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SHS's AFL Journey

Posted by Scott Habeeb on August 12, 2010 at 4:00pm

The City of Salem Schools just wrapped up its 2010 Summer Leadership Academy. The Leadership Academy consisted of teachers, counselors, and administrators from throughout the division. The purpose was to plan for the upcoming year in a unified manner and to help the division cast a big picture vision.

AFL was one of the major topics of the 2 day academy. Salem High School had a chance to share with the rest of the schools about its "AFL Journey". This journey included the mistakes, successes, accomplishments and future goals related to implementing the philosophy of AFL into SHS's instructional practices.

The following link - SHS AFL Results for Ning.pdf - will open up a pdf version of the presentation that was shared.

A School Counselor uses AFL

Posted by Scott Habeeb on May 18, 2010 at 9:00am

One of the tricks of staff development is finding ways to apply ideas/strategies/concepts to the many different departments and content areas that make up a school. That's one of the goals of this Ning - to document ways to use AFL in many different settings. For example, there has been a PE example, a World Language example that could apply to any content course, a Social Studies rubric, an English rubric, a World Language example (really a vocab example), an example from a Marketing class, and a Math example. In addition there have many other examples that could apply to any class or that speak to the underlying philosophy of AFL.

However, there is one part of the typical school setting has not yet been addressed well by this site - the School Counselor. So let's address it....

Regina Meredith is a school counselor at Salem High School in Salem, VA. National Board Certified, innovative, hard-working, positive, and caring, Regina is everything a school could look for in a counselor. (Also, she's excellent with fluff!) But could she apply AFL to the position of school counselor? Yes...

Regina has developed an AFL Chart that she uses with certain students. One of the goals of AFL is to get students to use feedback/data to guide their own learning. Often a teacher might find this a difficult goal to reach with certain students. Certain students believe that their lack of progress is the teacher's fault or is an unavoidable reality over which they have no control. In a classroom full of students, this child is often a difficult one for the teacher to reach. This student probably needs some one-on-one attention. In steps the counselor...

This past year Regina had 3 students with whom she used the chart you see below. She regularly met with them on an individual basis and had them set goals and analyze their progress. She had them document their efforts to improve and seek out evidence of improvement. In doing so she at the least had the opportunity to plant important seeds for future growth. She got students to begin to realize the relationship between their effort and their progress. At best she was able to get students to truly take ownership of their progress.

So is this AFL? You bet it is. Students are analyzing their assessment data to guide their instruction. Would a classroom teacher be able to do this with a student? Definitely. However, for that harder to reach child, this is a great opportunity for the school counselor to step in and play a productive role in helping a student succeed.

An AFL Email to Parents and Students

Posted by Scott Habeeb on May 1, 2010 at 9:30pm

I recently received this email from one of my daughter's teachers. I thought it was worth sharing for a few reasons. It is an excellent example of:

1. Productive/proactive communication between the school and the home.

2. A teacher educating students and parents about the reasons behind classroom decisions.

3. A teacher training her students to use AFL strategies to take ownership of their academic progress.

4. A teacher realizing that using AFL doesn't require a teacher to change everything. Instead AFL is often a good way to describe the BEST of the TRIED and TRUE. AFL increases our focus to make sure we increase our use of TRIED and TRUE methods.

(By the way - I underline the word "and" in TRIED and TRUE for extra emphasis. Sometimes after years of teaching we think we're using TRIED and TRUE methods when we're actually only using TRIED methods.)

So here's the email - (the underlining/bolding was added by me):

Hello Parents and Students!

We are wrapping up our last major unit of the year!! Time flies when you're having fun!

We will be having our end of the 5th six weeks test this Thursday and Friday. The test will cover chapters 8, 9 and a small piece of chapter 10. Students are to look over their old tests and quizzes to gain an understanding of what they have struggled with in the past. Salem High School (students, faculty, and administration) has really been working together on the idea of Assessments FOR learning. If students can recognize what they don't know, they can spend their maximum amount of time and effort reviewing and practicing that specific material instead of practicing material that they have already mastered. This is nothing new, but instead, it is a classic tried-and-true method of studying.

To prepare for this cumulative test, I have uploaded several practice quizzes on our class website as well as notes. Please feel free to access all of this material as needed.

If you have any questions I will be available before school by 7:15 each morning.

Good luck studying!

Beth Denton

So what do you think? Nice communication. Nice attempt to train students and parents in the ways of AFL. Give some thought to how you could let your students know about how/why you use AFL in your classroom and how you want them to use it in their studies.

Assessment FOR Learning + Enthusiasm = Powerful Instruction

Posted by Scott Habeeb on April 23, 2010 at 11:33am

What a privilege it is to be able to observe great educators practicing their craft!

Recently I had a chance to be in the classroom of Michelle Kovac, Salem High School's Marketing teacher. She was teaching Advanced Marketing. Two things stood out to me.

1. Mrs. Kovac did an excellent job of weaving AFL strategies and techniques into her classroom.

2. The strategies employed by Mrs. Kovac were highly successful IN PART due to the strategies themselves but MAINLY (in my opinion) due to the enthusiastic manner with which she employed them.

Let's start with the second thing I noticed - enthusiasm. In my interactions with teachers at various schools over the years I have often heard teachers bemoan the fact that while they have tried to use creative or new strategies they have been unsuccessful due to the weak level of their students. I would be overly "Pollyanna-ish" if I said that students had no bearing on the ability of a teacher to be effective. However, what I have noticed more often is that strong students mask poor teaching much more frequeently than weak students destroy great teaching.

Mrs. Kovac's Advanced Marketing class was an example of this situation. Advanced Marketing students are a diverse group. Some of them have been excellent students over the years. Some have struggled greatly. Some have had no disciplinary issues while others have had quite a few. Here's what they have in common, though. They are seniors in the spring - a time when seniors can be difficult to motivate.

