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anonymous

7 Online Tools to Make Custom Learning Games (No Coding Required!) - 0 views

blog.whooosreading.org/make-learning-games

moodle_iowa

shared by anonymous on 15 Sep 19 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 15 Sep 19
     
    this article offered some sites to help build learning games into our classes. Lot of good information. PM
anonymous

10 Ways to Make Learning Fun for Students - 0 views

www.thoughtco.com/w-to-make-learning-fun-2081740

moodle_iowa

shared by anonymous on 15 Sep 19 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 15 Sep 19
     
    I think as we build our LMS/moodle sites, we need to remember the students on the other end and how we can make learning fun. This article looked interesting. PM
alisauter

Bitmoji - 0 views

www.bitmoji.com

moodle_iowa

shared by alisauter on 11 Sep 19 - No Cached
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 11 Sep 19
       
      Another think I would have each participant do is to create a Bitmoji for their profile.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 11 Sep 19
       
      There is also a Chrome Extension so a tablet or smartphone is not needed.
alisauter

Make Social Graphics, Short Videos, and Web Pages To Stand Out-In Minutes | Adobe Spark - 0 views

spark.adobe.com

moodle_iowa

shared by alisauter on 11 Sep 19 - No Cached
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 11 Sep 19
       
      I would have my participants use Adobe Spark Video to introduce themselves to me. Once they learn the program, they will have this as a resource for future academic activities.
  • Short Videos with Spark Video Easily add photos, video clips, icons, or your own voice. Select from professional-quality soundtracks and cinematic motion—and voila!
anonymous

ol101-f2019: Iowa Online Course Standards - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by anonymous on 10 Sep 19 - No Cached
  • A variety of high-quality learning resources and materials are available to increase student success (
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 10 Sep 19
       
      Learning about Diigo and LMS programs help assure that any classroom adheres to this standard - hopefully improves student success.
tmolitor

Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by tmolitor on 27 Jun 19 - No Cached
  • Everything should be themed to make your design coherent between pages and on the same page.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 27 Jun 19
       
      This makes sense as if you are constantly changing things then people will be distracted by that and it will detract from the information.
  • Applying design principles to the basic elements can seem overwhelming at first but once you start pulling a page or concept together, it becomes easier. 
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 27 Jun 19
       
      As you do go to create a page, it can be daunting but I like how this breaks down what you need to do in order for you page to come together and be visually interesting.
  • Spacing makes things clearer.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 27 Jun 19
       
      Spacing does make things clearer. It makes me think of a paper you might write...if all of the information is in one large paragraph it's harder to read and understand.
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      What a great analogy! I tend to over-fill every space I can. I am working hard on keeping things more simple.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 10 Jul 19
       
      I think that's a great point. It's really easy to forget to space things out, and over complicate things. But when you look at the end result it's always nicer to have the space.
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • Certain parts of your website are more important than others (forms, calls to action, value proposition etc), and you want those to get more attention than the less important parts
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 27 Jun 19
       
      I can honestly say I have not thought of this before but it makes sense. What you want to highlight needs to be bigger.
  • the web-page should be obvious and self-explanatory
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 27 Jun 19
       
      Interesting thought here...but again makes sense. If users have to think very much and have questions after visiting your site, then you site needs work.
  • Text spacing and size creates a visual hierarchy
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      The all "caps" makes a big difference and naturally draws my eye towards it.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 10 Jul 19
       
      I agree, anytime there is CAPS it instantly draws your attention.
  • This is often because it’s large and set at what has been shown in studies to be the first place people look (the top left).
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      I never realized that our eye are naturally drawn to the top left and that businesses purposely design websites with there logs positioned in the top left.
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      I didn't, either! I am finding there are a lot of aspects I have never noticed. For instance, in the graphic above, I knew there were different colors but I didn't concentrate on the fact that they "used bars of color to guide the eye."
  • Usability
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      This is so important to make it viable to everyone.Thinking about what you want the users to actually do is important.
  • A lot of white space tends to make things seem more elegant and upmarket, so for example if you go to an expensive architect site,
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      This is interesting, I've always thought of it as wasted space.
  • Many artists and architects have proportioned their works to approximate the golden ratio. A famous example is Pantheon built in Ancient Greece:
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      Being a history teacher for many years and covering the Pantheon in class, I find this fascinating. This is a great example of design proportion.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      Agreed...Fascinating!!!!
  • Effective web design and art are not the same.
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      Excellent point.
  • Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification.
    • annott
      annott on 29 Jun 19
       
      This is very true and will be helpful to keep in my when planning my own online course.
  • Applying design principles to the basic elements can seem overwhelming at first but once you start pulling a page or concept together, it becomes easier.
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      I am glad this was mentioned. I feel like there are so many things we have to do and incorporate to make an effective design that I am going to forget most of them.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      Jenn - I couldn't agree more. Using a critical eye, whatever looks professional and engaging is typically what I go with. If I think something is off or notice an issue others will notice it even more. Remembering all the rules and guidelines seems too checklist-y for me.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 10 Jul 19
       
      I also agree. Seems like with most things when you start something it's all overwhelming, but can become easier once you get started.
  • First of all, white space doesn't need to be white.
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      I am glad they clarified this because I admit I took "white" space literally.
  • Inconsistencies in a design are like spelling mistakes in an essay.
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      I think this is a helpful way to think of the importance of consistency in design.
  • Can it be used for web design? You betcha. Here’s Twitter:
    • jennham
      jennham on 01 Jul 19
       
      I read about the Golden Ratio years ago and I think about it from time to time. However, I NEVER considered it in terms of web design! That's awesome!
  • This so-called TETO-principle should be applied to every web design project as usability tests often provide crucial insights into significant problems and issues related to a given layout.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 02 Jul 19
       
      This reminds me of peer editing...it's helpful because as you create things you see them one way but the people who look at it don't see it the same so it helps to have other eyes look at it.
  • White space is used around text and between sections to allow the page to breath
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      This is so noticeable when not done well, but such a simple guideline. I am reminded of website 1.0's when many of these guidelines were not followed.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 10 Jul 19
       
      I think this is really noticeable as well. Pages can look really bad when you don't have any white space on them. But I think this is something people don't always realize.
  • If you want to learn to use whitespace effectively, go through a magazine and look at how adverts are laid out.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      This seems very obvious in advertisements. Something striking, quick, memorable. I don't think this is the case In online lessons/course design. The content and options are so specific and varied. Not to say that there aren't components of advertising in these, but I do think there is a distinction.
  • What happens when a screen is resizes?
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      This has obviously become a huge deal breaker. Not being mobile compatible immediately puts you/your resource at a disadvantage. At the very least, rather than mobile compatibility your resources should be able to be viewed on a mobile device. (I say this without doing it myself. This is an area that I personally need to do a lot of work. I also think the principles of design are different on mobile device viewing)
  • Amazon makes the ‘Add to cart’ button more prominent by using color:
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Jul 19
       
      Has anyone ever been to a site that sells products and the purchase button isn't the largest/most prominent/highest contrast button? I ask this rhetorical question because I ran into the issue the other day. I quickly became frustrated with the struggle to purchase a product from the company. I cannot fathom why a company would not make that the absolute easiest thing to do on their site.
  • You should direct the user’s eyes through a sequence of steps. For example, you might want your user to go from logo/brand to a primary positioning statement, next to a punchy image (to give the site personality), then to the main body text, with navigation and a sidebar taking a secondary position in the sequence. 
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 10 Jul 19
       
      I think you can see this any time you go to a well designed website. It walks you through exactly what it wants you to see in the order it wants you to see it.
rhoadsb_

Lesson: Articles on Visual Design - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19 - No Cached
  • A successful visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      This is probably the most important things to remember when designing online lessons regarding adding visuals.
  • Color theory examines how various choices psychologically impact users.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      This is something that I really want to know more about as I think color is very important aspect of the design. I would like to use color to enlist certain emotions based on lesson focus.
  • For example, you might want your user to go from logo/brand to a primary positioning statement, next to a punchy image (to give the site personality), then to the main body text, with navigation and a sidebar taking a secondary position in the sequence. 
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      I really like this example. as it seems like a great place to start. I will attempt to incorporate this into my design, for example Big Idea, to objective next to a punchy image and then the directions, ect..
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Generally I find the default value is usually too little spacing
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      Good to know.
  • First of all, white space doesn't need to be white.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      good to know as well.
  • You should rank elements on your website based on your business objective. If you don’t have a specific goal, you can’t know what to prioritize.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      Makes sense regarding lesson design. The content you put on the page should be important and connected to your objective.
  • therefore it’s a good practice to never open links in new browser windows.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 02 Jul 19
       
      This is interesting to me as we do this frequently with Google Docs and because our students have chrome books and cant see the content as well in the smaller window within the course itself.
docspurgin

dol-2019: Lesson Planning: The Missing Link in e-Learning Course Design - 2 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by docspurgin on 17 Jun 19 - No Cached
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 17 Jun 19
       
      This is certainly something that concerns me as I work to design e-learning courses. I like that we are looking at lessons that are done to consider it and really want what I develop to be effective and engaging.
  • struggle with designing effective and engaging e-Learning courses
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 17 Jun 19
       
      I think this has got to be one of the most important things to consider how to design effective and engaging lessons. I like that we are looking at others lessons to help us consider what we need to do.
  • Though developing a lesson plan for e-Learning is similar in many ways to developing a lesson plan for instructor-led learning, there are also differences
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 17 Jun 19
       
      This is such a good point. As teachers we have developed lesson plans, but the design will be different in an online environment vs. F2F course.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • all of us are still struggling with finding the “best practices” that work well in our organizations
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 17 Jun 19
       
      I think this is important to consider...all of this will take time and effort and even when you do develop courses you'll find that you can always improve courses overtime just as you do in a F2F course.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 18 Jun 19
       
      I agree with you that this is really important. It seems like the "best practice" in education is constantly evolving, and can always be improved.
  • Lesson plans are merely templates that can guide the development of good e-Instruction, saving much time and effort by minimizing revisions and misunderstandings."
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 18 Jun 19
       
      This stood out to me as a really interesting way to look at lesson plans, and why it is so important.
  • The technique may work well in a classroom, but would be extremely irritating in an e-Learning course.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 18 Jun 19
       
      I think this sticks out to me as something that is also really important to remember. Something might work great in a classroom, but not work at all online.
    • docspurgin
      docspurgin on 19 Jun 19
       
      So TRUE!
  • struggle with designing effective and engaging e-Learning courses
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      This was an aha moment for me. It's good to know that first attempts will have many failures, but that is also true in the traditional classroom lesson design.
  • The IDP contains a variety of information, such as the purpose of the course, its proposed length, a description of the audience(s), the instructional strategies to be used, and an outline of the content. An IDP may also include information about the technical requirements — both software and hardware — for taking the course. No matter how rapid the instructional design process, there must be agreement and signoff on what needs to be developed and how the ID will develop it for the target audience(s).
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      I like the idea of having all of this information in one spot.
  • this would be a standard
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      Since our district is moving toward standards based learning, this is a great way to connect them to a lesson.
  • Detailed lesson plans help to ensure that there is adequate instruction — practice and feedback — for each learning objective.
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      I'm finding that there should be a great deal of detail when designing an online course, but once its done, it should be easy to edit/change for the next year.
  • n the Faceto-Face lesson, the instructor displays a slide containing the learning objectives and reads them aloud to the participants. The e-Lesson displays a screen that lists the learning objectives. However, the lesson plan does not list the objectives themselves.
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      This is a great example of the difference between traditional and e-learning.
  • Gain attention Inform learner of objectives Stimulate recall of prior learning Present stimulus materials Provide learner guidance Elicit performance Provide feedback Assess performance Enhance retention and transfer
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      These steps seem clean and clear.
  • The trick, as always, is to modify the templates to suit your own workforce and workplace.
    • annott
      annott on 18 Jun 19
       
      Excellent point.
  • detailed storyboards
  • Hunter’s lesson plan format
rhoadsb_

dol-2019: Lesson Planning: The Missing Link in e-Learning Course Design - 1 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by rhoadsb_ on 12 Jun 19 - No Cached
  • Comparative lesson plans help to ensure that self paced e-Learning includes the “voice of the instructor.”
    • jennham
      jennham on 12 Jun 19
       
      Including the voice of the instructor is imperative. I, for one, read and comprehend online material better if I feel as if I am in a conversational atmosphere. Even though it is one-sided, the connection I feel with the instructor while I am reading lessons makes all of the difference.
  • Comparative lesson plans
    • jennham
      jennham on 12 Jun 19
       
      I had never thought of lining up my face-to-face lessons with E-lessons in order to streamline them and make them both effective, but it makes a lot of sense! It will help me to see what I need to change and what can stay the same.
  • However, we need to remember that the “R” in RID stands for “Rapid,” not “Rushed.”
    • jennham
      jennham on 12 Jun 19
       
      I really like this idea; that we need to be able to make quality lessons, but we need to do so quickly. However, I am concerned about how much time online lessons will take to construct, at least at first. I will be making online lessons in addition to my face-to-face lessons as my students will have the opportunity to do both, so being able to make lessons quickly will be important for me.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • First attempts at designing self-paced e-Learning courses are fraught with failure
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 18 Jun 19
       
      "Don't let perfection be the enemy of progress" One of my favorite quotes. We, as lesson designers, can't be afraid of this failure.
  • Begin by evaluating the knowledge and skills of your design team
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 18 Jun 19
       
      I think this is tough because many of us don't work on design teams. We know teams will make a better products, but it also takes more inputs to an already "plate-is-full" designer.
  • Nine Events of Instruction
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 18 Jun 19
       
      Great basic template. I think having this system capacity of common knowledge of this would greatly benefit a group of designers all working to build online content.
  • Ds can think of “Modeling” as “show me” and “Guided Practice” as “let me try.” “Independent practice” might be used for a case study that ties together practice for multiple objectives.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 18 Jun 19
       
      These are important to remember and helpful when designing your lessons.
  • Purpose — Why is it important?
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 18 Jun 19
       
      I find that this is so important in Physical Education courses these days. Our students want to know the why behind what we do and we need to be able to articulate that or their motivation will be low/
  • What information do learners need to complete objective?
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 18 Jun 19
       
      This is vital to student success with the lesson as well as to avoid confusion or mass questions coming your way.
  • Keller’s ARCS model of motivation
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 18 Jun 19
       
      I really like the table of strategies that goes along with this, very helpful in the design the process http://www.tamus.edu/academic/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2017/07/ARCS-Handout-v1.0.pdf
rhoadsb_

Article(s): Self- and Peer-Assessment Online - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by rhoadsb_ on 14 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • The instructor must explain expectations clearly to them before they begin.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I think this is such an important piece of peer assessment. Students need to understand what they are doing and providing a model of it can certainly help.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 23 Apr 19
       
      I couldn't agree more. It is so important that everything is laid out clearly for the students before beginning anything.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      I too agree. This is a process and getting middle school students to do this constructively can be challenging.
  • Students can also benefit from using rubrics or checklists to guide their assessments
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      Providing a rubric to students is a great way to help them peer assess, but it will definitely need to be written in student friendly specific language.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      I agree Kelley. This is an extremely important thing for student feedback and if done correctly will lead to better student performance
  • develop trust by forming them into small groups early in the semester and having them work in the same groups throughout the term
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      Trust is such an important piece to giving peer feedback. Putting these groups together early and working on building those relationships prior to assessing will help the students give honest and constructive feedback.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      Sometimes I wonder at what age students will begin to take this seriously, and not just go through the motions.
  • ...77 more annotations...
  • In addition, students' motivation to learn increases when they have self-defined, and therefore relevant, learning goals.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      This makes so much sense. If we have students develop goals for their courses and have them frequently reflect on those goals it would help increase their motivation.
  • Portfolio assessment emphasizes evaluation of students' progress, processes, and performance over time.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      Using portfolios with students is great. Students have the opportunity to see their progress over time and can make adjustments as needed. I think adding a place where they can look at their goals in their portfolio would be beneficial too.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      Think this is something I am going to try next year in classes is to have students build an online portfolio for each of my power standards to show mastery
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      This is a great idea, but so very hard to maintain.
  • Represent a student's progress over time
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      I like this idea of progress over time. Especially in an online learning atmosphere it encourage time management, and not procrastination.
  • • Students will have a tendency to award everyone the same mark.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      This is certainly a problem I run into with peer and group evals during projects. Students give everyone a 5/A in every category when it is patently false. Anyone have any solutions to solving that issue?
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      I have always had the same struggle. Feedback from each other just wasn't helpful most of the time.
  • provide quality feedback that can help students develop their writing and critical thinking skills.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      In terms of very high level education he may be correct, but when talking about materials we work with he is both right and wrong. I think it is important to remember that we are also learning from our students as well, and they may the a voice that is different, but fits the tone/time/assignment better than what we traditionally expect.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 19 Apr 19
       
      The prompts also impact the feedback. If students are given extremely vague prompts, they won't be able to give accurate or usable feedback. However, if the prompts are aligned and geared to a student level, then the feedback will be more usable.
  • MOOCs that are not for credit
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      What about grades not existing at all as Mr. Abbey has suggested?
  • own expectations.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      Life long learners! I never do it, but I should students's their goals in the class, unit, assignment, etc. I always think it will be a great idea but never get around to practicing it.
  • .
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 15 Apr 19
       
      Just curious if there is any research over non collegiate/PD courses. I would like to see the effectiveness of this with HS/MS aged students. Just curious.
  • include establishing their own assessment criteria through consultation with teaching staff
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 16 Apr 19
       
      I am a big fan of having students help develop their own rubrics, especially at the high school level. It helps them to be thoughtful about what they need to learn, and it gives them much more skin in the game.
  • Address improvement, effort, and achievement
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 16 Apr 19
       
