:
• Principles:
• Grades should reflect achievement of intended learning outcomes - whether the school is using a conventional, subject-based report card or a report card that represent these intended learning outcomes as standards.
• The primary audiences for the message conveyed in grades are students and their parents; grading policies shoudl aim to give them useful, timely, actionable information.  Teachers, administrators, and other educators are secondary audiences.
• Grades should reflect a particular student's individual achievement.  Group and cooperative skills are important, but they should be reflected elsewhere, not in an individual's academic grade.
• Grading policies should be set up to support student motivation to learn.  A student should never reach a place where there is no point doing any more work because failure is inevitable (EL, 14)
• Three teaches revamped their grading:  "Big Changes in a Small School" www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov11/vol69/num03/big-changes-in-a-small-school.aspx
• What PD/learning opportunities are needed?  Grading research, effective classroom management, assessment, and instruction.  Teachers should share their research as well as their own experiences.  "The better I teach, the better my students' grades will be (EL, 86)."

Definitions (from Marzano):

• Assessment:  vehicles for gathering information about students' achievement or behavior.
• Evaluation:  The process of making judgements about the level of students' understanding or performance.  (The teacher uses data provided in the assessment to make a judgment - an evaluation - of each student's achievement.)
• Measurement:  The assignment of marks based on an explicit set of rules.
• Score:  The number or letter assigned to an assessment via process of measurement.  The terms mark and score are commonly used synonymously.
• Score:  Observed score = True score + error (from teacher and/or student)
• Grade:  The number or letter reported at the end of a set period of time as a summary statement or evaluation made of students.

Summary of Readings:

1. A Repair Kit for Grading - 15 Fixes for Broken Grades - Ken O'Connor (pg #)
2. Transforming Classroom Grading - Robert J. Marzano (Marzano)
3. Educational Leadership, "Effective Grading Practices" published November 2011, volume 69 No. 3, www.ascd.org (EL)

"The best thing you can do is make sure your grades convey meaningful, accurate information about student achievement.  If grades give sound information to students, then their perceptions (and) conclusions about themselves as learners, and decisions about future activity will be the best they can be." ~Brookhart, 2004 (135)  

• Goal:  grades should not be conflated and conflicting, they should consistently tell the same story.  (Story:  What the student knows and is able to do - connected to standards) Grades should not be about what students earn, but what they learn.
• Goal:  grades should be accurate, meaningful (connected to learning goals/standards), and consistent (across teachers), and they must support learning (3).
• A single letter grade or percentage score ... simply cannot present the level of detailed feedback necessary for effective learning (Marzano, 106).
• Myth:  grades are motivating.  "Confidence is the key to student success in all learning situations (10)." To change student behaviors:  use noncoercion; prompt the person to self-assess, have student own all consequences
• Kohn:  Grades tend to reduce students' interest in learning, students' preference for challenging tasks, and the quality of students' thinking (Marzano, 24).
• No research supports the idea that low grades prompt students to try harder.  More often, low grades prompt students to withdraw from learning (EL, 21).
• ("The Case Against Grades" by Alfie Kohn at the bottom of this post.)