I was amazed at what I saw in class that day. Mrs. Kovac's enthusiasm for the content was absolutely infectious. She acted as though Marketing was the coolest thing in the world, and as I sat in her class I began to to agree! She was a cheerleader, an entertainer, and a motivator - and the kids appreciated it. It was obvious that this was who she was in class on a daily basis because the kids thought it totally normal. Try faking enthusiasm on an occasional basis and students will see right through you.

The atmosphere is Mrs. Kovac's class was almost the way I envision an elementary classroom. What I mean is that these kids - these seniors - were excited to be there. They laughed. They joined in. When it was time to start working on projects they actually got up and RAN to get their supplies. One kid begged Mrs. Kovac to let her correct her quiz from the day before - not for points, not for a higher grade, just to be able to be correct. Mrs. Kovac finally "relented" and gave the student "permission" to correct her quiz!

When one student asked a particular question Mrs. Kovac said, "I feel a song coming on!" The entire class broke into a song about marketing. Seniors in high school willingly singing a song about Marketing in class - wow! That's what enthusiasm can do. It's what Parker Palmer describes in his book, The Courage to Teach. A teacher can lift up a class with his or her enthusiasm if the teacher has the courage to step out from behind the wall of safety that educators often erect. The courage that Mrs. Kovac showed to be herself, to be enthusiastic, and to share her love of her content is what made the assessment strategies she used work so well.

Here are the strong assessment strategies used that day by Mrs. Kovac:

Do Now Assignment - Predict Your Score

On the smart board were the numbers 3, 7, and 5. There were also 3 statements: "Guessed Correctly", "Guessed Wrong - Scored Higher", and "Guessed Wrong - Scored Lower". Students had to match a number with a statement. The day before students had taken a quiz and had predicted what their grade would be based on how well they had prepared for the quiz. For this day's Do Now assignment students had to match the numbers with the correct phrase. In other words they were trying to figure out that 3 students had correctly predicted their grades, 7 students had guessed wrong but scored higher, and 5 students had guessed wrong and scored lower.

So what are the assessment strengths here? Mrs. Kovac was training her students to analyze their preparation which in turn should help her students understand the role that preparation has in a student's success. This sort of feedback will hopefully encourage students to prepare more effectively in the future. Going back and analyzing how accurate their predictions were should help this knowledge sink in even more. It also gave Mrs. Kovac an opportunity to build them up by (enthusiastically) pointing out that they tended to underestimate themselves.

Why Did You Miss What You Missed?

When Mrs. Kovac handed back the students' quizzes she asked them to go over them and write down next to each question they missed why they missed it and what messed them up. She was not going to go over the quizzes with them that day. Instead, she told them that she first wanted to collect their feedback on why they missed what they missed. She told them that this feedback could alter how she goes over the quiz with them. She wanted it to be a learning experience rather simply listing out correct answers. When she went over the quiz with them the next day she wanted to be able to reteach/explain to them what they NEEDED to hear so they wouldn't miss the question next time around. This was a great example of a teacher collecting assessment data to guide instruction. She also told the students that she wanted them to get feedback for themselves so that they could ask appropriate questions. (By the way, this was when the one student begged to be able to correct her quiz.)

Analyzing the Competency List

Marketing classes teach based on a Marketing competency list the same way other courses might teach specific state or national standards. Mrs. Kovac had her students pull out their competency lists. The fact that they all had them and quickly pulled them out spoke volumes! Then they went through the competencies that they had recently covered and each student rated each of those competencies on a scale of 1-5 based on how well the student understood the specific competency. These students were fully involved in analyzing their own progress. Their competency list was becoming a study guide for the end of the year and a way for them to take ownership of their studies. Mrs. Kovac's students obviously did this sort of activity regularly because they were very familiar with the competency list. One of them even pointed out that she had forgotten to mention 2 of the competencies they had covered. Another kid excitedly pointed out that they were almost done with the list. When Mrs. Kovac (enthusiastically) asked, "Doesn't it feel good?" A chorus of students answered, "Yes!"

Mrs. Kovac's classroom is a good example of small ways to use AFL strategies to give students ownership of their own progress. Would those strategies work in any classroom? Yes - but they will work BEST when coupled with genuine enthusiasm.

Confusion over Formative Assessment

Posted by Scott Habeeb on April 13, 2010 at 10:30am

Salem High School Earth Science teacher, Wes Lester, recently sent me this link to a post on Edutopia about Formative Assessment (AFL). I found it to be an excellent post and worth reading, so I left a comment stating this. Because I left a comment I then received an email every time someone else posted a comment. One such comment made me realize that some people out there do not fully understand Formative Assessment or AFL.

Here was the comment:

Yes, I think formative assessment is important however it is not the only measure of a student's success. Unfortunately we are currently in an environment that places so much emphasis on formative and standardized testing. In my school, it seems as if the formal testing never ends. They are tested in September (a formative), October (SRI), January (formative), March (state test), April (SRI), and finally in May (formative) not to mention the unit test required by the district. The structure, lenght and environment that is created around these test are such that students become desensitised. In an effort to help make this over testing environment tolerable, I must come up with alternative ways of conducting my own assessments.

It has gotten to a point that the students moan when they are told that it's a testing day. Several pupils have even asked why there is so much testing. I candidly explained that testing won't go away and that even when you get older there are yet more test to come. (driver's test, SAT's, professional test, etc.) This explanation seemed to make it more palatable. In truth, I feel that these children are tested because of the demographics of the district and past performances. Neighboring counties within the same state don't administer nearly as many assessments.

This person has confused Formative Assessment with an official testing program. It's probably not this teacher's fault as it sounds as though the school district has bought into a specific benchmark assessment program and called it formative assessment. While benchmark tests and testing programs can be used as formative assessments, effective Formative Assessment is what occurs in a classroom each and everyday.

