Blogs

David Wees, the Formative Assessment Specialist for New Visions Public Schools, has created a Google Slides presentation with 56 practical examples of formative assessments to use in the classroom.  For anyone looking for ways to expand their AFL toolbox, this is a no-brainer.

The presentation can be found at this site: https://docs.google.com/presentation/pub?id=1nzhdnyMQmio5lNT75ITB45rHyLISHEEHZlHTWJRqLmQ&start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

I just finished watching a TED TALK by Sal Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. Sal was talking about mastery learning and the importance of building strong learning foundations before layering on additional information.

As I watched the video, I was thinking about why a stubborn 25% of most students in the upper elementary, middle, and high schools are reading two or more years below grade level.

Sal cites the example of a child who scores an average grade of 75% on a unit test. Most educators would accept 75% as an average score, and in fact most diagnostic assessments would accept 75—80% as mastery level; however, Sal points out the not knowing 25% of the test components is problematic. From the student's perspective: "I didn't know 25% of the foundational thing, and now I'm being pushed to the more advanced thing."

When students try to learn something new that builds upon these shaky foundations, "they hit a wall... and "become disengaged."

Sal likens the lack of mastery learning to shoddy home construction. What potential homeowner would be happy to buy a new home that has only 75% of its foundation completed (a C), or even 95% (an A)?

Of course, Sal is a math guy and math lends itself to sequential mastery learning more so than does my field of English-language arts and reading intervention. My content area tends to have a mix of sequential and cyclical teaching learning, as reflected in the structure of the Common Core State Standards. The author of the School Improvement Network site puts it nicely:

Many teachers view their work from a lens that acknowledges the cyclical nature of teaching and learning.  This teaching and learning cycle guides the definition of learning targets, the design of instructional delivery, the creation and administration of assessments and the selection of targeted interventions in response to individual student needs.

At this point, our article begins to beg the question: What if a shaky foundation is what we're dealing with now? We can't do anything about the past. Teachers can start playing the blame game and complain that we're stuck teaching reading to students who missed key foundational components, such as phonics. All-too-often, response to intervention teachers are ignoring shaky foundations and are trying to layer on survival skills without fixing the real problems.

Instead, teachers should re-build the foundation. Teachers can figure out what is missing in the individual student skill-sets and fill the gaps... this time with mastery learning.

Mark Pennington, MA Reading Specialist, is the author of the comprehensive reading intervention curriculum, Teaching Reading Strategies. A key component of the program is our 13 diagnostic reading assessments. These comprehensive and prescriptive assessments will help response to intervention reading teachers find out specifically which reading and spelling deficits have created a shaky foundation for each of your students. I gladly share these FREE Reading Assessments with teachers and welcome your comments and questions.

The simple answer to the title question is "Yes".  If you're just interested in the simple answer, then you can stop reading.  If you'd like more details, read on.

I'm going to share a specific example of how AFL can be used to impact student behavior; however, first I'd like to take a look at the topic from a philosophical standpoint.  We should start by reminding ourselves why it is that AFL helps students learn content.  AFL practices help students learn because as a result of regular/daily assessments:

• Students receive feedback on their progress,
• Students are trained how to use that feedback to guide their own learning,
• Teachers receive feedback on how effectively they are teaching, and
• Teachers use that feedback to guide their teaching.

Those first two bullets are especially important.  When students are given the proper feedback and the tools to use that feedback, then the potential increases for them to take control of their learning.  AFL demands that we move beyond simply assigning grades and on to providing feedback that will guide students toward learning - which in turn leads to grades.

When AFL strategies are not present, students are more inclined to view a grade as something that a teacher assigns - instead of something that they have earned.  In other words, there is less ownership of a grade.  The grade is an external stimulus.  For some students - those internally motivated to do well - the external stimulus is a great reward.  But for those not internally motivated to excel, the external stimulus usually does not have the desired effect.   When AFL is practiced properly, students gain greater ownership over their grades because the focus becomes more internal as students are trained to guide their own learning.  Could this also apply to behavior?  

For many of our students - especially those inclined to misbehave - good behavior is something that the teacher makes happen by repeatedly requiring students to behave.  The stimulus or reinforcement for these students is completely external.  We tell them to do better, to sit still , to participate properly, to pay attention, to ask questions, and to behave.  We continue to apply external reinforcement and hope that eventually they comply.  This method is not without merit, but wouldn't it be better if we could somehow move from all external to at least some internal motivation?

