It's Time to Take an Assessment Journey!

Posted by Scott Habeeb on November 16, 2016 at 2:00pm

This network has tons of practical examples of Assessment FOR Learning, great insights into Standards Based Learning concepts, and even a bunch of Sports Analogies to help educators apply sound assessment philosophy to their classrooms. But how can school leaders and teachers help lead assessment change in their schools and systems?

Pawel Nazarewicz (Salem High Math Teacher) and I (Scott Habeeb, Salem High Principal) wrote this article for the Fall 2016 issue of Virginia Educational Leadership to help administrators and teachers lead determine their assessment needs and then lead assessment journeys in their schools.

It's Time to Take an Assessment Journey

http://publications.catstonepress.com/i/751683-fall-2016/59

We'd love your feedback!

Ideas for AFL/SBL Exit Slips

Posted by Scott Habeeb on October 22, 2014 at 12:00pm

One of the most common types of assessments used in the AFL classroom is the Exit Slip. AFL teachers find this type of feedback helpful as they assess how successful their lessons are, as they gather data for differentiation purposes, and as they seek to better meet student needs.

The following picture is one used by a teacher at Salem High School. She actually found it on Pinterest - one of the world's great educational resource depositories for sure! Take a look at the exit slip and then scroll down to see more about how it is used.

Notice how this exit slip gives students very direct guidance as to what feedback they should leave. Typically, this will lead to more productive and useful information than an open-ended question will. Also, notice the Standards Based component of this specific exit slip. Students are asked to rate/evaluate themselves on what is essentially a 1-4 scale. This is helpful for moving students away from purely looking at progress in terms of the accumulation of points for the numerator and instead to thinking in terms of mastery. However, you will need to train them on what the terms mean. Below are descriptions of novice, apprentice, practitioner, and expert that need to be taught to students. Once taught these terms, it would make sense for students to be asked to use them for many types of assessments.

Finally, here's an idea for how you could collect the Exit Slips. Take a look at the picture below. By having students place their Exit Slip into the appropriate folder, the teacher saves time gathering data on how the class as a whole is doing.

Note: The terms used on the Board below are different from those used on the Exit Slip above. The pictures did not come from the same source. However, the concepts align well.

So what do you think? How could you apply these concepts and ideas to your classroom? Are you already doing something similar? What have you found works well or doesn't work well? Have you made modifications to improve the practice?

Assessment FOR Learning - A quick and easy indicator

Posted by Scott Habeeb on December 7, 2009 at 10:41am

As teachers attempt to incorporate AFL strategies into their daily practices it is helpful to have criteria to determine the "AFL-ishness" of an activity. Here are two (but by no means the only) questions a teacher can ask to reflect on how a specific activity falls in line with AFL principles. 1. Did the activity I did in class today allow my students 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 the activity I did in class today allow me, the teacher, to leave the room with a clear understanding of what my students do and don't know so that I can plan to meet their ongoing needs? If what you do in your classroom allows either or both of these to occur, then you have just done an AFL activity. Everyday, students should be guided in a direction that allows them to become more aware of their level of understanding so that they can then adjust their learning efforts. And by the end of each class, the teacher should have assessed students in a manner that allows him or her to get a solid read on how well students, at times individually and at times collectively, comprehend. So take a look at an activity you have planned. Will it lead to a "yes" response to either of those questions? If not, then can it be altered to do so?

AFL - IT'S ABOUT STUDENTS TAKING OWNERSHIP OF LEARNING - Practical Examples

Posted by Scott Habeeb on December 2, 2009 at 3:30pm

This post is excerpted from an article written by Stephen Chappuis and Richard Stiggins. It was originally published in Educational Leadership in 2002 and was then reprinted in the book, Assessment FOR Learning: An Action Guide for School Leaders. While professional reading can sometimes be dry, Chappuis and Stiggins really capture the heart of AFL. This excerpt can be used by a school as an overview of what AFL is all about - teaching and learning and getting students to take ownership of their progress. This article also includes practical examples of how teachers and students would practice AFL.

Classroom Assessment for Learning

Classroom assessment that involves students in the process and focuses on increasing learning can motivate rather than merely measure students.

Imagine a classroom assessment as a healthy part of effective teaching and successful learning. At a time when large-scale, external assessments of learning gain political favor and attention, many teachers are discovering how to engage and motivate students using day-to-day classroom assessment for purposes beyond measurement. By applying the principles of what is called assessment for learning, teachers have followed clear research findings of the effects that high-quality, formative assessment can have on student achievement.

… largely absent from the traditional classroom assessment environment is the use of assessment as a tool to promote greater student achievement (Shepard, 2000). In general, the teacher teaches and then tests. The teacher and class move on, leaving unsuccessful students, those who might not learn at the established pace and within a fixed time frame, to finish low in the rank order. This assessment model is founded on two outdated beliefs: that to increase learning we should increase student anxiety and that comparison with more successful peers will motivate low performers to do better.

