OLLIE Iowa

The purpose is so important! I feel like sometimes we test just to test...and then send the results off to someone else. The kids need to understand the purpose as internal motivation is not always there.

So important! I think about myself and the hoops we need to jump through in our lives without understanding the purpose. That purpose definitely leads to motivation.

The purpose has to be tied to helping the students discover information about himself. How to improve? What has been learned? Then move forward.

All teachers know that they have choice in the types of assessments to give students but I wonder if we all really think through what type we are giving every time. Do we just give what we did last year? Do we give what is easiest? The fastest to grade? Things to think about...

Feedback can be challenging as we all know. I tend to get frustrated when I have taken the time to provide detailed feedback and the students could care less about it, they just want to know a grade and move on.

so true...

This would go along with students taking ownership for their own learning....we would WANT them to want to know where they are at for individual purposes!

Most of my formative assessments have been multiple choice or short answer quizzes. After learning more about rubrics, I would like to start using rubrics in two ways for formative assessments. One the students will do a self assessment on where they feel they are at. Then a teacher to student-conference with the rubric to see where they are at. With the end goal of making the assessment portion less stressful for my students, because they know where they are at.

^^^ Love this idea! I hope I can get there also with some projects!

I was thinking the same thing about rubrics that you wrote here. Students would hopefully see themselves moving on the rubric as they improve their skills /learn. This should be motivating and students would know exactly what is expected.

which leads to frustration...

Although I would say this is definitely still true in the courses we teach (we still emphasize bigger, summative assessments), I think we have changed how we view student progress. Our summative assessments aren't all tests, some of them are projects or performance assessments. Those assessments are also no longer considered "one-and-done" opportunities. Students can retake assessments or make corrections, etc. to show progress in their learning even if they didn't get it right the first time. It's less focused on the final grade and instead, assessing what students have learned.

This is great. However, when juxtaposed with having 200 students like I do, it is not always feasible to have numerous projects and reassessments. How do we change the change the way that teachers spend their day so this is possible?

I find this distinction between summative and formative assessment interesting. In our freshman group of teachers, we have a category for both formative and summative assessment. Formative is weighted at 20% and summative is weighted at 80%. So although in my courses we were taught not to grade formatives, we still assign a score to it and put it into the gradebook. Also, if formatives weren't graded, I wonder how much of them would actually be completed by students?

This has been a goal of mine this year, to use formative assessments to help make instructional decisions in my class. It has been a work in progress, but I have seen some success. I use the information from the formative assessment to decide is it a small group that needs reteaching or is it an entire class that needs reteaching. I don't normally grade my formative assessments, but I go give them completion points. For the most part if a student sees they are not getting something, they appreciate the reteaching opportunity.

Too often I see teachers not fully use the formative assessment data they have to intentionally inform instruction. If done properly formative assessment is very powerful. I also like the idea of giving participation points for formative assessments.

Some teachers give 0% for formative assessments at my school. The Science department has figured out a way to have labs count as a way to assess a standard. I think practice is important and should have some weight.

My school has increased its emphasis on learning targets this year. We are all using a 5D+ template to write unit plans and the learning targets are similarly broken down into knowledge targets, academic targets (transferable skills), and performance targets. I think that writing unit plans and sitting down and thinking about the individual types of targets has really strengthened the types of instruction teachers are carrying out in their classrooms. They are more familiar with the targets they want students to meet, and in turn, students are also more familiar with what's expected of them.

I like the specific targets here. I guess I have been generalizing them for awhile. My plans would be better defined for myself and students if I focused on them more.

Our middle school is beginning this work as well. We are trying to get a system wide learning plan template developed and going. Our goal is to help all teachers fully understand their learning targets and how they relate to student understanding. I know that all teachers look at them, but I'm not sure how many break them down to fully understand them and what students outcomes should be.