The Salem High School freshman team of Emily Herndon, Mark Ingerson, Wes Lester, and Jason Sells is trying to do just that.  So far they are reporting a fairly high level of success.  Here's what they have done:

• A student who is identified as having behavior problems in class meets with the team of teachers to discuss their behaviors.
• Those students receive an Academic Self-Reporting Form and the team of teachers teaches the student how to use the form.
• The student then begins rating him or herself in class each day with a possible high score each day of 24 points per class period.
• The student shares his or her self-rating with the teacher on at least a weekly basis.

So can this actually work?  Is it actually possible to get students to assess themselves and then make behavioral decisions based on that assessment?  So far, it is working.  Here are a few anecdotes shared with me by the teachers on that team. (Note: student names have been changed.)

•  John: All year, John has been one of the worst students in all of our classes. However, now that he uses the self-reporting form he has improved dramatically. He has the form on his desk and looks at it throughout class. One of the parts of the chart is participation in class. Prior to using the form, John NEVER participated in any classes, but now he looks for opportunities everyday to share or answer questions. He knows that he regularly fails quizzes in the class but he wants to be able to put a good grade on his form.  Now when he puts that quiz grade on the form he is really proud, and works hard to do even better on quizzes. He now comes outside of class to get help - which he never did before. We really stressed that he needs to be honest with himself and his scores and he takes it seriously. 

• Jake: Jake exhibits very poor classroom behaviors. His mom met with us and we went over the chart with her and Jack. She loved it and asked us to send it back to her on Fridays. It helps her know how her son is truly behaving.  One day in English, Jake had a rough day. Mrs. Herndon had him fill out the chart. She reminded him, "Be honest." He ranked himself a 4 out of 24 possible points. He hung his head and said to Mrs. Herndon, "Tomorrow is going to be a better day."

• Josh: Josh is a boy with whom we have had a lot of trouble this year.  Josh saw another student filling out a form and  said, "Hey, what is that sheet? I think that would help me." He has just started the sheet, but we were very excited that he knew it was something that could help him focus, an issue with which he has had trouble. 

If you've spent much time on this Network you are well aware that we promote the use of formative assessment - or Assessment FOR Learning.  Formative assessments are often compared/contrasted with summative assessments.  Typically, educators use the term "formative assessment" to refer to smaller checks for understanding and use the term "summative assessment" to refer to more larger assessments such as traditional unit tests.  But to differentiate between the two can be misleading IF THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS FOR STUDENTS TO LEARN RATHER THAN FOR THE TEACHER TO BE ABLE TO DETERMINE A GRADE.

As educators make their lesson/assessment plans, they should keep this simple truth in mind: WE CARE MORE ABOUT LEARNING THAN WE DO GRADING.  If this is true, then how can we allow some assessments to help students learn while other assessments help us determine a grade?  If we care more about learning than we do grading, then shouldn't ALL assessments help students learn.  ALL assessments should have a formative purpose, right?

Last week I entered the classroom of Mark Ingerson, a 9th grade Modern World History teacher at Salem High School, to conduct a quick walk-through.  What I saw was a great example of how all assessments, even those that traditionally would be considered summative in nature, can have great formative benefit if the teacher is intentionally focused more on learning than grading.

Mark's students were taking a test in his classroom on the unit he had just finished.  The test was designed by him in Quia, and the students took it on their Chromebooks.  Mark had tagged all the questions on this unit test based on the standards they represented.  Therefore, as students finished Mark received more than just a grade; he received an instant report of how well each individual student had mastered each specific standard.

As the students finished and submitted their tests, they immediately (as if they had been trained to do this....) came up to Mr. Ingerson's desk where he, one-at-a-time, gave each of them a post-it note on which he had listed their weakest standard ON THE TEST THEY HAD JUST TAKEN.  After receiving the post-it note, the students went back to their desks to IMMEDIATELY use Quia to practice the standards they had just scored low on.

It definitely takes some work to create the infrastructure needed to provide this sort of instant feedback, and it's true that the Quia format would not work as well for all classes as it does for Mark's.  But there's no denying the simple beauty of what is occurring here:

• The students are receiving instant and standards-based feedback.
• The teacher is able to differentiate and personalize the relearning experience for each student.
• The traditional summative assessment is truly a formative experience.
• STUDENTS ARE LEARNING THROUGH THE POWER OF ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING.

Let's remember the truth we believe:
Learning is more important than grading. 

So here's the question for you:
How can you ensure that assessments in your classroom, rather than just help you determine a grade, actually help students learn?