By contrast, assessment for learning occurs during the teaching and learning process rather than after it and has as its primary focus the ongoing improvement of learning for all students (Assessment Reform Group, 1999; Crooks, 2001; Shepard, 2000). Teachers who assess for learning use day-to-day classroom assessment activities to involve students directly and deeply in their own learning, increasing their confidence and motivations to learn by emphasizing progress and achievement rather than failure and defeat (Stiggins, 1999; 2001). In the assessment for learning model, assessment is an instructional tool that promotes learning rather than an event designed solely for the purpose of evaluation and assigning grades. And when a student become involved in the assessment process, assessment for learning begins to look more like teaching and less like testing (Davies, 2000).

STUDENT-INVOLVED ASSESSMENT

Research shows that classroom assessments that provide accurate, descriptive feedback to students and involve them in the assessment process can improve learning (Black and William, 1998). As a result, assessment for learning means more than just assessing students often, more than providing the teacher with assessment results to revise instruction. In assessment for learning, both teacher and student use classroom assessment information to modify teaching and learning activities. Teachers use assessment information formatively when they:

• Pretest before a unit of study and adjust instruction for individuals or the entire group.
• Analyze which students need more practice.
• Continually revise instruction on the basis of results.
• Reflect on the effectiveness of their own teaching practices.
• Confer with students regarding their strengths and the areas that need improvement.
• Facilitate peer tutoring, matching students who demonstrate understanding with those who do not.

We tend to think of students as passive participants in assessment rather than engaged users of the information that assessment can produce. What we should be asking is, “How can students use assessment to take responsibility for and improve their own learning?”

Student involvement in assessment doesn’t mean that students control decisions regarding what will or won’t be learned or tested. It doesn’t mean that they assign their own grades. Instead, student involvement means that students learn to use assessment information to manage their own learning so that they understand how they learn best, know exactly where they are in relation to the defined learning targets, and plan and take the next steps in their learning.

Students engage in the assessment for learning process when they use assessment information to set goals, make learning decisions related to their own improvement, develop an understanding of what quality work looks like, self-assess, and communicate their status and progress toward established learning goals. Students involved in their own assessment might:

• Determine the attributes of good performance. Students look at teacher-supplied anonymous samples of strong student performances and list the qualities that make them strong, learning the language of quality and the concepts behind strong performance.
• Use scoring guides to evaluate real work samples. Students can start with just one criterion in the guide and expand to others as they become more proficient in scoring. As students engage in determining the characteristics of quality work and scoring actual work samples, they become better able to evaluate their own work. Using the language of the scoring guide, they can identify their areas of strength and set goals for improvement - in essence, planning the next steps in their learning.
• Revise anonymous work samples. Students go beyond evaluating work to using criteria to improve the quality of work sample. They can develop a revision plan that outlines improvements, or write a letter to the creator of the original work offering advice on how to improve the sample. This activity also helps students know what to do before they revise their own work.
• Create practice tests or test items based on their understanding of the learning targets and the essential concepts in the class material. Students can work in pairs to identify what they think should be on the test and to generate sample test items and responses.
• Communicate with others about their growth and determine when they are nearing success. Students achieve a deeper understanding of themselves and the material that they are attempting to learn when they describe the quality of their own work. Letters to parents, written self-reflections, and conferences with teachers and parents in which students outline the process they used to create a product allow students to share what they know and describe their progress toward the learning target. By accumulating evidence of their own improvement in growth portfolios, students can refer to specific stages in their growth and celebrate their achievement with others.

Standards Based Learning and Grading

Posted by Scott Habeeb on July 13, 2014 at 10:30pm

This network is dedicated to promoting outstanding assessment practices - the kind of assessment practices that help students learn as opposed to simply documenting what they do or don't know. These types of practices are known as Assessment FOR Learning (AFL) strategies - an appropriate name since they are assessment strategies that lead to learning.

One set or type of AFL strategies are those that fall into the category of Standards Based Learning (SBL). SBL strategies are AFL strategies that focus on specific content standards. Students are assessed and taught based on standards. Their learning is driven by standards mastery, and the ultimate grade they receive is a communication of how well they have mastered standards - instead of the result of averaging a bunch of numbers together in a grade book.

As SBL strategies are shared on The Assessment Network, they also will be added to this blog. This post will become a one-stop-shop for all sorts of SBL ideas scattered throughout the Network. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let Scott Habeeb know.

Blog Posts:

It's TIme to Take an Assessment Journey from VASCD, Pawel Nazarewicz, & Scott Habeeb
Getting Students to Focus on Learning
Redos and Retakes? Yes. But don't forget to LOOP!
Practical Examples of LOOPING - Philosophy in Action
An Overview of Standards Based Learning from @CVULearns
Quit Focusing on Standards Based Grading from @CVULearns
Standards Based Teaching and Learning After Year One from JumpRope, Pawel Nazarewicz, & Scott Habeeb
(Video) Standards-Referenced Grading from Des Moines Public Schools
SBL Success: Things are moving in the right direction when students ask you questions like this...
Standards Based Grading Flowchart from Matt Townsley
Response to a Parent from Rick Wormeli
Standards Based Grading Video from Rick Wormeli
Formative Assessment and Standards Based Grading from Robert Marzano
Redos and Retakes: 14 Practical Tips from Rick Wormeli
How SBL Should and Shouldn't Look in a Math Class from Matt Townsley
#SBLchat on Twitter
Grade Like A Torpedo
Vermont SBL Collective - great collection of resources
AFL Teachers Reporting Progress in an SBL Method (using PowerSchool)
Standards Based Learning and Grading Facebook Page
The AFL/SBL Exit Slip
This I Believe from Ken O'Connor
Grading in 3D by Pawel Nazarewicz
A Math Teacher Shares Her Students' Thoughts on SBL by Kristin Manna
AFL: As Basic As Taking Off Your Coat
A Winning Moment: A Math Teacher Shares SBL Success
Letter to the Editor of Forest City Summit, IA from Rick Wormeli

Pictures:

Extra Credit on Instagram

Videos:

Standards Based Grading Video from Rick Wormeli

Helping First Graders with Metacognition

Posted by Melanie E Smith on November 18, 2009 at 2:16pm

An important part of Assessment For Learning is helping students know "what they know" and "what they don't." For younger students (K-1), this is certainly a challenge. What follows is a nugget worth sharing from The Daily Five by Joan Moser and Gail Boushey...As teachers are modeling a particular procedure or strategy, or after students have practiced a technique, teachers ask the students to gauge their understanding or performance in the following way: "Hold your fist close to your heart to show that what you're about to tell me is the truth that you know in your heart. Now, put your thumb up if you know you're understanding/doing your best work. Or just hold your fist tight to your chest to show me that you know you could improve or that you need more help from me to improve."This works well because the kids don't feel that everyone is looking at their response (since their fist is close to their body), but the teacher can gauge rather quickly how students feel that they are progressing.Such a simple tool for metacognition... but great practice for getting younger children involved in the assessment of their own learning!For the love of literacy,~Melanie~

An Overview of Standards Based Learning from @CVULearns

Posted by Scott Habeeb on July 10, 2014 at 11:30pm

This website is dedicated to promoting outstanding assessment practices - the kind of assessment practices that help students learn as opposed to simply documenting what they do or don't know. These types of practices are known as Assessment FOR Learning (AFL) strategies - an appropriate name since they are assessment strategies that lead to learning.

One set or type of AFL strategies are those that fall into the category of Standards Based Learning (SBL). SBL strategies are AFL strategies that focus on specific content standards. Students are assessed and taught based on standards. Their learning is driven by standards mastery, and the ultimate grade they receive is a communication of how well they have mastered standards - instead of the result of averaging a bunch of numbers together in a grade book.

The folks at Champlain Valley Union High School in Vermont (you can follow them on Twitter at @CVULearns) have put together a wonderful SBL resource. They combine great ideas from assessment gurus like Rick Wormeli, Ken O'Connor, Thomas Guskey, Rick Stiggins, and others. Educators and schools exploring SBL will enjoy reading through their ideas and using their rubrics. They will sure stimulate more discussion and professional growth.

Follow the link below to see the SBL strategies/ideas. Thanks to @CVULearns for sharing!

http://linkis.com/cvulearns.weebly.com/tgkvw

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.

The 2x10 Method - Building Relationships with Students

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 25, 2011 at 8:34am

The 2 x 10 Method: Building Student Relationships One Kid at a Time

January 10th, 2011, By: Diane Trim in Articles, Classroom Management

This has been reposted from Inside the School. Click here to read it in its original location.

In a recent online seminar with school psychologist Dr. Allen Mendler, Mendler talked about the 2 x 10 method of connecting with students, especially tough students. Here’s what he suggested:

Take two minutes a day for 10 consecutive days to engage the student in personal conversation.

I haven’t tried this myself, but I can see how this 2 x 10 method would work well to improve classroom management. Personal connections are so important to learning. If a student knows the teacher cares, the student is more likely to be engaged in class. If the teacher and student have created a personal bond, it’s harder for either one to depersonalize and disrespect one another.

The two minutes need to be personal and not about math, science, or business communications. What did you do over the weekend? is always a good start. So are: Did you catch last night’s game? What do you think about the new movie? Could you recommend a video game my son might enjoy? The conversation should be about the student, not about the teacher. Listen and learn. Respond. Smile. Treat the kid as if she is the most interesting kid in the room.

If I were to use the 2 x 10 method, I’d first target my influential student leaders – the ones who are more likely to lead the class in mayhem, like Tim or Ashley, rather than those who edit the yearbook, like Charisse or Karen.Charisse and Karen already tell me all about their weekends and show me their yearbook layouts. They connect with everyone. Tim and Ashley connect with their peers just fine, but love to strengthen the us-versus-them students-versus-teachers mentality.

It might be an interesting experiment to use 2 x 10 on the student leader’s buddy first rather than approach Tim or Matt head on. Clint feels more approachable to me than Tim does; at least he’s more predictable. Hannah is less likely to be fashionably rude to me than Ashley. Winning over the best friends could be a good first step to winning over the student leaders.