      This is one of my favorite parts of a portfolio. It really allows students to look back and see how much they have grown over a semester/year/their high school career. It makes the hard work worth it when a student sees that it is making a big difference.
  • When learners have experience in learning and navigating within a networked setting [if the review is completed in an open and online setting].
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 16 Apr 19
       
      At the high school level, we work very hard with students to develop the vocabulary for giving meaningful feedback. I like to have a list of prompts they can use to start, and also a list of things they can and should look for.
  • These students reported that their ability to self-assess depended on knowing what the teacher expected
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 16 Apr 19
       
      It is impossible for a student to know if they have done well, if the teacher has not explained the targets the student should be hitting. They must know what is expected of them before they can be expected to assess themselves.
  • Rather than assessing whether the student learned from the assignment or not, this method seems geared to identifying any ‘slackers’ or those who sit on the side lines through the entire project, with minimal contributions.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 16 Apr 19
       
      This is one of the truest things I have ever read.No matter what the level, it is frustrating when one perceives some group members as not doing their best or not participating, especially if one's grade depends on said participation.
  • One way to begin the process of introducing students to self-assessment is to create student-teacher contracts. Contracts are written agreements between students and instructors, which commonly involve determining the number and type of assignments that are required for particular grades
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 17 Apr 19
       
      I like how this focuses on the student. Having some ownership and feedback from the instructor can be powerful. Plus contracts are relevant in the real world.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      While I understand the premise, I struggle with classroom contracts. They are frivolous...they really mean nothing. It downplays real contracts which have implications.
  • Emphasize what students can do rather than what they cannot do
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 17 Apr 19
       
      Very important for student confidence. I have a tendency to focus on improvement with my students and not enough on what they are doing correct.
  • Group work can be more successful when students are involved in developing the assessment process.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 17 Apr 19
       
      What a great way to involve the students and see what criteria is important to them. They would become more active in the learning process and better results should follow.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      No kidding! Think of all the time teachers spend outlining the essential criteria. We can put some of this in the students court, especially is it helps the success of teaching some soft skills, working as a team.
  • More often, however, students spoke of the tension between their own and the teacher’s expectations. … Over and over again, students rejected their own judgments of their work in favor of guessing how their teacher or professor would grade it.”
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 17 Apr 19
       
      How do you get students to overcome this?
  • How it works – each group member completes an evaluation on his or her team members which is then submitted to the instructor. The instructor usually takes the average of the peer evaluations, and shares this grade with each team member which serves as the student’s grade in the peer evaluation portion.
  • Forcing’ the individual student to assess their own behaviour, as opposed to others is more constructive – it supports the aim of developing collaboration skills, along with the knowledge component.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 17 Apr 19
       
      I agree. Most students are critical of their own work. They will be honest and upfront. The thing to be careful about is to make sure they explain themselves and not just give a grade. Self reflection is the highest form of accountability.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think there is a lot of power in metacognition. Giving people the space to think about their thinking and evelaute their own choices...can lead to a lot of growth.
  • To help students develop realistic, short-term, attainable goals, instructors can use a framework like SMART goals outline shown in the popup window
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      I think short-term goals are essential for students to track their success and stay focused on the goals. They should probably set new goals for every chapter/unit.
  • Students do not learn to monitor or assess their learning on their own; they need to be taught strategies for self monitoring and self assessment.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      The idea of students assessing and monitoring their own learning will be something totally new for most students. They will need help from teachers and some time to learn this process.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 20 Apr 19
       
      I agree. Assessing and monitoring learning only happens when students are explicitily taught the skills. Often it may have to be done many times and situations before students do it on their own.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      This is an interesting topic and something I haven't tried with my students. I think as you both brought up would need some practice but agree it would be a powerful tool for self assessment
  • The student participates in the selection of portfolio content, the development of guidelines for selection, and the definition of criteria for judging merit
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      I like to idea of the student determining what goes in their folders, it gives them some power over their own learner.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 23 Apr 19
       
      I agree, it always seems to be best for students when they feel like they have a say in what they are doing.
  • The instructor provides a sample writing or speaking assignment. As a group, students determine what should be assessed and how criteria for successful completion of the communication task should be defined.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      I think its a good idea for the students to see sample work and talk about how to assess it and criteria they think is need to successfully complete the assignment.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      A great idea. the samples and practice we can give students the better off they will be.
  • Represent a student's range of performance in reading, writing, speaking, and listening as well as cultural understanding
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      Think its a good idea to have variety of things in the students portfolio so we can see the range of students work and also how much progress the student has made.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      this too is a good idea!
  • peer or in a small group
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 17 Apr 19
       
      Conversations can help students solidify and internalize their thinking.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 23 Apr 19
       
      Exactly, that think-pair-share strategy or anything that gets students talking with other students can be really beneficial for them.
  • peer pressure
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 17 Apr 19
       
      This is a very real issue. Students can feel pressure to elevate a friends grade out of a sense of loyalty.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 23 Apr 19
       
      I see this as being less of a problem with students who don't visit campus at all. They may not know many peers.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      Ali - Good point! This is a benefit of online courses vs. face to face. Most LMS's have a integrated tool that allows for peer assessment as well.
  • similar skill level
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 17 Apr 19
       
      This may be difficult to determine especially early in a course.
  • very clear and explicit.
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 17 Apr 19
       
      As in, using a rubric!
  • This is my preferred approach
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 17 Apr 19
       
      I agree. It seems more balanced.
  • deliberate thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it.
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      Again, I think self-assessment is key. As we move towards SBG, I have built in self-assessing on almost everyone on of my rubrics in order to see where a student thinks they are v where I think they are.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      I love the idea of self assessment and once students grab onto it I know they see its effects as well.
  • Students individually assess each other's contribution using a predetermined list of criteria. Grading is based on a predetermined process, but most commonly it is an average of the marks awarded by members of the group.
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      I always struggle with peer grading. I feel as if the students are never "hard" enough on other students the way that I would be when I am grading as a teacher. With that said, I think that if you build in norms and go over things as a class so they can see how you would do it, it may help.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      I dont think I would use this exclusively but think peer evaluation is a good measuring stick of both the grader and gradee's understanding of the material
  • introduce students to the concepts and elements of assessment against specified criteria in the first weeks of class
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      I think this is key for class and for students to be able to see what they are being assessed in. What is the secret? Don't we as educators want our students to do well? I have been in the process of making posters for each of my classes and units that I hang up when we start a new unit. These posters have the standards, main ideas, and key assessment strategies.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think all too often we are so concerned with "covering the material" that we don't take the time to front load a unit (or the school year). If we want our students to be successful and feel good about their learning, we need to make sure students know what is required from the very beginning.
  • self-assessment as an opportunity for students to reflect on their own work
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      Wow, I couldn't agree more. I don't want students to grade themselves because they won't grade themselves the same way that I will. However, I would direct them to self assess and use the same rubric the way that I would in order to build on the ideas that I am looking for and how they can better themselves.
  • I have mixed feelings about peer evaluations, leaning towards not using peer reviews as part of the assessment strategy. I wonder if the concept of peer evaluation is exclusive to higher education institutions
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      I agree. I have tried full on peer assessing in high school before and it never really works the way I want them to
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      Agreed
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      I struggle with this concept. How do students know the qualities of effective persuasive writing, for instance?
  • Guided practice with assessment tools
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      Perhaps if I spent more time doing this, I would have had more success with student self and peer edits. It's interesting, though, that my daughters felt the same way about peer editing in their HS classes. They always felt they lacked any helpful input. In fact, they felt peers were marking things they completely disagreed with. I just don't know how to make peer editing of upper level writing better.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      This has been my experience over 27 years in education as well.
  • There is strong support in constructivist theories for the peer review which is grounded in student-centered learning where students learn as much from the review process itself as from the final grade on an assignment.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      Again, I am a skeptic with constructivist theory
  • hough at the conclusion of their research they determined that students involved in peer review perform better academically than peers graded only by their instructors
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      Well, that is good to know!
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think this is an important point! It doesn't really matter how we feel about it, research shows that peer review do better so it should be case closed, we should use it. I would like to know the corroboration of this by other studies.
  •   Learners have a developed set of communication skills.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      makes sense
  • Use a Rubric
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 18 Apr 19
       
      This was successful for me when grading group projects...especially performance-based projects like one-act play performance.
  • Such self assessment encourages students to become independent learners and can increase their motivation.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 19 Apr 19
       
      This is a great accomplishment for any teacher!
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      no joke, I feel that this can happen when students see them working towards a goal that isn't "just for the teacher"
  • Students may be reluctant to make judgements regarding their peers.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 19 Apr 19
       
      This would go back to the culture in the classroom. Students would need to feel safe about expressing their thoughts about others' work and also receiving feedback about their own work.
  • students assess their own contribution
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 19 Apr 19
       
      Is there any risk of privacy laws when allowing peer assessment? I don't share the grade of one student with any other student. Would peer assessment violate this? If it does, self-assessment would be a better option.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      Interesting question never thought of it that way......would be interesting to look at research
  • it requires a specific set of learning conditions to be present in order for it to work as intended.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 19 Apr 19
       
      How often would we see these learning conditions be present in our classrooms and peer grading considered effective?
  • the learner will benefit far more by completing a self evaluation
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 19 Apr 19
       
      I like the use of self evaluation if you can get students to take it seriously. I am a little wary of peer evaluation because I don't think all students will use constructive criticism.
  • it helps them control the classroom better by reinforcing their power and expertise,
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 19 Apr 19
       
      Or is it because it allows them to know whether or not students are getting the material? Yes, some teachers are power hungry and on constant power trips with grades, but if we aren't readily and regularly assessing and providing feedback, how do we know for ourselves whether or not students are learning?
  • Every time I did get a comment, no peer ever wrote more than three sentences. And why should they? Comments were anonymous so the hardest part of the evaluative obligation lacked adequate incentive and accountabilit
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 19 Apr 19
       
      Using different online tools such as Turnitin.com allows students to remain anonymous to peers but teachers can see who reviewed whom and what kind of feedback they left. This could provide more incentive to provide better quality feedback. If students know teachers will look back through what they wrote, then they might be more conscientious about it.
  • Students that fell into this group were physically and cognitively lazy, not contributing to the process as required. This phenomenon was referenced in several other research studies within the paper.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 19 Apr 19
       
      This isn't just a feedback issue though -- this is a systemic issue throughout education. The "loafers and others" will do the bare minimum on any assignment, so to use that as a reason to not use peer feedback is a moot point.
  • help reduce the ‘free rider’ problem
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 20 Apr 19
       
      I think the more we can do to decrease the free rider situation the better.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 24 Apr 19
       
      Totally agree! Find this is true even with adults in other classes I have taken in the past
  • 4) When learners are mature, self-directed and motivated.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 20 Apr 19
       
      This is an interesting statement when we start to think about this in K-12 situation. Can we describe the typical student in those terms?
  • They also recommend that teachers share expectations for assignments and define quality. Showing students examples of effective and ineffective pieces of work can help to make those definitions real and relevant.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 20 Apr 19
       
      This especially important when it is linked with the findings in paragraph five. Student need this information.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      I agree. This aligns nicely with what was said in the previous article..."Why and When Peer Grading is Effective for Online Learning"...It can also be very effective in small, closed online classes where students are at similar skill level and receive instruction and guidance in how to grade within the process.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      This also ties in closely with our lesson on modeling. For many students it helps them to understand what a teacher is looking for and what "great work" looks like. Likewise, it is also helpful to show students examples of work that doesn't meet the requirements.
  • 3 main grading strategie
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 20 Apr 19
       
      I am really frustrated with the following section. It's like they equate grades with learning. This completely ignores the learning process.
  • hen students are involved in developing the assessment process.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 21 Apr 19
       
      I agree with this statement. The power is in students evaluating their own work.
  • strive for a more advanced and deeper understanding of the subject matter, skills and processes
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 21 Apr 19
       
      This is what teachers really want to strive for, a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
  • passive learner to active leaner
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 21 Apr 19
       
      I like this statement too, we want students to be active learners.
  • inst if students ‘gang up’ against one group member
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 21 Apr 19
       
      Yikes! I hope a teacher could control this!
  • Self evaluation has a risk of being perceived as a process of presenting inflated grades and being unreliable
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 21 Apr 19
       
      I could see this happening. That's why things need to be laid out and other uses of evaluation should be in place as well.
  • Encourages student involvement and responsibility.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 23 Apr 19
       
      If this isn't "required" I don't see many students wanting to do this. It is a struggle in F2F classes. Maybe in an online setting it would be better for some?
  • Students may have little exposure to different forms of assessment and so may lack the necessary skills and judgements to effectively manage self and peer assessments
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 23 Apr 19
       
      This is such a mountain to climb, but if more F2F classes do this, then perhaps it will be easier in online classes and vice versa.
  • Students must feel comfortable and trust one another in order to provide honest and constructive feedback.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      Climate and culture is important when asking students to engage in peer assessment.
  • here may also be a perception amongst students that the academic is ‘shirking’ their responsibilities by having students undertaking peer assessments.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 23 Apr 19
       
      We have had this perception with Blended and Flipped learning with some of our students and parents. We quickly learned that educating the stakeholders is important.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      You're absolutely right! Students and parents alike feel that it is the teacher's job to deliver the content and the teacher's job to assess student work. Helping both parties understand the WHY is so important!
  • practice session
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      Modeling and practicing feedback is critical. Otherwise it is very easy for people to provide very surface level feedback that doesn't give the learner much to go on in regards to improving. The learner gets frustrated because the information isn't usefule and the person providing the feedback because they don't see any changes.
  • When operating successfully can reduce a lecturer's marking load.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 23 Apr 19
       
      It does, but obviously from the Disadvantages below, it doesn't. What is the balance?
  • It can also be very effective in small, closed online classes where students are at similar skill level and receive instruction and guidance in how to grade within the process.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think that providing instruction and guidance in how to peer grade is key to ensuring that peer grading has meaning to the person receiving the grade.
  • rubric not only helps the facilitator score the assignment but it and can greatly increase the quality and effort put into assignments by giving students a clear expectations with knowledge that must be demonstrated.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 23 Apr 19
       
      Rubrics can set expectations for assignments and define quality.
  • informs the teacher about students' thoughts on their progress,
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think this piece is also really important. As a teacher it's easy to look at only the stuff student's submit, without knowing what they think about their own progress.
  • Allow for assessment of process and product
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 23 Apr 19
       
      I think the process is almost more important than the final product in everything that you do. I like that this mentions the process, and the product.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      All are great ideas and good practice
  • be aware of their learning
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 23 Apr 19
       
      Monitoring your own learning is the most important skill that we can help students learn.
  • goal of learning more
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      I feel we need to change our culture from that of earning good grades to one of learning. We will spend our whole lives learning, unlearning, and relearning. To be successful at anything we need to learn the skill of self-assessment - am I doing what I need to be doing? The world is ever-changing and we need to figure out how to make it (and ourselves) better. We can help young people do this by helping them learn to self-assess in school.
  • assessing their progress towards those goals
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      We have talked about using a portfolio to conduct student-led conferences with parents and teachers. Our current PT conference protocol is out-dated in this day of emails and online gradebooks. I think it would be awesome for students to choose student work that shows their progress toward course goals.
  • the lack of necessary skills
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 23 Apr 19
       
      Is this a valid concern? How can my struggling students provide feedback to peers if they lack the necessary skills? How can a struggling writer give useful feedback to a peer who is a better writer?-- Just playing devil's advocate ;) Still a good question to think about in order to justify the use of peer assessment.
  • One of the ways in which students internalize the characteristics of quality work is by evaluating the work of their peers.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      Peer evaluation is a great way for students to cognitively grasp the material.
  • Goal setting is essential because students can evaluate their progress more clearly when they have targets against which to measure their performance.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      Goal setting is one our standards and greatly enhances student motivation to achieve on the fitness tests.
  • Portfolios are purposeful, organized, systematic collections of student work that tell the story of a student's efforts, progress, and achievement in specific areas.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      We are currently having our PE students create an ePortfolio in Canvas that will follow them K-12 and serve as a final artifact for them as a senior.
  • Engage students in establishing ongoing learning goals
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      This is one of the main objectives with the ePortfolio, as it will guide our students down a path of personalized learning to achieve their goals.
rhoadsb_

ollie-afe-2019: Article: Attributes from Effective Formative Assessment (CCSSO) - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by rhoadsb_ on 10 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • Because the formative assessment process helps students achieve intended learning outcomes based on explicit learning progressions, teachers must first identify and then communicate the instructional goal to students.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 10 Apr 19
       
      The reason Learning Targets are so important to establish and communicate.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 12 Apr 19
       
      Articulating goals in student friendly language is important so students know what the target is.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 13 Apr 19
       
      As our district moves forward to standards-based learning/grading, we need to change our mindset. Students need to see learning as more important that "getting a good grade'. We can help this process by sharing the learning targets with them.
    • jennham
      jennham on 13 Apr 19
       
      In order for the students to see that the learning is more important than the grade, educators also need to make that shift in thinking. As my son starts applying to colleges, it seems to be ALL about his grades. I know many of my sons' teachers also feel that getting a good grade is the end result. I think students as a whole would be more receptive to how much they have learned if their teachers modeled that as well.
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      This is where the rubric comes into play. Students need to know or see what they will be evaluated on for the final product. I really like the idea of having students create their own rubric.
  • Effective formative assessment involves collecting evidence about how student learning is progressing during the course of instruction so that necessary instructional adjustments can be made to close the gap between students’ current understanding and the desired goals. Formative assessment is not an adjunct to teaching but, rather, integrated into instruction and learning with teachers and students receiving frequent feedback.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 10 Apr 19
       