Formative Assessment is graded and it is ungraded. It is formal and it is informal. It is big and it is small. It is ANYTHING that provides the teacher with feedback on how well students are learning, and it is ANYTHING that provides students with feedback so they can guide their learning. It should not lead to students asking "why there is so much testing" or "moan[ing] when they are told that it's a test day." It should not be "the,,, measure of a student's success" but rather an indicator of how they are learning so that they can end up having success.

I'm glad that our school is encouraging teachers to view Formative Assessment as a tool/philosophy that can look different in each and every classroom.

Click here to read the entire post from Edutopia.

Coaching in the Classroom

Posted by Curtis Hicks on April 2, 2010 at 3:06pm

I was speaking with a colleague the other day about the fact that some in our organization are still having a difficult time understanding and recognizing assessment for learning practices. Some continue to see assessment for learning as an elusive strategy or project that they have not yet figured out. In reality assessment for learning is nothing more than figuring out ways to regularly check the status of student learning and provide specific descriptive feedback and instruction that will lead to further learning and/or deeper understanding.

A recent post to this site borrowed a sports analogy from A Repair Kit for Grading, 15 Fixes for Broken Grades, by Ken O’Connor. I think expanding on this idea might bring some clarity to assessment for learning. The post explained that coaches design practice in order to prepare their team for the big game, the test. Throughout the week, coaches are continually monitoring practice, stopping the action regularly to provide specific feedback regarding the performance of the athletes compared to a clearly defined standard. At the highest level of sports, practices are even recorded and reviewed by both the coaches and the athletes so that both might see the errors and understand what needs to be done to correct them. Each practice is designed to meet the needs of the team and is based on observation and formative evaluation of the previous practice. The practices themselves are not graded; their sole purpose is to provide opportunities to prepare for the game.

The best teachers are coaches in the classroom, constantly monitoring the progression of learning and providing feedback that will lead each student further toward mastery of the standard. Formative assessment is the practice of formally and informally collecting information that informs both the teacher and the student about their progress. This information is used to provide feedback and to design lessons to ensure that every student is ready for the big game. One major difference from a more traditional approach is that practice opportunities are used more for providing feedback and less for determining grades.

Simple AFL activity in Math

Posted by Kirstine M. Barber on April 1, 2010 at 10:57am

A colleague of mine reminded me this morning of an AFL strategy that she observed me using a few weeks ago. I decided to share!

Students had a quiz and I wanted to make sure that they understood what they were to be assessed on. So at the beginning of the class, I wrote 5 problems on the board similar to those on their quiz. I explained that after they had successfully completed those five problems, I would give them their quiz. Each student was able to get their answers checked, get feedback, and then rework the problems until I was satisfied that they understoof the material. Then they took their quiz. It was an easy thing to do, but gave me lots of feedback about what the students knew and didn't know. It also gave them confidence in their abilities to complete the work.

A Sports Analogy for Assessment

Posted by Justin Scoggin on March 25, 2010 at 3:30pm

On page 96 of the book "A Repair Kit for Grading", the author (Ken O'Connor) draws a useful
analogy between performance-based assessment and a band or a sports team:

"It is critical that both teachers and students recognize when assessment is primarily for learning (formative) and when it is primarily of learning (summative). Students understand this in band and in sports, when practice is clearly identified and separate from an actual performance or game."

If we follow this analogy, then the final exam for a unit and/or course becomes the big game for
the sports team. If you are training basketball players, don't you think that the best way to test their abilities is to have them play a game? In this way the coach sets out the big game as the final exam, and in the same way all of the activities that lead up to that game are meant to help the players prepare for that game.

The diagnostic assessment is an initial activity that puts students in a simulated game to see what their strengths and weaknesses are. Once they have been identified, the formative assessments are the practice sessions that help students refine specific technical skills, build leadership skills, raise stamina and work on team building, all necessary for each player to perform at his/her best and for the team to win.

Note that in this case,

• All of the players clearly understand what is expected of them by the time the big game comes
around.

• All of them understand what their individual and collective strengths and weaknesses are and are motivated to improve their skills in order to support the team.

• The coach wants the players to do their best and pushes the players to practice hard so they can do so.

• The team knows that the practices don't give them points in the final game, and for that reason its the game that counts and not the practices, although the more they practice the better they will play in the game. After the big game, the team evaluates its performance, draws up new strategies to improve and starts practicing again.

Designing a multi-stage, complex performance task as the final exam allows teachers to identify
all of the discrete skills students will need to perform well at the end so they can be practiced in low-stakes situations, tried out in scrimmage games and practiced again so that everybody feels ready for the big game. This movement back and forth between instruction and applying, between drilling discrete skills and performance of the whole task is what helps students learn well. It also helps them learn to learn, which is a capacity that comes in handy as the students take on further personal and academic responsibilities.

Although teachers don't give the same or similar tests more than once as coaches do, we do teach more complex skills that build on what students had to learn for the previous exam. In this way the capacities teachers aim to develop in our students by the end of the semester or year are complex and broad.

This analogy has provided me with a variety of new perspectives on assessment as well as some criteria to evaluate my own assessment strategies. I have become a better teacher by practicing this concept and I hope it gives others some valuable insight too.

Assessment for Learning/Grading

Posted by Michael Rulon on March 25, 2010 at 1:30pm

Interesting ideas, there are those who would say if an assessment is graded (which is not the same as scored (rubrics)) it is probably not used by the student for learning as well as it could be.

Research from Wiliam would support this idea.

I have always maintained that is more a function of the culture in the classroom.

One thing is for certain if instructors will use more assessment that is not graded they will eventually get more buy in from students that assessment's major function is continuous improvement.

I would love to hear other points of view.

Assessment FOR Learning - Don't confuse it for a specific strategy

Posted by Scott Habeeb on March 23, 2010 at 4:27pm

When faced with a new concept it is natural and necessary to attach meaning to that concept. Sometimes when we find an understandable example of that concept we begin to confuse that idea for the concept itself. As Salem High School and the City of Salem Schools strive to master the concepts of Assessment FOR Learning, it is understandable that this will happen to some degree.

