Shifts in Assessment and Learning

     On another "Cold Day" here in Chicago, I wonder which of the people in the cartoon above is asking that question...  To be honest, being a student and being a teacher these days is HARD.  Expectations are high for both.  Sometimes, we just have to see the reasons for getting up and facing the world.  This week's building meeting gave me that motivation, despite the frigid temps we are facing.  

     Our building meetings at Hiawatha have all been focused around looking at student work.  Sometimes we compare it to a specific standard, sometimes we sort it into categories, sometimes we just talk about the information we gained from the samples.  We have done that for reading, writing, and math on a rotating weekly basis for a few months.  This week, we were talking math and were led by the fabulous +Christina Betz.  She is our math core leader at Hiawatha, and leading the math charge towards the CCSS and utilizing workshop model.  

     Christina started the meeting with the cartoon above, really being honest as to how hard school can be, for both teachers and students.  She then talked about why we are sorting work, and how there have been some major shifts in assessment recently.

     Christina is so right!  We are currently on a DACEE committee together, led by +Bill Davini and +Sue Butler, and we are right in the middle of a major shift in D100.  We have spent quite some time talking about Standards Based Learning, and how formative assessment and feedback given regularly are what our students need to move closer to meeting the standards.  Standards based learning is about being responsive to the students WHILE they are learning.  Using Christina's words, we want to give descriptive feedback that empowers and motivates students to create their own goals and find their own success.

     Her message was very powerful and positive, and really speaks to the shift we have seen at Hiawatha in the purpose for our assessments and the collaboration we have around them.  

     I cannot state how proud I am of the Hiawatha teachers for embracing the shift.

     She then had the teams discuss whatever formative assessments they had brought.  Here are a few sneak peaks into current math instruction at Hiawatha!

     But as I was walking around, I heard some pretty amazing things being discussed by the teams.  3rd grade was talking about self assessment, and how they are starting to have their students self assess their thinking on the back of the exit slips.  I heard a first grade teacher say that she could just recycle the whole stack of assessments, because they pretty much told her how to reteach the concept so that they will understand it.  The 5th grader teachers were talking about their math responses and their rubric for their math journals.  And then I got to 4th grade....

What do you notice about these 3 fractions?  Explain below.

     The 4th grade teachers were sorting their samples using this question into 1, 2, 3, and 4.  After sorting a bunch, they started to see a few patterns in the types of answers they were getting.  After some discussion, one of the teachers said, "Maybe we didn't ask the question in the best way."  (OK, that was a paraphrase not a direct quote, but I was so giddy with excitement that I forgot to write it down.) 

     That is the point of the collaboration we are having.  By working together and looking at student work, and talking with our coworkers with clear targets in mind, we start to see ways that we can change our instruction to maximize learning.  

     After telling them how excited I was, they began to describe how they have seen a transition in their math assessments over the course of the year.  What used to be very lengthy and often time consuming pre-assessments, they are now using much shorter yet more useful formative assessments that guide their instruction.

CHILLS.  

      Building meetings like this make me want to find a big box of gold stars.  While stickers do not give the best feedback, sometimes they are just necessary.  Gold stars all around.

Christina ended her part of the meeting by saying this:

"Assessment, teaching and learning go hand in hand as each informs the others."

     I loved that statement so much I had to make a graphic for it.  Assessment, teaching and learning all go hand in hand.  Assessment guides our teaching.  Teaching guides learning and creates feedback and new learning. The learning generates new teaching.  Teaching does not necessarily mean learning has happened.  Responsive teaching is here in D100. There has been a shift, and it will do wonderful things for our students.  

Why Sort Student Work Samples?

If you want to go fast, go alone.  

If you want to go far, go together.

-African Proverb

     This year, our focus for building meetings has shifted.  Instead of learning new strategies for lots of random things that are necessary in school, we instead shifted to one strategy that could be used across all subjects.  That strategy is looking at student work.

     More specifically, we are using a loose structure of the Collaborative Analysis of Student Work.  Each week in building meetings, and in some team meetings and the occasional 1 on 1 plan with the literacy coach (me), teachers at Hiawatha are beginning to look at student work with the standards in mind.  We sort the work samples into 1, 2, 3, and 4, with a few simple purposes:

1.  We want to come to common terms about our expectations for student work.
2.  We want to see what our students are getting from our instruction.
3.  We want to be able to plan universal instruction that fits our students' needs.