I also do this on other assessment types such as short answer. I've gotten into the habit of bolding things that I want to make sure students don't forget to do. For example, they may be required to answer a question but then they need to follow that with explanation or justification. I often bold the second half so that they don't forget to include the explanation, which often highlights their thinking, which can be more important than the first half of the answer.

I do this too. I find this is very helpful for kids. Sometimes in rubrics when going through them, I'll have kids underline or circle key words instead just to force their attention a bit. It does help.

It is SO important that our feedback is more than a score or letter grade if we want to emphasize progress and the ability to improve for our students.

Agreed! And if the targets are clear and communicated to students, they should know what steps they need to take to grow! It shouldn't be a mystery!

"Do the results provide clear direction for what to do next?"

I see some teachers more hopeful that ISASP, with its better alignment to state standards, will be a truer indicator of success. Other teachers, however, are still so jaded toward standardized testing.

Good point! ISASP should be a better indicator of student achievement.Some of the best indicators are teacher formative and summative tests. These are still the most useful for teachers.

This is a helpful breakdown of learning targets for me. In a core discipline area like history, it's easy to forget about performance skill and product targets. But there are definitely areas where these type of learning targets are present, and knowing those areas can help me decide how best to assess.

Easy to forget about bias! So many other things take our time and attention when we write tests, that it's easy to forget about spelling, formatting mistakes, and other unintentional things that give students a clue as to the right answer in ways that don't truly test mastery of content.

One of our school's frustrations with the new ISASP format is that no itemization or further guidance is provided at the building/district level as to how our students performed on specific components of the test. Perhaps this will change, or maybe we're missing it, but it's difficult to program evaluate without this breakdown.

I think this is an important thing to think about. How often do we really use assessments to make changes in our instruction. When I was a student I was thankful for tests. I could cram the material into my head and once the test was over, I could forget it and move on; clearing the way for new information. As a teacher, I realize that isn't the intent, but I wonder how often we still get caught up the type of thinking. Are we assessing so we feel better about moving on or are we assessing so we can make course corrections to support student learning and understanding?

This reminds me of self-reported grading. Hattie says self-reported grading has an effect size of 1.33 but it seems that it is rare for teachers to actually use it.

This article focused solely on formal assessment, but I also think it is important to discuss the role and value of informal assessment opportunities and how powerful immediate feedback based on informal assessment can be in a F2F setting.

One of the easiest ways to ensure that students respond to feedback is to design opportunities that require them to engage with the feedback and do something with the feedback, but this is frequently dismissed due to the quantity of standards and learning required of students at each grade level. Many teachers feel like they need to prioritize "covering" all the standards over students truly engaging in their learning.

This is detrimental to English Learners-Kanost

Using data from multiple assessments can help determine where exactly a student is at in their learning. Kanost

This can really hurt our students with that lack background knowledge obtained in white, christian, middle class society. Kanost

It is especially important that students know what the intended learning is! Unfortunately, too many students think grades are given to them by their teacher instead of earned by their work. When they don't know what is being assessed, this adds to that narrative.

This is where it is important to have a clear rubric with student language. Students, even learning adults, need to have guidance on why they are learning so they can be assessed accurately.

This is an area I feel like we don't capture as much as we should as teachers. It's the process over product idea!

I'm glad to see a number of items for each target instead of just one or two in order to get a better understanding of the learning.

This is something that I have been improving on and is not something I knew about when I first started teaching. I actually used to think that a good test was a simple repeat of information that I told the students during the unit. I wrote tests over the "facts" that I taught them. Wow, have I learned a lot. Now in my PLC we take the time to organize the learning targets and make sure that our assessments match the learning targets in our curriculum.

My administrator and I were just talking about something similar. We are trying to work on grading practices in our building. We both agree that students need multiple opportunities to show what they know and that assessments shouldn't be viewed as a one a done item that is checked off. We even got into the idea if a student is assessed once and gets a 58%, a second time and gets a 78% and third time and gets a 98% do you average all those scores, or do you think to yourself, "It took them three times but they finally go it, let's celebrate, here's your A"?