15 Fixes:  Most Important!

1. Don't include student behaviors in grades (include a behavior report instead, ex 19)
   1. For grades to be meaningful, they must directly reflect specified learning goals (4).
   2. Wait...what about effort?  Article provided by Nancy.
   3. "We determined that behavioral infractions are legitimate concerns and should be addressed - just not with grades.  When grades cannot be used to control students, we must replace them with sound classroom management and students engagement strategies (EL, 68)."
2. Don't reduce marks on work that is late (provide support, give an Incomplete until it's turned in, use comments)
3. Don't give extra credit (seek more evidence for higher levels of achievement, must reveal new or deeper learning, or ec is opportunity to retake assessments)
4. Don't punish academic dishonestly in grades (other consequences, different effort to prove learning, prevention through honor code (attached to all assignments), consequence includes how to reestablish trust)
5. Don't consider attendance (report absences separately)
6. Don't include group scores (use group work, grade individual exit tickets)
7. Don't organize information by assessment methods (use outcomes/standards)
   1. For grades to be meaningful, they must directly reflect specified learning goals (4).
   2. strands (outcomes) are an organizing structure.
   3. 5 scores/strand is sufficient evidence to make summary judgments for that strand.
   4. Resources:  http://teachscience4all.wordpress.com , www.asdk12.org/depts/cei/sbar , http://blog.whatitslikeontheinside.com , http://ospigrading.pbworks.com
   5. Get rid of the omnibus grade (EL, 34).  Create bar graphs or different score for one class.  etc...  One grade for academics and one for "Responsibility for learning"
8. Provide clear descriptions of achievement expectations (rubrics)
   1. 2 types of rubrics:  information-based and process or skill-based (Marzano, 49).
   2. Create benchmarks for each quarter or you cannot give A until the end of the year.
   3. Language should be descriptive, not judgmental
   4. Limited number of clearly described levels based on proficiency/quality
   5. Vocabulary words:
      1. 4, A, Excellent, Exceptional, Exemplary, Advanced, High quality, Superb, Outstanding, in-depth, "Wow!"
      2. 3, B, Proficient, adept, skilled, solid, appropriate, capable,  "Yes."
      3. 2, C, Minimal, basic, limited, minimally acceptable, "yes, but..."
      4. 1, N, Insufficient, partial, beginning, approaching, well below, below, misperceptions, omissions, errors, "No, but..."
9. Don't rank students against each other.  (use rubrics)
10. Rely on quality assessments - The 5 Keys for Accurate Assessment:
    1. Clear purpose: What's the purpose? Who will use the results? What will they use the results to do?
    2. Clear Targets: What are the learning targets? Are they clear? Are they appropriate?
    3. Sound Design:  What method? Quality questions? Sampled how? Avoid bias how?
    4. Effective Communication:  How to manage information? how to report? To whom?
    5. Student Involvement:  Students are users, too.  Students need to understand targets.  students can assess.  Students can track progress and communicates.
    • Assess and grade less if they improve the quality of their assessments.
    • A few well-planned and well-formatted assessments provide far better information about student achievement than do multiple assessments poorly planned and formatted (Marzano).
    • Idea:  assessment conferences - where students defend their learning.
    • Assess is a form of the Latin verb assidere, to "sit with."  In an assessment, one "sits with" the learner.  It is something we do with and for the student, not something we do to the student.  The person who "sits with you" is someone who "assigns value" - the "assessor" ...but interestingly enough, there is an intriguing alternative meaning to the word, as we discover in The Oxford English Dictionary:  this person who "sits beside" is one who "shares another's rank or dignity" and who is "skilled to advise on technical points" (Marzano, 104)."
    • 7 forms of assessment:  (Marzano, 86-chapter 6). 
    • forced choice - if use, do not grade each one, score them as if "taken as a whole"  Use at least 4 questions to evaluate a student.
    • essay -  Use 3 rubrics:  content, process/structure, and communication
    • short written response - Use only one rubric - content
    • oral reports - *conferring with students - "This form of interaction is potentially the most valid type of assessment a classroom teacher can use (Marzano, 99).  (Also assess speaking ability.) 
    • performance tasks - 
    • teacher observation - "One of the most straightforward ways to collect classroom assessment data is through informal observation of students...teacher observation is highly effective for assessing process-oriented topics and nonachievement factors ... teachers need clarity about the skills they are observing  (Marzano, 99)
    • student self-assessment - "probing discussion"
    • Student-generated assessments (EL, 37) - student determines what will exhibit a specific level of proficiency.  
    • How to determine if two assessments are comparable and show student growth?  We can use prificiency scals to delineate both the topic and the level of complexity being measures.   Create an assessment that measures 2.0, 3.0 and then 4.0 achievement.  
11. Don't rely on the mean - use other measures of central tendency and use professional judgement.  What do the numbers mean regarding student learning? mode? range?
1. A student's understanding or skill should increase over time (Marzano, 73).
2. "In some ways, (measuring individual change over time) is the most important topic in educational measurement.  The primary object of teaching is to produce learning (that is, change), and the amount and kind of learning that occur can be ascertained only by comparing an idividual's or group's status before the learning period with what it is after the learning period. ...  I strongly recommend AGAINST the use of average scores as the final topic score for a unit of instruction (Marzano, 76)."
12. Don't use zeros.  If work is missing, give student an Incomplete.
13. Formative assessment data should not be included in the grade.  (Maybe recorded on PS, but not included in the grade.)  "The philosophy teach, test, and move on should be replaced with teach, test, and now what? (EL, 66)"
    1. the primary purpose of grades is to communicate a summary of student achievment at a particular pint in time; that is, what students know, understand, and can do as a result of their learning.  It is important that teachers, students, and parents recognize that learning is a process in which learners increase their knowledge, understanding, and skills as a result of effort, instruction, feedback from teachers and peers, and self-assessment and adjustment (106).
    2. Jay McTighe, "We know that students will rarely perform at high levels on challenging learning tasks at their first attempt.  Deep understanding or high levels of proficiency are achieved only as a result of trial, practice, adjustment based on feedback, and more practice.  For this process to work well learners must believe that it is important and worthwhile to try and that it is acceptable to take risks and make mistakes; it is not necessary to always get it the first time (107).  If we want homework to be about learning, we need students to understand that it is for practice if they need it, not compliance or grading, because then the person who benefits from homework is the learner (110).