I’d also use the 2 x 10 method on those kids who are hard to reach, like Aaron, who doesn’t come to class very often, or Kurt, who rarely puts pen to paper.

I’m sure that the 2 x 10 method isn’t a miracle cure for classroom management. But I have two minutes to strengthen a bond between myself and a student. One caring adult can make a huge difference in a student’s life. And maybe, my two minutes over 10 days will yield benefits beyond the personal connection: improved classroom management and more student learning.

Allen N. Mendler, PhD, is an educator, psychologist., and author. His most recent book published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Connecting with Students (2001), provides numerous practical strategies that help educators to connect effectively with their students. He can-be contacted at: Discipline Associates, phone: 1 /800/772-5227; fax: 773/549-6515; e-mail: tammy@disciplineassociates.com; Web site: www.disciplineassociates.com

Grade Like A Torpedo

Posted by Scott Habeeb on June 23, 2014 at 1:56pm

Today, as I was reading one of my new favorite books, Teach Like A Pirate by Dave Burgess, I came across a metaphor that I'm sure will stick with me. It's the metaphor of the torpedo.

In his chapter "Ask and Analyze," Burgess shares a story he read in Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. Maltz says that humans achieve goals similarly to the way a torpedo finds its mark. "The torpedo accomplishes its goal by going forward, making errors, and continuously correcting them. By a series of zigzags it literally gropes its way to the goal."

Burgess goes on to add, "The missile is likely to be off target a far greater percentage of the time than it is on target. Nevertheless, it arrives and hits its target because of the constant adjustments made based on continual analysis of the feedback provided."

Dave Burgess uses this story about the torpedo to suggest that great teaching is the result of constant adjustments based on feedback and results from the classroom. However, I couldn't help but think about grading when I read this.

Members of the The Assessment FOR Learning Network probably see the immediate connection between this analogy and the principles of Assessment FOR Learning. Just like a torpedo, the student is often "off target" as the learning process unfolds. However, the teacher and the student keep making corrections based on continuous feedback. In the end, the target is reached. AFL teachers understand that the feedback is given for the purpose of learning FIRST. Grading is secondary and should reflect the final outcome - not the journey.

I couldn't help picturing the torpedo in this story hitting a ship captained by an educator who still holds on to the traditional method of grading in which ALL measurements, ALL feedback, and ALL digressions from the correct path are averaged together to come up with a final grade. In my mind, I see this angry teacher/captain yelling at the submarine something to this effect:

That's not fair! Your torpedo can't sink my ship!!! Most of your torpedo's path was off target. It's unfair to count that as a hit unless your torpedo was on target for the entire path it took!

Of course, the captain is yelling this as his or her ship slowly sinks into the ocean. The captain doesn't have to like the path the torpedo took. It really doesn't matter. In the end, the torpedo found its mark. The smartest course of action would be to accept reality and abandon ship.

The same goes for grading. Who cares if the student hadn't mastered the concept at some random point along the way? What we really care about is whether or not the student finally gets it. Everything that happens along the way is feedback for the teacher and the student to use to ensure the ultimate goal is met.

Have you started thinking about next school year yet? When you do, give some thought to how you might GRADE LIKE A TORPEDO.

Student Success Prerequisite: Hope

Posted by Scott Habeeb on March 3, 2011 at 2:32pm

This blog post is a reprint of an article originally published on Education Week. Read it here or in its original form.

We know that all people need HOPE, and as educators we have seen the results of young people without HOPE. I found this post to be a great reminder of our need to provide HOPE for kids. If we aren't focused on that, then to a great extent we are wasting our time and efforts. We are in a unique position of providing HOPE to those who need it most. What a vocation - let's pursue it with passion!

Student Success Prerequisite: Hope

By David Ginsburg

9th-grader Keisha (not her real name) entered my Algebra class older than most of her classmates, having been held back a year in elementary school. And based on her test scores, she would have been repeating eighth grade if it hadn't been for the district's social promotion policy. So there she was in my classroom, giving no effort and getting 0 upon 0 on one assignment/exam after another.

Not attempting an assignment and getting a 0 on it is a common face-saving strategy for kids like Keisha, since they can always say, "I could have done that but didn't feel like it." Trying their hardest and getting a 25 or 30 would be worse, since failure would then reflect lack of ability rather than apathy.

But I wasn't buying it, and at 10-week report card conferences I reminded Keisha's grandmother (mom was incarcerated, and dad came and went--mostly went) that I stayed after school to tutor students. Keisha showed up for tutoring the next day. At first, of course, she didn't want to be there. But at least in this safer setting--with just a few other "dumb" (her word) kids there--she set aside her "I could do this but don't feel like it" facade, and said tutoring was pointless because "I'm no good at math."

After a day or two of sulking, Keisha decided the time would go faster if she actually did some work. And what soon became apparent to me and, more important, to her was that she had much stronger math ability than her prior experience had led her to believe. Within weeks, she was earning a "C" in class, and her grandmother excused her from tutoring. But Keisha decided to keep coming anyway, so instead of remediation, I gave her extension problems and sneak previews of upcoming lessons. And soon the "dumb" kid was the go-to kid for students who needed help.