     The strategy of sorting work is meant to be collaborative.  In having discussions together, we are realizing that we do not all share the same thoughts about work, or process, or expectations.  We also don't have the same lenses to analyze.  By having conversations like this, we start to learn and collaborate from each other about our students and how to best help them.  We put value into our colleagues' thoughts, and in our students' work.

SIDENOTE:
Sorting work is meant to be a strategy done with someone else, either in pairs or as a team.  The strategy could be independently used by teachers, too, but we certainly do not expect you to sort every piece of student work that the children create.  Your purpose for sorting needs to be clear, and beneficial to you, before you choose to sort work on your own.

Back to the building meeting...
     This week, we just said to bring work that had a written response to reading.  It could be a whole group assignment, or work from a small group.

4th Grade worked together to sort main idea pre assessments, done in a Boxes and Bullets format.


 

First grade met to sort a formative assessment on character.  They call them Brain Blasts.

 

2nd Grade met to talk about an assessment they gave studying a character (Peter by Ezra Jack Keats) across multiple read alouds.

5th Grade discussed responses in a Reader's Response Notebook, comparing it to the CCSS rubric.


 

Kindergarten brought a "Book Report" written response.

 

Third grade brought their Reader's Notebooks, too.  Their responses were about supporting character traits with text evidence.

 

     As I walked from group to group, I heard a variety of conversations.  Some focussed more on standards, some talked about the qualities that made responses a "2" or a "3", some discussed where their next teaching points need to go, others just talked about if their current teaching point was understood by the class.  In actuality, this is a process that we are just starting.  We don't all have the same vision of what a grade level sample looks like with the Common Core in mind.  It's this type of conversation that needs to happen for us to get to commonality and equity in Standards Based Learning and/or Grading.

To repeat my beginning thought...

If you want to go fast, go alone.  

If you want to go far, go together.

-African Proverb

     I am thrilled that we are at the point where grade level teams can bring samples that they created in their own rooms to talk about next steps and reflect on where their kids are in the learning process. This is a slow process, but I think that if we give ourselves permission to talk to our coworkers about the work the students are actually producing, we will all be more effective teachers because of it.

     Thank you, Hiawatha.

Warming Up on a Cold Day with Awesome Teachers

     I don't know if you have heard about this, but it was really cold this week.  I mean REALLY cold.  In fact, the only snowman we have built at the O'Donnell house with the highly anticipated first snow of the season was this LEGO snowman.  We even built it during school, because it was so cold that we had 2 cold days.  I mean, that is REALLY cold.  

     OK, that probably isn't news to you guys from Chicago.

     When I heard the news that school was in session on Friday after being off the 2 previous days, I was a bit reluctant about it.  To be honest, I was nervous about the cold weather and sending my son to school, where he waits outside in the car line to be picked up at the end of the day (a car line that I had a feeling would be waaaaaaaaaay longer than normal due to the temps...).  I also knew that my husband would be home, because his school opted to take the third day off due to frigid temps.  But, I woke up and bundled up and drove into school, with just a little bit of the winter blues.

    Then I got to school, and the thaw began!

     I started the day in a book talk about standards based grading.  It was our first meeting to discuss On Your Mark, a book written by Thomas Guskey about the reasons to shift towards standards based grading, led by our principal +Karen Marino.  We had an honest conversation about the purposes for grading, and the reasons that it is an important shift for us.  We began talking about our current report card and its limitations.  We had an interesting discussion about I Can statements and how we use them in our classrooms, effectively and not so effectively.  It was just the beginning of the conversation, but did I mention that it is an optional book talk (the day after 2 cold days) and there were 20+ staff in attendance!!!  It really just shows the dedication that our teachers have to really understanding their students better.

     I then met with a teacher to help her get some video clips of her art project into an iMovie to show her thaumatropes to her students.  They were awesome!  Starting my day with art is always a step in the right direction.

     I then dropped off some children's books to a teacher who is looking to include some mentor text into her writing lessons.  They are starting opinion writing, so I got to look through my books and find some fun books that show strong opinion or persuade.  Nothing brings a smile to my face faster than children's literature, but a close second is a teacher looking for a good mentor text.  

     I stopped into a few classrooms and caught some great mini lessons in both reading and writing.  Our kids were off for a few days, but you could never tell by the learning I saw today!