    3. Types of assessment:  diagnostic (takes place prior to instruction, not graded), formative (takes place during instruction, drives instruction, provided feedback to students, the thrust is to improve teaching and learning, assessment FOR learning, not graded), Summative (designed to provide information to be used in making judgements about student's achievement at the end of a sequence of instruction, assessment OF learning, graded) (107).  The must be a clear link between the three (112).
    4. Most critical area is student involvement.  "Consistent, specific feedback on a student's competency in essential goals is a more potent teaching tool than a letter or number grade will ever be (EL, 86)."
    5. Goal:  Assessment Plan (see attachment) (112 & 117 & 128 (Lara))
    1. start with Outcomes derived from the standards
    2. list the summative assessments:  used to determine whether the students "know and can do" the outcomes
    3. list the diagnostic assessments:  help to determine the what and the how for teaching and learning
    4. list the formative assessments: help students achieve the learning goals through which the teacher will adjust teaching and learning activities
    5. *Show the clear link between the 3 types of assessment
    6. Goal:  Teachers are determining, not simply calculating, grades.  "...I propose that we see grading as an exercise in professional judgment, not just as a numerical, mechanical activity (121)."
    1. Computing averages provides a false sense of measurement precision (Marzano, 62).
    2. Guskey concludes, "Because teachers know their students, understand various dimensions of students' work, and have clear notions of the progress made, their subjectie perceptions may yield very accurate descriptions of what students have learned (Marzano, 63).
    7. Student involvement is most critical in this area.
    1. Although the most underused form of classroom assessment, student self-assessment has the most flexibility and power as a combined assessment and learning tool....An authentic education makes self-assessment central...Hansen (1994) notes that self-assessment is central to the development of higher -order metacognitive skills and that it also leads to the identification of individual learning goals, which are at the heart of the assessment process (Marzano, 102).
    2. Teachers can use student self-assessment in at least 2 ways:  1) individual assessments and 2) for final topic scores (Marzano, 103).
    3. Goal:  "the test of a successful education is not the amount of knowledge that a pupil takes away from school, but his appetite to know and his capacity to learn.  If the school sends out children with the desire for knowledge and some idea about how to acquire it, it will have done its work...." ~Sir Richard Livingstone, 115
    4. One strategy:
    1. Engage students in reviewing strong and weak samples in order to determine attributes of a good performance/product
    2. Students practice using criteria to evaluate anonymous strong and weak work.
    3. Students work in pair to revise an anonymous weak work sample.
    5. Another Strategy:  Help students to be reflective  learners by providing them opportunities to think about their performance on summative assessments using test analysis charts:  my strengths, quick review, and further study.  Sort test questions into those categories.
    8. "If we're living up to the promise of teaching every student, we could turn all summative assessments into formative ones (EL, 44)."
    9. "When practice work is part of the overall grade, students don't take risks, and teachers don't get valuable glimpses into their understanding (EL, 50)."
14. Emphasize on most recent achievement when measuring growth.
1. "What matters is not what you have at the starting point, but whether and how well you finish." ~Gardiner  (123)
2. This approach is a powerful motivator for students achieving at any level, because every students will know that improved achievement will get full recognition.
3. "The consequence for a student who fails to meet a standard is not a low grade but rather the opportunity, indeed the requirement- to resubmit his or her work (121)."
4. Redos and Retakes can be done right (EL, 22):
1. Submit the original attempt with the new one and to write a brief letter comparing the two.  What is different, and what did they learn as a result of redoing the work?
2. Reserve the right to give alternative versions of the assessment.  Don't be afraid to make the redone versions more demanding.
3. REdos are permitted at teacher discretion.  This means that students and parents may not take the redo option for granted.
4. REquire a plan of relearning and to provide evidence of the relearning before the work can be redone.  (Calendar, list of activities, etc)
5. If the relearning is not done, require a letter of apology for breaking trust.
6. Require parent signature on the original version of the assignment so they're aware that their children have required multiple attempts to achieve the standard.
7. At 2+ attempts, considering shelving the push for mastery of this content for a few weeks.  Take a break and pursue this content in a later unit of study.
8. If redos are repeatedly needed, something is wrong.
9. Redos should be saved for the most important curriculum standards and less so with work associated with less important standards.
10. All students should be allowed redos - not just those who "learned" at a D or F level.
11. Cut off redos at a certain point to save your sanity.  They can learn the material later in the year after this reporting period.
12. Replace the previous grade or mark with the most recent one; don't average the two attempts together.  (Consider passing driving test or bar exam...)
13. Allow redos of just the material that was not proficient instead of the entire assessment.
14. Tracking Sheet (EL, 74):
1. Test - broken into assessment topics - value, score, retest?
2. Unit terms/preparation:  I did or did not complete all the terms for this unit OR I did complete a different form of preparation - explain
3. Goals and Strategies:  I want to achieve _____ in this unit.  I did all that could to achieve my goal OR I plan to make the following adjustments to increase my grade:  (student lists with date of completion)
5. Allow students to continually update their scores on previous measurement topics (EL, 38) - this would mean that each quarter would introduce new content and continue to assess old content.
15. Don't leave students out of the grading process.
1. We must constantly remind ourselves that the ultimate purpose of evaluation is to enable students to evaluate themselves.  Educators may have been practicing this skill to the exclusion of learners; we need to shift part of that responsibility to students.  Fostering students' ability to direct and redirect themselves must be a major goal...or what is education for? ~Costa (126)
2. Summative:  teacher evaluates, student reflects upon
3. Formative:  students are involve din peer and self-asssessment in order to practice the skills of self-assessment and to deepen their understanding of the conditions of quality.
4. Chappuis (2009):  "Providing students with opportunities for a combination of peer feedback and self-assessment causes them to achieve at significantly higher levels, without more instruction.  These two practices increase their sense of ownership of the responsibility to learn (127)."
5. Self-assessment increases student ownership - it teaches students how to learn. (ASCD)
1. "I am able to discover what I know and don't know before I take the test," one student shared about self-assessment (EL, 73).
2. "I need to teach them how to plan to improve their performance."
3. "I need to regularly - relentlessly - show students the connection between the quality of their habits of mind and their work, their progress toward performance goals, and their achievement of those goals - and beyond.  In other words, I need to help them exercise their capacity to determine their own success (EL, 87)."