Sometimes you pick up little nuggets of wisdom when you least expect it...

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Williamsburg, VA.  Tomorrow is the start of the annual VASSP conference.  I ate dinner at Sal's Ristorante (lasagna - not bad, but not great) and decided to read a little before going to bed.  I picked up one of the books that I've been reading lately, John Ortberg's If You Want to Walk On Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat - long title, but excellent book.

While Ortberg's book is not specifically about education or the classroom, it deals a lot with fear and failure - 2 topics that do play a major roll in education.  On page 148, Ortberg writes the following:

...another important part of failure management - taking the time and having the courage to learn from failure.

 

A book called Art and Fear shows how indispensably failure is tied to learning.  A ceramics teacher divided his class into 2 groups.  One group would be graded solely on quantity of work - fifty pounds of pottery would be an "A", forty would be a "B", and so on.  The other group would be graded on quality.  Students in that group had to produce only one pot - but it had better be good.

 

Amazingly, all the highest quality pots were turned out by the quantity group.  It seems that while the quantity group kept churning out pots, they were continually learning from their disasters and growing as artists.  The quality group sat around theorizing about perfection and worrying about it - but they never actually got any better.  Apparently - at least when it comes to pottery - trying and failing, learning from failure, and trying again works a lot better than waiting for perfection.  No pot, no matter how misshapen, is really a failure.  Each is just another step on the road to an "A".  It is a road littered with imperfect pots.  But there is no other road.

 

The AFL principles just jumped off the page at me.  This story obviously applied to an art class - or any other class in which something is produced - but I really think it applies to every single classroom in our schools.  Failure is a tool for success.

This story brought the following questions to mind:

1. Do you give your students enough practice?
2. Do you give your students enough opportunities to fail?
3. How could failure (from trying) help your students?
4. Do you ever try to prevent your students from experiences failure (from trying)?
5. How could you better explain to your students the importance of failure (from trying)?
6. How could you better explain to your students' parents the importance of failure (from trying)?
7. Does your grading system allow for students to learn from failure?
8. Does your grading system penalize students for failure?
9. How could you help your students learn from their failures?
10. Along with opportunities to practice, do you also provide appropriate feedback students know if they are failing? 
11. What could you do to create a culture of failure - (risk-taking and trying) - in your classroom? 

I want to encourage you to consider how, in the spirit of AFL, you can embrace appropriate failure in your classroom.

Any thoughts? 

• 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.

Followers of this site know by now that Assessment FOR Learning is way more important than Assessment OF Learning.  In order to make sure our assessment and our feedback increase student learning, we need to communicate and assess in a standards based manner.

Many schools and school systems have begun their Assessment Journeys by focusing on Standards Based Grading Policies.  There are 2 key dangers of having Grading Policies as a point of focus:

1. This puts too much emphasis on grading.
   Schools need to set the example for students that learning trumps grading.  Anything that reinforces the hyper-focus on grading that tends to motivate students will be detrimental to our goal of keeping our focus on learning.  This includes polices that create one-size-fits-all grading practices.
2. Policy is not as valuable as professional development.
   There is no way to create a policy that addresses all possible scenarios.  However, a faculty that is well-grounded in Assessment FOR Learning philosophy can create its own logistical answers to the situations that arise.

Our friends at @CVULearns in Vermont have put together a wonderful argument for why focusing on Standards Based LEARNING is significantly more important that focusing on Standards Based GRADING.  All I can say is "Amen!"

Enjoy their thoughts here:

http://cvulearnsblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/newsflash-sbg-does-not-improve-student.html?m=1

Sometimes - or maybe all the time - perception is everything.

We have all realized this at some point or another in our lives.  We have said something, written something, or done something with a positive purpose in mind only to see it have the completely opposite effect due to the way it was perceived.  Perhaps no where is this more true than in the classroom.  Students watch what we do through various colored lenses.  As a result, our actions are often not perceived the way we would like.

This is why SPIN is so important. I know that typically SPIN has a negative connotation.  However, it's a powerful concept in communication.  SPIN doesn't have to mean lying or telling half-truths, as it often does in the political sense.  Instead, think of SPIN as preemptively and proactively making sure that our students hear us the way we intend to be heard.

The concept of SPIN applies to almost any topic, but in this case we'll apply it to AFL.  Assessing students more frequently could be viewed negatively by both students and parents.  Assessment tends to be viewed through the lens that believes students are tested and/or assessed too much.  However, as AFL-savvy educators, we realize that we need to assess more frequently so that both students and teacher receive the feedback needed to make important educational decisions.  This doesn't necessarily mean more grading or more grades, but AFL does mean more assessment.