Keisha was upbeat until I gave a test that she should have aced but instead bombed--a result, I was sure, of test anxiety rather than lack of ability. But newfound confidence is easily shaken for kids who've doubted themselves for years, so you can imagine Keisha's response as she stormed out of class: "I told you I'm no good at math." Still, I tracked her down later that day, and convinced her to retake the test after school. And when I told her she got a 96, Keisha looked at me and said, "Are you for real, Coach G?!" I've never seen a prouder or happier kid.

What Keisha's turnaround illustrates is the need for students to feel hopeful in order for them to learn to their potential. Instilling hope in students at school must therefore be an essential goal for us as educators. And the way to achieve it is not, as I wrote in Success Comes From the Heart, by preaching optimism, but through policies and practices that give students cause for optimism. Here are some examples:

Reverse students' "0 is better than 25" thinking. We've got to change students' views so that scoring 25% on an assignment or test is seen as a better alternative than not attempting it. I'm not suggesting 25% should be cause for celebration, but why not cause for inspiration? Myshift from multiple choice to open-ended questions was helpful in this regard because each right answer was an indication of true understanding. I could then say to a student who scored 25%, "great, you've nailed one-fourth of this stuff; now let's go after the other three-fourths."
Reinforce the success process. In conjunction with #1, allow students to retake tests, as I did with Keisha (subject to students meeting certain conditions, since it's wrong to give second chances to kids who blew their first chances due to self-defeating behavior such as not taking notes in class).
Assign greater weight to later assessments than earlier ones. Provided your assessments are cumulative--which I usually recommend--students will have opportunities to show on future assessments that they've mastered skills they lacked on previous assessments. Those later assessments should thus count more toward their overall grades than earlier ones, since it's what students know in the end that matters most. And by doing this, here too you'll be reinforcing the success process and providing hope for those students who score 25% early on. (This too, of course, should be subject to students meeting certain conditions.)
Diversify assignments. Kids are most likely to confront their weaknesses with hope when we regularly recognize and reinforce their strengths. One way I did this was by including in math assignments unconventional items such as word plays and brainteasers that played to math-averse students' strengths.

Just a few ways we as educators can give students hope, the first word in my H.E.A.R.T. acronym chronologically--and in order of importance, since students will never do what it takes to be successful unless they believe they can be successful.

The Monday spelling pretest. It's as American as apple pie. Each of my three sons routinely scored 20/20 on the Monday spelling pretest throughout elementary and middle school. They were required to “

Posted by Mark Pennington on July 19, 2014 at 6:22pm

The Monday spelling pretest. It's as American as apple pie. Each of my three sons routinely scored 20/20 on the Monday spelling pretest throughout elementary and middle school. They were required to “study” and “practice” these words with an obligatory worksheet, crossword puzzle, or write-the-word-ten-times assignment. They were then tested on these same words on Friday. They learned zilch about spelling from this instructional practice.

Fair to say that this common instructional plan makes no use of the teacher as an informed practitioner. The first task of an informed teacher is to determine what students already know and don’t know. The second task of an informed teacher is to make use of the diagnostic data to differentiate and individualize instruction.

So, how can an informed teacher make sense of the Monday spelling pretest to differentiate and individualize spelling instruction? Simply follow these five steps:

1. Prepare

Create Supplemental Spelling Lists for each student.

A. First, administer a comprehensive diagnostic spelling assessment to determine individual mastery and gaps. (Avoid qualitative inventories which do not clearly identify spelling patterns.) Grade the assessment and print grade-level resource words for each of the spelling pattern gaps.

B. Second, find and print these resources: For remedial spellers−Outlaw Words, Most Often Misspelled Words, Commonly Confused Words. And these: For grade level and accelerated spellers−Greek and Latinate spellings, Tier 2 words used in your current instructional unit.

C. Third, have your students set up spelling notebooks to record the spelling words which they, their parents, or you have corrected in their daily writing.

Now you’re ready to teach.

2. Pretest

Dictate the 15—20 words in the traditional word-sentence-word format to all of your students on Monday. Of course, the words do matter. Rather than selecting unrelated theme words such as colors, holidays, or the like, choose a spelling program which organizes instruction by specific spelling patterns. Have students self-correct from teacher dictation of letters in syllable chunks, marking dots below the correct letters, and marking an “X” through the numbers of any spelling errors. This is an instructional activity that can be performed by second graders. Don’t rob your students of this learning activity by correcting the pretest yourself.

3. Personalize

Students complete their own 15−20 word Personal Spelling List in the following order of priority:

-Pretest Errors: Have the students copy up to ten of their pretest spelling errors onto a Personal Spelling List. Ten words are certainly enough to practice the grade-level spelling pattern.

-Last Week’s Posttest Errors: Have students add up to three spelling errors from last week’s spelling posttest.

-Writing Errors: Have students add up to three student, parent, or teacher-corrected spelling errors found in student writing.

-Spelling Pattern Errors: Have students add on up to three words from one spelling pattern deficit as indicated by the comprehensive diagnostic spelling assessment.

