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This article does a good job of presenting information in very understandable terms. It will help those who aren't directly involved in education to have a better understanding of all the jargon that they are hearing about in the news. I think the questions posed in the frequently asked question section are excellent and will give the general public a better understanding of what is happening in the educational world in Iowa. I can see this as part of our district communiqué or part of our superintendent's column. Valuable find.

While Kay doesn't address the Common Core specifically, he does address the changes that need to occur for schools to become viable in the 21st Century.  He specifically refers to the 4 Cs, which are found in 21C Skills/Standards.  Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Communication.  Be committed to the 3 Rs and the 4Cs.  Good article of reform-minded individuals. Susie P

The Core 21st century standards are imperative skills that students need to experience and practice.  Every teacher is responsible for making the changes necessary so that we can meet the needs of workers/society/families/businesses currently in place and in the future.

We have to work harder on these skills to remain competitive.

I might substitute the word "time" where Evan writes "effort"

To a large extent, time is a function of effort. Those things we deem worthy of our effort seem to find plenty of time to get done.

It's amazing how we find time to do things we like to do. A readjustment of priorities by any teacher is never a bad thing.

I agree that identifying their owns strengths and areas of improvement can be a useful tool

Student self assessment is becoming both more important and more difficult in classrooms. It seems as though students sometimes aren't ready to admit their faults or concerns when it may help the teacher conduct formative assessment tasks. Sadly, teachers often rely heavily on that very self-assessment, which may or may not be entirely accurate.

I have actually found that those students who take their education seriously (and there are more than I think) are almost fault finding rather than confidence building. That is when I take the opportunity to build them up and point out their successes.

I agree with Kevin's comment that students do not want to admit fault. They are also timid about asking for help. We recently had a student who did not hand in an assignment that was a substantial part of his grade for the term. We asked several times if he wanted/needed help. His response was always no. Finally, after about 3 weeks the teacher made him come into her room during study hall and work on the assignment. He failed to understand one of the key steps and after it was explained, he finished the essay. It was a failure on both our parts. The student should have asked for help, but if we had a better system in place to check for understanding at key points, it would have been less stressful for both parties. We need to consider doing more of these things at my school.

I really like the last question, especially with students I work with. It is most important that the student see their progress, for the sole reason they don't believe anyone. Also, the fact they are to see themselves as learners and what they have discovered. Love it!!!

I think if students are given their expectations a head of time, you will see progress in their work. Their are special cases where this is untrue, but we all like expectations that are obtainable.

I agree with Chrisine. Students are quite honest and critical of themselves and it gives them the oportunity to see growth within themselves.

I agree that if we let the students know from the beginning what the expectaions for the class are, they can follow their progress in the class and see their improvment. Also, giving a norgraded quiz is also a good idea but I'm wondering if they would do their best knowing it isn't graded at the beginning.

'student friendly language' is key... great ideas!

These are all excellent components to learning and helping students move forward with learning. Could there also be a parent component which would allow for more communication opportunities?

I use non-graded quizzes regularly -- the word "quiz" helps them take it seriously -- to assess where students are. I think I will try adding the self assessment of where they are on the learning targets to the end of the quiz. Rather than collecting and going through myself, I will let them assess what they know and what still needs to be worked on. When I collect them, we will both be on track to fill the gaps.

I like having students identify their own strengths and goals...gives them ownership and accountability.

I like the idea of "student-friendly" language and for students to look at their own progress would be very helpful. Using rubrics would be similar but adding it into technology would make it more engaging for students plus it would be paperless.

A big part of DuFour (Solution Tree, PLC) is non-graded formative assessment. The claim is that, once a student sees a grade, the learning stops. No matter what amount of feedback you give, all they are concerned about is the grade.

As a high school teacher, I have found that students generally don't take seriously non-graded assessment. I do though strongly agree that incremental formative assessment is key to developing desirable levels of skill and understanding. Over the years I've developed two different schemes for addressing the need for incremental formative assessment, while avoiding the barriers that "grades" can impose. For Junior and Senior students, it has been useful for the students to allow them retakes, so they may retake any incremental formative assessment whose score is not what they would like it to be. I take the most recent score for better or worse. If they wish to retake a third, forth, or umpteenth time then they may do so (with the same better or worse consequence). Though this scheme is helpful for them, allowing them to see how the prep work leads to assessment items, and thus focusing their instruction to make them more efficient test-takers, it is somewhat burdensome in paperwork (as every incremental formative assessment has multiple versions -- many tailor-made to suit specific learning preferences). As the Freshmen student class sizes are so much greater and as Freshmen are less mature in the ways of the grades, the aforementioned retake scheme has not proven useful with them. Many Freshman consider that a nongraded assignment is "busy work" and don't give it their best effort. More importantly, the results of such nongraded assignments are considered to be unimportant primarily because the students knew they didn't utilize their best effort. The scheme that has proven to be most successful with them is "risk ratcheting". Students are given prep work which is designed to help them with note-taking skills. the answer to all the prep-work material is reviewed in class with the understanding that if the prep work was done poorly, then it is a sign that your notes need to be fixed (corrected, culled, or added to). The next assessment item is small and each ind

I agree with Todd here. We have done it both ways and we went to teach another school about PLC's where they would be assigning groups. I do not think they would find as much joy and success that way as DuFour says in his book having a choice is key! 

Van Meter has given teacher flexibility when doing PLC. Meeting at Early but allowed to leave early of whatever the group works out.

Gladbrook-Reinbeck Elem teachers have been having their PLC's on Wednesday mornings before school. Unfortunately, we didn't have much focus or direction. Some of our teachers are going to a training this summer, so hopefully next year will be better.

In the article, one district had late starts on Mondays. Our district is having teachers meet for 30 minutes once a month. I'd like to hear how other schools are setting up planning time for their PLCs.

At Charles CIty we are have late starts on MOnday. Teachers will have 80-85 minutes to work in PLC's that are being 'dictated' this year with the idea that they will 'breakout' next year.