So how do students react when you start assessing them daily or testing them on a very regular basis?  The answer probably depends on how well you SPIN.  AFL can mean more testing.  Or AFL can mean that the teacher is going to ensure that the students know what they need to know to succeed.  AFL can mean more work.  Or AFL can mean that students will feel more confident in their learning because they have had more practice and more feedback.

Below is what I find to be a great example of proactive AFL SPIN.  Jamie Garst, a Science teacher at Salem High School, has a summer assignment for his IB Biology 2 students.  This summer assignment will require them to come to school during the summer.  Did you hear that?  Students will have a summer assignment AND they will have to come to school during the summer.  I don't know about your students, but ours tend to NOT get excited about assignments and visits to the high school over the summer!

To pull this off, Jamie needs to SPIN.  He needs to make sure his students understand that that his AFL strategies will benefit them.  Read his letter to students (posted below) and assess how he did:

Greetings from Salem High School!

I hope this letter finds your summer break off to a relaxing start. I want to touch base with you to let you know how excited I am to be teaching IB Biology 2 next year. I truly look forward to meeting and working with each of you in the fall.

As part of your summer assignment, I am requesting that you attend a brief workshop on internal assessment laboratories that will be a major part of our year next year. At the workshop, we will learn about the general structure and format of internal assessments, design a simple experiment and obtain data, as well as evaluate labs of previous students. I anticipate the workshops lasting approximately 4 hours. I am offering a variety of dates to accommodate everyone’s busy schedule. 

Workshops will begin at 9:00 AM and will be held in my classroom (RM 266). Please let me know via email at your convenience which date you would like to attend (jgarst@salem.k12.va.us). If none of the above dates work, additional times can be available.

Following the workshop, you will be required to submit a complete lab write up based on the data we acquire during the workshop. This will be due the first day of school. I realize that the first attempt at an internal assessment is a learning process. The labs will be marked and returned for you to fix and re-submit for an actual grade during the first 6 weeks.

I look forward to hearing from each of you. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance at any time. Sincerely,

James F. Garst

So what do you think?  How was the SPIN?  If I was a student recipient here's how I think I would perceive this teacher's message:

• Mr. Garst is going to be a very positive person and he seems to like me before meeting me - "truly look forward to meeting and working with each of you"
• Mr. Garst likes the content and maybe won't be boring - "how excited I am to be teaching IB Biology 2 next year"
• While I do not want to do summer work, completing this assignment will help me because it will give me valuable practice.
• I don't need to stress over this assignment because the feedback will be used as practice.  I'll be able to re-submit it for an actual grade after it has been marked.

Of course, SPIN will only get you so far and must be backed up with action and results.  However, the way students perceive the teacher and the assignments either makes the teacher's job easier or harder.  If you're using solid AFL strategies - such as Jamie's summer PRACTICE lab - then you have a genuine source of positive SPIN.  When properly explained to students and parents, it's easy to see how AFL strategies are all about helping students learn.  But it's imperative that we control the SPIN to guide the perception.

Any thoughts? 

I love hearing from teachers who are diligently trying to put ideas into practice and who then open and honestly share their experiences.  In this post, Kristin Manna, a 1st year math teacher from South Carolina, shares what she learned from her students.  

I'm sure she'd love your feedback after you read her post!

https://mannamath.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/what-students-think-about-standards-based-grading/

Over the past several years, I have had the opportunity to talk with educators from schools across the country about the philosophy of AFL.  In doing so I have noticed several common reactions from educators to the idea of incorporating AFL-based strategies into their classrooms.  One of those common reactions is the one that SOME (not all) teachers of higher-level students and more rigorous courses OFTEN (not always) have.  That reaction goes something like this:

I see how AFL could work and don't necessarily disagree with it as a philosophy; however, I don't think it really applies to me or my classroom since I am teaching the most advanced students in college-level courses.  AFL strategies might make earning high grades in my classes too easy.  In a class like mine I need to make sure that a lot is required of my students, and I'm afraid that AFL will take too much responsibility away from them.  I'm teaching the way college professors teach, which is something these students need to experience prior to college.  Besides, the methods I use worked for me when I was a student, and most of my students get pretty good grades in my class - so why make changes.