-Supplemental Spelling Lists: Students select words from these resources to complete the list.

4. Practice

Have students practice their own Personal Spelling Words list.

A. Use direct instruction and example words to demonstrate the weekly spelling pattern.

B. Have students create their own spelling sorts from their Personal Spelling List.

C. Provide class time for paired practice. Spelling is primarily an auditory process.

5. Posttest

On Friday (or why not test every two weeks for older students?) tell students to take out a piece of binder paper and find a partner to exchange dictation of their Personal Spelling List words. Now, this makes instructional sense—actually using the posttest to measure what students have learned! But, you may be thinking...what if they cheat? For the few who cheat...It would be a shame to not differentiate instruction for the many to cater to a few. Truly, they are only cheating themselves.

Mark Pennington is a middle school teacher and educational author. His focus on assessment-based instruction led to the development of his just-released Teaching the Language Strand (of the Common Core State Standards) Grades 4-8 programs.

Interactive AFL Faculty Meetings

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 13, 2011 at 9:00pm

For the past several years at Salem High School we have focused on assessment for the staff development portion of our faculty meetings. The Assessment Network has played an integral role in those faculty meetings. The Forum feature has enabled us to make our discussions more interactive and collaborative as well enable us to archive our activities for future use.

This blog post is a list of the AFL Forum discussions we at SHS have had during those faculty meetings. They are included here so that other schools can benefit from our exploration of AFL. We encourage you to feel free to use our Forums as you see fit. Furthermore, please be encouraged to use the Forum feature to create your own interactive staff development discussions. Don't look at this as just Salem's page - it belongs to all members. This Network is for any educators interested in exploring AFL. If your faculty has an assessment discussion on this Network it will only serve to benefit the rest of us.

As we have additional AFL Forum discussions at SHS we will add links to them to this post.

9/03/09 - The relationship between assessment and grading
9/23/09 - Grading v. Assessment
10/28/09 - An example of AFL - GPS
1/13/10 - An example of AFL - Whiteboards
3/10/10 - Results of AFL Survey
5/12/10 - Plans for AFL Objective
12/8/10 - Use AFL Rubric to set mid-year objective
12/14/11 - Building a Culture of Failure
3/23/12 - Homework
10/24/12 - AFL Discussion Question: Non-graded assessment to make sure students understand content
11/28/12 - AFL Discussion Question: Using a summative assessment for a formative purpose
1/22/13 - AFL Discussion Question: Quick AFL-activities to use at the end of class
11/12/14 - Pretend You're A Grade Coach
2/25/15 - Standards Based Learning and the Inchworm
2/24/16 - Using AFL/SBL to Analyze a Common Assessment Practice: Earning Points Back on a Test
4/13/16 - Tools for the Standard 7 Teacher
1/11/17 - Applying SBL Philosophy
1/10/18 - Incorporating Assessment into Lesson Plans
1/08/20 - Compensation, Consequences, and Compliance

Using a Review Sheet in an AFL Manner

Posted by Scott Habeeb on October 18, 2011 at 2:00pm

Over the past several school years as our school and division have focused on Assessment FOR Learning as a primary professional development topic, I have consistently noticed the following:

When I witness or hear about an excellent and highly effective teaching practice, essential components of Assessment FOR Learning are present.

I know that might sound like too absolute a claim to be true, and perhaps I've witnessed some exceptions that I am currently forgetting, but it really seems to be the case. At least some amount of what I have dubbed "The Heart of AFL" - frequent assessments, teachers using feedback to guide instruction, students using feedback to guide learning, and grading systems that allow practice to count as practice - seems to show up in every excellent teaching practice I see.

Recently I was in a meeting in which a group of teachers and a counselor were talking about a student's progress with that student's parent. The teachers were explaining to the parent how their classes worked and what the student could do to be successful. Anika Armistead, a Science teacher at Salem High School, explained to the parent that at the beginning of each unit she gives her students a test review. Throughout the course of the unit, she has students assess their progress. At least theoretically, by the time the test finally rolls around the students should have a personalized study guide as a result of the feedback they have given themselves.

Here's an example of the type of study guide Mrs. Armistead gives her students:

You probably noticed that this test review looks pretty much like a typical test review that could be or has been used in classrooms for years. If you noticed this, you are exactly right. You might remember from earlier discussionson this Ning that AFL-ishness doesn't depend on what type of assignment you give. AFL-ishness instead depends on how you use the assignments you give. This is a perfect example of how something as ordinary as a test review can be used in an AFL-ish manner. And when essential AFL components are present - in this case, students using feedback to guide their learning and a grading system that allows practice to be used as practice - excellent teaching takes place.

Read below for Mrs. Armistead's personal account of how and why she uses test reviews in this manner:

A few years ago, I decided to create review sheets for each test. I taught the unit, then a day or two before the test, I handed out the review sheet for the students to complete, check their answers, and ask for clarification on topics they weren't sure about. Some students caught on that the review sheets could really help them, but others didn't and still scored poorly.