     I had a thoughtful mini discussion about running records, and the purpose for them and the information we can get from them when they are "cold" or "warm" reads. 

     I then met with a teacher about some ways to get some partnership book clubs going, with the possibility of using some close reading signpost strategies in the process.  While we work that out, she turned the conversation to the PD +Meg Hanisch and I held on Monday at Institute Day about main idea and standard 2.  She decided to do a pre-assessment and asked me to meet with her after school to look at the results and begin to create a rubric of sorts for main idea.  "Of course!" I shouted!  (Ok, I didn't really shout out loud, but I did inside a little.  How fun!)

      I then went to talk to another teacher about one of her higher level reading groups, and some of the challenges we are having since moving to nonfiction.  We decided to use a book from Jennifer Serravallo's newly arrived assessment kit (YIPPEE!!!) with the group, to get a good sense of the information we can gain from the assessment kit.  We plan to have the group do the assessment, and use her system to discuss their answers and really look for their strengths and weaknesses.  

     On the way back to my office, I chatted with a reading specialist about the possibility of her providing some support to a teacher.  We talked about a possible observation cycle of sorts, and then discussed some data I have been analyzing that looks at some trends across 3 and 4 year periods of F&P data.  While that might not sound all that exciting to some people, I am a data junkie.   Proud to admit it.  

     I then went to meet with a teacher who wanted talk about assessments for their character unit, and the possibility of adding some close reading lenses to their current shared reading block.  We looked at a rubric she had already created, and then talked about the types of things we might like to assess for this unit, with a close eye on Standard 3.  We also have an idea for close reading that I will have to share once we actually teach it.  It is going to be so fun.  

     I then talked with a teacher who gave a PD on using formative assessments that I missed this week, and asked her to meet with me and give me a mini version of it because of the positive buzz that it has created around the building.  

     There were three brief conversations with teachers about their individual data walls, as we prepare of our IDM meetings next week.  Questions about universals, RTI, and missing data.  Oh my!

    This is when I had a piece of delicious homemade banana bread, thanks to a dear friend.  Did I mention it was homemade AND had chocolate chips in it?  

     
     I then got a text message with these photos, and the message "Super fun teamwork!"  Um... Can I be in 2nd grade again?  I want to be on their team.

     I stopped into a classroom and took a look at some books and resources left behind by a previous teacher, and found trade books from our last two reading basals and a summer school program.  It is so interesting seeing where we were then, and where we are now.  The previous teacher (ok, it was me) worked so hard to get those leveled readers purchased for her groups.  Now, our book room is filled with authentic reading materials.  

     One of our teachers then invited me to sort some formative assessments with her.  She has started sorting them, but wanted to think about how she could sort them and record them in a way to show progress over time.  While I don't know that we accomplished that goal, we did sort the samples with a lens of "problem/ solution" and had an interesting conversation about her students' responses.  I think we came up with a teaching point to add to her read aloud to help her students move to the next step.  

     I then had bus duty, where I got to meet the grandpa of one of our new Hiawathans.  What a nice man!  

     I finished the day getting to have a brief conversation with a teacher from another building, and then a longer conversation with that teacher who had done the main idea pre-assessment with her students.  We read the main idea student expectations of our CCSS rubric for standard 2, and determined some next steps for her main idea instruction.  We realized that her students are doing a fantastic job using text support and finding key details, so she will use that strength to move them along.

     So, I may have started to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher to you somewhere in the middle of that.  I have a feeling that CCSS based conversations, rubrics, pre-assessements, close reading, partner book clubs, mentor texts, work sample sorts, and book talks about standards based grading do not excite you as much as they do me.  But, I am a but of a nerd.  I embrace it.  So why bother boring you with all that?  I typically don't discuss how I spend my days, because coaching is a private thing at times.  

     I just couldn't help myself.  I just had to share those conversations with the world.  

     Did I mention that this happened the day after two cold days?!?!?  I kind of wanted to be in my slippers still, and they were ready to hit the learning targets.   

     Wow.  While half of Chicago was still frozen and not even attending school, those are the conversations that I had, with some really amazing teachers (and I am sure I missed a few in my list).  I mean, days like today make me realize how fantastic the teachers at Hiawatha really are.  Below zero temperatures do not stop them.   And I couldn't be any prouder of them.

     I just really hope the weather warms up just a little bit next week.  As warm and fuzzy as all that academic talk made me today, I really would like to stay a literacy coach and not become a snowman.      