      People think this can be "scripted" but it really can't. Formative assessment CHANGES the teaching and learning processes to meet the needs of the learners. It is fluid.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      and I think it is difficult to say that formative assessment can close the gap. Imagine if classrooms waited for everyone to get something before moving on. Formative assessment is more beneficial, in my opinion, in small groups. If 90% of kids get an exit ticket correct, the class will likely move on. Even though we know that 10% don't get it.
    • jennham
      jennham on 13 Apr 19
       
      In an ideal situation you would move on, but the 10% would receive additional instruction in order to learn and understand what they didn't before. The trick is to find the time to do that. Every time we find time in order to make this happen it seems to get snatched up by something else that we need to do.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 26 Apr 19
       
      This is something we can been discussing a great deal and whether we should include it in our grade books...with or without points and we do not give credit for formative assessments.
  • In self-assessment, students reflect on and monitor their learning using clearly explicated criteria for success.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 10 Apr 19
       
      I think this is harder for some kids to do than others.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 12 Apr 19
       
      I agree but if we did it more and across the curriculum we could help them all become better at it.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 14 Apr 19
       
      I find that kids are often more critical of themselves than I would be. Maybe it's false modesty, but when I've had students do a post-writing reflection or log, most of the time they think their writing is crap and they struggled more than I say in class. That is often eye opening since we think we know what happens in our classrooms, but it shouldn't be a surprise that students - like teachers - are experts at hiding their struggles.
  • ...51 more annotations...
  • Creating such a culture requires teachers to model these behaviors during interactions with students, to actively teach the classroom norms, and to build the students’ skills in constructive self- and peer-assessment. In this type of classroom culture, students will more likely feel they are collaborators with their teacher and peers in the learning process.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 10 Apr 19
       
      This reminds me of the routines you have to build with elementary students each fall for things like centers, bell ringers, daily 5, etc. Even blended and flipped learning needs routines visited and revisited at the beginning.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 11 Apr 19
       
      This is why I love the math curriculum I am using. The main focus is collaboration. Everyday students are expected to come up and share their work on how they solved the problem. Students enjoy learning from their classmates.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 15 Apr 19
       
      It's interesting to me that in elementary we spend the time to create a culture, but many teachers ignore this in the secondary classroom.
  • Increasing numbers of educators regard formative assessment as a way not only to improve student learning, but also to increase student scores on significant achievement examinations.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 10 Apr 19
       
      It is worrisome to me that the focus seems to be more on increasing student standardized test scores than increasing student learning/understanding. Which is better for the student in the long run?
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 17 Apr 19
       
      an agreed concern.....so much focus on standardized scores has changed focus to results instead of learning
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      Do standardized tests provide value to our students, really? Cant say they do. Formative assessment is for guiding the teacher and student to learn, not take a test.
  • From a learning progression teachers have the big picture of what students need to learn, as well as sufficient detail for planning instruction to meet short-term goals.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 10 Apr 19
       
      This is why it is important to begin each assignment with the end in mind. What do we want students to learn, how will we measure that learning, and how to we get there?
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      Agreed. From a person interested in the content and the learning of their students this makes sense. From a practical perspective, I think a large portion of students would not find any value in this. I would guess over 50% would not read it and would not use it. Now, as a teacher, I can say you should have read this to know how to improve, that isn't a practical solution though. I think that has to come from application and purposeful relevancy.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I also agree. As a teacher you need to know the end goal, and work backwards
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 26 Apr 19
       
      This is a great idea. I would love to get some of these set up. A great tool to use with students.
  • Descriptive feedback should be about the particular qualities of student learning with discussion or suggestions about what the student can do to improve. It should avoid comparisons with other pupils. Specific, timely feedback should be based on the learning goal and criteria for success. It should help the student answer three basic questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? How can I close the gap?
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 10 Apr 19
       
      It is of the utmost importance to make sure that students are only comparing their work to their prior efforts, as opposed to comparing their work to that of other students.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 11 Apr 19
       
      I like the last 3 questions of the paragraph. Great questions for me to ask. It would be a nice way to have the students reflect after a test as well.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 12 Apr 19
       
      I agree Matt, these questions can help students reflect on their learning, and it would be great to have all teachers use them so it becomes second nature to students.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 13 Apr 19
       
      I notice the word "timely". This is SO important but also so hard to do with teachers' workloads. Does anyone have something that works for both the teacher and student?
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 15 Apr 19
       
      I love this idea from Caitlin Tucker: https://catlintucker.com/2019/02/ask-yourself-why-am-i-grading-this/ So much of what we grade does not require a grade. Maybe if we make this adjustment, our work load would decrease.
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      This is something that I have to continue to improve.
  • Alternatively, feedback could be given using a format such as “two stars and a wish,” which provides a structure for a student to identify two aspects of the work that are particularly strong (stars) and one aspect the peer might improve (a wish).
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 10 Apr 19
       
      I really like this idea, as it focuses on what students are doing well. It is much easier to take constructive criticism when it is couched with praise.
    • jennham
      jennham on 13 Apr 19
       
      I really like this idea as well! Phrasing it as "a wish" will be easier for the creator of the project to hear, but will also be easier for the evaluator to give. I know I have students who constantly say,"You don't need to change anything," not because they think that is true, but because they do not want to bruise anyone's feelings.
  • Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes.
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 10 Apr 19
       
      Notice the definition does not say that formative assessments can't be graded. I am a proponent of grading formative assessments, but I have heard others say it should not be.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 12 Apr 19
       
      I think Evan mentioned this in one of his video chats. He talked about the value of not grading the formative assessment but using it to enhance classroom discussion. Would this work in a math classroom?
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      This is an excellent point. My first reaction was No! Don't grade it! But then I thought about the chapter reading quizzes I would give. In some ways these were formative because I wanted to see if students understood the chapter in the novel. In others, it was summative in that I wanted to hold students accountable for the reading. I did grade them. Hmmm...Interesting
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I think it is so interesting to consider not grading formative assessments. I feel like every time I give an assignment to students the first question they ask is "Will this go on my grade?"
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      I think many times we ask students during a lesson, to give a number of fingers as to whether you understand what we just shared. And I had done that for many years, but never knew it was called formative assessment until a few years ago.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 17 Apr 19
       
      I really enjoy that formative assessment can be done in so many different ways (verbally, a quiz, practice problems, exit tickets, review games, etc.....) I do get where Trevor is coming from though......very much a grade centric focus instead of a learning focus
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      Exactly we need to get away from grading everything as we may not have taught the content in way that ll can learn. Use FA to guide instruction and improve student learning.
  • five attributes
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 10 Apr 19
       
      1. Learning Progressions 2. Learning Goals 3. Descriptive Feedback 4. Self- and Peer-Assessment 5. Collaboration
  • Descriptive Feedback:
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 10 Apr 19
       
      This is by far the most important part of formative assessment for students. Teachers need to provide timely, informative feedback, so that students can learn from their mistakes.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      Agreed! The feedback piece is the most important by far, and you mentioned how important it is to have it in a timely manner!
  • Self- and Peer-Assessment
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 10 Apr 19
       
      Peer assessment is the most difficult for all parties involved. It is difficult for students to critique each other's work appropriately and it is difficult for students to receive feedback from peers. It is also difficult for teachers to model appropriate behaviors for peer assessment.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I agree. It is always hard to get students to do this the right way. The idea behind it is awesome though, if you could somehow get students to appropriately evaluate their classmates work.
  • The students must be actively involved in the systematic process intended to improve their learning. The process requires the teacher to share learning goals with students and provide opportunities for students to monitor their ongoing progress.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 10 Apr 19
       
      I like this idea about students having an active process. This would be very valuable for both the student and teacher. If the student has more of an active process by setting goals and monitoring them I feel they would have sense of ownership in the process. Very powerful when they feel this way.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 12 Apr 19
       
      I agree. I think it would increase student ownership of the learning process.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 17 Apr 19
       
      Totally agree! Student choice and voice is an important piece that I think we miss out on frequently in education
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      If students are not involved in the process they will see it as a check box.
  • To support both self- and peer-assessment, the teacher must provide structure and support so students learn to be reflective of their own work and that of their peers, allowing them to provide meaningful and constructive feedback.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 11 Apr 19
       
      This is something that I need to do a better job of. I've thought about using math journals where students could reflect on on their own work and that of their peers when peer evaluating. The lack of time is the excuse.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      It's not an excuse; it's a reality. When you have over 100 students, it's impossible to give them as much attention as you would like.
  • This will provide students with a reasonably clear idea of the analytic skills they are to develop and also provide them with the tools required to assess their own written analyses.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 11 Apr 19
       
      Hopefully being careful that students are not just regurgitating information. Sometimes I think we get wrapped up in getting content and skills across we don't notice ourselves spoon feeding.
  • This involves moving from the early stages of reasoning based on simple observation to the more complex stages based on indirect observation and the synthesis of multiple sources of information.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 11 Apr 19
       
      Which happens at different times for different students. Some may have already accomplished it while others need more scaffolding to achieve it.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 12 Apr 19
       
      True! I think these kinds of complex skills are exactly the ones that might be worth the time for formal formative feedback so students and teachers see who has it and who doesn't.
  • A classroom culture in which teachers and students are partners in learning should be established.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 11 Apr 19
       
      Honestly, I forget this part the most of the 5 categories. I am not the CEO, but more a manager.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      I like this one the most. It is all about relationships!!!
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I agree! However that quote goes "Students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      This may be the most important attribute.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 16 Apr 19
       
      I think this might be most important attribute of all. Culture and climate are so important. Kids will work hard for you even if they don't want to do the project if you have a good relationship with them.
  • without dissent:
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 11 Apr 19
       
      Amazing to me that no one disagreed. Worries me about groupthink occurring at that meeting. I'm not saying I disagree with the definition, but that really amazes me there was no dissent.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 12 Apr 19
       
      I imagine if people were at a meeting about formative assessment, they would all be on the same page to begin with. I imagine this was merely a wordsmithing session and less of deliberate one.
  • is to provide evidence that is used by teachers
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 12 Apr 19
       
      depending on what I'm looking for, formative assessment can sometimes be more effective for just me. Often my students don't really know (or care) where they are in the grand scheme of things, but I need to know so I can determine our course.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      I did have students use their comprehension quizzes as a formative assessment. If they did not get 8/10, I had them write a note on the quiz as to why. Did they just not do the reading? Did the read it while multi-tasking? Did they read it but just not get it? I was hoping to make them aware of their learning and why it was not where it should be when considering reading comprehension of a novel. But then, maybe I should not have graded it??
  • a process rather than a particular kind of assessment.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 12 Apr 19
       
      This is where it gets difficult for me sometimes. The recursive aspect is difficult when dealing with a common course that is supposed to stay on track with other sections led by other teachers. Having the ability to be flexible with instruction is essential, but when "aligned" with other teachers, that flexibility can be constrained.
  • informal observations and conversations to purposefully planned instructionally embedded techniques designed to elicit evidence of student learning
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 12 Apr 19
       
      Many teachers do a lot of formative assessment in the way of observation, listening, even questioning. In an online setting, this is the part that harder. But as standards move more to skills and concepts rather than just knowledge, those "embedded techniques" might be a piece that's missing. Many times when students "miss the mark" on the test, it's because there was a disconnect in what they thought they were supposed to know or lack of feedback on what they were supposed to do.
  • offers enough substantive information to allow the student an opportunity to identify ways to move learning forward.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 12 Apr 19
       
      The use of models here is the key though. Sometimes this info isn't enough if they have seen or heard many speeches that do this (and most kids haven't).
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      As a former writing teacher, I never doubted the power of the feedback. The problem was finding the time. I could not read 100+ papers twice: once formative and second summative. It was a struggle to provide the feedback they needed and survive the job.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 14 Apr 19
       
      I teach Math so I can't imagine what it is like trying to provide timely feedback for writing assignments. I think it's hard enough to do it with math homework when the student is missing a piece of the equation or something.
  • they can take an active role in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own progress.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 12 Apr 19
       
      I've always felt that one of the biggest benefits of peer-assessment has nothing to do with the feedback--it has to do with perspective. When a student sees how another student approached a writing prompt or a problem or a process, it allows them to look differently at their own work. If the only thing students ever see is the the teacher's thinking and their own, it can limit their understanding.
  • supporting students as they monitor and take responsibility for their own learning
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 12 Apr 19
       
      This is something almost all teachers would like more of, but it's hard for students to do that if we don't give them the success criteria, vocabulary, and feedback to help them be more independent in reaching our expectations.
  • a formative tes
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 12 Apr 19
       
      I always wonder about this when I hear teachers saying that they are using plc time to develop "common formative assessments".
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      You have a valid point Deborah. Should we have common formative assessments or not? According to this article it's an ongoing process throughout a lesson and should be adaptive to each teacher.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 26 Apr 19
       
      I think it is one more item in education we do not have time to create...common formative assessments.
  • teachers and students
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 12 Apr 19
       
      Shouldn't all teaching and learning involve educators and students? lol.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 13 Apr 19
       
      I feel that all too often teachers think of weekly quizzes as formative assessment. Unfortunately, those weekly quizzes are often not used to adjust teaching. This definition says it is a PROCESS. I don't think many teachers think of it that way.
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      I agree Barb, I know I don't think of it as a process. I need to work on that.
  • meta-cognitively
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 12 Apr 19
       
      Asking students to think metacognatively about learning will hopefully make them more efficient learners in the future.
  • Learning Goals and Criteria for Success: Learning goals and criteria for success should be clearly identified and communicated to students.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 12 Apr 19
       
      While I am not in classrooms very often, almost all of them do this. I feel like this is something that teachers have made a real effort to do.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      Agreed. However, in my experience, most students don't care. It is kind of like showing them standards. Even in kid friendly language, they largely don't care. I think this article brings up lots of good information, but the reality of practice is much different than the reality of the folks coming up with these things.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 12 Apr 19
       
      Formative assessments gives teachers the checkpoints of learning with their students. It informs their instruction of what to do next.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 12 Apr 19
       
      I like how this clarifies that there are many different types of formative assessments.
  • and show the trajectory of learning along which students are expected to progress
    • annott
      annott on 16 Apr 19
       
      As I learn more about scaffolding, I think that is a good way to cover learning progression.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 12 Apr 19
       
      Progressions give teachers and students a pathway of learning.
  • evidence-based feedback
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      ha ha ha...again a reality of practice. You can't reliably do this for 150 kids and every formative assessment. What about the informal formative assessments? Technology can help with this, but again it has to be setup to do so.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 14 Apr 19
       
      I think you bring up a valid point. We really need to spend the time giving feedback, but I am wondering what is the difference between informal vs formal feedback. I have seen teachers use an "autopsy" after certain assignments so major issues are address large group. Often students tend to make similar mistakes.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 16 Apr 19
       
      Giving feed back to every student is all most impossible to do in a timely matter if you 100+ students. I like the idea of addressing major mistakes as a large group because like Megan said most times multiple students make the same mistake or have the same problem.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 12 Apr 19
       
      Students should also be given descriptive feedback.
  • involving students in decisions about how to move learning forward are illustrations of students and teachers working together in the teaching and learning process.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 12 Apr 19
       
      I like this idea of student feedback. This is a very powerful tool.
  • teachers and students
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 12 Apr 19
       
      It is really important to get students to take ownership of their learning.
  • In addition to communicating the nature of the instructional goal, teachers must provide the criteria by which learning will be assessed so that students will know whether they are successfully progressing toward the goal. This information should be communicated using language readily understood by students, and may be accompanied by realistic examples of those that meet and do not meet the criteria.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 12 Apr 19
       
      How is this best accomplished? Does using an "I can" statement at the start of a math lesson accomplish this goal? I tend to think my students are not really interested in these statements. This also seems to feel like a time consuming requirement for a teacher. I feel a time crunch with just getting the lesson taught and giving kids a little work time in class.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      And I am wondering, does this apply to adult learners in a PD setting?
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Apr 19
       
      We are going down this road in more detail in our district now with SBG and rubrics are essential to learning and the communication to students.
  • Helping students think meta-cognitively about their own learning fosters the idea that learning is their responsibility
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 12 Apr 19
       
      I need to include more opportunities for this as I think it is really important for students to take ownership of their learning.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 13 Apr 19
       
      I've always tried to do this as I teach high school math. I love that math has a right answer but there are multiple ways to get it. I always tell students that we are filling their "toolbox" as we learn strategies to solving problems. Ultimately, though, it is up to them to make sense of what "tool" works best for them.
  • However, for students to be actively and successfully involved in their own learning, they must feel that they are bona fide partners in the learning process.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 12 Apr 19
       
      I think this sounds right but is it attainable with all students? Or more importantly how is it attainable. Several of my students come to mind that really don't express a desire to learn Algebra or Geometry and I have not been successful in changing that attitude!
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      This is very doable, I think, when working with adult learners in a PD environment.
    • jennham
      jennham on 13 Apr 19
       
      I feel that is is doable, but I also feel it will be an uphill battle all the way with some students. It is very hard to overcome, in one week or month or year, the baggage some kids bring with them. However, this isn't a new struggle to us or to them. Anything and everything that helps them to succeed is what we will do!
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 15 Apr 19
       
      Jen, YES! It takes time for our students to trust us to build a partnership. We need to realize that trust is built one small moment at a time.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 12 Apr 19
       
      Interesting...I have never heard of this group nor heard of this initiative. Education is a complex world
  • short-term goals to keep track of how well their students’ learning is moving forward.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 12 Apr 19
       
      Learning progressions are a great way to scaffold and have those checkpoints to see where students are at and help identify where students need assistance.
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 17 Apr 19
       
      I agree that checkpoints or formative assessments during a learning progression are extremely important. Without, a student could easily go through the motions and when it came to the summative assessment they would completely fail.
  • inform instruction and learning
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 13 Apr 19
       