If you are a teacher of higher-level courses and advanced students whose view toward AFL is at least somewhat consistent to the one I describe above, I would invite you to take another look at AFL and to reconsider your reasons for not adopting more AFL-based strategies in your classroom.  (That is, IF you are someone who has been reluctant to adopt AFL-based strategies)  In the following paragraphs I will examine each of the points of view described above and attempt to show why AFL does apply to higher-level courses.

1. I see how AFL could work and don't necessarily disagree with it as a philosophy; however, I don't think it really applies to me or my classroom since I am teaching the most advanced students in college-level courses.

AFL is definitely a philosophy as opposed to a specific set of practices.  It is a teaching philosophy based on the reality of how people learn.  People need feedback and opportunities to learn from mistakes.  This applies to all students - from our weakest and most unmotivated to our strongest and most talented. Applying an AFL philosophy to a classroom simply means assessing more frequently (not necessarily testing), providing regular feedback,and grading in a manner that allows students to learn from mistakes and, therefore, master content better. (see The Heart of AFL)   With that being the case, how would AFL's usefulness change based on the level of rigor associated with the course?  Do smarter kids not need feedback?  Do highly motivated students not learn better when they receive regular feedback?  Do college-bound students not need opportunities to learn from mistakes?  Of course not.  AFL-based strategies will help ALL students learn and should, therefore, be used in classrooms of ALL levels. 

2. AFL strategies might make earning high grades in my classes too easy.

I have actually heard this exact statement made, and honestly, it baffles me.  While I believe it to be imperative that teachers require students to work hard, I also believe that our primary job is to make difficult content relatively easy to learn.  Both situations can coexist - hard work and content made easy to understand.  That's our purpose - to take content and skills that students cannot learn on their own and make them learn-able.  We are called to communicate in a manner that enables young people to do more than they ever thought possible and more than they could ever do on their own.  We make the hard, easy.  Along the way, students will be asked to work very hard, but our goal is to not make the content hard to learn - it's already hard to learn.  Our goal is to make it easy to understand.  

The rigor of a course should come from the inherent rigor of the content and NOT from the way we teach the course.  I repeat, the rigor of a course should come from the inherent rigor of the content and NOT from the way we teach the course.

Therefore, if the grade we assign a student TRULY reflects learning and mastery, then making a good grade really shouldn't be all that difficult.  Some students may CHOOSE to not earn a good grade, but that should be their choice not a result of our teaching.  And while some students may occasionally be in a class that's over their head, that is the exception not the rule.  Therefore, if applying AFL strategies to a classroom leads to a increase in learning which in turn leads to an increase in the level of grades earned, why is that a problem?  (For more, see an earlier post entitled Does AFL lead to grade inflation?)   

3.  In a class like mine I need to make sure that a lot is required of my students, and I'm afraid that AFL will take too much responsibility away from them. 

Thinking along these lines represents a fundamental misunderstanding of AFL.  In discussions related to AFL it is common to talk about how AFL-based strategies will result in students learning more.  To me, this should excite teachers since our job is to find strategies to help students learn.  However, for some educators, this idea gets turned into, "Since students are not doing what it takes to learn, I now need to do these new and additional things for them."  There is a fundamental flaw with thinking that way: It presumes that the way you have been teaching is perfect, and that any problems that exist are student-centered.  

There is no doubt whatsoever that students and their choices play a huge role - perhaps the major role - in student learning.  Absolutely no doubt at all.  However, there is also no doubt whatsoever that teacher choices play a huge role - perhaps the major role - in student learning, as well.  (I realize there cannot be 2 majority roles, thus the word "perhaps".)  Just as doctors must continually hone their skills and gain new ones to meet the medical needs of their patients, teachers should seek continuous improvement to meet their students' needs.  So if your students aren't doing all that they should, but you could change something that you're doing that would result in increased learning, why would you not do so?  Why would a teacher stubbornly cling to, "I'm not going to do that, because students aren't doing their part"?  Our goal is to get all students to learn, not just the ones who do all that they should.

The other fundamental flaw with that line of thinking is that is presumes incorrectly that somehow AFL-based strategies require less of students.  I think what happens is that some people confuse talk of wanting to help students do better with making school too easy or not rigorous enough.  When it comes to AFL, that is an erroneous conclusion.  In fact, the exact opposite is true.  In a classroom where the teacher is using sound AFL-based strategies, the students are being trained to take ownership of and responsibility for their own progress.  By its very nature, AFL should place more responsibility on students.  (For more on that topic, read It's About Students Taking Ownership of Learning and/or Which Parent Do You Most Want to Please?)