Last year while I was out on leave, I got to thinking about how I could make these review sheets more useful for my students. My review sheets were designed to show my students exactly what I expected them to know for the final assessment. So I decided that I shouldn't wait until test time to let them know my expectations. This year, I'm giving each student a copy of the review sheet at the start of the chapter.

I remind my students that the review sheet will not be collected, nor will it be graded. I have heard this comment several times, "Then why should I do it?" I've found that students often decide not to complete an assignment unless there's a grade attached to it. I tell my students that the review sheet is their time to practice and that they will get the chance to prove what they know on the test that will be graded. I know that some students won't complete the review sheet, but I'm not going to change something good for the few who decide not to take advantage of the chance to tailor their studying.

When I give out the review sheet, I remind my students to use this to their advantage. I recommend reading over the questions to see what the students already know. As we progress through the unit, I periodically ask the students to pull out the review sheet. I ask that students complete a section in class (like a chart or diagram) as a way to review something covered the day before, or I write on the board the numbers to the questions the students should be able to answer at that point in the unit.

I tell them to try to answer the questions without using any notes or outside help the first go round. I tell them that if they can easily answer a question, then don't spend too much time studying something they already know. I also tell them that if they don't know the answer to a question, then they need to circle or star that question as one that needs more of their attention.

By using this process, I want my students to see that by tailoring the review sheet to their needs that they will find how to best use their time. Overall, they need to focus on the stuff they don't know (the circled or starred items) and just do a quick review of the material that they already know.

Students are welcome to ask questions about the review sheet at any time. For these questions, I try to guide the students to the correct answer without giving them the answer directly. As we near the end of the unit, I let the students know that they should have the review sheet completed by a particular date, usually a day or two before the test. At that time, I go over the answers with the class to make sure everyone has the correct answers to study. I remind them again to focus on any questions they got wrong or weren't sure about.

On the day we go over the answers, I try to walk around to see who has completed the review sheet and who hasn't. This gives me an opportunity to target those students who didn't use the review sheet as intended. If a student doesn't do well on the test, I suggest they try completing the review sheet as we work through the next unit and not wait until the end to just copy down answers.

Focused Formatives

Posted by Scott Habeeb on June 6, 2014 at 1:46pm

I came across this blog by Cassandra Erkens recently from a link on Twitter. I was reminded of 2 things:

Twitter is an excellent resource for professional development and professional growth, and
Formative Assessment - Assessment FOR Learning - just makes sense.

I love how Erkens provides practical ideas for implementing AFL strategies into a classroom. More importantly, though, is how she helps teachers decide what to STOP doing in order to make room for the new strategies.

Follow this link to read Focused Formatives by Cassandra Erkens. You can follow Cassandra on Twitter at @cerkens.

Communicating AFL to Students and Parents

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 13, 2011 at 10:00pm

Many of the posts on this Ning have dealt with how to communicate with students and parents about AFL practices. Let's face it, just like AFL concepts are new to many educators, they are definitely new to many students and parents. It's important to properly communicate with students and parents so that they understand what we we're doing and why we're doing it. This increases the likelihood that they will benefit from your AFL methods.

As additional resources for communicating AFL are added to the Ning, they will also be added to this blog.

3 Perspectives on AFL - how a parent and a student view a teacher's use of AFL strategies
It's About Students Taking Ownership of Learning - practical examples of ways to train students to use AFL
Getting and Giving Student Feedback - thoughts on giving students opportunities to use feedback
AFL Principles Can Guide Many Different Types of Classroom Practices - training students to track their progress
AFL Email to Parents and Students - let parents and students know about your AFL expectations
A Great Reminder for Students - train your students to think in AFL terms
A Student AFL Conversation Overheard in the Library - when students start putting AFL ideas into practice
What we WANT students to do v. What we TRAIN students to do - let's get kids to think properly about grading
Students Understanding the Value of Assessment - you want your students to appreciate the power of assessment
Don't Forget the Power of SPIN - Explaining AFL to guide student perceptions
AFL Communication and a Self-Assessment Rubric for Math - an example of communicating the purpose of AFL practices to students and parents
The Power of Asking "Can You" - an example of training students to assess their own progress
Which parent do you most hope to please?
Response to a Parent (from Rick Wormeli)
AFL Teachers Reporting Progress in an SBL Method (using PowerSchool)

AFL and Heart Monitors

Posted by Scott Habeeb on April 25, 2014 at 11:37am

Often, the most profoundly powerful concepts are simple at their core. AFL is such a concept.

Doesn't it just make sense? If we want young people to learn content or skills, we need to gather feedback - and help them gather feedback - on how their doing in relation to specific standards and then use that feedback - and train them to use the feedback - to guide learning.

It's a lot like going to the doctor when you're sick. You tell the doctor what's wrong with you so he or she can use your feedback to guide the application of medical treatment. You would never think of NOT telling the doctor your symptoms - unless you weren't interested in getting better.. It's just common sense. It's a simple practice that leads to powerful results. There's no reason the classroom shouldn't function the same way - unless we're not interested in students actually learning....