      I think there are constant examples of assessment informing instruction in classrooms. I find it interesting the formal formative assessment argument seems to hold water but informal or on the fly decisions in a classroom are not typically seen as quality modifications due to formative assessment since they are not done with hard data, but rather subjective data.
  • A teacher needs to have modeled good feedback with students and talked about what acceptable and unacceptable comments look like in order to have created a safe learning environment.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 14 Apr 19
       
      Modeling is, of course, always the most effective, but how do we move students beyond just copying the model? I find most of my upper level, grade-grubbing, high-achieving students will stop taking intellectual risks the more I model. They don't want to be "wrong" so they play it safe.
  • Sharing learning goals and criteria for success with students
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 15 Apr 19
       
      We need to spend more time sharing goals with our students.
  • The teacher might first offer students a paraphrased version of that goal such as, “You will be able to judge the strengths and weaknesses of arguments in the editorials you find in our daily newspapers.” The teacher would discuss the criteria for evaluating arguments and then provide several examples of critiques of political essays
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 16 Apr 19
       
      I think its a good idea to show students some sort of example of what you are expecting from them. Especially if its the first time you try something in your class.
  • Both self- and peer-assessment are important
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 16 Apr 19
       
      I think both self and peer assessment are a great idea. It's always good for student to self reflect on their work but its also good for them to hear feedback from classmates instead of just the teacher all the time.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 17 Apr 19
       
      Peer reflection and peer learning to me is almost as valuable as teacher reflection. I think students learn better from peers than teachers in lots of situations because students can explain in their own language
  • inform and adjust instruction
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 17 Apr 19
       
      I see a disconnect in utilization of formative assessment data to adjust instruction in elementary compared to secondary classrooms. K-5 teachers seem to be more knowledgable and willing to change instruction where secondary teachers struggle. Perhaps it's the number of students or race against the curriculum map, but I have observed that formative assessment data may come back showing poor understanding, but teachers keep moving forward.
  • The success criterion that the teacher gives them is, “Include any properties or rules that may apply in your explanation.”
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 17 Apr 19
       
      As I read this example I think about how this activity could be put online. You could easily to a screencast or Flipgrid "think-a-loud" to explain thinking and meet the criteria of the teacher. This could be done individually or in a small group.
  • Students then need time to reflect on the feedback they have received to make changes or improvements.
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 17 Apr 19
       
      I think this is a missed opportunity in classes. It is important to build in time to reflect, becuase students may not review this on their own. I thinking it's equally important to model what self reflection looks like and how it can be used to improve outcomes. It's just another layer of scaffolding.
  • investigate the past from a range of sources of information,
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      This is how I get my students excited about inquiries. They get to play detective and have fun with the information that they are diving into.
  • in increasingly sophisticated ways
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      This is where I allow my students to work on their own and really challenge themselves. This idea that a student can progress on their own gives them a sense of ownership and ability to make their own path.
  • provide an explanation
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      I love this! I do something similar when it comes to quick writes in my class. The first quick write that we do, I take a great, a good, and a needs work. I post all three of them (without names) and then go over why we think as a class each got the score they did. Great way to build skills.
  • self-reflective b
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 18 Apr 19
       
      Self-reflection is huge! Now that we are moving towards SBG, I have tried working in more and more self-reflection into my rubrics. I want them thinking about what they did. On all my essays, they go through the rubric first and determine their score and add comments as to why they think they should get that score and then I go in after and grade and we can sort of compare.
annott

Implementation in a Secondary Classroom (Articles) - 0 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by annott on 16 Apr 19 - No Cached
  • choice serves as a motivator
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      When I give some of my kids choices on what they want to do, they have a tendency to ask me for suggestions. I would think the students would need experience with choices to feel confident enough to go make their own.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 25 Apr 19
       
      I have found this as well, in language arts/my writing classes. Giving them an umbrella topic- How-To Essay, and the world at their finger tips, they'll try to take one of my simple examples (how to tie your shoes) instead of choosing their own. I wonder a good way to teach students how to make choices- seems like a valuable lesson!
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I've also witnessed this in many things.Most the time I try to put a similar assignment on paper as on chromebook and allow the students the choice on how they would even like to do the assignment for that day.
  • You have to have a principal who understands that when he walks into a room and it’s not silent, it’s okay.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      I have to get over this at times. We do a lot of collaborative work and if a visitor came into my room they would probably say it is noisier than most classrooms. Once they sit in there for awhile they see the students working together and learning from each other. It is a great thing to experience.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I had a principal that once told me he loved when he'd walk into a classroom where the noise was coming from the students working together. Learning can be noisy and people need to understand that, whether that is in a library or a classroom.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 25 Apr 19
       
      It kind of bothers me nowadays when I walk into a room where students aren't talking. It can be hard to get students to know the difference between just 'socializing' and working together, but I often see the most learning happening in my classroom when the students (rather than just me) are discussing.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I used to always get nervous when an administrator would come into my room, and it wasn't quiet. Now that I've been teaching for a couple of years I have figured out most learning seems to be occurring when students are talking.
  • One of the things I had to learn recently was to let go and allow the kids to experience the consequences of their choices. And maybe there’s a failure. Maybe a kid was trying to do a vodcast and he couldn’t get the video to work correctly on the computer. That’s a learning opportunity for that child. Because it was his choice, he’s going to try to figure out a way to make it work—sometimes with the help of a fellow student.”
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      Such a real life skill. Learning to fail and work through a situation is such great lesson to learn. As teachers it is difficult to watch a student struggle. Knowing that it is part of the process of becoming better at something gives us a little more patience.
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 19 Apr 19
       
      This is a difficult thing to convince parents about in my school. They are looking for perfect scores and don't like it when we "let the kids fail". It will take time to make this shift in thought in our community. I agree that this is a very real life skill that is important for kids to learn how to work through.
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • Eighth grade math teacher Julie Ison describes a project her classes worked on that involved graphing. Working with Excel, the students went to a few websites (preselected by the teacher) and picked data about whatever they were interested in—flavors of ice cream, baseball statistics, basketball statistics, whatever they wanted. They sucked in all the information, put it in Excel, manipulated it, made graphs out of it, and figured out what graphs went with that data, what graphs didn’t go with that data
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      Neat idea. I have a unit on statistics and probability coming up. This is an activity that I might steal. Great way to incorporate personalized learning with graphing real life data.
  • We use Schoology as a learning management system, which many students access on their own phones if there aren’t enough devices to go around.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      I heard this is a great program. My school is looking to adopt this as our LMS.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I know often people think it's important for all teachers to use the same LMS is that true? Does it hurt students to have some teachers using one and some using another?
  • This flipped learning setup frees up my students to use classtime to practice their skills.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      One of my goals before the end of the school year is to do a flipped lesson. I'm excited to try it.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 19 Apr 19
       
      Given that we only see our students twice a week in PE, the use of blended learning is very beneficial to making the best use of face to face class time.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I think we need to do more flipping as it would also help parents, especially in math. Often times I hear parents say well I can't help them with their math, so this way they could see how the teacher was doing the problem and help their child easier.
  • fantasy football stats during class, their motivation began to soar.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 16 Apr 19
       
      I've used the curriculum Fantasy Math and Sports by Dan Flockhart. The students who love sports love this program. It's great way to learn math and is aligned with the common core.
  • The more meaningful an activity is to the person engaging in it, the more likely he or she will be motivated to continue doing it.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 17 Apr 19
       
      This is definitely the case in History/Social Studies. Some students will come in and out of interest based on the time period/unit/activity. Finding a way to keep interest would help.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 18 Apr 19
       
      I was thinking the same exact thing about my Social Studies classes. Some time periods/events are more exciting then others but if you can relate it to current day things or to how it still impacts students today they seem more interested in the topic.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      This is a very valid point. Technology does give way for more student engagement.
  • But when the teacher started to use the students’ questions rather than her own to frame discussions, motivation began to rise.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 17 Apr 19
       
      I have found success and better serving students in the last few years by continually asking them what is and isn't working.
  • They became more motivated and less fidgety when the teacher allowed them to find a comfortable place to read.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 17 Apr 19
       
      I have loosened up on this as well the last few years. I wouldn't want to read on the dusty floor but some really enjoy it.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      Our school is moving to more flexible seating in most classrooms. I think in some cases it works well, in others I think it can be an issue. I think it's important to at least allow students to stand up as opposed to staying seated as they literally sit all day.
  • Certainly, giving choice to students often means that teachers need to allow students to make their own decisions, and it can be difficult to give up this control.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 17 Apr 19
       
      In the end just allowing students to have and make choices at the minimum gives them the sense that their opinion matters, counts, and they can make decisions.
  • While choice can be a powerful motivator, on some occasions it can also have an adverse effect
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 18 Apr 19
       
      I've given kids freedom to choose topics/ideas in my class and many times I have a handful of kids coming up and asking me what they should do, what would be a good one, what would be an easy one to do.
  • However, if tasks are perceived to be too difficult, motivation is likely to suffer.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 18 Apr 19
       
      I feel like this is kind of a catch 22. If you make the project challenging for the students they are more likely to lose interest in doing it. So should we make easy projects to keep them motivated. I don't think thats the solution.
  • For example, when a teacher assigns a research project, some students will prefer to have a broad range of topics, others will prefer a small list of options, and yet others will prefer to be told what to do. Giving students a short list of topics with an option to create their own topic, with the teacher’s approval, often works well.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 18 Apr 19
       
      This just described just about every class I have ever taught. Some kids like endless options, some want a few, and some want to be told their only option.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I agree Tom, but I think it's because they have lacked choice before they get to HS and then once they get to HS they worry about grades and want to know how to get an A.
  • Not every program lends itself to choice
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 19 Apr 19
       
      This is something that is important to remember. It doesn't always have to be choice in the topic or the process of learning, it can be choice in the presentation.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      Right, I think that is sometimes easily forgotten. Just any choice along the way can be good.
  • So far the teachers have talked about choice in terms of curriculum, but choice can also, surprisingly, come into play in relation to discipline
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 19 Apr 19
       
      This is so true! I have started using this in my classes, "these are your options....you choose" Many times I have used, "Would you like me to help with the situation or do you think you can settle it yourselves?" Sometimes they do actually want my help to settle a conflict and other times they are able to do it on their own. This of course is for small disagreements, not big blow outs. I think it is important though to give them the chance to sort things out on their own if they feel they can do so. Most of the time they can and it is a good skill to practice.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      We have done a lot of PBIS training recently, and this is one of the big things they tell us.
  • They could be two ‘bad’ choices
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 19 Apr 19
       
      There are consequences for actions and the teacher is still in charge of those consequences, even when students are getting choice in the disciplinary action.
  • Show us what you’ve learned,
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 19 Apr 19
       
      I think that choice in assessment is the harder one to implement. Choice in what you learn about seems more common place. (ie what dinosaur to study, which event to study, etc.)
  • differentiation of instruction, assessment and expression of learning as well as the collection of student data.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 19 Apr 19
       
      I think that automating what you can in these categories makes teachers more effective.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 19 Apr 19
       
      This is key to the Physical Education world especially as they tend to have twice as many students than other teachers.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 25 Apr 19
       
      Pretty much anything that gives you more data is brilliant in my book- particularly if it's a technology that gives the student data that they can reflect on as well!
  • Now they have access to the full unit from the beginning
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 19 Apr 19
       
      Having a unit ready to go from day 1 of the unit is tough. When students see that though, I think they have confidence because that means the expectations are all set out at the beginning. They just have to navigate each expectation. It is the difference in running a race and knowing where the finish line is and running a race and not knowing where the finish line is.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 19 Apr 19
       
      I am thinking this is the way to go but I worry that if changes need to me made midstream how that will affect the students who may moved ahead.
  • Your class is easy. I don’t mean simple — I mean it is easy for me to learn because I can pick assignments that let me do my best work.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 19 Apr 19
       
      I love this quote. Easy vs. simple.
  • It is the purposeful design of instruction to combine face-to-face teaching, technology-assisted instruction and collaboration to leverage each student’s learning style and interests for deeper learning.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 19 Apr 19
       
      There is so much to be learned about the design of instruction for all teachers as we move forward. All teachers need more PD on this to get us into the 21st Century of Learning and beyond. There are so many exciting things that can happen when this is done well for students. I really think that our students would be more motivated to come to school if we would move out of the industrial era!
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I totally agree. We need to change the way school is structured so we can motivate students.
  • require students to work in groups
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I think we need to work on getting students to collaborate with different people but they tend to want to be with friend groups especially in MS. I like the idea of giving one "buddy" in their group.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 25 Apr 19
       
      My system of group selection works as follows- I draw names randomly, and students jump into groups as they are called. It very rarely happens that an entire group of friends gets together, as some other students will jump in. For this to work, though, there usually has to be a topic set up beforehand, so they know what they're getting into.
  • “One of you needs to move. You decide.”
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 25 Apr 19
       
      I'm surprised I haven't heard much/seen much on this fairly simple concept. Maybe it doesn't work as well as they mention here? I could forsee, if I have two students causing issues, and I ask one of them to decide who moves- they would just get in another fight and/or both refuse to move. Nice in principle though!
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I feel the same as you. It seems like when you give two or more students a choice they start arguing about it.
  • The journey from old school to new learning paradigm was bumpy at first.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      I would agree, it has been bumpy, but it's definitely better!
  • And our classroom is often noisy and active as we play a round of Kahoot
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      Some of my students love to play it and others don't . But its great for a change of pace.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      Learning doesn't have to be quiet.
  • This year I create experiences to expose my students to a range of real-world issues, review the fundamentals of research and help them discover authentic ways to research their issues using a wide variety of digital tools.
  • When it is time to take the standardized tests at the end of the year, your teachers use your project portfolio to help you identify the standards you have already met and rehearse the test with you but don’t otherwise find it necessary to do extensive test prep.
  • Here’s a list of choices. Choose one. As long as you follow the steps in my rubric, you’re fine.’”
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      I would agree that giving options is much better for student learning. When they are part of the planning and designing it natural makes it more engaging.
  • As a result, instead of lecturing to students and showing them a PowerPoint during classtime, I give them screencasts or videos to watch at home.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      We have to let go of the idea that every student must watch every minute of our videos. Good point that they can fast forward, that does make it adaptive.
  • Just three short years ago, my AP students would each have produced their own 10-page research paper. This year, they will select social justice issues that they will research with a team. Each team will collaborate to create a presentation for the board of a philanthropic organization in competition for a hypothetical grant that will be awarded to the program or event most likely to deliver real change. I will bring in administrators and community members to serve as the “board” and choose a winner.  The students won’t get a real grant, but they will receive public recognition for the winning project.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Apr 19
       
      I love this idea, what a great way to get higher order thinking along with collaboration, and an authentic audience.
annott

Physical Environment Considerations, con't - 2 views

softchalkcloud.com/...html

shared by annott on 21 Jul 15 - No Cached
    • katie50009
      katie50009 on 21 Jul 15
       
      Yes--this is something that I fear. Teachers, parents, students, etc. not seeing or using the tools for what they really could offer.
    • ecsexton1
      ecsexton1 on 15 Jun 17
       
      I'm not sure if I can see this happening at an elementary school. I think personalized learning would be more beneficial for MS and HS. Also, what is the teacher's role in PL? Do they do any teaching? Kids could essentially be homeschooled if we are just going to stick a computer or ipad in their face all day.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      You're right, to an extent. I think for it to be successful at MS or HS, it has to be slowly introduced in the earlier grades. I teach high school and my students have never had the opportunity to make choices about their learning, so they don't know how to do it well. It often leads to chaos and behavioral challenges because they're experiencing freedom without having been taught what to do with it and the power of having that freedom. It takes a lot of training and the more than can be done in a controlled environment earlier on in a student's educational career, the more successful it will be for all students.
    • ecsexton1
      ecsexton1 on 15 Jun 17
       
      I think teachers who are not familiar with PL would need a lot of training if my school district decided to convert from a standard school to a PL school. I would like to see a video of how this works from a new teacher to an experienced teacher.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      This is so true! Also thinking about experienced teachers who have been doing what they do (and often times being successful at it!) for so many years and now are being told they have to completely shift what they're doing. That's super hard!
    • juliannehoward
      juliannehoward on 07 Jul 18
       
      I also believe being able to observe a classroom that is already familiar and incorporating PL would be fantastic for so many reasons! The ability to see it would give the teacher a better handle on it.
  • ...21 more annotations...
    • ecsexton1
      ecsexton1 on 15 Jun 17
       
      I'm wondering the same thing...how does PL work when everyone has different interests in the same classroom? How much pre-planning comes from the teachers?
    • ecsexton1
      ecsexton1 on 15 Jun 17
       
      We currently have a chromebook cart that 5 classrooms share. How much money would the school district have to invest to have at least 8 computers in every classroom?
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      I believe chromebooks are around $100 each.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      This has been so key in my progression with differentiation, self-pacing, and now learning about PL. The biggest reason that I don't go deeper with this is because some/many (I teach freshmen) students aren't able to keep their focus on one particular subject. It turns into me redirecting several groups and less learning taking place than when I orchestrated the class as a whole.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      Sadly, this is the world we live in. A colleague and myself have sent students right into the hallways to watch video-lessons of something they are ready for, but they cannot do this anymore because the principal says no students can be in the hallways at all, for safety reasons.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      So huge! It should probably be assumed the opposite -- that student's DON'T know how to create and utilize a dashboard and they should be explicitly shown how to do so. Even if they do know how, it doesn't hurt for them to see it and hear it from you so they know your expectations.
    • edgerlyj1
      edgerlyj1 on 15 Feb 18
       