What does quality and balance look like compared to the instruction?

In a data driven world, which I totally agree with, the data is only valid if the reason for the data is clear and understood.

This must be the purpose for data. What direction will come from the results? Otherwise, it becomes busy work.

Intersting it is not the same the same sampling of students.

I think too often we are told what data to take but do not know why and don't have a genuine investment in the collection. How many teachers have been involved in taking data from an IEP goal and have no idea what the actual goal says.

I often have these same thoughts when I think about our science standards. So much of the standard is based upon what students can do beyond memorizing content, so it doesn't seem appropriate to assess students in ways that make it more difficult to demonstrate those skills. Rubrics obviously lend themselves to these performance expectations well because of the science and engineering practices within them. However, I think there still has to be a balance because not everything can be assessed with a rubric.

This is also true for mathematics standards. Rubrics help when assessing performance expectations, however, there are still some items that cannot be assessed with a rubric.

I've never thought of viewing a rubric as scaffolding before when students are completing assessments. I think that's a more positive way to view rubrics if students are using them as guidelines to complete the task. Even if students have a rubric and know what is expected of them, it doesn't mean that they will automatically score much higher. They may still be lacking understanding/skills that the rubric is being used to assess.

I agree, a rubric can serve as scaffolding for some who have a base knowledge already, but for students who really lack the understanding and skills being assessed in the rubric, a large rubric can be overwhelming and cause that student to shut down.

I agree with you on this. I have never thought of them this way. If we are creating rubrics as a way to guide student thinking in the best possible way to reach our expectations/standards, they need guidance in order to get there. If the rubric is being used as a facilitation in the process of learning then this would be their tool for self reflection, not an instant guarantee of a higher grade.

I have found that in middle school anyway- long or too wordy of rubrics are hard for students to attend to. They have a hard time focusing to go through it and really using it. I keep that in mind when I'm creating rubrics.

I really like the idea of using rubrics as a way to build scaffolding into an assessment. A lot of the time I give my students the rubrics when we introduce an assessment, which I need to change. I like the idea of giving the students the rubric at the beginning and designing it to help scaffold the learning while they are progressing toward the end.

I agree that using rubrics to build scaffolding into an assessment is a great use of this tool. If the same document is used (with extra spaces for updated scoring) students will be able to see progress and end product will be of better quality.

I do like the leverage that rubrics provide students in knowing what is expected of them. It levels the playing field for all students if they have those guidelines ahead of time. I would imagine students also appreciate that they know what the teacher wants from them and isn't using the assessment as something to hold over their heads.

Yes! I find it so hard with my own kids when they are graded on something that the teacher never touched on and/or told them about. I hope that I am clear with my expectations in my classroom so kids do not feel this way. Having this "guide" would definitely take care of that problem.

I think that this can become a slippery slope if students attempt to assess without any standard against which to compare the work. Teachers will probably grade things less reliably and it is hard for them to remove inherent bias depending on the student's work being graded. I think rubrics provide an advantage in this way so that teachers are more reliable in assessment practices and can avoid some of the bias.

Yes, a well-written rubric can help with consistency and accuracy. In a situation where multiple teachers are teaching the same course, it is also important that those teachers work to ensure inter-rater reliability to ensure that the rubric is being applied consistently and accurately across courses.

Agreed. This would help with the subjectivity among teachers and across different sections of classes trying to teach to the same standards/expectations.

This goes back to my comment above about how sometimes rubrics can be too overwhelming for students who lack enough understanding or skills to comprehend the rubric, causing them to shut down.

I AGREE! It kind of sounds like a one rubric for all doesn't work. I'm sure it would completely depend on the assignment/learning target being assessed, but maybe there needs to be multiple rubrics depending on level of learner. That sounds wonderful in theory, but I can't imagine how much more front loading that would be! SO MUCH DIFFERENTIATION!