The PE Curriculum of Salem (VA) City Schools has changed in recent years to have a primary focus on fitness as opposed to the traditional game-based physical education. The goal is to teach a student what she needs to be able to maintain a healthy lifestyle for a lifetime. Kids are taught to:

analyze their own fitness activity,
recognize various fitness levels,
analyze their heart rate and how it relates to fitness levels
determine what type of activity is required to reach various fitness levels

All of these skills will help students take control of their own physical well-being and live healthy lives.

Recently I was in a PE class at Salem High School taught by Ashley Mathis. Mrs. Mathis did an excellent job incorporating the goals of Salem's PE curriculum into her activity. Her students were working out in the school's fitness room. They were paired up at stations around the room. The students would be active for two minutes at their station. After two minutes they would stop, measure their heart rate, and then rotate stations. They had a goal of being in a certain fitness level for a certain number of minutes. They used the feedback from taking their pulse to increase or decrease their intensity at the next station appropriately.

My first thought as I watched the class was that this is what a PE class should look like. All kids were engaged. All kids were active. All kids were working hard. And - at least as best I could tell - all kids were having fun. This was a meaningful class teaching students meaningful skills that have the potential to lead to healthy and active lifestyles.

But the other thing I thought was how natural the principles of AFL fit into this the class. To make a big deal out of this class's "AFLishness" seems unnecessary because it seems so natural or normal. Yet there is something profoundly important to be learned from once again realizing how to best use assessment in the classroom. Specifically, in Mrs. Mathis's class:

The assessment strategy was well-planned and intentional, rather than an after-thought. Assessment was woven into the activity and integral instead of something additional that was done when the activity was over.
The feedback was constant and given throughout the activity - every 2 minutes to be exact. Students always knew where they were and how they were doing. They didn't have to wait until everything was finished to see how they did.
The teacher used the feedback to know how to encourage students and how to direct their upcoming activities.
The students used the feedback to self-regulate and take control of their own growth.
The assessment was unrelated to a grade. Instead, the assessment-elicited feedback was directly related to growth and learning.

AFL is how people learn. It's not just how we learn in school. It's how we learn period. It seems so simple, yet sometimes the bulleted list of principles evident in Mrs. Mathis's class are not evident to the degree they should be in our classrooms. They need to be. Whatever you teach, use this PE example as a model on which to base your assessment strategy.

Thanks, Ashley!

The Philosophy of AFL

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 12, 2011 at 11:00am

This AFL site has grown to the point where that it now contains many different blogs and discussion that get to the heart of the philosophy of AFL. In order to most effectively implement AFL strategies into the classroom, it is helpful to have a strong understanding of the overall philosophy and goals behind AFL. These ideas are scattered throughout the site. To make this site easier to navigate, this one blog will include links to all of the blogs and posts that deal with the philosophy of AFL.

Formative Assessment Infographic

Posted by Scott Habeeb on March 24, 2014 at 10:34am

Here's an excellent resource created and shared by Pam Jimison. It's a great way to look at Assessment FOR Learning strategies. What would you add to her graphic?

http://wjuedtech.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/formative-assessment-infographic/

Students understanding the value of assessment - nice to see!

Posted by Scott Habeeb on February 12, 2011 at 10:29am

Recently I spent a few minutes in the classroom of SHS Marketing teacher Michelle Kovac. Her Marketing students had just turned in projects that day.

When I came into the class the students were in the process of evaluating similar projects turned in by last year's students. Mrs. Kovac had given her students a rubric when they started the project. Now she was having them use that rubric to assess the projects that had been turned in last year. After the students assessed last year's projects they told Mrs. Kovac what grade they had assigned to the projects. Mrs. Kovac then told them what grade she had given. By doing this, the students learned 2 things:

1. They realized that they were harsher graders than Mrs. Kovac was, and

2. They realized exactly how Mrs. Kovac would be grading their projects.

This led to the students falling right into Mrs. Kovac's "trap". After truly understanding how their projects would be graded, the students asked exactly what Mrs. Kovac wanted them to ask - "Can we have some more time to work on our projects?" Mrs. Kovac smiled and told them that they had the rest of the class period to finish their projects. With their new assessment-elicited data in mind, the students literally sprinted to their projects to add finishing touches. It was joy to watch students so eagerly wanting to work on a project, and it would not have happened if Mrs. Kovac hadn't taken the time to train them how to assess.

A student named Zac then made a statement that "one-upped" Mrs. Kovac's excellent lesson plan. Zac told Mrs. Kovac that next time she should let them assess the old assignments either at the beginning or half-way through their work on their projects. That way they could learn from the assessment and make sure they had the best possible project ready to turn in on the due date.

Mrs. Kovac liked Zac's idea and told the class that that was exactly what she would do.

What a great AFL idea. Can you apply this to your classroom? Is there a way you could give students examples of the work you are asking them to do? Could you then train them to assess it the way you do? Would this have any impact on the quality of the work the students did for you? In my opinion, the answer to all of those questions is "Yes".

This blog post is a reprint of an article originally published on Education Week. Read it here or in its original form.

Student Success Prerequisite: Hope

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