      I think this point is HUGE! There are some things that computers do better at than teachers for helping students learn (lower level skills, think vocabulary, spelling, facts, etc) but there are some things that computers and technology will never be able to replace teachers (higher level thinking, creativity, compassion, empathy, etc). Therefore, there needs to be a balance and this seems to be a nice blend of the two.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 08 Apr 18
       
      I am curious what this would look like. I understand better how to increase the social side of online learning through video conferencing, forums, group projects, etc., but I wonder what this looks like for working in person while on the job. Working with other online looks can be very different than face to face on a regular basis.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 08 Apr 18
       
      All too often we push, push kids from one area to another. No, we can't talk about this because we now have to move to science, or it is time for music. I think one of the biggest issues is we don't give enough time to process and reflect what we have learned and what question we have. I think designed correctly, this time to "chill out" is there naturally.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 08 Apr 18
       
      This is the area that I think begins the difficult part for many teachers. How do we allow kids freedom on a regular basis? What is suggested for practicing the routines/procedures/expectations for this? I think evaluating reports would be essential beyond the obvious to collect data but also to focus on time on task. I know some people are better being told what to do and when. I think this needs to be flexible.
    • Heather Whitman
      Heather Whitman on 08 Apr 18
       
      How administrator and college prep programs would have to be adjusted/evaluated. Many of the descriptors still apply, but what the evidence looks like is different. This would take training so that administration feels confident.
    • carlarwall
      carlarwall on 08 Apr 18
       
      The design of this space reminds me of the design of many of the preschool and early learning classrooms. It takes those same concepts and shows how it can be applied with older students and for a more advanced purpose.
    • carlarwall
      carlarwall on 08 Apr 18
       
      This thoughts and ideas are tied closely with the flexible seating research many teachers are currently implementing and exploring.
    • carlarwall
      carlarwall on 08 Apr 18
       
      This statement is so powerful. So many times teachers are using tools like Canvas or Google Classroom and it really is just the same way of teaching as the traditional classroom. The work is the same, just done on line.
    • carlarwall
      carlarwall on 08 Apr 18
       
      And the more independent this student will be able to be in the future as they will be able to use their knowledge with these tools to guide them.
    • juliannehoward
      juliannehoward on 07 Jul 18
       
      What a genius way to think of organizing the classroom! Each "Zone" has a clear meaning so students know exactly where they can be successful in their learning. Are their labels with their meaning at each of these zones so kids are able to remember it's purpose?
    • juliannehoward
      juliannehoward on 07 Jul 18
       
      This visual aid helps me to better understand the areas of the classroom. I also agree should be able to move freely around the room. My biggest question or may fear is what do you do for the students who do not stay on task or is there some sort of consequence if this is the case?
    • juliannehoward
      juliannehoward on 07 Jul 18
       
      When reading point 2 and how students are able to understand what types of social situations lead best to learning since the point that adults have also not mastered this is such a great point! The reality that this is how we learn best is 100% true, but the mentality of teachers is that you DO NOT give students this time because that seems like students would waste time and not complete their assignment or project.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      Wouldn't it nice if we had funding to change our classrooms. But physical environment does make a difference.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      I'm not sure I to the point of allowing high school students to socialize whenever they want.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      I am surprised that the LMS systems is more for traditional learning, rather then personalized.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      The adaptive learning environment is really overwhelming to think about in the traditional classroom setting. For instance I have 170 students in a day, I can't imagine how I could adapt leaning for all of them.
annott

"Personalized" vs. "Personal" Learning - 5 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by annott on 31 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • When that happens, the structures around the classroom leave little room for the kind of authentic, whole-child personalization many teachers dream of offering.
    • jennham
      jennham on 31 Mar 19
       
      This is a challenge for me. How do we personalize learning while ensuring that teachers are teaching and students are learning what is expected? I do not want online learning to become just something else they do in order to check a box on Yes! I have personalized learning for my students!
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 03 Apr 19
       
      Agreed. We have a lot of boxes to tick already. Where does the accountability lie when students don't achieve their goals/what is expected of them?
  • It’s as if engaging them in learning without technology has become this impossible task.
    • jennham
      jennham on 31 Mar 19
       
      Whoa! Having kids engaged in school and in their learning is something teachers have been doing long before technology became an imperative part of education. (I realize he agrees with me. That anyone could feel this statement strongly is what I reacted to.)
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I thought this was interesting as well. It seems like an easy out for anyone that needs an excuse. Oh it's not the content we just can't compete with their video games.
  • the best thing we can do for kids is empower them to make regular, important, thoughtful decisions about their own learning, what they learn and how they learn it
    • jennham
      jennham on 31 Mar 19
       
      How do we make this happen? I do not think that one teacher in a building can pull this off. I see this as being a monumental shift in an entire district to truly make personalized learning personal to each student.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 01 Apr 19
       
      I think this is also one of my main questions, and something I hope to explore in this course. Does personalized/personal learning work in small doses? In the confines of a single classroom or a single unit?
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      That is a total shift in thought, and I agree, how do we do it? Give me the manual!
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • personalization is “not about giving students what they want, it’s about a recommended learning path just for them.”[
    • jennham
      jennham on 31 Mar 19
       
      This really sums up, for me, the difference between personalized learning and having personal learning. I think it is the learning path that educators get caught up on. The Oh! This program scales up the difficulty if the student answers the question right and scales it down if they miss it!, type of thing. That isn't personal to the student at all.
  • This kind of learning allows students to work at their own pace and level, meets the individual needs of students, and perhaps most importantly, is not a one-size fits all model.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 31 Mar 19
       
      What do you do with students that work at a slow pace and can't meet deadlines? That may lead to more of a teacher directed approach to speed things up.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      I think this would be a hard sell in the high school where the smarted kids would complain about having to do more than the other students. They would say that its not fair.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I think you both bring up really good points. How can you even grade something like this when one student does twice the work of another?
  • We can truly individualize the classroom by using data-driven platforms to continually assess and track progress through any given curriculum and provide the most relevant content or resources to any given learner based on specific needs or learning styles
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 31 Mar 19
       
      Technology is amazing. There are so many tools out on the web that I haven't even used yet. I amazed how kahoot, quizizz, and google forms can assess and track data. It is scary to think what the next five years may look like in education and especially the tools we will have access to.
  • But I marvel how that, in many schools I work with, the prevailing narrative seems to be that we can’t engage kids without technology, without a smartphone, tablet computer or some other multimedia device or tool.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 31 Mar 19
       
      There is a lot of truth to this. The problem is not only is this the truth in schools but households as well.
    • k_gibson
      k_gibson on 02 Apr 19
       
      We can't stop the technology train, nor should we. Tech, when used responsibly and effectively, is an invaluable tool in our society and schools. The key here is 'effectively.' Too many educators put kids on computers to look cool,"Hey, I'm using technology!" However, in reality, it's busy work and low-level thinking. What we ask students to do with technology is key to creating a truly PL classroom.
  • Give them opportunities to learn personally, to create their own texts and courses of study, and to pursue that learning with others in and out of the classroom who share a passion.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 31 Mar 19
       
      How would this work? The 3 most important things in my son's life are Fortnite, socializing with friends, and sports. Where would the balance be if they were in charge of designing their own courses?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 01 Apr 19
       
      Depends on the topic, of course, and hard to motivate either way- but there is reading/writing/communicating in social media, Fortnite, and sports. There is history in sports. Math in sports. I'm sure your son uses our fundamental skills and builds new knowledge using the things he loves.
    • k_gibson
      k_gibson on 02 Apr 19
       
      I think to ensure that learning happens outside of the classroom, we need to shift education to a trade school model, where students are shadowing professionals, choosing apprenticeships/internships, etc. during normal school hours. These experiences would replace some of the traditional classes during the school day.
  • 2. Education is about the transmission of bits of information, not the construction of meaning.
    • k_gibson
      k_gibson on 02 Apr 19
       
      I disagree with how this statement is written. Education isn't entirely about the transmission of information, but information is still important and shouldn't be dismissed. Education can't be an 'either/or,' it must be a 'both.' Students need information in order to apply it, design, and create. Without information, there is a huge gap left in their learning called 'ignorance.'
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 19
       
      I agree with your statement- I had to re-read this section a few times to understand exactly what they were getting at. I think the idea here is that students should be choosing/finding their information, though, not having that information 'delivered' to them.
  • same knowledge
    • k_gibson
      k_gibson on 02 Apr 19
       
      Every person/child is unique. I agree that skills, and to a point knowledge, should vary. However, there is a certain well-rounded nature we want children to possess to be successful in society. Hence why we created a common set of standards, like Iowa Core. There should always be certain skills and information we set forth for children to learn. Then, there should be an element to learning that opens up new experiences and opportunities for exploring interests. Balance is important, I think.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 03 Apr 19
       
      Very true. I teach History and Government. There is some information that must be had by all. The method, delivery, way can be different but none the less some items must be covered.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 19
       
      I unfortunately don't remember the source, though I'm sure it's something I could look up- but I was once taught/read that a lot of the things we do is just to train our brain to do more complex tasks. We may not necessarily use all the algebra and trig we learn, for example, but it builds new connections in our brains and helps us learn and think in new ways. That's sometimes difficult to explain to students.
  • it implies moving away from the industrialized form of education that pumps out cookie-cutter students with the
  • and skills.
  • commitment to individualism yet experience a “relentless pressure to conform
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 03 Apr 19
       
      This sounds like every teenager's experience. I wonder if there is more pressure now that we have social media.
  • learning tends to nourish kids’ curiosity and deepen their enthusiasm
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 03 Apr 19
       
      Is this the goal of education? Our at least one of our hidden goals that we do not measure. We only include it in our mission statement.
  • it involves collaboration and takes place in a communit
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 03 Apr 19
       
      I think we often forget this part of learning. We are quick to hand students a computer and system to help students learn.
  • “Follow the money” is apt advice in many sectors of education
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 03 Apr 19
       
      I think of many of the computer programs that my children use and wonder who is profiting from the subscription. It really becomes obvious when you attend ISTE and see the over the top parties that being thrown by various EdTech companies.
  • ‘We often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization – but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance.’
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 03 Apr 19
       
      The longer I teach (22 years) the more I find that the continued focus on test scores hampers a lot of learning. Teaching to the test, focusing on the test, etc. , etc. are sometimes a large waste of everyone's time. In this current era do we actually need to have state testing to decide if a school is functioning? When teachers are evaluated there is not a test.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      As a teacher its hard to give up some control of the classroom and give students the freedom to learn in whatever style fits them the best.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      I agree, it is hard to give up control of the classroom, sometimes it feels like giving up control the whole class will go crazy.
  • First, ask just about any vendor of personalization technology what the intended outcome is and, with a little prodding, you’ll get to this: better test scores.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 03 Apr 19
       
      The longer I teach (22 years) the more I find that the continued focus on test scores hampers a lot of learning. Teaching to the test, focusing on the test, etc. , etc. are sometimes a large waste of everyone's time. In this current era do we actually need to have state testing to decide if a school is functioning? When teachers are evaluated there is not a test.
  • but meaningful (and truly personal) learning never requires technology.
    • cmanring
      cmanring on 03 Apr 19
       
      Very true. I have polled my students and at times they feel that there is an unnatural push towards using technology. They feel that some teachers/administrators push technology just for the sake of it. This did answer my question about In The Day Of The Life entry as my student will show the example that learning does not have to require technology.
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 03 Apr 19
       
      Agreed. I teach band. I sometimes have kids write on worksheets, counting rhythms, or reflecting on something they played or heard. Their handwriting is terrible! They don't spend any time writing anymore, it is all done on computers. This, I believe is a true shame. Technology is great for a lot of things, but when we are losing skills because of its use, that is frightening.
  • authentic choice
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 03 Apr 19
       
      This is tough to implement. Students don't know intuitively how to do this on their own. There has to be coaching a feedback provided. I know that I have not implemented this to any degree of fidelity, but I am amazed at what students come up with on their own. They need to know they have that freedom, and that comes with the knowledge of how to use it.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 03 Apr 19
       
      It is important for students to have the freedom to choose things that are meaningful to them. When that happens they buy into learning.
    • taylormunson
      taylormunson on 07 Apr 19
       
      I agree that this is tough to implement but I think it is a critical component. The freedom of students getting to play a key role in their own learning is so fun to watch. I am amazed when I see even a small taste of this, the difference in the students' attitudes and motivations.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 25 Apr 19
       
      When students are given an actual choice, it does seem to make a world of difference in their efforts. It also seems like they are more excited for class, and sometimes even upset when the period ends.
  • “Personalized” learning is something that we do to kids; “personal” learning is something they do for themselves.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 03 Apr 19
       
      I love this line! We have to help students do things for themselves. I don't know about you, but implementing this for the vast majority of students takes so much time in getting them comfortable with the desire to learn. I know, I know, I'm just trying to pass the buck onto someone that "should have taught them that". How do I do it? I need to only consider reality, it doesn't matter if they don't know how. They need to learn how, and that is where I need to focus my attention.
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 03 Apr 19
       
      This is a powerful distinction. Teaching kids how to do things for themselves is something that I believe is important. The kids in my school lack the intrinsic motivation to do anything, except play Minecraft. As in many initiatives in education, I think that it is not necessarily that we should make a shift from one thing to another, but how can we blend the good from all? That is, how can we blend personalization and personal learning, not just follow one or the other.
    • taylormunson
      taylormunson on 07 Apr 19
       
      Wow! This really jumped out at me. I don't think many people would acknowledge the difference between personalized and personal learning. When described like this... it really makes me think of the key distinctions that must be made. The important part is not just that we are altering our instruction to what our students like but encouraging the development of personal learning experiences and helping set our students up for successful experiences when this is done.
  • who knows each child well
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 03 Apr 19
       
      Who has the time for this? I say it sarcastically, but this is really a numbers game. 25 kids, 45 minutes, 90 class periods in a semester. That is 2.7 hours per student. That includes getting to know students, helping with personalization choices, decision making, monitoring learning, providing feedback, monitoring new learning, providing more feedback on dozens of standards. Our system isn't designed to foster personalized learning. We are trying to fit a square key in a round hole.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 19
       
      It's true, this is definetely a system-problem. It's one of the questions I'm hoping to answer through this course. Can these concepts be used in smaller ways and have a significant impact? They do ask a lot of us as educators.
  • Certain forms of technology can be used to support progressive education
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 03 Apr 19
       
      I think of this as adaptive learning. it can be a valuable resource in personalization. Going back millenia, personalization began with the socratic method from Socrates himself. He was able to adapt learning through questioning, but he didn't rely on technology. He also had groups of 10 students for extended periods of time. So maybe technology allows teachers to have a larger effective reach than without it. In today's world, do you think technology aided learning is essential?
  • She cautions educators who may be excited about the progressive educational implications for “personalized learning” to make sure everyone they work with is on the same page about what that phrase means.
    • tracyc4
      tracyc4 on 03 Apr 19
       
      My school is always looking to be on the cutting edge, looking for the new shiny thing that will catch people's eyes. "Personalized Learning" is the flavor of the year this year. It is frustrating as an educator in this situation because we feel we are doing something new ALL THE TIME. Our administration has not been clear as to what it will look like for us and our kids yet. While, in theory, I think that personalized learning will have many benefits for kids, I worry about what else it is going to pile on to us teachers.
  • system of accountability in the U.S. educational system
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 03 Apr 19
       
      Standardized tests seem counterintuitive to innovative learning. How do we balance the two?
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 07 Apr 19
       
      If the standardized tests are on concepts/objectives that we think all students show know/understand as they progress through school, they should be general enough that students can approach them from different ways/their own ways and still achieve the objectives.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      Admin is always worried about test scores and rankings but if we want to give students the freedom to learn what they want the admin may be concerned about scores.
  • Big questions, passion, personal interest are what should drive our use of technology, not the other way around.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 03 Apr 19
       
      We definitely need to make sure we consider what needs to be taught first and then how can technology make it better.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      Good point Kelley.
  • best student-centered, project-based education, kids spend much of their time learning with and from one another
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 03 Apr 19
       
      This is so true when people have the opportunity to collaborate with one another it elevates their learning and productivity. Ideas help beget other ideas and help stimulate thoughts and create questions.
  • it implies moving away from the industrialized form of education that pumps out cookie-cutter students with the
    • taylormunson
      taylormunson on 07 Apr 19
       
      This made me think of our last forum post when we discussed the difference between "personalized and differentiation". This is what I was referring to when I said using them interchangeably doesn't necessarily work. It might... but often time personalized means student choice based and out of the ordinary.
  • For many educators that’s not the true meaning of “personalized learning.”
    • taylormunson
      taylormunson on 07 Apr 19
       
      If educators don't have the "true meaning" of personalized learning... is there a correct way of implementing into the classroom? Are implementation expectations meant to be just as flexible as the concept itself?
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      Have to admit that is what I normally do? I wonder if students would be more engaged.
  • After decades of this approach, it is clear that all children don’t learn the same way and personalization seems to honor those differences
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 17 Apr 19
       
      If we really want to teach our students we need to change the way we teach. We might need to have 3-4 different ways to teach the same topic.
  • “We often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization – but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and compliance,”
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      This is a very good point.
  • Our kids (and we ourselves) are suddenly walking around with access to the sum of human knowledge in our pockets and connections to literally millions of potential teachers
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      That is a huge change since I started teaching 26 years ago, and we still had some typewriters in the building, and maybe 3 computers.
  • content knowledge that, as we know from experience, never gets applied in real life.
    • annott
      annott on 28 Apr 19
       
      I have struggled with this many times. Will they ever use this again?
mschutjer

ollie-afe-2019: Educational Leadership: The Quest for Quality--article - 6 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by mschutjer on 25 Mar 19 - No Cached
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 25 Mar 19
       