4. I'm teaching the way college professors teach, which is something these students need to experience prior to college.

I'm going to be brutally honest here even though it might offend some of the college professors who read this blog.  While college professors are true experts in their field, and while many of them are skilled lecturers, and while I"m sure most are passionate about educating, my opinion is that the worst TEACHING in all of the educational world occurs in college classrooms.  The typical college classroom - as I have experienced it now at 3 universities - consists of the professor lecturing and the students taking notes.  Then, 2 or 3 times per semester, a test/exam is given on the notes.  While many of us have learned a lot content in this format, I would contend that our level of learning is not a result of how well we have been taught as much as a result of how much we have chosen to learn on our own.

Think about it for a moment.  If a teacher provides students with notes on a topic, has them read about it in a book, DOESN'T give them opportunities to practice the content and learn from their mistakes, and then tests them, what is that teacher actually assessing?  I believe that the teacher is assessing how well students can learn on their own from the content provided them.  If a student gets an A in that class is it a result of wonderful teaching?  No - it's a result of the student's wonderful studying.  This must be true because this sort of teacher strongly defends the opposite situation - when a student fails such a class few teachers would say that it was a result of terrible teaching but rather terrible study habits.  You can't have one without the other. 

So here's where that leads us:  College-style teaching is not - in general - the best teaching.  To teach in that style - even remotely like that style - is to adopt poor teaching strategies.  We should find it ludicrous to even consider doing anything less than the best job possible for our students.  Why would we let bad teaching at the next level cause us to be less than stellar at our current level?  HOWEVER, AFL STRATEGIES COULD PREPARE STUDENTS FOR DEALING WITH POOR TEACHING.  If we train our students to seek and use feedback to guide their own learning - in other words, to take control of their education - then they will be more likely to succeed in any type of future classroom situation.  AFL-based strategies are the very skills that our college-bound students need us to teach them.   

5. Besides, the methods I use worked for me when I was a student, and most of my students get pretty good grades in my class - so why make changes.

The fact that the way you teach is the way you liked being taught is in no way an indication that the way you are teaching is the best way to teach - unless, of course, everyone is just like you!  This would be a terrible reason to not try AFL-based strategies.  So would the fact that most of your students are finding success.  In every high school there are some students who are easier to teach than others.  They are the students who behave, have good attitudes, do what is asked of them, and want to be successful.  Let's face it, those students tend to be found in our higher-level more rigorous classes.  Please do not hear me wrong - I fully understand that teaching these students - any students - is not without its challenges, but the truth of the matter is that strong students can really make a teacher look good.  In my lifetime I have run into teachers whose teaching strategies work in their classrooms more because of WHO they are teaching than because of HOW they are teaching.  Bottom line, we must never allow ourselves to grow complacent with our professional growth.  So having success teaching strong students should never be a reason to not explore new ideas and strategies.  

My main point is this: AFL is a philosophy that, when used properly, improves learning.  Since ALL teachers of ALL students should want to improve learning, there really is NO teacher who could not benefit from adding a little AFL to the classroom. 

Thoughts?

Three students in your class took a test that assessed 2 of your class's content standards.  Their scores are shown in the chart above.  Assume that a score of 20 for a specific standard is a score that demonstrates a high level of mastery of that specific standard.

Discuss how an SBL philosophy would impact the way you handled these results.

Leave a summary of your thoughts or your group's thoughts as a reply in the box below.

My daughter's 7th grade English teacher at Andrew Lewis Middle School uses a time-tested easy-to-apply simple AFL strategy that motivates my daughter to work, helps her to learn, and ensures that her grade is an accurate reflection of that learning.

Every Monday the students are given a pre-test on that week's spelling words.  If the student spells 100% of the words correct on the pre-test, then the grade is recorded in the teacher's grade book, and the student does not have to take the post-test.  All other students will take a post-test on Friday of that week.

Simple but effective.  Students receive feedback on Monday.  They now have the rest of the week to work on improving.  More importantly, though, is that they know exactly what they need to do to improve.

I'm going to brag on my daughter, Kelsey, for just a moment.  She is a terrific speller, and almost always scores a 100 on the pre-test.  Knowing that she can get out of having to take the post-test is a wonderful incentive for her to prepare for the pre-test.  When she occasionally misses a word on the pre-test, she becomes a very focused and motivated studier when preparing for the post-test.