For example, earlier in the year we at SHS discussed a strategy of having a final test grade or portions of a final test grade replace the quiz grades that led up to that test. (Read about that here.) This method made the quizzes into practice assignments that prepared the student for the test. I began to receive some feedback from people saying that AFL wouldn't apply to their classes because this strategy for whatever reason did not fit into their classroom or teaching style. While this was a good example of AFL, it was just an example. AFL is bigger than any one practice, which led to this post on that topic.

Similar questions have arisen over time in regard to various other procedures that have been held up as examples of AFL. My post on philosophy v. procedures attempted to deal with the fact that AFL is much bigger than any one procedure.

Recently I have received feedback that shows that the practice of allowing students to retake tests and quizzes is being seen as the crux of AFL. While I have heard from many teachers who have used retakes as a way to allow students to learn from feedback, as was the case with tests replacing quizzes, AFL is bigger than retakes.

To help illustrate this I thought it might be useful to describe how AFL might have impacted my own classroom - if I hadn't left the classroom 6 years ago for the dark side of the force (administration)! :)

In my 9th Grade World History classroom my assessments and my grading were very closely related. While many of my graded assessments were AFL-ish (although I had never heard of AFL back then) I realize that I did not do enough assessing solely for the purpose of learning rather than grading. Here's how I assessed/graded:

1. Almost Daily Homework Assignments - 10 pts/assignment

Each assignment directly prepared students for the quiz the next day.

2. Almost Daily Quizzes - 30 pts/quiz

Often the same quiz was given several days in a row so that students could master the content.

3. Almost Weekly Tests - Range of 100 pts/test to 500 pts/test

Tests would build on themselves. A 100 pt test might cover Topic A. A 200 pt test might cover Topics A and B. A 300 pt test might cover Topics A, B, and C, and so on... By the time we got to the larger tests the students tended to have mastered the content because they had been quizzed and tested on it over and over - not to mention what we had done in class with notes, activities, videos, debates, etc.

So what would I do differently now that I have spent so much time grappling with AFL? Here are the changes:

1. Change in point values:

Homework would still be given but would either not count for points or all homework assignments would add up to one homework grade of approximately 30 points. Another idea I have contemplated would be that at the end of the grading period students with all homework completed would get a reward, perhaps a pizza party, while students with missing assignments would spend that time completing their work.
Quizzes would still be given almost daily but would now only count 10 or 15 points each. In addition, if a student's test grade was higher than the quizzes that led up to it I would excuse the quiz grades for that student.
Tests would count more. In the class I taught the tests were used as the ultimate gauge of mastery learning. The tests would continue to build on themselves but would probably start somewhere around 300 points and build up to around 800 points.

2. Change to How Quizzes are Viewed:

To build on the point I made above, the quizzes would be excused if the student's test grade was higher. The quizzes would be considered practice grades. Students would be trained to not fret about quizzes but to instead use them as ways to gauge their learning. I might even borrow Beth Moody's GPS idea occasionally and allow students to retake an occasional quiz; however, this would probably not be the case for most quizzes since whenever possible I would be repeating quizzes anyway.
The goal of quizzes would be to practice for the test. In the past I viewed the quizzes more as grades unto themselves. The problem with this, though, was that if I had four 30 pt quizzes before a 100 pt test, then the quizzes added up to more than the test. Adding in the four or five 10 point homework assignments further got in the way. Yes, they were assessments that helped the students learn, but they also had an inappropriate impact on the grade. They could help the student master the content as evidenced by the high test score while simultaneously lowering the student's grade.

3. Students Assessing Their Own Progress:

If I was in the classroom today I would add an entire new element of students assessing themselves. I would want students to take control of their own learning. and to know what they do and don't know. I would then want them to use that knowledge to guide their own studies.
One thing I would do would be to make sure that everyday (if possible) the students and I would both receive feedback. As I prepared my lessons I would ask myself the questions posed in this earlier post.
When I reviewed with students for tests I would change my method and adopt a strategy similar to this one used by Paola Brinkley and many other teachers in our building. (I would probably find a way to turn it into a game since I love playing games in class.)
At the beginning of each unit/topic I would give students a rubric like the one in this post. At some point during most class periods I would have the students use the rubric to assess themselves and see how well they are mastering content. They would then use the rubric as a study guide as described in the post.
I would also have students analyze their grades regularly so that they would know how well they needed to do on a test to reach their grade goal. (Implied in this is the fact that I first would have students regularly set goals.) I would use a strategy similar to this one used by Lewis Armistead.

Notice that my new plan for my classroom doesn't look incredibly different from my old one. I am assessing daily - which I was already doing - but I have changed my view on grading - it's no longer primary as it once was. Assessing is now different from and more important than grading. I have added more opportunities for students to assess themselves.

Notice that retaking tests was not a part of my AFL plan. Students are already taking multiple tests on the same content. Those tests are building in point value so that if you master it by the end that is outweighing your performance at the beginning. You are also being quizzed regularly and regularly assessing yourself. There really isn't a need for retaking the test. (Please realize that this does not mean that retaking tests should be frowned upon. It simply isn't the only way to use AFL.)

So does this mean that the plan I have outlined is how AFL should be done? NO NO NO NO NO! It's how AFL could be done. It is guided by AFL philosophies and ideas, but those same ideas could lead to very different procedures in other classrooms and with other content. AFL is big enough to go beyond certain practices and instead guide all good instructional practices.

Any thoughts?

Cross-Curricular AFL activity at Andrew Lewis Middle School

Posted by Kirstine M. Barber on March 6, 2010 at 11:45am

Lee Hodges (World Geography - ALMS) and I created a cross-curricular activity two years ago. This activity was similar to the show "Amazing Race."