      I thought this quote was interesting. I always believe that having more than one data point helps a teacher see more of a rounded picture of that student. Relying on just one assessment isn't fair to the student. I believe we should look at multiple assessments, formative assessments, check points to help our students grow. JN
  • assessor needs to have a clear picture of what achievement he or she intends to measure. I
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      Assessment needs to be directly tied to the standard you are teaching too.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 03 Apr 19
       
      When we were rolling out the Iowa Core, we really emphasized how content, instruction, and assessment were part of the "curriculum". Each piece playing an integral part in student learning.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 25 Mar 19
       
      I think we as teachers need to make sure we are focused on what essentials we need to assess. We have the mindset that we must teach the content, and not the process. JN
  • ...66 more annotations...
  • Do the results provide clear direction for what to do next?
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 25 Mar 19
       
      Do we use the data for reteaching? JN
  • Students learn best when they monitor and take responsibility for their own learning
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 28 Mar 19
       
      I really like this idea of having students take responsibility for their own learning, and putting the learning target in language they can understand would definitely help!
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 29 Mar 19
       
      I agree that students do learn best when they take on the responsibility but I also think this is the ideal situation and often does not happen. How do we motivate more students to do this?
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 30 Mar 19
       
      I agree with this, but it seems so foreign to students. I think we need to plan on a lot of modeling to shift the responsibility to them.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 25 Mar 19
       
      Student friendly learning targets! I believe involving students in tracking their own learning targets is very powerful! It's high on the Hattie scale. JN
  • f we don't begin with clear statements of the intended learning—clear and understandable to everyone, including students—we won't end up with sound assessments.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 26 Mar 19
       
      While this seems like a straightforward idea, in reality, making a learning purpose clear and understandable to everyone - students included - can be difficult. Especially in English, the skill were teaching is not clear cut. CCSS Reading Literature 11-12.6 asks students to "Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant." However, there's no "right" answer to this skill. Student analysis of "what is really meant" could encompass a huge range of ideas. Crafting an assessment and teaching/learning opportunities that clearly delineate "proficient" analysis from "poor" analysis can't always be put into clear and understandable language. How can you quantify the qualitative?
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      There is truth in the challenge. But I know I have been guilty of knowing what I was looking for but not clearly communicating it to students. Then they are left to guess...which means they are likely to guess in at least some ways incorrectly. I think the more modeling we do, the more "anchor papers" we provide, the better students achieve our expectations. Putting those expectations into words and examples is its own challenge, but a worthy one.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      It is nice to hear from other high school English teachers about the difficulty of measuring such subjective skills. I always struggled. One strategy I did find helpful was assigning paragraph writing as an assessment and scoring them 1-5, with a 3 being adequate and a 5 outstanding Then we would do several together and discuss what constituted a 3 and the differences between 3-4-5. That did seem to help, and students personalized the challenge of getting at least a 3 to show competency and reaching for outstanding.
  • t also helps them assign the appropriate balance of points in relation to the importance of each target as well as the number of items for each assessed target.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Mar 19
       
      I really like this chart, it's easy to follow and easy to read.
  • minimizing any bias that might distort estimates of student learning.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 26 Mar 19
       
      This is where I know as an English teacher, I can get bogged down in the details. All of my writing assignments have an assessment category for "M.U.G.S." as we call them (mechanics, usage, grammar, spelling), but those aren't actively taught and retaught every unit. We just expect students to have a certain level of proficiency at this point. However, that isn't always the case. There are MANY students who have not internalized the "rules" of writing. Their mechanics (punctuation) seems haphazard, grammar atrocious, usage nonexistent, and spelling like they fell asleep on their keyboard. However, a complete lack of those skills might not prevent them from being able to distinguish "what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant." I have to be careful to not allow my internal bias against poor writing ability to distort an accurate estimate of a student's learning and demonstration of the skill.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 28 Mar 19
       
      When I read through this about minimizing bias it made me think of the old ITBS/ITED tests and a student we had that was new to this country. The student was very bright but he did not perform well on the test because of bias. One example I recall was he had no idea what a fir tree was as where he was from there was no such thing.
  • Will the users of the results understand them and see the connection to learning?
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 26 Mar 19
       
      This is also where I struggle. Our department uses the online program Turnitin.com to give students feedback on written assessments and grade almost all work. This is partially to alleviate issues with plagiarism, but mostly because it gives students and teachers a one access point to communicate feedback. The program allows users to submit rubrics that students can see. We've started assessing rough draft using the final rubric so students can see where their work is in the rough draft stage so they know which paper criteria need work. They also can view my feedback on the paper that tells them how to fix what they need to fix. My frustration is when students aren't willing to go back and look at the feedback on the paper or rubric so they know what learning skills they still need to work on. How can we motivate them to look at the results, see the connections, and make the progress in learning?
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 29 Mar 19
       
      That is a great point! How do we motivate kids to go back and look at the feedback and make changes. Many of our kids just want to know what do I need to know to pass the test or assignment and once they pass that's all that matters.
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      You have mentioned before that kids always want to know what they have to do in order to get an A or pass...but that's what I want to know when I take a course. I want/need to know what the expected outcomes are. I feel that kids have so many classes, tests, and assignments that if they don't ask those questions or think in that kind of a structured fashion that they will crash and burn. I get that we want them to LEARN and be passionate, but especially in required courses, the passion just isn't always there and the class literally is a box to check off.
  • From a formative point of view, decision makers at the classroom assessment level need evidence of where students are on the learning continuum toward each standard
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 26 Mar 19
       
      This is another area where I personally struggle. The time and flexibility needed to be truly responsive is astronomical. I currently teach 4 of the 10 sections of English 10 at Indianola High School. As a class cohort, we try to be within a day or two of each other in content delivery. However, if my students don't get a concept, it's difficult to take a day to reteach since that throws off my alignment with the other teachers. It also means that I would have would have different periods at different places. I'm hoping the flipped and blended learning opportunities will help with the time and organization issues I currently have. If I can break groups up into smaller cohorts based on skill, then use flipped/blended methods for each group, I can (hopefully) accomplish more within the time frame. It makes organization more complicated, but allows more flexibility.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      This is why common formative assessments can be so helpful. If some of your students aren't getting something, it's likely that others aren't either. If you look at the whole team's formative data, it could be that everyone needs to adjust rather than just you.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 01 Apr 19
       
      And if your class is doing more poorly than another class, you can have conversations about the different instructional practices being used. We all do our best but it's ok to not be the best. Together we can do what is best for our students.
  • Do the results provide clear direction for what to do next?
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 28 Mar 19
       
      We receive a lot data but never do much with it. What do other schools do with their data? There are great questions within this paragraph that should be asked when the results are in. MG
  • A grade of D+, on the other hand, may be sufficient to inform a decision about a student's athletic eligibility, but it is not capable of informing the student about the next steps in learning.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 28 Mar 19
       
      SBL and transitioning from all letter grades is a lengthy process but very beneficial for feedback purposes. MG
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 29 Mar 19
       
      I agree with you about the SBL and how it shows a student exactly what they know or what they need to improve on. A letter grade just give them a percentage of the time they have a correct answer. Doesn't give them any information at what they know or don't know.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 29 Mar 19
       
      I agree Matt, but how do we get kids to go back and internalize the feedback?
  • aim for the lowest possible reading level,
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 28 Mar 19
       
      I am curious to see if the new Iowa Assessments focus on this. MG
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      I think this is also interesting because I know there are some tests that do this purposefully to "increase the rigor" of the test. For instance, AP exams notoriously use vocabulary to make the questions harder. This is saying it could be not just separating those who know less about the content, but also those who have different background, cultural knowledge, or just English as a first language. I, too, wonder how the ISASP will do with this.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 29 Mar 19
       
      Are we challenging our top students and preparing them for their futures when we use low reading levels? Seems to contradict what we are trying to accomplish.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      This is so very important as we are seeing a dramatic increase in student populations that are not fluent in English.
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      I have developed a system where I always read math tests out loud. That way students are not missing information due to not understanding the vocabulary.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 03 Apr 19
       
      Jenn that's an interesting concept of reading the tests outloud....have never thought of doing that in a HS classroom but might help!
  • The classroom is also a practical location to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate what they know and can do, adding to the accuracy of the information available from that level of assessment.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      This is an important thing to consider in the design of your course.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 02 Apr 19
       
      I agree, providing students multiple opportunities to show their knowledge, and understanding needs to be done.
  • Most assessments developed beyond the classroom rely largely on selected-response or short-answer formats and are not designed to meet the daily, ongoing information needs of teachers and students.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 28 Mar 19
       
      I fall into this trap with assessments. I do need to incorporate more questions that focus on higher DOK levels. MG
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      You are not alone. So do I. When I have an average of 70+ students to assess on math skills, these are easier.
  • Five keys to assessment quality
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 28 Mar 19
       
      To summarize, the 5 keys to assessment quality are: 1. clear purpose 2. clear learning targets 3. sound assessment design 4. effective communication of results 5. student involvement in the assessment process
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      Great idea on how to use an annotation tool. I can see this being very beneficial to high school students
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 03 Apr 19
       
      thats a really cool usage! Could see teaching my kids to do this when doing technical reading
  • grouping the assessments
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 28 Mar 19
       
      Grouping assessments into levels: ongoing classroom assessment (daily work/observation), periodic interim/benchmark assessment (weekly quizzes/ group work), and annual state/district standardized assessments. I would add summative unit assessments (tests/projects) here also.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 29 Mar 19
       
      Grouping assessments should give us a better picture of where students are at and help to identify where they need help.
  • cannot measure more complex learning targets at the heart of instruction
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 28 Mar 19
       
      Our school district is doing the ISASP this year for the first time. This is a computer based test based on the Iowa Core. I worry how these results will be used to evaluate student mastery of content specific standards. How much effort will students put into the test and are there too many distractors that will bias the results?
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      Those are legitimate concerns. On the other hand, what this quote makes me think of regarding the ISASP is that at least the types of questions are not only selected response. So many of the standards in the Core can not be measured by the only multi-choice questions in the previous test.
  • Bias can also creep into assessments and erode accurate results.
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 28 Mar 19
       
      On the new computer based standardized tests, ISASP, I worry that there will be skewed results, because this if the first time students have had to take a standardized test online.
  • descriptive feedback
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 28 Mar 19
       
      We do need to make sure that our feedback is helpful. Telling students "fix this" or "revise this paragraph" doesn't help them learn, the feedback needs to be more specific and point to the learning target.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 29 Mar 19
       
      I totally agree with giving feedback about why they missed a question or problem. If you just count it wrong the student might now have any idea why they got the question wrong.
  • The assessor must begin with a clear picture of why he or she is conducting the assessment.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      I think a lot of times we default to "for a grade" but there are lots of other reasons to consider.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 29 Mar 19
       
      I think this is very important sentence. I know I don't do the greatest job of outlining learning goals everyday and explaining value in each. It's same thing for test. Are testing because its end of chapter or because you want to assess learning goals from the chapter that were the most important from the chapter and meet the standards for your class.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Mar 19
       
      I agree Tom, I am not the best at covering learning targets with students. And maybe standards based learning will help focus my lesson designing and improve student learning.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      I think it is very important that we focus on the learning that is taking place within our classrooms and not on grading. Our assessments should be an avenue to strengthen learning and to inform the teacher what they need to do for learning to continue to occur.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 30 Mar 19
       
      This reminds me of UBD, or working backwards. The teacher knows the outcome first, and then builds the learning and assessments.
  • Selecting an assessment method that is incapable of reflecting the intended learning will compromise the accuracy of the results.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      I thought the assessment brainstorming we did at the end of last week with ways to assess face-to-face vs. online was an interesting way to think of all the ways we can assess. I think as teachers we often default to a couple content-specific norms and it would be good to open up to other alternatives on occasion.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 01 Apr 19
       
      Many years ago I remember assessing my math students at the end of the year with a multiple choice test. None of my tests during the year were multiple choice, but finals were required and it was the most efficient way to get my grades done :( I'm sure it did compromise the accuracy of the results.
  • This means that teachers need to write learning targets in terms that students will understand.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 29 Mar 19
       
      I was a part of a John Hattie book study this year. In Visible Learning he talks a lot about success criteria being so clear that students can accurately self-assess their work. I think that's a really great goal for any rubric or learning target.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      Again here we should aim to write them in the lowest reading level possible
  • common assessments.
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 29 Mar 19
       
      I totally agree with this statement that we are assessing more than ever before. I don't think that it has to be a bad thing. However, I could see from a student's point of view that it could be overkill if they don't understand why.
  • Teachers have choices in the assessment methods they use
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 29 Mar 19
       
      Is it important for assessments to contain all 4 types of responses?
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      I don't think so. I think the teacher is to pick the best assessment method for that particular learning target.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 02 Apr 19
       
      I agree with Jen. I think the teacher would need to use professional judgement to decide what the best assessment method would be. Sometimes it may include all 4 types though.
  • inform what decisions?
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 29 Mar 19
       
      This has been a large debate that we have been having at our district. We need some sort of feedback roll out that will say how we have managed the data and what the data is and will be used for.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 29 Mar 19
       
      I think is important part for a teacher after each assessment to use results to maybe modify teaching topics that students performed poorly on. Maybe need an extra day to cover certain topics more in depth if students struggled with it on test or maybe we have a poorly written question on the test causing students to miss points.
  • communicated
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 29 Mar 19
       
      This has been another large debate that we have had. We want to make sure that our assessments are given back in a timely manner but we also want to make sure that they have correct and accurate feedback as well as to help the student know what they did well and where to improve and all of that takes time.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 01 Apr 19
       
      TIME! It's a four-letter word in teaching! The feedback we give students is WAY more important than the grade, and way more time consuming. How do we effectively give the feedback necessary for student growth in a timely manner? I'd love to hear strategies from others here.
  • Summative applications
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 29 Mar 19
       
      I think that this becomes more and more important as we look into SBG. Summatives are what tell you the story of how the students mastered something and if you want to see the evidence along the way, that becomes the formatives.
  • Periodic interim/benchmark assessments can also serve program evaluation purposes, as well as inform instructional improvement and identify struggling students and the areas in which they struggle.
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 29 Mar 19
       
      Our math department has been looking at the AAIMS tests for Algebra students which could be used as data to support the learning taking place.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Mar 19
       
      This makes me think of the concept of scaffolding. Which I have used in my classroom when lesson designing. Now I need to do the same thing with assessing. Assess students periodically both formative and summative.
  • minimizing any bias that might distort estimates of student learning.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 29 Mar 19
       
      As teachers we do have to be careful of bias and making assumptions. When I read through this about minimizing bias it made me think of the old ITBS/ITED tests and a student we had that was new to this country. The student was very bright but he did not perform well on the test because of bias. One example I recall was he had no idea what a fir tree was as where he was from there was no such thing.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      I completely understand this. Teaching writing and reading at the secondary level is so very difficult.
  • Creating a plan like this for each assessment helps assessors sync what they taught with what they're assessing
  • Knowledge targets, which are the facts and concepts we want students to know.
    • annott
      annott on 30 Mar 19
       
      As our district moves toward standards based grading, understanding our knowledge targets is naturally happening during this process.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 30 Mar 19
       
      We are working on Power Standards in our buildings. I think this would fit with those too.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 01 Apr 19
       
      It all goes back to 1) what do we want them to know and 2) how will we know when they know it. We are working hard on choosing power standards. It is a long and exhausting process but a necessary one. Even after power standards are chosen, we need to break them down into learning targets our students can understand.
  • students to track their own progress on learning targets
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 30 Mar 19
       
      I have seen this done throughout a unit of student with a Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light rating for students to self assess their percieved understading of a learning target. This self assessment was revisited frequently and used to drive student to specific learning activities that they needed to work on.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 02 Apr 19
       
      I think allowing the students to self-assess and set goals is really beneficial. I like the idea of using red light, green light, and yellow light for students to show the teacher their understanding.
  • performance assessment or personal communication may be less effective and too time-consuming
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 30 Mar 19
       
      One dilema that teacher face is the factor of time which we all know. I have worked with teacher who have over 200 students in their classes and often default to a selected response assessment item even when a performance based would be more appropriate. It is challenging to assess and provide feedback in timely manner with this many students. This is not an excuse, but a barrier that needs to be explored.
  • or making the correct answer obvious
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 30 Mar 19
       
      I would also suggest to make non correct answers plausible and avoid answers that are glaringly impossible. If student select the incorrect answer then teachers could be able to identify misconceptions from an item analysis.
  • dependable data generated at every level of assessment.
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 30 Mar 19
       
      I wonder how much professional develoment or preservice teacher training is spent on looking at data to make decisions. There is most likely a range of understanding of what data should be used to design instruction. This is why is it good to have a strong PLC for teachers to work through data and assessment creation (which is really challenging in itself).
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 03 Apr 19
       
      we are starting this assessment process and it is very challenging
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 05 Apr 19
       
      It is amazing to me that data acquisition/analysis and student feedback/scores are largely two separate endeavors. In this day and age, these should be the same step. Without some automation, I don't think this can actually be done. At least not in a meaningful manner.
  • track their own progress on learning targets
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 30 Mar 19
       
      I have seen this done throughout a unit of student with a Red Light, Yellow Light, Green Light rating for students to self-assess their perceived understanding of a learning target. This self-assessment was revisited frequently and used to drive student to specific learning activities that they needed to work on.
  • if students will be the users of the results because the assessment is formative
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 30 Mar 19
       
      Use of formative assessment is vital to the success of students and to inform teachers. this should be a daily practice and done through multiple types of measures.
  • n the past, few educators, policymakers, or parents would have considered questioning the accuracy of these tests.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 30 Mar 19
       