However, her teacher uses the pre-test in a more powerful way than just as a motivator.  Since Kelsey almost always scores a 100 on the pre-tests, the rest of the week's focus on spelling potentially could be a waste of time for her.  However, her teacher turns the better spellers into spelling tutors during the week.  This gives Kelsey a much-needed opportunity to be a leader.  It allows her to have fun serving her peers, and it helps her peers do better on their spelling by providing one-on-one assistance that a teacher would have a difficult time providing during a busy school day.

Most teachers in America have probably tried pre-tests.  This is not a ground-breaking strategy.  That's the beauty of AFL.  To be a good AFL teacher doesn't mean re-inventing the wheel.  It means taking the best of what you already do and focusing your purpose toward providing meaningful feedback that gets used by both the teacher and the students.

One word of warning: You can completely mess up the benefit of this AFL strategy by the way you grade.  Please do not ever average the pre- and post-tests together or allow the pre-test to factor into the grade at all unless the student reaches the desired benchmark on the pre-test.  Otherwise, allow the post-test score - the one that reflects the outcome of the teacher's instruction - to be the one that is recorded in the grade book.

"I thought I could read my students' body language. I was wrong. As an experiment, I used Socrative when I taught binary numbers. What I learned forever changed my views on being a better teacher."

This quote from Vicki Davis, author of the Edutopia article linked below, is essential.  As teachers we NEED formative assessment - or Assessment FOR Learning.  We need it because we need to KNOW how our students are doing.  

If we don't base our teaching/remediation/questioning/activities on how our students are doing then it's hard to say we're really interested in learning.  The alternative is to cover content and tell students to learn it.  This works fine with highly motivated students who possess excellent study habits and requisite background knowledge.  In other words, this works fine for students who don't need a teacher!

But since the overwhelming number of students - even students of higher level courses - need their teachers (thank goodness, or else our profession would be unnecessary) then we need AFL.  We need to know for sure how our students are doing so we can focus our teaching in a way that leads to learning - not just covering content.

In the following article, Vicki Davis has shared 5 easy-to-use tools that will help you become a more effective teacher through the use of formative assessment: http://www.edutopia.org//blog/5-fast-formative-assessment-tools-vicki-davis

Here's a sure sign that you don't fully understand AFL and how AFL practices will lead to your goal of helping students learn the content you teach:

You teach a primarily fact-based class or are currently teaching fact-based content - such as History, Biology, or Health - and the first time that your students are assessed/quizzed/tested/etc on facts it's on a graded assignment that goes into your grade book and is averaged with other assignments to determine a final grade.

Think about it for a moment.  AFL is all about assessment FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING.  If you assess your students and put the outcome of that assessment into your grade book - WITHOUT PROVIDING STUDENTS AN OPPORTUNITY TO CHANGE OR IMPROVE THE GRADE AS THEY MASTER CONTENT - then that assessment was for the purpose of determining a grade NOT for the purpose of learning.  

There is nothing wrong with assessing for the purpose of determining a grade.  You are required to do this as a teacher.  However, you are first charged with helping students learn.  Your students' grades should be determined AFTER your students have had ample opportunity to learn by practicing and failing and practicing again IF you want the grade to reflect learning.  If you give students notes on the facts of your content, have them take a quiz on those facts, assign a grade to that quiz, and then put that grade in your grade book to be averaged with other grades HAS YOUR ASSESSMENT HELPED STUDENTS LEARN?  

The answer is yes - it has helped them learn.  Now that they realize what they have missed they better understand the content.  We definitely learn by mistakes.  In fact, we need to give students more opportunities to make mistakes (see this post).  BUT IF THAT GRADE ON THAT FIRST QUIZ IS ETCHED INTO GRADE BOOK "STONE" THEN THERE IS NO WAY FOR THE FINAL GRADE TO ACCURATELY REFLECT LEARNING.  

Here's an example of what I mean: Let's say a student got a 75 on a quiz about people or vocabulary or dates.  If as a result of that 75 the student learns from his or her mistakes and could get a 95 on a similar quiz the next day, then it's safe to say that you have taught them - at least for the short-term - the content at a 95 level.  BUT THE GRADE IN THE GRADE BOOK IS A 75.  If you are satisfied with this - if you allow this to happen in your classroom - then it's safe to say that you don't really get AFL.  You're probably teaching as YOU were taught - or assuming that all students learn in the manner in which you learned - without really thinking about how your assessment strategies and grading strategies are inconsistent.  You've taught content, but you're just not really skilled at assessment.  You might be doing an excellent job of covering content, but you are not giving your students enough opportunities to practice.  Some of your students are probably experiencing a certain level of grade deflation that doesn't indicate the degree to which they are learning from you.