The "Race"

-Groups of students are given a World Map and an answer sheet. Each group then receives their first clue. On this sheet there is a World Geography AND a Math question related to a place in the World. (For example: Big Ben) that they have to answer. After they record their answers, they get each of them checked, the Math by me, and the World Geography by Mr. Hodges. They show us where the place is located on the map and then they get their next clue. The first group to answer all 10 questions (5 math, 5 world geography) wins!

AFL:

-We do not give this activity a grade. We use the information that they students provide as a basis for reteaching and new learning. If the students come to us with a wrong answer they must go back and either look the answer up, or try again. It's a great way for us to determine what needs to be reviewed for the SOL test. The best part is...the students don't even realize that we are "assessing" what they know. They just think it's a game!!!

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this activity, please send me a message!

Why is Allen Iverson on Assessment FOR Learning?

Posted by Scott Habeeb on March 1, 2010 at 10:30pm

Members of this network may have noticed a video that seems out of place on an educational social network. The video is of a post-game interview with NBA player Allen Iverson. Why in the world is that on here?

Salem High School teachers on this Ning know the answer to that. When our school first started taking a serious look at AFL, we realized right away that how you chose to grade assessments could negate the learning that they generated. In other words, if you use AFL strategies well they will lead to an increase in learning. Students and teachers will be using feedback to guide learning and instruction. However, if we want the student's grade to reflect the learning that occurred, we must be very careful and deliberate about how we grade (or don't grade) the assessments we give. Allen Iverson - believe it or not - has something to say about that. Watch the video and then I'll explain.

(If the video on this post didn't load right away, try reloading the page.)

It's been awhile since I've seen that video. Could someone refresh my memory about what he was "talkin' 'bout"? Oh, that's right - PRACTICE!

First of all, my posting this video is not in ANY WAY making a point about the need to practice when you're on a team. I'm not AT ALL an Iverson fan. It's just posted because it gives us an image to which we can relate - We're Talkin' 'Bout Practice!

How does this relate to grading? Think about your grades and your assessments. How many of them are "practice"? In other words, how many of your assignments are intended to help students practice so that they can learn? I bet you that most of them are. Now let's think about grading. How many points to you assign to these assignments? What would happen to a student who mastered the content, as evidenced by your final graded assessment, but did poorly on the practice assignments?

Let's get more direct: How many students are failing your class because they either didn't do or did poorly on your practice assessments? Do you have students who can pass your tests - or whatever your final graded assessment is - but fail your class? Why is this? It's because their practice assignments - the ones that were supposed to help them learn - are counting against them. Never mind that they mastered the material - or at least learned it to a level above failing. Never mind that you taught them even though they didn't do all your assignments. Their practice is causing them to fail.

By the way - I'm not saying here that practice isn't important. I think students should practice everyday in class and every night at home. But should practice be graded in a way that allows a kid who learned the content to fail the class or receive a grade that does not represent learning?

The Winter Olympics just ended. Some gold medals were won by less than 1/10 of second. What if the practice runs were then averaged in causing the gold medal winner to get a silver? That would be ridiculous. Our goal is to get kids to be able to learn and perform. If they do this then it's because of the job we did. Why would we then take a bunch of practice assessments and average them in with the assessments that really counted?

If we use AFL to increase learning but then grade poorly, we can end up negating the achievement. Take a look at your grade book. Examine why some students are failing. Remember - WE'RE TALKIN' 'BOUT PRACTICE!

Assessment FOR Learning on the Football Field

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 23, 2010 at 2:30pm

Sometimes when you are trying to understand how an idea applies to a certain arena, it helps to have an example from a completely different arena. In that vein, here is an example of how AFL strategies have been used in high school football. Football? Yep.

The Salem Spartans Football Team has enjoyed great success for many years. People who watch Salem play often comment about how consistently excellent the Spartans are. Year after year they win games, often beating teams that appear to have much more talent. It’s easy to say that coaching is the reason (in fact, coaching is the only logical reason for the year-after-year success), but what does Salem’s coaching staff do that makes the difference? I think a few quotes from recent news articles will shed some light on this.

This quote was in the Roanoke Times and World News on September 12, 2009, after Salem defeated William Byrd:

"I think we're a successful team because we study film a lot and we know when they're running certain plays," [Seth] Fisher said. "We set up a blitz when they were running the quick pitch. I knew it was coming and expected to get the ball. I went for the ball instead of the tackle."

Notice what this player realized. He realized that by studying he could learn. He realized that by mastering the basics of content he could then apply his knowledge to new situations and make correct decisions. This doesn’t happen by studying just a little, and young people don't usually come to realizations like this accidentally. Obviously the coaches gave a lot of feedback and opportunity for practice. By doing so they made the complicated easy. How hard is to predict what someone else will do? Not that hard once you have studied their tendencies and practiced how to react to them.

This quote ran in the same article about the same game:

Salem, stifled on the ground last week in a 35-0 win at Lord Botetourt, got its running game off the ground. Coles scored on runs of 33 and 9 yards in the first half, and Daniel Dyer added a clinching 16-yarder with 11:13 to play. "We got together as a team this week," offensive lineman Kyle Wilson said. "We were more serious ... all of us."

These players (actually, these students) learned that if you get serious and work hard you can improve. First they needed to realize that they had a need to improve. The Salem coaches helped them understand that despite a 35-0 win the week before, these players had a lot of work ahead of them. They gave the players feedback and guided the players’ practice experience. The result was not only another win, but more importantly, the players believe even more in the coaching staff and understand that the feedback they receive from the coaches will help them succeed. They would not have figured this out on their own or solved the problem on their own. They needed the coaching staff to devote practice time to improving from last week.