      Is this because educators had more trust among these stakeholders back in the day?
  • Assessment literacy is the foundation for a system that can take advantage of a wider use of multiple measures.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 30 Mar 19
       
      We need to be teaching assessment literacy in teacher prep classes.
  • inform students about their own progress
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 31 Mar 19
       
      Shouldn't this be the goal of all assessments? If it serves other purposes great. If this does not become the focus of the assessment, then a student will start chasing points.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 28 Apr 19
       
      Ideally testing should serve the purpose of helping the teacher and student see areas where they need improvement...
  • clear curriculum maps for each standard, accurate assessment results, effective feedback, and results that point student and teacher clearly to next step
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 31 Mar 19
       
      I believe that this is important because highlights the role feedback plays in the assessment process. I think we often forget feedback.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 02 Apr 19
       
      I agree, feedback is really important. It also needs to be provided as quickly as possible.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      Feedback is most certainly key for something that can be so subjective like writing, but I also think providing feedback on LOT can also improve students understanding. I know that is something I struggle with - leaving the necessary feedback. There's always a time crunch, and sometime students that assessed well receive little feedback even though they could use it too.
  • students can use the results to self-assess and set goals.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 31 Mar 19
       
      We need to model how to self-assess and set goals. I was guilty of expecting that my students knew how to do this.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 03 Apr 19
       
      Yes. It is indeed a paradigm shift for teachers and students. Modeling the process to students and talking about it will help them get the most out of the assessment process.
  • learning targets represented in the assessment into a written test plan that matches the learning targets represented in the curriculum.
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 31 Mar 19
       
      I wonder if the creators of ISASP has taken this into consideration. It would be interesting to learn how they accomplished this.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      Excellent point!
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      I wonder who "we" are when the authors say "we're betting." I don't think it's the teachers, for we know the limits of testing.
  • cultural insensitivity.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      I think this is a way bigger problem than ,most people realize.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 31 Mar 19
       
      I think this is a real problem with ISASP
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      I'm willing to let ISASP run its course though - I think it is vastly improved from the old ITBS. At least it does have open ended questions and require students to process and write instead of the good ole A, B, C, or D.
  • Making decisions that affect individuals and groups of students on the basis of a single measure
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 01 Apr 19
       
      The idea that a single measure can accurately assess students is absolutely baffling to me. ~KMR
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 03 Apr 19
       
      definitely a scary concept with the large presence and weight placed on these assessments
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 28 Apr 19
       
      it seems this concept totally contradicts what education stands for. Only good test takers like these tests.
  • We're betting that the instructional hours sacrificed to testing will return dividends in the form of better instructional decisions and improved high-stakes test scores
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 01 Apr 19
       
      I could not agree with this more. The amount of hours we spend preparing students for a single test is astounding. The time would be better served to actually teaching students content.
  • The goal of a balanced assessment system is to ensure that all assessment users have access to the data they want when they need it, which in turn directly serves the effective use of multiple measures.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 01 Apr 19
       
      Given the requests for data from our administrators and other stakeholders, this is imperative.
  • From a summative point of view, users at the classroom and periodic assessment levels want evidence of mastery of particular standards; at the annual testing level, decision makers want the percentage of students meeting each standard.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 01 Apr 19
       
      It is more beneficial for students to demonstrate mastery of standards than for students to test well.
  • assessment formatively
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 01 Apr 19
       
      I feel like we could do a better job of formatively assessing students. When students hear the word assessment, they think quiz or test and they get apprehensive. We need to change their mindset and show them how they can use formative assessments (exit tickets, class polls, one-minute papers, etc) to help them take control of their own learning.
  • the use of multiple measures does not, by itself, translate into high-quality evidence
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      I happy to say that in our district we are working very hard at using only those assessments that we find useful to both the teachers as well as the students. We have drastically cut back on the number of assessments our students take.
  • At the level of annual state/district standardized assessments, they involve where and how teachers can improve instruction—next year.
    • jennham
      jennham on 02 Apr 19
       
      I feel this takes us dangerously close to teaching to the test. Is that really what is best for students? Changing everything around in order for them to score well on standardized tests? If the goal is truly to benefit students and how they learn, I am all for it no matter what.
  • "I can make good inferences. This means I can make a guess that is based on clues."
  • Who is the decision maker?This will vary. The decision makers might be students and teachers at the classroom level; instructional leaders, learning teams, and teachers at the periodic level; or curriculum and instructional leaders and school and community leaders at the annual testing level.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      For those that teach AP they also have the AP board to assess
  • or summatively—to feed results into the grade book.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      Evan, just curious since you suggested that potentially the answer is no grade book? How would use summative assessments? Would students just keep repeating until they were garnered proficient?
  • Effectively planning for the use of multiple measures means providing assessment balance throughout these three levels, meeting student, teacher, and district information needs.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 03 Apr 19
       
      so important to consider all 3 levels when planning
  • Reasoning targets, which require students to use their knowledge to reason and problem solve. A reasoning target in math might be to use statistical methods to describe, analyze, and evaluate data. Performance skill targets, which ask students to use knowledge to perform or demonstrate a specific skill, such as reading aloud with fluency. Product targets, which specify that students will create something, such as a personal health-related fitness plan.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 03 Apr 19
       
      These categories of learning targets seem to tie in nicely with authentic learning.
  • balanced system
  • balanced system
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 03 Apr 19
       
      Do districts map out these different groups of assessments on a yearly calendar? It would be interesting to see how many days a year are students engaging in assessment and also the types of assessment.
  • overflow of testing
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 03 Apr 19
       
      Yes. There is a lot of testing these days One of my friends mentioned that between testing and snow days she hadn't "taught" from MLK day to almost President's day. Needless to say she was anxious about how well students wee going to demonstrate learning when they hadn't had much instruction for over a month.
  • schools now make decisions about individual students, groups of students, instructional programs, resource allocation, and more.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 05 Apr 19
       
      I think that these decisions are made too infrequently. One test may place a student in a group that is not in your zone of proximal development. They may be stuck there for quite some time.
  • We're betting that the instructional hours sacrificed to testing will return dividends in the form of better instructional decisions and improved high-stakes test scores
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 05 Apr 19
       
      and to think of the potential impact on opportunities available to students...crazy
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 28 Apr 19
       
      too much time is spent testing....
  • about the overall level of students' performance.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 05 Apr 19
       
      From my experience, most of the high stakes testing explicitly states that the results should not be used on the individual student decision making level. Oh the irony....
  • ults
mschutjer

ollie-afe-2019: Building a Better Mousetrap - 1 views

moodlesw.aealearningonline.org/...view.php

shared by mschutjer on 31 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • Rubrics can be used either for “filtering”—as they are used in placement testing—or for “latticing,” or “scaffolding”—if they are shared with students prior to the completion of any given assignment.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 31 Mar 19
       
      I think communicating the rubric ahead of time makes them easier to score. I have had to conduct technology camp entrance interviews using a rubric that is "blind" and they are more challenging because the students come into the interviews completely blind to any of the questions or criteria.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      Ali, I agree I feel like giving the rubric for the assessment with the directions at the beginning helps students understand what the assessment is assessing. I just hope it doesn't lead to students formula writing like suggested late in the article. Or possibly killing creativity.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 09 Apr 19
       
      I can easily see both sides of the coin here. On one hand it's tough to give students an assignment and not tell them how its being graded. On the other if a student knows exactly what they need to do to get the score, then it does kill creativity.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 09 Apr 19
       
      I can see where sharing the rubric might "kill creativity" but I think sharing the rubric is a great way to let students know what you are looking for and what is important. I know of many teachers who share the rubric at the very beginning of a paper/project/assessment, but I don't know of many who use it somewhere in the middle. I think we get too caught up in the completion that we forget to take time in the middle to help students self-evaluate their work. I think this is a great way to teach students to be owners of their own learning, and thus success.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 14 Apr 19
       
      I really like this for pre-assessment. Students can self assess and start where there are with their learning. The teacher will need to have the classroom set-up to meet all the needs of the students accordingly.
  • habits of mind practiced in the act of self-assessment.
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 31 Mar 19
       
      THIS! I think developing the right mindset in our students when it comes to grading and rubrics is so important, although sometimes challenging.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I agree, but we will need to put more of an emphasis on student self-assessment and justification as well as post-assignment reflection. Much of the time students and teachers see final assessment as a "post mortem" evaluation of where they were with nothing to be done about where they can go.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 04 Apr 19
       
      Here is an interesting critical thinking rubric https://educate.intel.com/download/K12/elements/pba_lessons/resources/24_Critical_Thinking_Rubric.pdf This rubric could be used throughout a project to help the learner think about their thinking.
  • others worry that doing so will encourage formulaic writing
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 31 Mar 19
       
      I think that this depends on how the rubric is written.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I've found it also depends on the student. Ironically, I've found that the higher achieving students will tend more strongly toward formulaic writing because they are worried about "missing points." If the grade on the assessment puts their GPA at risk, they are not willing to do any intellectual risk taking.
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Seems to me that if a student meets the criteria, then that is what is expected. (Coming from a person who is not inherently creative.)
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      LOL. I just wrote this very thing "students create their paper too closely like the model" in last paragraph. The problem with following it so closely is that I wasn't sure they really understood the concept if they couldn't recreate it in an independent way.
  • ...89 more annotations...
  • Rubrics that are prescriptive rather than descriptive will promote thoughtless and perfunctory writing; such rubrics are as limiting to the development of rhetorical mastery as the five-paragraph essay.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      This is hard for me to do. I am a concrete thinker, and writing prescriptive rubrics is something I need to work on.
  • adopt a rubric
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 31 Mar 19
       
      Rubistar and https://rubric-maker.com have different academic content area rubrics and grade levels.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 04 Apr 19
       
      rubistar is helpful...sites like this can help build your skills as you create your own rubrics on that site as well.
  • While the fundamental focus of assessment is always to promote learning, there are other reasons why we engage in assessment: curriculum reform, placement, promotion, diagnosis, accountability, and so on (Critical Issue).
    • alisauter
      alisauter on 31 Mar 19
       
      Establishing your purpose is so vital.
  • well-designed rubrics help instructors in all disciplines meaningfully assess the outcomes of the more complicated assignments that are the basis of the problem-solving, inquiry-based, student-centered pedagogy replacing the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centered approach in tertiary education
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 02 Apr 19
       
      Well-designed and meaningful - I think these are the keys to a good rubric. If it doesn't measure what it aims to measure, then a rubric is completely useless.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 03 Apr 19
       
      I agree as well. It is important that students see what his or her expectations are before they right instead of getting the information from teachers at the end.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      When I started many moons ago, in the classroom, almost every period was lecture. Student based learning is so much more effective.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      This is interesting that they're using rubrics at the post-secondary level. I agree that the best use of rubrics is for complicated assignments that ask students to problem-solve, show conceptual understanding, or even just write extended explanations. Rubrics are too time-consuming to write to use for simple tasks.
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 09 Apr 19
       
      It's important to have something to objectively assess outcomes of these types of assignments.
  • Rick Stiggins, of the Assessment Training Institute, contends that we ought to illicit student input when constructing rubrics
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 02 Apr 19
       
      While I assume the author means 'elicit' and not 'illicit', I do agree that getting student input is essential, especially at the high school and college level where we are seeking to have students think meaningfully and critically about their work.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      I struggle with this a bit, for how do students know exactly what is quality of a product they do not have extensive knowledge of?
  • Moreover, some teachers have noticed how students who were good writers become wooden when writing under the influence of a rubric
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 02 Apr 19
       
      This does not surprise me at all. My six year old was docked for not using the word "next" in one of her writings. I read the work, and her transition was much more advanced than that (something I would have encouraged as a high school teacher).
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I could see how students would get stagnant in their writing.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      Maybe I do not make rubrics correctly...because I really do not see this happening!
  • Look at some actual examples of student work to see if you have omitted any important dimensions.
    • robertsreads
      robertsreads on 02 Apr 19
       
      This is a great idea! It's similar to requesting student input without the students feeling pressured to contribute.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      Often this recalibration happens the year after in my experience. As an English teacher, we rubricate everything - for good or bad. I've found that once we ask students to go through a task and use the rubric to assess it, we see where the task, our teaching, and the rubric fail.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      Student feedback can be just as useful to us to Wendy.
  • a set of standards and/or directions for assessing student outcomes and guiding student learning
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I see the confusion stemming from a linguistic debate about whether "directions" refers to the task requirements (e.g. write a persuasive essay using 5 sources) or the assessment criteria (cites strong and thorough textual evidence). Many times students ask to see the "rubric" when they really just mean the specific task requirements.
  • “performance benchmarks” for the “behavioral objectives” appropriate to each year in the program. E
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I find this interesting that they are assessing "behavioral objectives." Much of what our discussions around grading versus assessing have focused on is the need to grade/assess the demonstrated learning and NOT the behavior which lead to the demonstrated learning.
  • study on student-generated rubrics, they tend to “think more deeply about their learning.”
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I tried having students create their own rubrics for an independent learning project. They were all high achieving seniors near the end of their secondary academic career. And across the board, NONE of them said they enjoyed the process, calling it one of the hardest parts of the project as a whole. ALL said it was very eye opening. Ironically, these high-achieving, point grubbing seniors found it MORE difficult to define for themselves what a "perfect" project would be, then to just rise to standards already set by someone else (me). Having to set the bar themselves made them far more nervous about meeting it than if I had set a goal for them to meet. It does make sense, however. By setting their own standards, they would potentially be letting themselves down if they did not rise to their own challenges. Whereas, if they did not fully meet the criteria on a teacher generated rubric, it did not necessarily reflect badly on themselves.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Fascinating and insightful!
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      Wow. Good points!
  • writing a 1000 word essay that “cites x number of sources and supports its thesis with at least three arguments”
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      See, these seem more like task requirements rather than assessable rubric criteria
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      Yes Wendy, I agree. This would be an assignment, but not in the rubric.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      Yes, and if that's all you want to grade, you could just make it a checklist and save yourself a lot of prep time!
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 09 Apr 19
       
      I think that a checklist instead of a rubric in that case is a great idea.
  • Of course, a teacher could have the best of both worlds here, by designing a rubric on a PC that allows for the easy insertion of assignment specific traits.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      Is there anyone who DOESN'T do this?
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      Most of mine are the same but then I change the content part for the details of the assignment.
  • A holistic rubric is more efficient and the best choice when criteria overlap and cannot be adequately separated; an analytical rubric, however, will yield more detailed information about student performance and, therefore, will provide the student with more specific feedback.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      Interestingly, until the 2019-2020 school year, the College Board and AP programs have always used holistic rubrics to score the written essay portions of the exams (at least the English Language and Literature exams). These were used because, especially for the third free-response question, students could choose to respond to any aspect of the passage they chose. With the third free-response question, students had a choice about what text to use to respond to a very vague thematic prompt. Holistic rubrics were necessary to meet the needs of all these different approaches. Beginning next year, during the 2019-2020 school year, the College Board and AP program are replacing all holistic rubrics with analytic ones to "more specific feedback on your Instructional Planning Reports about your students' performance." Interestingly, this feedback is not to the students - students never see their rubrics - but to the teachers so the teachers can adjust their teaching. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-english-literature-and-composition/course/updates-2019-20
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      That's interesting! The College Board switched to an analytical rubric for social studies a few years ago. It will be interesting to compare those.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      In the case of social studies, it gives the student and teacher more specific guidance in what should be included rather than feedback.
  • In addition to these basic directions, you should consider your purpose and audience.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      I mentioned this above, but the College Board and the AP program are changing their use of rubrics from holistic to analytic to provide TEACHERS with a better understanding of student performance and comprehension. It's interesting that the audience for these new rubrics will not be the students who are being assessed, but the teachers who taught them. Who is really being assessed here?
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Great point!
  • we need a meta-rubric to assess our rubric.
    • Wendy Arch
      Wendy Arch on 02 Apr 19
       
      While this makes complete sense and would be a great use of PLCs, my instinctual response was "Oh Geez. Yet another thing..."
  • will lead students to perceive writing as a kind of “paint-by-number” endeavor (Mathews).
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 03 Apr 19
       
      There are some rubrics that I have used that remind of this. Students basically being programmed on what to do to get an A without any deep learning taking place. However, I still see the need for rubrics like this.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 09 Apr 19
       
      I agree. Unfortunately, many times students use rubrics to get the grade they want without focusing on the learning. Maybe it's not the rubrics themselves but how we are using them in the classroom?
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      I feel students are programed to give us what we want and not explore their own learning. So often when I give a writing assignment I hear first, how long does it have to be? How do we get away from that?
  • advocates of rubrics at all educational levels have argued that rubrics provide students with clear and specific qualities to strive for in those assignments that “are open-ended, aligned more closely to real-life learning situations and the nature of learning”
  • Indeed, since rubrics allow for widespread assessment of higher-level thinking skills, performance-based assessment is replacing or complementing more traditional modes of testing; this in turn means that teachers are changing their instructional modes to prepare their students for these tests
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 03 Apr 19
       
      Obviously a good thing with standardized tests focusing more on state standards.
  • Share the rubric with your students and their parents.
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 03 Apr 19
       
      Great for students to know expectations and criteria. Have never thought about sharing a rubric with parents. See the benefits of that as well.
  • “rubrics promote ‘mechanical instruction in writing’ that bypasses ‘the human act of composing and the human gesture of response’” (
  • More conceptually, critics claim that rubrics, in effect, dehumanize the act of writing. According to Thomas Newkirk, an English professor at the University of New Hampshire,
    • mgast40diigo
      mgast40diigo on 03 Apr 19
       
