AFL in a Secondary SchoolAugust 26, 2013

Welcome

• Who came today?

• Please introduce yourself and tell where you are teaching, or just say hello if we’ve worked together before.

A brief history (of me)

• 11 years teaching here at AESS, with the last 6 mos. as acting vp

• 3 years as vp at Prince Rupert Secondary School in Prince Rupert

• 1 year as vp at Quamichan Middle School in Duncan

• 4 years as principal of Lake Cowichan Secondary School

• Currently at School District No.48 (Sea to Sky) as Director of Technology and Innovation

Some handouts and e-resources

• Sentence strips and Sharpies

• Example course outcomes in student friendly language

• Learning log and learning journal example

• http://sea2skysd48.wordpress.com

• Follow @peterjory on Twitter

• pjory@sd48.bc.ca

Learning intentions• Develop a deeper, more practical

understanding of the direction BC and global education is headed

• Develop a deeper understanding of the way assessment and learning fit together

• Develop a deeper understanding of Feedback and several ways to increase it in your classes

• Create some student friendly learning intentions that can be used right away in an actual class

Schedule for today:• Conversations about learning and

assessment

• Creating an environment with more FEEDBACK

• Lunch

• Conversation about Student Friendly Outcomes

• Time to write learning intentions to use in a class next week

Traditional learning• Students in desks

nearly always

• Teacher owns the knowledge

• Teacher talks, students listen and take notes

• Marks are seen as currency

• All students do all assignments on the teacher's timelines

• All students are given summative assessments on scheduled intervals

Typical marks program• Each task has a

column

• Each has a 'weight'

• You can assign a zero or exclude the value

• The program produces a percentage for each student

Where is education in BC going?

• Fewer outcomes• Personalized learning• Student Inquiry• Project-Based Learning• Blended learning environments where

students move away from the Carnegie model and learn across disciplines, age groupings, online and face to face, and synchronously and asynchronously

• The traditional timetable may be on the way out

• Traditional marks may even be on the way out and report cards may look completely different

The future?

Is this a good fit?

Zugunruhe

• German word for the anxiety a herd feels just before it moves

Why do we “grade” assignments?

• Discuss with a partner for 3 minutes

What the research tells us:

• Marks on individual assignments have little or no motivating effect on students to learn

• Low marks on assignments often have a demotivating effect in regard to learning

• Students will often attribute low assignment marks to factors other than their own learning or interest in learning – such as the teacher’s interest in them

• Low marks often come from a lack of understanding about the assignment expectations rather than content knowledge

• Students are frequently dissatisfied with the lack of specific advice they get, and the clarity of the advice they do get.

• Once a mark is given on an assignment – STUDENTS RARELY LOOK AT THE FEEDBACK TEACHERS PROVIDE

What the anecdotal information tells us … if we ask:

• Most students will tell you that though they “prefer” to get higher marks on assignments, it would not generally change their behaviour in regard to LEARNING

• Students want to be successful in their learning and respond positively to “more help”, meaning specific information on how to improve

• THEY WANT AND NEED MORE FEEDBACK

• http://meganjakse.blogspot.ca/2011/08/5-years-later-assessment.html

How do we define rigour in the classroom?

• Is it “having standards” and turning students back when they don’t reach them?

• Is it by adding more work at the same level of difficulty?

• Is it by lesson design that moves students towards deeper thinking?

Are we teaching curriculum ...

or are we teaching students?

• Psst!

Please say students.

Are we teaching compliance ... or are we teaching students to

think?

• Do we still want to graduate the best darn factory workers in the whole entire world?

• Please say no.

Are we really assessing Student learning?

• Or are we being unduly influenced by neatness, organization, and compliance?

• Report card comment examples:

Peter Grade 5

Peter Grade 6

Did I really degrade over the summer?

• Maybe.

• There are likely some other factors though ...

Task Completion and Learning

• What assumptions to we make about the connection between these two concepts?

• Can you think of some examples of when you have seen little or no connection with an assignment in your class?

• Can you think of a time when learning became the absolute focus with little regard for task completion?

• Walk and talk with a partner or group or three, then report back when we return.

• Discuss with a partner and share out

Take a Lap!

Reporting Time!

Evaluation:

• Is about comparing where students are in their learning in relation to where they are expected to be.

Lesson design becomes more important

• Are the students really learning what they are supposed to be learning?

• Do you know what that is? Do they know what that is?

• Are you constantly sharing and discussing that information with them?

• Are you building in opportunities to personalize and co-design along with them?

• Does your assessment practice support all this?

What can you do to tie these together?