Homework (EL, 60):

1. Myths:  If I don't grade it, they won't do it.  Hard work should be rewarded...with grades. Homework grades help students who test properly.
2. Most important reason for homework:  to help students reach their learning goals.  It's not about homework's value for the grade, but homework's value for learning.  It's not about the student's responsibility for the task, but the student's responsibility for his/her learning.  Possible:  Tie homework to summative assessment by letting students use it during the assessment.
3. No homework?  Call parents, pull students from other classes/activities to complete their work, or make available after-school programs in which students can catch up on homework.
4. At the top of each test or quiz write two numbers:  the student's test score and student's number of missing homework assignments.  EX:  100% & 0  VS 75% & 3  This helps the student develop an causal relationship AND helps the teacher recognize if homework tasks are helping in the learning.  "When the focus switches from working to learning, students understand that they can improve their final grades by demonstrating mastery.
5. "Homework is an important part of teaching, learning, and parent involvement.  Student work should always receive feedback to further student learning.  Teachers will exclude homework from the course grade if it  was assigned for pre-assessment or early learning guided practice.  Homework assigned as a summative assessment may be included in the course grade based on curriculum guidelines (EL, 63)."

"The Case Against Grades" by Alfie Kohn (EL, 28)

• Grades tend to diminish students' interest in whatever they're doing.  (Instead of motivated to learn, they are motivated to achieve.  Students become more interested in how well they are doing than in what they are doing (EL, 30).)
• Grades create a preference for the easiest possible task.  Students avoid taking unnecessary intellectual risks.  This is "not because they are unmotivated, but because they're rational."
• Grades tend to reduce the quality of students' thinking. Instead of "How do we know that's true?" they ask, "Will this be on the test?"
• Zen Master:  "If you have one eye on how close you are to achieving your goal, that leaves only one eye for your tasks."
• Worries:  Assessment consultants worry that grades may not accurately reflect student performance; educational psychologists worry because grades fix students' attention on their performance...  Kohn:  "Once we're compelled to focus only on what can be reduceed to numbers, thinking (will be) severely compromised (EL, 30)."
• We should not:
• sort students into piles
• tell them in advance what they have to do because it "reinforces the assumption that school is a test, rather than an adventure in ideas (EL, 31)."
• post grades online because it gives them even more power and opportunity for misuse
• spend time writing comments that only justify the grade.  (NOTE: Narratives are only read and useful in the absence of grades.)
• give disproportionate attention to performance (at the expense of learning) that researchers have found damaging...
• We should....
• replace grades with narrative reports and detailed descriptions of the curriculum
• Add recommendations, essays, and interviews (to offer a fuller picture of the student)
• Create a "de-graded classroom" and stop putting letter grades on individual assignments - instead offer only qualitative feedback.
• Include students in determining grades - either as a negotiation or by simply grading themselves.
• Why?
• Students are more motivated and involved.  "this changed their attitudes about school.  It was not happening to them, they were involved with what was happening."
• Prepares students for the real world where "Interest in learning and quality of thinking is important."
• Teachers and students have better relationships.
•