While I see the merits to weighted dimensions (particularly that it helps students to see what is most important in the rubric), I also think that adding point values for each dimension puts the emphasis of the feedback provided as a grade rather than the emphasis of the rubric being the feedback in the dimension that helps the student know how to improve.

I agree with all of these ideas. In thinking about if the rubric is clear to parents and students, I also think that a good rubric is descriptive enough for students to understand the difference between each performance level, but also concise enough that the user doesn't experience reader's fatigue from trying to process the rubric. To me, this means rubrics for lower reading abilities especially need to be clear and concise.

Unfortunately, many of my language arts colleagues like to throw all aspects of writing on a rubric for every piece. I find that this distracts students with what the true objectives are - what they've been learning about in classroom instruction!

Good point! There has to be an area that is stressed and worth more points because that is the skill teachers are working on for that particular writing.

This is especially true when students also try assessing different models using the rubric they've co-created. Now they see the differences between examples and non-examples!

I have thought about rubrics for grading but I am glad to see so many more applications, I think a rubric could be highly motivating to a student who needs structure.

This is why the consolidation of understanding is so important. Make sure that students practice using various models with the rubric and do this with peers in order to have conversations about what they are noticing and ask questions about why/why not certain models fit the criteria.

This is the danger when creating a rubric that teachers need to be aware of! We need to incorporate room in rubrics for style and creativity.

We had rubrics in my undergrad experience and it helped with clarifying what was expected. I don't recall if we had them in high school, but percentages were standard back then.

I do agree with this statement. It helps give students a "roadmap" of where their assignment should go.

This was a good example to see. Using descriptive language helps the learner see what is required. However, language needs to purposeful. it also needs to be explicitly pre taught to English Learners.

These areas should not be in a rubric.

The part that sticks out to me here is the use of rubrics to reliably score... This is always my issue. I know that I need to be more clear with the rubrics I use. I don't always know that they are serving the purpose I want or need them to. I often find myself overthinking the rubric when I go to use them. Either I not writing it correctly or I'm not being clear on the learning targets that I'm trying to assess.

We have created some rubrics as a team so teachers doing instruction on the same assignment can be consistent with one another.

Until, I read the lessons in the previous section of this course, I didn't think much about how I use rubrics. I always just used them as the end point for grading. I really like the idea of using them as learning tools and providing feedback along the way to enhance learning. I think that can be a really positive way to help students learn and not give up on themselves. I have so many students that look at the rubric and just give up. If I can scaffold the rubric better, break it into parts, and then provide feedback with opportunities to redo, then I think students will embrace and use them more.

I agree here. This is one of the best things about rubrics, if you get them created correctly", they help you to limit bias. There is no, well maybe's, or I think's. Rubrics with details, are fairly clear. I also have seen them useful when students or parents try to argue a grade. Having a rubric that you can point to makes it a lot easier to justify a grade. For the most part, rubrics are fairly black and white as to how students will be assessed. They help keep student and teacher honest and on the same page.

I think the more kids understand our rubrics, then they do feel empowered. This is a positive for their learning.

Once these rubrics are established and used yearly, the instruction and learning targets are a lot more clear for the teacher. This is a positive for the engineering program.

I have a daughter that is a critic and I do understand her point. Her English teacher said her theme of a book was incorrect, yet she followed the rubric expectations. As teachers, we need to also listen when there is not a clear way to grade the material.

Clear and understandable jargon stood out to me as this is important if we expect the students to see rubrics as a way to self-assess themselves as they complete work.

I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.

I do wonder about this. If life situations are we given this much specific detail for success?

Conceptually, I've always thought of a rubric as a Standards-Based Grading kind of assessment. In that system, which has kind of taken on a life of it's own in my school, the education has move completely away from teacher-centered learning.

This is an important statement. Students need to know the instructional goal. I do think this is missed. It is a good reminder for me moving forward. I feel like I do this, but what does that look like?