• This requires constant reflection and having mechanisms in place to encourage that to happen

AFL Big Six

• Learning Intentions

• Criteria

• Questions

• Feedback

• Peer and Self-Assessment

• Ownership

Why do we practice?

• Consider an area where you consider practice important.

• Discuss for three minutes with a partner

Feedback:

• is the specific information that helps a student get from where they are in their learning to where they need to be

• must be timely, specific, usable

• is not "good job"

• is not a "zero"

• encourages reflective thinking

What is feedback continued ...

• “.. Feedback needs to provide information specifically relating to the task or process of learning that fills a gap between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood.” –Sadler

• “Our feedback must tell students not just what needs to be improved, but also how to go about it.” -Wiliam

• “Learning is more likely to be fostered when feedback focuses on features of the task (success criteria) and emphasizes learning goals.” -Kluger & DeNisi

• “In giving students descriptive feedback, you have modeled the kind of thinking you want them to do as self-assessors.” -Chappius

Does it matter?

• John Hattie meta-analysis

When do we give FEEDBACK?

•“Any feedback that students can't act upon or do something about is useless.” –Schimmer•“Students can assess themselves only when they have a clear pic of the targets their learning is meant to attain.” -Black & Wiliam• "Feedback needs to come while the students still think of the learning goal as a learning goal ... " -Brookhart

I give feedback by:• Kagan time!

• Stand up, move to an open space, and find someone you haven't been sitting with

• Share one way you give feedback in your class

• Switch and repeat

• Circle Share

What could it look like to maximize feedback in your classroom tomorrow?

• More interactions each class. Either go to them or have them come to you, but strive to have at least one more “check in” with every student every day, check for understanding, and give some specific information to guide their learning

• More steps built into your assignments where students can share, reflect, discuss, and revise their evidence of learning

• More chances for you to review assignments with students before giving a summative mark

• Opportunities for students to resubmit assignments or rewrite tests if they can show evidence that their learning has evolved (because the “test” you arbitrarily put on that day should not mean removing any further motivation to learn or show learning)

Increasing feedback:• Know that this is what makes the difference to

learning and make sure that daily conversations occur with each student

• Create an Environment of Practice -revising and rewriting not just allowed but actually expected!

• Keep the summative mark out of the process as long as possible

• Know that your students will do fewer assignments, but that each one will become more meaningful

• Fully formative assessment process

Remember, assessment is a conversation!

• You can start with the three critical questions :

1. What are you learning?

2. How is it going?

3. Where do you need to go next?

A simple but powerful change in semantics:

• Replace the words “doing” and “working on” with “learning”

Can every moment in your classroom be important?

• “You’re missing your learning right now.”

• It’s not about logging time in the room.

Checking for understanding

• What strategies do you use to know if the students actually know what you need them to know in order to go further?

• Four fingers example

What ELSE can be done to increase the effect of feedback?

• Key course outcomes (soon to be competencies) are shared at onset using student-friendly language if possible

• Learning intentions every day

• All major assignments have specific (and preferably) co-constructed criteria

• Each draft of each assignment must receive teacher (and ideally peer and self) FEEDBACK

And ...

•More assignments are deemed to be practice, and how many are completed will differ between students•Key assignments are mandatory, may receive letter grades based on the criteria (ideally in a co-created rubric), and missing any of them at reporting time means the student is at an “I” or “In Progress” level•Fewer assignments are completed. Focus is on quality instead of quantity.

And to really go “All IN” …

• Achievement really starts at the C+ level – meaning if a student has all of their key assignments in and at the “Fully Meeting” level, they would have at least a C+ when it comes time for reporting

• Their achievement level is determined through conversation using the evidence of learning they have provided compared with the criteria you have set for the course (using the appropriate resources)

• Assignment tracking can use an old mark book or Excel spreadsheet – but there is no averaging or calculating done!

"We don't talk about pass or fail anymore ..."

"....We talk about 'iterations.' "

The Power of Switching

•For “struggling and reluctant” learners: Transition from just passing to mastery (No more, “I just want the 5/10.”) •Migration of more learning to exam situation for struggling and reluctant learners

•Focus on learning instead of doing improves ownership

• Improved achievement for “high achievers” as they get the “stretch” learning they need to excel at the next level, instead of giving them credit for previously learned skills

The beauty of no zeros:

• Every thing is still in play. Every moment in the classroom still has a purpose. Every day is an opportunity to re-motivate.

• “I still haven’t seen your ________ project. You can continue your learning on that right now.”

Got an exam course? Got an

exam of any kind?