After Salem beat Cave Spring, the following appeared in the Roanoke Times on October 11, 2009:

Salem defensive back Hunter Thompson intercepted a pass from Cave Spring's Josh Woodrum on the Knights' first play from scrimmage and returned it 44 yards to the 2-yard line. "We went over that route in practice the entire week," Thompson said. "He looked at the guy the entire time. I just ran to it and picked it off."

Similar to the quote from Fisher, Thompson discusses the importance of practice. You can just picture the coaches going over and over the Knights’ pass plays. I’m sure that Thompson didn’t get it right every time. However, the coaches’ gave feedback and taught him and the other players exactly what they needed to know. Come game time, Hunter was able to apply his knowledge to a new situation. The coaches again made the complex become simple.

This quote was in the same article:

"Every time I see one-on-one my eyes light up real big," McGarrell said. "I'm thinking touchdown every time." "Every time we read single coverage, we're on the same page every time," Barnette said.

Again, the complex becomes simple. The players study the opponent. They practice. They mess up. They receive feedback. They practice again. The work is hard. The reward is great.

So what would it look like if AFL strategies weren’t employed by coaches? Frankly it would be ridiculous to even imagine. Can you picture a team where the coach doesn’t give feedback? A team that doesn’t work toward a specific goal of beating the opponent? A coach that doesn’t have kids go over and over things until they get it right?

I doubt you will ever hear a coach say:

“I told them what to do; it’s their responsibility to do it. I’m not going to baby them by going over and over things. I’ve already played high school football successfully; it’s not my problem if they don’t get it right. Back when I was a kid football players weren’t coddled by coaches who guided their practice and worked side-by-side with players to help the team achieve its goals.”

AFL is inherent within coaching. Players constantly receive feedback. Repetition is the norm. Coaches study film, analyze practice, and watch players – also known as assessment – so that the coaches can know what they need to do better and emphasize more so that the team can reach its potential.

AFL strategies – repetition, lots of practice AND feedback, teachers USING feedback to guide instruction, and students USING feedback to guide learning – should be just as common in the classroom as they are on the field or court.

6 Key AFL Ideas

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 7, 2010 at 5:30pm

The 2008-2009 school year was my school and school system's first year exploring Assessment FOR Learning/Formative Assessment. It was definitely a learning year for all of us.

Over the summer of 2009 I spent some time thinking back on what I had learned about AFL during the year. I thought about conversations that had occurred on our school's AFL Committee. I thought about time spent with individual teachers as we worked together to implement AFL practices into their classroom. I thought about articles and books I had read, videos I had watched, and many other AFL-related staff development opportunities in which I had participated.

The result was that I entered the 2009-2010 school year with a much greater appreciation for AFL. I had come to see how all-encompassing it really was - how it could truly impact our entire approach to instruction. I also realized that it was very easy to have misconceptions of exactly what AFL is all about.

All of that led to what I call my 6 Key AFL Ideas. When one understands and can apply these 6 ideas, AFL will have a positive impact on instruction and learning. However, when any of these ideas are missing or not understood, it seems to me that AFL loses its effectiveness or perhaps isn't even present.

6 Key AFL Ideas

1. Assessment and grading are not the same thing.

2. There aren’t AFL assignments and non-AFL assignments.

3. AFL provides a framework or reason for why we do what we do.

4. Assessment for LEARNING as opposed to Assessment for GRADING.

5. We learn from our mistakes.

6. Students need to know what they need to know so they can know if they know it.

Now let me explain in a little more detail what each of these ideas means:

1. Assessment and grading are not the same thing.

Try not to get into your mind that AFL means changing or altering the way you grade. AFL means assessing to help students learn. This can be done without grading. However, if you don’t grade well you can negate your AFL efforts. In other words, if you use all sorts of assessments to provide feedback to students and as a result your students learn, but then you grade in a way that causes their grades to not be reflective of their learning, then the AFL was negated by the grading practice. While assessment and grading are not the same thing, you must be willing to grow as needed in your grading practices as you grow in your assessment practices. But remember - when one speaks of assessing students it doesn't have to mean grading students.

2. There aren’t AFL assignments and non-AFL assignments.

AFL is HOW you USE assignments, not what assignments you use. Something has an AFL purpose if you

and/or the students use the feedback to further learning. All assessments can be used for an AFL purpose. AFL doesn't mean you will have to completely change the types of assessments you use. What it means is that you will be very cognizant of how frequently you assess so that you can provide very regular feedback to students.

3. AFL provides a framework or reason for why we do what we do.

AFL is a philosophy. When we attach a name or meaning to what we do, we are more likely to do it. A lot of people hear about an AFL strategy and say, "I already do that." But here's the thing - why do you do that? Education is not an exact science. Many of us stumble on certain activities or procedures that work. But do we understand why they work? If we have a governing philosophy for WHY we do things, then we are more likely to continue and even increase our doing them. Instead of doing something because we've always done it, we instead do it because it falls into our governing philosophy. This will most likely lead to that practice being enhanced and more practices like it being added to our toolbox.

4. Assessment for LEARNING as opposed to Assessment for GRADING.

Don’t be afraid to assess and not grade. Think of other ways to give feedback besides a traditional grade. Don’t get locked into the idea that you must average all feedback in order to determine a grade. Just because you give some sort of feedback doesn't mean the "grade" has to count into the whole. That is a box that educators find themselves in too often. It results in us grading student practice too much. The student ends up learning because of our teaching, but then gets a grade lower than their learning because of our grading. Assess for the purpose of learning.

5. We learn from our mistakes.

When a student makes a mistake in your classroom (does poorly on an assignment) can that mistake be used

for instruction and learning? Or does it always inherently lead to a lower grade and, therefore, discourage

learning? We all know that in life we usually learn the most from our mistakes. Too often in education students don't have the chance to demonstrate that or to erase their mistake. If students realize that they can learn from mistakes and then fix them then they will be more likely to take chances.