      Curious to know what methods of grading are popular among the critics of rubrics.
  • You can adapt a rubric—
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      Honestly, I feel like this is what I do the most. I adopt a lot of rubrics and tweak them to fit what I want. I feel like in education there is a lot of resources available to me and people way smarter/better than me at their jobs. No point in reinventing the wheel, so why not adopt and tweak to fit the need that I have for my assessment.
  • “The Effects of Rubrics on Learning to Write,” has found that, while rubrics increased her students’ knowledge of the grading criteria and helped most of her students (especially the young male students) do well on the state writing test, many of the young female students, who had been more expressive in previous writing assignments, wrote poorly when writing, as we might say, to the rubric.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      That's always been a fear of mine with rubrics when writing an opinion or free write. Does this stifle the creativity of some students. It's really interesting to also look at who was seeing the bias as the article states girls/boys. Does it also bias ethnicities?
  • The issue of weighting may be another area in which you can enlist the help of students. At the beginning of the process, you could ask a student to select to select which aspect she values the most in her writing and weight that aspect when you assess her paper.
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      +1 for student choice. Hopefully this would develop lifelong learning.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 09 Apr 19
       
      I think by enlisting the help of students in creating the rubric, it will promote ownership of learning. It should also help students keep in mind what is most important while they are creating their product.
  • “Is the assessment responsive to what we know about how [students] learn?” and “Does the assessment help students become the kinds of [citizens] we want them to be?”
    • zackkaz
      zackkaz on 03 Apr 19
       
      As a SS teacher that second part hits home. Will they be a responsible democratic citizen.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      To me, this gets to the content of the assignment...not conventions.
  • rubrics should be used in conjunction with other strategies,
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 04 Apr 19
       
      Rubrics are a great tool but not necessarily the way to go all the time. Students need to be exposed to other strategies as well.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 04 Apr 19
       
      I agree multiple strategies should be used as that will help our students grow as learners.
  • Perhaps the greatest potential value of classroom assessment is realized when we open the assessment process up and welcome students into that process as full partners”
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 04 Apr 19
       
      When students are part of the process there will likely be more enthusiasm and buy in from the students.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I have to admit, I have not gone this far yet. But it makes total sense, that if students are a part of creating the rubric they would have a better understanding of the expectations.
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      I agree. It will give them a sense of ownership in their own learning. Even my elementary students would be more than able to help with this. I plan on rolling it out to my colleagues to try with an upcoming paper.
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 10 Apr 19
       
      I have seen this done with second graders. They were not creating criteria based on standards, but rather criteria for quality. The students decided what the quality of presentation and speaking were. They actually were pretty tough on eachother and set the bar high. This is a great process, but can also be a challenge if you have multiple classes and want to have some consensus with evaluating.
  • Revise the rubric and try it out again
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 04 Apr 19
       
      Would this be the point to gather student input? I would want to make sure my objectives were being met and then allow students to input.
  • Each score category should be defined using description of the work rather than judgments about the work.”
    • mpercy
      mpercy on 04 Apr 19
       
      Does this really make a difference to the student?
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 09 Apr 19
       
      I like using rubrics so that it takes the teacher out of the grading. I like that communication is clear without bias.
  • When instructors plan on grading
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 04 Apr 19
       
      By giving students the langugage to talk about thinking we open the door to them reflecting on their thinking and eventually refining it.
  • , rubrics cannot be the sole response to a student’s paper; sound pedagogy would dictate that
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 04 Apr 19
       
      A writing assignment that is part of an authentic learning opportunity that the student chose to participate in might decrease the emphasis on simply meeting the criteria of a rubruc.
  • sions differently if you feel that one dimension is more important than another. There are two ways in which you can express this value judgment: 1. You may give a dimension more weight by multiplying the point by a number greater than one. For example, if you have four dimensions (content, organization, support, conventions) each rated on a six-point scale, and you wish to emphasis the importance of adequate support, you could multiply the support score by two. 2.
    • Deborah Cleveland
      Deborah Cleveland on 04 Apr 19
       
      I tend to use the "multiply a dimension by 2" method of weighting grades. In writing a particularly like this because it allows you to address things like conventions, but at the same time emphasize orther aspects of writing.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I use weight dimensions in History class. I'm not as worried about the writing style, sentence structure etc.... But I'm more concerned with the what they know and if there research is thorough. I still include those things on my rubric, it's just worth less points.
  • The instructor’s comments on papers and tests are done after rather than before the writing, so they cannot serve as guidelines, compromising the value of writing comments at all.”
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 04 Apr 19
       
      This is very important thing to think about. A student can't make changes to something they are doing after it is already turned in. They may think they are following all things on the rubric correctly but teacher may think differently
  • In any case, withholding assessment tools (whether they are rubrics or more nebulous modes of evaluation) from students is not only unfair and makes self-assessment more difficult
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Seems kind of stupid to not give the students the rubric for the assignment when they are working on it. You expect them to turn in something worth while without knowing what you want from them.
  • hose students who had been natural writers, those students who had “stylistic voices full of humor and surprises, produced less interesting essays when they followed the rules [as outlined in a rubric]
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 04 Apr 19
       
      I can see this being true across the board. Lots of time when I start a project the first thing some of the students ask is "what do I need to do to get an A." They don't care about learning the content. They just make their project geared to meet all requirements on the rubric and don't care about anything else.
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      I hear that comment often. Until our system changes to not be so focused on the grade itself, I totally side with the students. We put so much pressure on kids to achieve and achieve well so that they can apply and receive scholarships, be inducted into NHS, make it into the college of their dreams...I feel we leave them absolutely no room to worry about the learning. Teachers are just as guilty. I can't count the times I have heard, "I don't know why he has a B; there isn't any reason why he shouldn't be getting an A in my class." (This is without me asking why my child has a B instead of an A.) To me that makes the focus on the grade. They never mention what my child is actually learning or not.
  • clear understanding of how rubrics operate can help educators of all levels design rubrics that facilitate, rather than obviate, student learning and teacher improvement.
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 04 Apr 19
       
      This is so true. Rubrics should be designed to help teachers facilitate learning so it's more student driven which will improve both student learning and allow teachers to improve.
  • Doing so, many educators argue, increases the likelihood of a quality product.
    • tommuller4
      tommuller4 on 04 Apr 19
       
      I agree you can get a quality product by giving students the rubric up front but I don't think you will get a great product because students tend to not go above and beyond the rubric. They just do enough to meet the criteria for the grade they want. No more and no less.
  • evaluate your rubric
    • kmolitor
      kmolitor on 04 Apr 19
       
      I think it is important to continually evaluate your rubrics or any assessments for that matter. It is important to consider if you are assessing what you want/need to and get feedback from students.
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Stultifying: stunts creativity so that students achieve only what is required. Empowering: clarifies for students and teachers what is expected.
  • no longer appropriate
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      "no longer appropriate" is a bit over-stated. Students in Introductory Statistics still need to know these skills. I agree that we do need to focus more on developing statistical thinking, so more performance tasks (and assessment rubrics) are necessary.
  • features known to the student
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Sharing the rubric with students at the beginning of the task holds students accountable and gives transparency to the task expectations.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      That, for me, was the primary purpose of the rubric. I wished for students to know clearly what this project should show me of their knowledge and skill. It did always frustrate me that they didn't use it more as a resource as they edited and revised their papers.
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      I agree as well. I found them useful as student so that I knew exactly what my teacher/instructor expected. I love them as a teacher as they give the students specific talking points before they start their assignment.
  • ull partners
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      This seems like a big time-waster to me.
  • Build a metarubric
    • sjensen21
      sjensen21 on 04 Apr 19
       
      This is a great checklist for evaluating our own rubrics that we have created.
  • a system which some educators see as stultifying and others see as empowering.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      Not sure why it would be stultifying (which I looked up to be sure I knew what that meant). I mean, how much enthusiasm would a student have toward an assignment?
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      In some cases, a rubric can be a little too prescriptive and actually curb creativity for students. A more open assignment--for some students--allows for more interpretation or flexibility. I think it really depends on how "tight" the teacher writes the rubric.
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 14 Apr 19
       
      Rubrics can be empowering yes, but not everything needs a rubric in my opinion.
  • gineering programs
  • Closer to home, our own successful Allied Health programs depend on rubrics to both assess and encourage student learning.
  • rubrics can help the student with self-assessment
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      This was a big goal of mine as a writing teacher
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Apr 19
       
      I think this is the biggest benefit of rubrics
  • “In short, explicit performance criteria, along with supporting models of work, make it possible for students to use the attributes of exemplary work to monitor their own performance.
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      I found the models to be very helpful for my students. My only problem is often students create something very close to the model. It often was a conundrum for me.
  • Is the description of criteria judgemental
    • cathy84
      cathy84 on 04 Apr 19
       
      That's a rule I have violated...and I probably knew best practice, but getting so specific in the criteria makes correcting so laborious
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      You are so correct. Now that I have read this information, I know that when I would say "good", I meant, "following current conventions." Most 10-year-olds understand "good". Not so much for the other!
  • rubrics should be non-judgmental:
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I have a hard time keeping judgement out of rubrics.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Apr 19
       
      this could be a place where submission into an LMS using blind grading can be a huge benefit! I love blind grading...rarely do I need to know who produced the artifact.
  • rubrics are now used similarly by post-secondary educators in all disciplines to assess outcomes in learning situations
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      As we are to assess the pros and cons of rubrics, I would say this is a con to using them. We need colleges to get on board and use them as well, and some are switching over.
  • solving real problems and using statistical reasoning
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      Rubrics are better at assessing real problems and statistical reasoning.
  • student thinking and not just student knowledge
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      Rubrics are better at assessing student thinking.
  • (
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I do feel that rubrics are more closely connected with real life situations. In the workforce, you will not be given a grade. Instead, they will evaluate your performance.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      True...but sometimes with a rubric. =) I think of the way even my husband's corporate world annual evaluation tool is written.
  • when rubrics are published in the classroom, students striving to achieve the descriptions at the higher end of the scale in effect guide their own learning.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      This is what we should all be striving for.
  • as long as each point on the scale is well-defined.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      When looking at standards based learning it is encouraged to have the same scale number for each department. And sometimes there is disagreement between a 3 pt scale or a 4 point scale.
  • modify or combine existing rubrics; re-word parts of the rubric; drop or change one or more scales of an analytical rubric; omit criteria that are not relevant to the outcome you are measuring; mix and match scales from different rubrics; change the rubric of use at a different grade; add a “no-response” category at the bottom of the scale; divide a holistic rubric into several scales.
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      I surf the internet quite frequently, and use other rubrics ideas as a starter for mine. And then I adapt it to my objectives.
  • Steps in developing a scoring rubric
    • annott
      annott on 06 Apr 19
       
      This could be shared in Professional Learning Communities.
  • However, for the student to successfully use a rubric this way, the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instructio
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      I think this is really key, especially the part aobut being linked to classroom instruction. I've used rubrics by introducing them at the beginning and then using them to score at the end--and felt like students never looked at them and therefore got very little out of them. The key was when I used the rubric during instruction--as an explanation tool, as a peer reflection and self-assessment tool. We just have to be really deliberate and explicit and pulling it out and using it in instruction if we really want students to use it in their process.
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      I have never used a rubric during instruction, other than to remind them to use it. I am excited to see how it will help them when we use the rubric continuously throughout a project.
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Apr 19
       
      For me, I don't know how you do this in early elementary. Reading and comprehending "standard" language is not conducive to young readers. (ie subject/verb agreement)
  • maintains the traditional gap between what the teacher knows and what the student knows.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      Yes, and some students have more ability to bridge that gap than others. I think this is where we get into equity problems--some students are better equipped (by home life or personality/strength) for school and intellectual processes. In other words, they are more insightful and therefore better "guessers" of what teachers want.
    • jennham
      jennham on 08 Apr 19
       
      You are exactly correct and I could not have said this better.
  • non-traditional, unsuccessful, or under-prepared students, who tend to miss many of the implied expectations of a college instructor, expectations that better prepared, traditional students readily internalize.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      Yes, exactly! We can even the playing field for students by being explicit in our expectations.
  • Pilot test your rubric or checklist on actual samples of student work.
    • kimgrissom
      kimgrissom on 06 Apr 19
       
      This is a helpful step because one of the downfalls of a rubric is not rewarding something students do well (because it's not on the rubric) or unintentionally rewarding something you don't want students to do.
    • barbkfoster
      barbkfoster on 09 Apr 19
       
      By piloting the rubric, we are able to make sure we are truly assessing what we intend to. These samples could also be shared with students to practice using the rubric (so they can better evaluate their own work).
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      This is why I like rubrics. It helps guide student learning.
  • “on what students have actually learned rather than what they have been taught,”
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 14 Apr 19
       
      this is the key to a successful classroom. it is not about what you teach it is about what have the students learned. Or it is not about providing time for student to be active, but what have you taught them that will lead to be active for a lifetime!
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      This is an interesting quote about knowing what students have actually learned that what we taught. More of a formative assessment. How is the student's learning progressing and what do we need to do to get them there.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      This is the tricky part. A well designed rubric that does give the teachers the information that they need to understand what their students have learned.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      There is a lot of power in students who self assess themselves.
  • are about their potential to harm students learning.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      I'm not sure how a rubric can harm a students learning.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      Exactly, it has to be conferring with teachers along the way on their progress.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      I like this idea of enlisting the help of students.
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      I like this idea of a pilot rubric!
    • nealjulie
      nealjulie on 08 Apr 19
       
      These should definitely be a checklist when teachers make their own.
  • “an established custom or rule of procedure.”
    • tmolitor
      tmolitor on 08 Apr 19
       
      It's important to have an established procedure for grading so that the grades remain objective.
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 10 Apr 19
       
      totally agree and is a large reason have gone to SBL this year. Also have to make sure no gray area in rubric
    • rhoadsb_
      rhoadsb_ on 14 Apr 19
       
      We are moving to SBL as well and it already is making a huge difference in the classroom.
  • consistently and accurately
    • mistermohr
      mistermohr on 09 Apr 19
       
      I feel that the most consistent and accurate rubrics are checklists. I understand rubrics should not be checklists, but I find they need to be checklist-esque to keep them objective.
  • traits, or dimensions, will serve as the basis for judging the student response and should reflect the vital aspects of the assignment
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 10 Apr 19
       
      This is a great reminder. I know I have failed in the past with having too much on a rubric or too little. Being focused on the vital aspects of the assignment will prevent you from assessing parts that are not important. This will also help students know what the criteria is without worrying about the fluff.
  • rubrics that are outside of the students “zone of proximal development” are useless to the students.
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 10 Apr 19
       
      Wow, rubrics are really challenging to create. In the assess this assignment I started off way to high and would not be in a student zone of proximal development. How does a teacher know thijavascript:void(0)s. I am assuming rubrics that are aligned with grade level standards would be appropriate but I now feel like i need to take a look at more examples. This could be a Con if the rubric creator does not understand this idea.
  • ubrics, Halden-Sullivan contends, reduce “deep learning” to “checksheets.”
    • whsfieldbio
      whsfieldbio on 10 Apr 19
       
      I once heard a speaker say that "rubrics make cooks and we should strive to make chefs." His statement refered to that fact that students simply follow the recipe to complete the task rather than using their own thinking and knowledge to create a product. I think there are rubrics that can do both, but I can also see that this is a concern.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      I think the deep learning should be coming from the teacher more than the student.
  • “performance benchmarks” for the “behavioral objectives” appropriate to each year in the program. E
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 10 Apr 19
       
      totally agree. Find that really interesting since so much research is on NOT grading behaviors and focusing on the learning itself
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 12 Apr 19
       
      I think I would like to see what are these behavior objectives are. Are they really just skills that students demonstrate?
  • Specific rubrics, on the other hand, are particular to a given assignment—one rubric for a narrative essay, another one for an argumentative essay
    • chriskyhl
      chriskyhl on 10 Apr 19
       
      this is one of the hardest things in SBL or rubric use. They take so much time but have to make sure truly fit an assignment
  • broader and more ambitious
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 10 Apr 19
       
      This is so true. The objectives are changing and sometimes they are changing in a way that we don't know how to assess them correctly
  • important assessment tool in “achiev[ing a] new vision of statistics education.
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 10 Apr 19
       
      100%. It is the expectation now that all of our assignments and work have some sort of rubric. Now, it doesn't have to be super detailed but the goal is that students know what they are trying to achieve
  • explicitly delineate the qualities of thought that they are looking for
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 10 Apr 19
       
      This is key I believe. This is also the #1 problem I see with rubrics today. Instructors need to know every detail of what they are looking for in order to make a rubric work out. With that said, sometimes you think of things late and that makes it hard to get them in the rubric
  • I once gave extra credit
    • kylelehman
      kylelehman on 10 Apr 19
       
      I have seen this happen before as well. The way that I look at it, there needs to be an aspect of the rubric that discusses that pieces of evidence from class need to be included.
  • However, for the student to successfully use a rubric this way, the criteria must be made clear to them and the jargon used must not only be understandable to the student but also be linked specifically to classroom instructio
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 12 Apr 19
       
      Some the best teachers allow students student to assess a sample assignment so they can understand the language of the rubric.
    • mschutjer
      mschutjer on 27 Apr 19
       
      I agree. This is an important step and sometimes I feel like it is missed, by myself as well.
  • a shred of meaningful content she could meet all the requirements of a state writing rubric he posted in his classroom
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 12 Apr 19
       
      This type of student know the system and how to chase points not learning. Rubrics or other grading tools are about giving feedback to the students so they can continue their learning.
  • The argument against using rubrics
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 12 Apr 19
       
      It's interesting that all of the arguments against rubrics are writing examples.
  • Does the rubric encourage students to be independent writers?
  • Can different scorers consistently apply the rubric?
    • mrsmeganmorgan
      mrsmeganmorgan on 12 Apr 19
       
      I think this is a great question. We might need to talk about it more with our teacher teams.
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