What is the Purpose of Grading?

     Last week, I wrote a post about our staff using the narrative writing standard of the common core and annotating evidence of it on grade level exemplar samples, provided by the Lucy Calkins Units of Study.  You can find that post here.

     Jane DeCaire and I had done that activity to help up get ready for a task that had been assigned by our district Writing Core group.  They had asked that every school pick exemplars of their narrative writing so that we can group them and look at samples from across the district.  In order to do that, we felt that we had to familiarize ourselves with grade level expectations.  All too often, we compare the samples in the room with the other samples in the room, and pick soley based on comparing them to each other.  By looking at the standard and a grade level sample (most of which were more developed than our kids produce), we began to see where the "bar" is.

     For this week, we brought some of our student writing and had the teachers look for evidence of the standard in those samples, and determine what were samples that meet the standard, and if we had any that exceed.  In a previous meeting, we had used these terms to sort work into categories:

1: Below
2: Approaching the standard
3: Meeting the standard
4: Exceeding

We had asked our staff to bring the top 3 samples from their class.  So, is the work they brought a 3 or a 4?

 OR ?

     That seemed to be the question that arose.  We are just getting our feet in the water with standards based grading, and our report cards do not necessarily match the work we are beginning to do with our staff.  So, in my opinion, it comes down to our PURPOSE for grading in the first place.  The great Bob Marzano wrote about it in his book, Transforming Classroom Grading.  Here is a link to a piece of it about purpose for grading.  

He names 5 purposes:

1.  Administrative purposes (promotion, retention, class rank, etc.)

2.  Feedback about student achievement (one of the typical primary purposes of grading)

3.  Guidance (guidance for choosing placement, like a guidance counselor would do)

4.  Instructional Planning (to help determine groups and instructional plans)

5.  Motivation (for the students)

     So which is most important?  Marzano said, "In short, there is no clear pattern of preference across the various sources except for the importance of feedback. Consequently, schools and districts must undertake their own studies of teachers and administrators regarding the purpose of grades." Hey, he must be eavesdropping at our meetings!  :)

     Back to that "Is it a three, or is it a 4?" question...  It depends a bit on our purpose at Hiawatha.  If we are using that 3 or 4 to show whether our students should promote to the next grade, or be retained, then we really need to know what a three or a four is.   Our report cards are not there yet as a district, though, and that is a conversation that really should be held district wide.  

     What if our purpose is feedback about student achievement?  If we look at student work to see if they achieved the learning goals of our lesson, then it is also important to really know what would be considered a 3 or a 4.  If the majority of the class does not get that 3 or 4, should we then use the information to plan for instruction and revisit the missing concepts?  But, if we don't have a clear understanding of what a 1, 2, 3, or 4 really mean, it could be possible for kids in one class to get a 4, and kids in another class to get a 2, for doing relatively the same quality of work.  How do we know what to reteach then?

     What if our purpose of grading includes student motivation, but the 4 is marked for performing at the next grade's standard, and no one in the class can even perform at grade level?  How does that affect motivation?  

     There are many, many, many questions that come up when we start to have conversations like the ones we are beginning to have at Hiawatha.  I really think that all of those purposes for grading are relevant to our conversations as we begin a journey towards standards based grading.  I think the most important factor right now is the collaboration of the grade level teams.  The answer might be different if the task is a pre-assessment, a response journal, a writing sample, or a math problem.  The fact that we are talking with each other, and trying to align our expectations, is critical.  

So, here is a question for your team:

What was your learning goal for the lesson/ assessment/ unit?  What did you expect for them to be able to do?

Perhaps that is your 3.  And it is good to get a 3!  The 4 really should be all that you expect in the 3, but go beyond what was taught to the whole class.  

In short, here are some goals for us as we move forward:

1.  Use the standards in the conversation.  The more we reference the standards and talk about them as a team, the more we understand their potential impact on our kids.

2.  Know that we are in the early stages of this process.  It is OK if, for now, we use this process to just help us decide what to teach next.  It does not have to be about report cards right now.  

3.  Get to know your kids and what they can do.  Move them along to where they can go.

4.  Give yourself permission to figure out your learning goals/ targets and then communicate those to your students with student friendly checklists.  (More on that soon!)

5.  Use our conversations to give better feedback to your students, and less to grade them.  

Thank you, Hiawatha staff, for starting on this journey!