Let me say this one more time:

•Deeper learning equals more transfer from one environment to the next

•Translation: Higher Test Scores

After trying it:

•“I can’t go back.”•Further experiences with English 10 and Communications 11/12, both of which are exam courses•Differential between class average and MOE Exam average gets very tight – we start to teach and assess more in line with the Ministry curricula and standards•Translation: What you and the students think they know is much closer to what the Ministry wants them to know.

Sound weird?

• Discuss with a partner!

Yes, this is all fine and good, but what about me?

• Q: Will I be doing more “marking”?

• A: Probably, but if most of your formative assessment involves timely conversations with your students, it is collaborative work that directly impacts learning, as apposed to work in isolation that (sadly) has very little impact at all!

“Me” continued:

• Q: If I don’t have firm deadlines, won’t I get buried with assignments at the end of a term?

• A: We haven’t found that. Also, keep in mind that if your assessments are ongoing, the students’ evidence of learning is both well known to you and very polished by the time it is submitted for a summative mark, and requires little or no work at that time!

“Me” continued:

• Q: “I’ll need to have the support of my principal and explain what I’m doing to my students and their parents.”

• A: Yes. That would be wise.

“Me” continued:

• Q: “What about my mark book?”

• A: Hmm. Yes. It probably needs to change ...

Perhaps ...

• Your “columns” could be grouped into outcomes or competencies where evidence of student practice and examples of learning are tallied, then when proficiency is achieved there is a place to record that assessment

Most Importantly:

• Let’s get away from focusing on tasks to complete and using grades as a currency to reward compliance - either intentionally or as a by product of how we assess.

• Instead let’s try to focus on learning and measuring what students actually know and can actually do!

If Nothing Else ...

• Make it a priority to have one more meaningful interaction with each student every class about their learning!

Lunch

What are we Learning?

• Students need to know what they need to know

When students struggle with an assignment:

• It is often because they do not understand either the instructions, or the purpose of the assignment, or both.

• “Because I said so” only works with compliant students, and it turns out they don’t really like it much either.

The more you involve students in this conversation:

• the more they will be able to participate in the design of projects and assignments that move their learning forward

• the more they will be able to discuss their learning with you

• the more they will take ownership over that learning and become active and engaged in the entire process

This is the place ...

... where we all want to go.

Creating Student Friendly Outcomes

• Start with your course PLO binder - or better yet, new (draft) course competencies if you can get them

• Select the most important information and focus just on the essentials. Seriously. Cut the junk.

• You may want to convert to student friendly language. This will take some time but it is well worth it. (Share Com example.)

• Break down the outcomes into more discreet chunks that can be the focus of attention for 20-80 minutes

Having a way for students to connect and reflect will add

to the positive effect.

• Examples of Learning Log and Learning Journal

Creating and sharing “I can” Statements:

• in student-friendly language will offer added clarity to both you and your students

This is a journey

• Developing learning intentions that precisely identify the purpose of each lesson takes practice, reflection, and consistent effort

• Learning teams are crucial to this process

• Be tenacious about it, but start with one course

Follow up as a staff. Then, follow up again.

• During learning time at staff meetings, PLC time (if you have it) or a future pro-d session, check-in with your peers regarding this strategy, using the three critical questions

Another truth about learning intentions (and criteria):

• The more reflecting you do on the specific nature of the learning you want students to master, the clearer and more effective your feedback will become, and the more successful your students will be.

Assignment for today:

• Pick a class you know well or where you have or can easily get the outcomes or competencies

• Choose a section of learning you are planning for your class and begin or review the planning process

• Develop a set of learning intentions that can be shared with the class, either daily, as a unit, or in an ongoing way.

It is a good idea to:

• Work in draft form until you really like the wording

• Share and discuss with a learning partner as you go

• Intentions can be shared on handouts, on the whiteboard, via projector or Smartboard, or on sentence strips

Work time:

• Strive to get some product down in the next 30 minutes, then we will reconvene and

share how it is going before continuing on

Share out:

• Where are you in your learning?

• How is it going?

• Where do you need to go next?

Is it time for more coffee?

Now keep going.

Wrap up and next steps:

• Keep tinkering with the language and making the practice of learning intentions consistent in at least one class

• Keep talking to a learning partner or a team

• Look forward to future conversations in staff meetings where you will get an opportunity to share, revise, and hopefully expand your practice

Learning Intentions (Review)• Develop a deeper, more practical

understanding of the direction BC and global education is headed

• Develop a greater understanding of the way assessment and learning fit together

• Develop a greater understanding of Feedback and several ways to increase it in your classes

• Create some student friendly learning intentions that can be used right away in an actual class

Now Keep Going.

Thank you!