Formative Assessment in Middle School

Teacher Inquiry Project: Multimedia Case Study

Ross Local Schools-FAMS Cohort 1, 2012-20138th Grade Team

Joe Heilman, Lisa Oravec, and Robin Plowman

Our Teacher Inquiry Project Question

Inquiring Minds Want to Know:Does using formative assessment help students in the 8th grade understand/refine their own college/career readiness?

Our Teacher Inquiry Project Goal

Students will obtain college/career readiness knowledge, skills, and understanding to develop a post-high school goal and recognize the academic rigor necessary to achieve that goal.

Ross Middle School is...

The Ross Local School District has consistently achieved Excellent ratings on the State of Ohio District Report Card and has earned the prestigious Excellent with Distinction rating for the past five years. In addition, Ross High School and Elda Elementary School have both been named Schools of Distinction. On the 2012 District Report Card Elda Elementary School and Morgan Elementary Schools earned an Excellent with Distinction rating while Ross High School and Ross Middle School earned Excellent ratings by the Ohio Department of Education.The district consists of 72 square miles in the southwest corner of Butler County, Ohio. The area is rural/suburban with four small villages.

Teamwork!

The 8th grade language arts teachers have more than 50 years of combined teaching experience. We worked together extensively planning and implementing all stages of our FAMS Inquiry Project. We met weekly to develop plans, and used Google drive to develop and edit our formative assessment documents on a continuing basis throughout the school year.

Our Demographics

The 8th grade students have a daily block of language arts consisting of 84 minutes. We are a full inclusion district, and we each have 3 classes with a common plan period, which allows us to meet and plan together. The 7th and 8th grade students are placed on 3 different teams: A-Team, Dream & Extreme Teams. We each have approximately 75-80 8th grade students per team.

What is College/Career Readiness?

The level of achievement a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed — without remediation — in credit-bearing first-year postsecondary courses. And by postsecondary we mean primarily two-year or four-year institutions, trade schools, and technical schools. Today, however, workplace readiness demands the same level of knowledge and skills as college readiness. (ACT, 2008)

The Importance of Middle School for College Readiness

New research by ACT shows "the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school." ...

"This report also reveals that students' academic readiness for college and career can be improved when students develop behaviors in the upper elementary grades and in middle school that are known to contribute to successful academic performance."

Common Core & PARCC

Common Core- "To build a foundation for college and career readiness, students must read widely and deeply from among a broad range of high-quality, increasingly challenging literary and informational texts."

PARCC- "The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is a consortium of 23 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands working together to develop a common set of K-12 assessments in English and math anchored in what it takes to be ready for college and careers."

Project Background

Since moving to the Common Core and preparing for the new PARCC assessments, we have made learning about college and careers the focus of the students' 8th grade year. Students use a variety of online personality and interest assessments to match up to college programs and careers. The students spend the year researching and learning about colleges and careers and show their acquired knowledge in the form of written essays and career activities.

Project BackgroundThe final culminating College/Career project consists of students preparing a Career Portfolio, a multi-media research project or the opportunity to actually job shadow during the school day. We also tour our district's technical high school (Butler Tech) during the 8th grade.

Job Shadow and Butler Tech

Our Formative Assessment Focus:

We chose 3 specific areas of formative assessment that we wanted to focus on and incorporate into our College/Career study:

1. Learning Targets2. Student Surveys3. Student Self-Assessment &

Feedback

Implementation and Impact-Learning Targets

A glimpse into our formative classrooms.

• Developed clear learning targets.

• Lessons were aligned to the learning targets

• Success Criteria aligned to the learning targets

• Student Ownership with shared learning targets

Implementation and Impact-Student Surveys

Implementation and Impact-Student Surveys

• Student surveys allowed us to make needed adjustments to our lessons and instruction

• We used surveys to determine if learning took place and if our project goal was successful

Implementation and Impact-Student Self-Assessment & Feedback

Implementation and Impact-Student Self-Assessment & Feedback

• The questions, Where am I going? Where am I now? and Where do I go next? were used as the focus for our student self-assessment activities.

• Students monitored and assessed their own learning through the use of checklists, self-assessments, and peer-evaluations.

• Students used self-assessments to determine if they were successful in meeting the success criteria.

• Teachers used the results of the students' self-assessments to determine if they understood the learning target and success criteria.

Link to our Website of Student Videos

• View our student college/career interviews

• View students completing career research

Link to website with videos:

8th Grade FAMShttps://sites.google.com/a/rossrams.com/rms-fams/8th-grade

Big Ideas

• Feedback is central to formative assessment.

• There is no one single way to "do" formative assessment.

• Formative assessment strategies need to be aligned to learning targets and success criteria.

• Learning Targets and success criteria must be communicated clearly and reinforced with students in language they can understand.

• Students must be given instruction and tools in order to set learning targets and success criteria with their teachers.

More Big Ideas

• Learning Targets and success criteria drive the process of formative assessment.

• Effective formative assessment provides a constant stream of information about how student learning is evolving toward the desired Learning Target.

• Feedback should be clear, purposeful, and meaningful, and compatible with students' prior knowledge, and provide logical connections.

Our Personal Reflection

• Teachers implementing formative assessment need to set aside their need for control and their fear of making mistakes.

• Support and understanding from school administration and other personnel are crucial to implementing formative assessment.

• Implementing formative assessment is not a quick fix or a one-year "project." It is a continual commitment to meeting students' needs and involving students in their own learning.

Inquiry Conclusion

• Formative Assessment increased students’ college/career readiness knowledge, skills, and understanding to develop a post-high school goal and recognize the academic rigor necessary to achieve that goal.

Evidence of Professional Growth

• Grade 8 Deconstructed Reading Standards

• Grade 8 Quarterly Scope and Sequence

Works Cited

"About PARCC." Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. PARCC, 2012. Web. 9 Sept. 2012. <http://www.parcconline.org/about-parcc>.

"The Challenge: A Changing World." ACT 's College Readiness System: Meeting the Challenge of a Changing World. ACT.org, 2008. Web. 9 Sept. 2012. <http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/crs.pdf>.

Common Core Standards, English Language Arts, Kindergarten - High School. Columbus,OH: Ohio Department of Education, 2011. Print.

"The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness Before High School." ACT.org. ACT, 2008. Web. 9 Sept. 2012.<http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/ForgottenMiddle.pdf>.

Heritage, Margaret. Formative Assessment: Making It Happen in the Classroom. ThousandOaks, CA: Corwin, 2010. Print.

Marzano, Robert J. Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Grading. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2010. Print.

William, Dylan. Embedded Formative Assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2011. Print.