6. Students need to know what they need to know so they can know if they know it.

I have come to view this idea as perhaps AFL at its most potent form. If we use AFL properly we can empower students to take control of their learning. If students are regularly - preferable daily - given assessment feedback and then taught how to use it, they are more likely to grow into the types of learners we want them to be. They will gain skills that will carry them beyond us and into future learning experiences. Consider using rubrics on a regular basis. Let your students know your thoughts on AFL. Explicitly describe why you are assessing and doing what you do. Encourage/teach/require them to assess themselves.

I hope those 6 ideas make sense and that they help you out as you try to apply AFL to your classroom. Let me know if you have any questions or thoughts.

AFL - Students checking their progress (World Language example)

Posted by Scott Habeeb on January 29, 2010 at 11:00am

If we can use AFL strategies to get students to monitor their own progress and to use feedback to guide their learning, then we have truly accomplished something. Here is an example of how that might be done. This specific example is for a French 2 class. However, it's really a vocabulary example and could be used in any classroom where vocabulary was being taught. Actually, it could probably be applied many more situations than just vocabulary. Each student receives a Progress Check Sheet at the beginning of the unit of study. The Progress Check Sheet includes all the vocabulary they will be learning during the unit. At the end of EACH class period, the students assess how well they know the vocabulary. It is important that this be done EACH day. There should never be a day when students don't receive some sort of feedback that they can use to guide their learning. In the end, the Progress Check Sheet becomes a personalized study guide. It won't surprise me, though, if a lot of kids don't need to study the night before the test. Assessing themselves each day is almost guaranteed to increase learning such that cramming before the test will no longer be necessary. Here's an example of what the Progress Check Sheet might look like:

Did AFL guide my instruction today?

Posted by Scott Habeeb on January 28, 2010 at 8:30pm

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as you evaluate whether or not AFL principles are present in your classroom: 1. Did I leave class today with the assessment data/info I need to know for sure how well my students - as a group and/or individually - understood the lesson I just taught them? 2. Did my students leave class today with the assessment data/info they need to know for sure how well they understood the lesson I taught them? If the answer to both questions is a definite 'yes' then you obviously used assessment to enhance learning. If the answer to both questions is a definite 'no' then you did not use assessment to enhance learning. If you're answer is somewhere in between then you should now ask yourself, "What could I have done to assess my students so that i could know how well they comprehended and so that they would be able to analyze their own understanding?"

AFL principles can guide many different types of classroom practices

Posted by Scott Habeeb on January 27, 2010 at 3:00pm

I just had an opportunity to watch AFL principles being applied in an interesting manner in a teacher’s classroom. The teacher is Lewis Armistead. The class is Advanced Algebra/Trig. This class is dual enrolled with Virginia Western Community College and includes Math students ranging from pretty strong to our strongest. Today is the final day of the 3rd grading period and the final day of the semester here at Salem High School. All teachers in our school are required to verify their grades at the end of each grading period to ensure that the electronic grade book has the correct average. Most do this – as I did when I was in the classroom – by spot checking a few students in each classroom. Mr. Armistead, on the other hand, uses this as an opportunity to create a culture of students tracking their progress. Our school uses Student Planners/Agenda Books from Premier Agendas. In the front of those agendas we have several pages called the Record of Achievement (ROA). (see image below)

When I taught freshmen, our 9th grade teachers required students to use this ROA since keeping up with your grades was a skill that could help lead to academic success. I always figured, though, that requiring higher-level or older students to do this would be a little “Mickey Mouse”. After watching Mr. Armistead today I realized that I was wrong. Even the strongest and oldest students in the school can benefit from a teacher who requires them to use something like an ROA to track their progess. So here’s what Lewis did:

He had each student in the class take a moment to calculate his or her grade for the grading period. To do this the students had to look at their grades in their ROA - and of course they had to have been keeping their grades in their ROA.
He then had each student come up to him and compare their calculation with his grade book. If there was a discrepancy then they checked to find out why. If the numbers matched – which they appeared to do almost every time – then grades had been verified.
Once the grading period grade was verified they then calculated their semester averages and repeated the process.
He then went ahead and showed them the grades they would be receiving for the 4th grading period and had them set up their ROAs.

I share this practice for two main reasons: 1. I think it was a strong classroom practice that others might want to emulate. In order for this to work the teacher must have very consistent procedures and expectations and the classroom must be well-managed. I encourage everyone to add to their “toolbox” practices that lead to consistency. 2. It is an example of how the principles of AFL can be incorporated into all aspects of our classroom. Students in Mr. Armistead’s class have been trained to take all graded feedback and calculate the impact that it has on their grade. This is imperative if students are going to take ownership of their progress. We all wish students would do something like this. Instead of just wishing, Mr. Armistead has chosen to make it happen. I feel it important to continue to remind people that AFL isn’t "some big new thing" one does. AFL is more the reason and the philosophy behind the things that are done. If AFL principles guide us, then the things we already do will evolve and grow to more effectively provide teachers and students with useable feedback. Mr. Armistead’s practice is an example of this. Because of it, students are being trained how to use teacher feedback to guide their progress. I bet something like this could be applied to your classroom.

review

Posted by Anna Armstrong Dyer on January 13, 2010 at 3:51pm

Twice a week mini quizzes are an excellent way to assess student progress and a method for them to measure their progress, labs are a great way to assess material as well as skills

