Transcript Assessment as PD - Hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca

Assessment as PD
PLC’s at Work
Charles P. Allen High School
Professional Development
September 28, 2007
Our PLC’s Three Big Ideas:
 Ensuring that students learn
 A Culture of Collaboration
 A Focus on Results
Ensuring Students Learn

Our PLC groups
should address:
1. What do we want each
student to learn?
2. How will we know when
each student has learned it?
3. How will we respond when
a student experiences
difficulty in learning?
Points to Ponder
 What is the difference between assessment
and evaluation?
 What is assessment “for” learning?
 What is assessment “of” learning?
 What is assessment “as” learning?
 What are some purposes of assessment?
Some things to Remember:
 We are already “effective.” We are striving to become “more
effective!”
 The success of our PLC Model depends “not on the merits of the
concept itself, but on the commitment and persistence of the
educators within it.” ~ Dufour
Break-out Groups
Team Lists
Sohael Abidi - Math
Kathy
Armstrong
Jeff Hunter
Ryan Thornton
Andrew Woods
Rob Aucoin
John Jennings
Pam Roddick
Shawn Young
Laura
Campbell
John Gray
Jeff Lewis
Lily Tam
Foster Lyne
Tanya Skelhorn
Lori Nicholson
Jen Williams
Stephanie
Hibbitts
Break-out Groups
Team Lists
Andy Allen - Science
Benedette
Anyanwu
Janet Hattie
Peter
MacDonald
Chad Baily
David Hubley
Mike McCarthy
Mike Burke
Rob Hubley
Eric McIntyre
Angela Walker
Cheryl Kohler
Heather Michael
Paul Geddes
Lise Lo
Ray Robertson
Terry Ryan
Break-out Groups
Team Lists
Chris Hall – Social Studies / Art
Nancy Bianco
C. Emberley
Genevieve
Primeau
Patricia Tench
Brad Boudreau
Jane Gasior
Lisa Reid
Lisa Wall
Kevin Currie
L. Downey
Amy
Rhodenizer
Andrea
D’alessio
Jamie
MacDonald
Fulton Rhymes
Desiree Daniele
Rick Plato
Barbara Scott
Break-out Groups
Team Lists
Allison Walker – English / Tech.
Ellen Bay
Ken Cottrell
Rob Milligan
Nathan Beeler
Rob de la
Chevotiere
Greg Nauss
Jodi Bucci
Sandra Heft
Lori Dawn
Nichol
Scott Cameron
Nick Crowe
Doris Okihiro
Peter Coll
Richard MacNeil
Val Simmons
The Essential PLC Conversation
Elements
 How good is good enough when achieving a learning
target?
 How do we know?
 What are the benefits of descriptive feedback vs. a mark?
 What are the characteristics of an effective assessment
task?
 What is the difference between assessing understanding of
a concept and understanding of a procedure?
 How can you design a task that uncovers student
understanding or misunderstanding of a concept or
procedure?
 How do we assess problem solving and communication?
The Assessment Task



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Working on your own, complete the task .
In small groups(2-3) discuss the following:
What is the purpose of the task?
Is it better suited to assessment “of” or “for” learning?
Which mathematical process skills are needed to complete
the task?
 For which grade level is this appropriate?
 What strengths or misconceptions would you anticipate will
emerge as students complete the task?
 De-brief as a whole group.
Social Studies
& Art
Editorial Cartoon Instructions:
Explain the artist’s message in the cartoon. Use
evidence from your experience to indicate whether the
message is valid.
Science
Examine the food web. Explain in detail what effect the
‘overfishing of cod’ would have on the population of
leopard seals.
 The following story is from the award winning short story
anthology The Things They Carried .
“Stockings” by Tim O’Brien (Vietnam War veteran , born 1946)
 Question:
For some readers, the most memorable stories are those
with believable characters. Comment upon whether the
character Henry Dobbins becomes a real person for you?
Justify your answer with reference to the author’s use of
characterization.
 The following four point rubric will be used to evaluate your
response:
-Knowledge and Understanding of the Story
-Communication and Support of your Argument
-Understanding and Use of the Language of Literature
(terminology- eg. symbolism)
-Matters of Correctness (ex. vocabulary, grammar)
Math
r
A square is inscribed in a circle of radius ‘r’ as shown in the
figure. Find a mathematical expression (in terms of ‘r’) for
the area of the shaded figure and show how you derived
this expression.
Sorting Student Work
 Working in groups of three, sort the student
work into 3 piles: high, medium, low
 Discuss the following as you sort:
 What does the work show about what the
student does or does not understand about
the math?
 Discuss whether the teacher has to infer
what the student understood about the task.
 Are there any unique solutions?
Group De-Brief after the Sorting
 Is there a difference between what students
understand and what they communicate about that
understanding? High inference vs. low inference
 What might make it easier to sort and assess
student responses?
 Do we need to bullet-proof every assessment task
we give to students?
 What is the consequence of too much scaffolding
when we design tasks?
 How would we make a task more open-ended?
Feedback to Students
 Examine the “Feedback” Map provided by your Facilitator
 Discuss your thoughts
 Take the sample of student work provided by your
facilitator.
 Individually, write descriptive feedback to the student on
the copy you have been given.
 Write 1-2 positive things that the student understood about
the task and then write a prompt to point the student in the
direction of their next step in completing the task. The
prompt could be in the form of a question or a challenge to
take the problem further. The written feedback should be
specific to the task.
 Share your feedback with your small group and then with
the whole group.
Feedback to the Class
 If this were your class what feedback or next
steps would you take?
 How would you respond to the class as a
whole?
 Share ideas with the whole group.
PLC’s and Assessment
 Read the two handouts provided by your
facilitator.
 Reflect on the articles. Discuss as a group.
Using Rubrics to Score Problem
Solving and Communication
 Review the CAT3 rubric for problem solving
and communication which your facilitator
has passed out along with a sample student
paper.
 Use the rubric to score the paper for
problem-solving and communication. (2
separate scores)
 Discuss with the whole group.
Using Rubrics
 In your small group, score the class set of
student work using the rubric. Agree on a
mark for problem-solving and a mark for
communication for each student paper.
 Discuss the scores you are assigning to
student work and give reasons.
Using Rubrics
 Group De-Brief:
 What is the advantage of having a separate score
for communication?
 Why assign a rubric score of 1for no work shown?
 What is the difference between holistic and
analytic scoring?
 Why is holistic scoring more suited to performance
tasks which involve problem solving and
communication?
Reflect on the Essential Elements of
“PLC Discussion” after the Activity
 How good is good enough when achieving a learning
target?
 How do we know?
 What are the benefits of descriptive feedback vs. a mark?
 What are the characteristics of an effective assessment
task?
 What is the difference between assessing understanding of
a concept and understanding of a procedure?
 How can you design a task that uncovers student
understanding or misunderstanding of a concept or
procedure?
 How do we assess problem solving and communication?
Next Steps: Common
Assessment and Professional
Learning Communities
 Get together with teachers of the same course or grade.
 Design performance assessment tasks.
 Share the problem-solving/communication scoring rubric
with students.
 Administer the tasks to students.
 Come together frequently as a group to score student work
using rubric, discuss feedback and student performance
issues. Dig deeper when students have problems the
tasks.
 Monitor and track student achievement over time in
problem solving and communication.
 Establish a professional learning community within your
school or join together with colleagues at other sites for this
purpose.