So what are some solutions?  How about if before you give and then grade the assignment that will go into the grade book, you first try one or more of these 4 easy AFL strategies:

• Try starting each class or most classes off with a short 5-10 question practice quiz.  The practice quiz grade can go in the grade book as long as it can be replaced or improved by a later graded assignment.  I guarantee you that your students will master the content better this way than they would if you gave 1 summative quiz/test after taking notes on the content.  You could even give the same quiz several days in a row.  
• Try ending each class with a quick check for understanding.  Take 5 minutes and make sure EVERYONE has grasped that day's main points/terms/vocabulary.  You might try this flashcard review method.
• Use white boards once a week to see how well students are understanding the content.  Read here to see how this could work in your classroom.
• Start off a unit by giving students a review sheet or rubric.  Then have them assess daily how well they understand the content.  Here's an example of a review sheet and here's an example of a rubric.

Here's my next question?  Why would you not try one of these ideas?  Or more importantly, why would you teach something, give a graded assignment on it, and then put that grade into your grade book without FIRST doing a meaningful AFL activity?  I can promise you this: If you give your students multiple opportunities to fail content and learn from mistakes prior to putting a permanent grade into a grade book, your students will start finding it easier to master the content in your classroom.  And getting students to master difficult content is what teaching is all about.

The February 23, 2015, edition of Sports Illustrated, included Alexander Wolff's moving tribute to Dean Smith, the former UNC Men's Basketball coach who passed away on February 7.  As a Demon Deacon and a Hokie, I've never been too fond of the Tarheels' basketball program, rooting loudly against them for many years.  In fact, one of my fondest sports memories was storming our home court after Rodney Rogers, Randolph Childress, and the rest of the 'Deacs beat the soon-to-be national champions from Chapel Hill by over 20 points during my freshman year at Wake.   

That being said, it's possible to detest a team and still have incredible respect for them and their coach.  Such was always the case with UNC and Dean Smith.  Year in and year out they were so good, you knew it had to be the result of an excellent teacher at the helm.

Wolff's article highlighted many of Smith's strengths as a coach and a person.  As Wolff recounts part of his interview with former UNC star, Eric Montross, one of the secrets to Smith's success is revealed: Coach Dean Smith practiced the principles of Assessment FOR Learning.

When working with teachers on how to implement AFL principles, I always encourage them to ask themselves the following 2 questions on a daily basis:

1. Did I cause my students today to leave my room knowing what they need to know, what they do and don't know, and what they need to do to improve?
2. Did I enable myself today to leave the room with a clear understanding of what my students - collectively and individually - do and don't know so that they can plan to meet their learning objectives?

If a teacher can answer "Yes" to those questions, then whatever he or she did that day was an example of the principles of AFL in action.  (For more on this topic, read Assessment FOR Learning - A quick and easy indicator.)

While I doubt Dean Smith ever used the term Assessment FOR Learning, his goal for his practices reveals nonetheless that he was an excellent practitioner of AFL principles.  Wolff interviews former Tarheel great, Eric Montross, who said, "Something he taught us each day was meant to be remembered."

At every Tar Heels practice each player was expected to know, and spit back on demand, that day's point of emphasis on offense, the point of emphasis on defense, and the thought for the day - and aphorism such as Do not judge another man until you've walked a full moon in his moccasins, or, When moving a mountain, begin by removing the smallest stone.  "You'd repeat it verbatim," Montross said, "or the whole team would run."

Based on what Montross shared, Coach Smith was able to leave practice every day knowing how well his players understood the concepts he was coaching.  He didn't just assume they got because he covered it.  He intentionally and purposefully sought out feedback.  Furthermore, his players were able to leave practice each day sure of what they were learning.

Teachers, coaches, students, and players all need feedback. Teachers, coaches, students, and players all need to know what they need to know, how well they know it, and what they need to do to improve.  Effective teachers and coaches don't let students leave the classroom or the gym without assessing and providing that feedback.

Thanks, Coach Smith, for setting an example we all should follow.

Have any of you used Socrative in your classroom?

https://www.facebook.com/Socrative?sk=wall

Is anyone in your school looking for an easy-to-understand primer on AFL?  Check out this journal article recently published by the VASCD in Virginia Educational Leadership - Spring 2011: 

http://content.yudu.com/A1roe9/VASCDSpring2011/resources/52.htm.