Getting and Giving Student Feedback

Posted by Melanie E Smith on January 13, 2010 at 3:30pm

Check out this article by Heather Rader on getting and giving student feedback, a concept that is central to AFL!Hmmmm... the hyperlink feature does not seem to be working! Here is the full text:Getting and Giving Student FeedbackHeather RaderI saved this quote from an email with the title "Why We Love Children":A little girl had just finished her first week of school. "I'm just wasting my time," she said to her mother. "I can't read, I can't write and they won't let me talk!"I'll be the first to admit I enjoy the sound of my own voice. I love to tell stories. I love it when people laugh at just the right part or when I scan the room and I have all eyes on me waiting for the next line. But I also enjoy a good Malbec wine, and I know too much of that isn't good for me either.I learned to pipe down in my personal life about eight years ago when my middle daughter, Maya, began to stutter. When she was unable to get through a short sentence without bursting into tears, we visited a speech specialist. My homework assignment was to record our dinnertime conversation. If a normal conversation has a typical number of verbal demands, in our family it was four times the expected amount. My husband and I talk a lot and Maya's older brother was a motor mouth. While her vocabulary development was three years ahead of her chronological age, she still had the brain of the three-year-old that was unable to keep up with the verbal demands. As I took this in, I paraphrased the speech specialist, "Basically the issue isn't Maya's brain or speech - it's us that need some shut-up therapy." The specialist was sweet; she just smiled and said nothing.Recent research finds that feedback is most effective when teachers understand how students are making sense of their learning experiences. John Hattie in his book Visible Learning states, "The mistake I was making was seeing feedback as something teachers provided to students. . .It was only when I discovered that feedback was most powerful when it is from the student to the teacher that I started to understand it better. When teachers seek, or at least are open to, feedback from students as to what students know, what they understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, when they are not engaged -- then teaching and learning can be synchronized and powerful. Feedback to teachers helps make learning visible."When I consider who is the best educated and the most experienced thinker in the classroom, the answer is almost always the teacher. If I am understanding how the students are making meaning, I can adapt the questions, lessons and interventions. The only way for me to have access to that information is to get it in the form of kid talk - lots of it and in writing too. Schema, 10:2 Theory and Exit Slips are ways to constantly seek feedback on students' understanding.SchemaA friend of mine, Nari, is a student support manager and was working with the kindergartners on the playground."Please don't run on the cement," she said."Okay!" said a five-year-old as she was running off."Please don't run on the cement," she said again."Okay!" said another kindergartner. "Wait - what is cement?"We laughed because those sweet kids were more than willing not to run on cement; they just didn't know what it was. Because we aren't five or seven or even fifteen anymore, we can't know what's in kids' heads or how they are comprehending the information they are taking in.Two ways to quickly assess schema is to use the quick-sketch or quick-write method. Because I'm not 10 in the year 2010, I know I have different schema for the word clustering that I'm going to teach as a prewriting technique to fourth graders. When I think of clustering, clusters of grapes come to mind, but I ask students to draw a quick sketch on a piece of paper for 30 seconds of what comes up when I say cluster. They think of chocolate peanut clusters, video game clusters, bomb clusters and more. Some have no associations at all. When I take a moment to connect grapes to peanut clusters to video game and bomb clusters and point out that all of those examples have similar elements bunched together and that's what we are going to do in writing, I'm connecting to their experience and supporting meaning making.10:2 TheoryTen and two (10:2) theory is based on the idea that students make sense of new information by periodically integrating it with existing information. As learners, we naturally take mental breaks to absorb information even as more information is presented. Mary Budd Rowe (Journal of Teacher Education, 1986) explains how teachers can provide regular pauses to accommodate this need. She recommends we to pause for two minutes about every ten minutes (thus the 10:2 theory).Understanding this idea in theory and actually putting it into practice are two different things. Talking faster to cram more in the ten-minute window or simply directing "now turn and talk to integrate what you've learned into your existing thinking" are not highly effective. I plan my lessons thinking about the rhythm of teaching and learning--like breathing--with this theory in mind. Exhaling is the short minilesson on vivid verbs, and inhaling is when the kids turn to a partner to paraphrase. Exhaling is modeling how to develop a personal list of vivid verbs to use in writing, and inhaling is having the students start their own lists.Each time I inhale, I'm providing students with the opportunity for talk, writing and feedback. I use a timer to raise my awareness of the pacing and try to keep the new information input under ten minutes before shhhh. . .letting the kids make meaning.Exit SlipsThese are also known as "did they get it?" receipts and I use them often. My favorite question to ask is, "What was the most important thing you learned in ________(subject) today?" Here was a response that I received after a revision lesson: "I learned that revision is checking your spelling." Another good one: "I learned that elaboration is writing many words in a sentence." Even better: "I learned that a summary is copying down what was already written."Yes, my response is to clap my hand on my forehead and moan, but when I'm done doing that, I'm thankful for the informal assessment of student understanding. The clearer I am about students' thinking and misconceptions, the less likely I am to fall under the illusion that everyone is getting it. I use exit slips as five-minute quick-writes that can be preceded by talk to help students reflect on their learning and critical thinking. Most often I use them at the end of the lesson, but they can also be used as we transition during the lesson.Here are a few other questions/prompts I've used:• I understand…but I do not understand…• One question I have is…• Three words/phrases I heard a lot during this lesson were…• I know ________ is true because…• I smiled/frowned today when…For students who are not writing words or sentences yet I've used:• Draw a picture of yourself learning today.• Draw a picture of what your face looked like when you learned _____.• I could/could not (circle) tell a friend about what I learned.• The important thing about prewriting is ______.While it may sound like a Geico commercial, five minutes spent on feedback before, during and at the end of the lesson can save. . .a lot. After a lesson that doesn't quite work, I always ask myself:How did I connect to the students' schema?Did I give them multiple opportunities to talk, write and think?What did they take away from the learning experience?How do I know?Heather Rader is a writer and teacher who has landed her dream job as an instructional specialist for North Thurston Public Schools (Washington). She's taught all grades K-6 and now enjoys teaching adults and collaborating as an instructional coach. Her motto is "stay curious" for all that life has to offer.

Google Custom Searches (made with Jing)

Posted by Scott Habeeb on December 22, 2009 at 11:30am

Not necessarily directly AFL related, but here is a quick video that you might find useful. It's about creating Google Custom Searches. The video was made with Jing. Just click on the link below: Using Google Custom Search (made with Jing)

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.

Note: this page contains paid content.