Agreed! However, I struggle to find that most students don't "care" about this goal unless you make it relevant to them right now. (And even with this some don't care.) I would love for students to buy in to what we are all doing in our classrooms and understand the bigger pictures, then they would understand the learning progressions.

The communication of the end goal is something that I need to do a better job with. I think I will have better outcomes from my formative assessment when my students see there purpose rather than just me.

My new curriculum is all about the I Can statements and reviewing it at the end, so this is very helpful. I agree with the comment above- Now to motivate the students to care!

I have enjoyed our course work on this. It has made me really think the steps between objection and assessment.

I agree with you. The Progression diagram that I have made 2 different times has really helped me understand how to break the learning down. Trying to make sure students are achieving at each step is so important to their success.

I will remember these questions Often feedback is just a general statement of good job. These questions will drive student with specific feedback.

I really like the idea of posing those questions to the students and make them more engaged in their learning and the skill of really knowing where they are in the learning progression.

I imagine the learning progressions posted on the wall and when conferring with students, posing the questions - where are you now? where are you going? how will you get there?

I think posing the questions to students would be a great way to have them do some self-reflection. That would also help the teacher to understand the students' perception of where they are and be able to give appropriate feedback. For example, a teacher might think a student is doing something well because they have evidence of that, but it would help to know if the student felt they knew it well enough so that they could replicate it in the future.

I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.

I agree. Peer assessment is meant to help both students learn something new and reflect on their learning/work from a non-teacher perspective.

I want to increase this in my classroom so if you have ideas, please do share! :) I want students to feel comfortable with this process and care about the learning progressions we are moving through. I want there to be good peer feedback and not just students "jumping through the hoops" so that they themselves get better at the big ideas and collaboration pieces.

I think this is very important. There are too many variables in peer statements and comments.

I think we still struggle as a system to view formative assessment as a process. Case in point, administrators in my previous buildings would ask teachers to bring their "formative assessments" to our PLC meetings. It became a tangible thing vs. observations, etc.

I am glad that you brought this up. This whole process is supposed to be something that moves student learning forward and deeper and our profession to new heights. That definitely gets lost in translation when it becomes something forced. My administrators have done the same thing. The meaningful process becomes lost when teachers do it just because they are told to, or they are just going through the motions. I think that you are correct when you say it's so much more than a tangible thing, it has to be observational as well. We also have to get educators to see the value of it and using formative assessments to guide our practice.

"timely feedback" - students don't want formative feedback when they already took their summative assessment. Make the feedback relatable and clear. If you make the feedback irrelevant it is not meaning full to the student.

I do like using the language in the rubric to specify what they did well as well as what needs to be built upon to hit the success criteria.

I also liked that part. I have a hard time with the whole specific, timely feedback. I don't always know how to go about doing it for a 150 students. I think that being more clear on the rubric might really help. Rather than focus on content I could include wording needed that help develop the skills needed to get to or master the content. I still am unsure how to effectively answer the where going, where now, and closing the gap questions. I wonder if students can be given a self assessment with a carefully worded rubric and them I can review those and make changes as needed. What ideas or methods do the rest of you use to meet the needs of the last three questions in this sentence?

or rather the end of the next sentence, sorry

YES! This cuts out all of the fluff and gets to the heart of what we want kids to learn! Creating better learning targets makes teaching much more purposeful!

I think this is a great way to incorporate the rubric that would be used to assess the student. Peer feedback is one that could go really well and really bad if the teacher doesn't set the guidelines of what it looks like. This is a teachable moment in it's self.

I agree with this statement. If a student can successfully self evaluate according to criteria like a rubric then they can have success with peers. Start there.

I have found that if I ask students to give each other a grade, it is basically useless, as they will just give each other an A. But if I ask them to comment and send back for revision, in actually work quite well. Qualitative over quantitative has been key for me.