Formative AssessmentHow may assessment guide teaching and learning?

Cameron Paterson

Mindfulness is

“the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose”

(Jon Kabat-Zinn)

“After 30 years of doing such work, I have concluded that classroom teaching…is perhaps the most complex, most challenging, and most demanding subtle, nuanced, and frightening activity that our species has ever invented…The only time a physician could possibly encounter a situation of comparable complexity would be in the emergency room of a hospital during or after a natural disaster.”

Image: http://www.volunteerswmi.org/

3 volunteers

John Hattie & Helen Timperley, The Power of Feedback: http://education.qld.gov.au/staff/development/performance/resources/readings/power-feedback.pdf

Grant Wiggins, Seven Keys to Effective Feedback: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback.aspx

STOP MARKING!

“The most powerful single modification that enhances achievement is feedback.”

(John Hattie)

Image: Kenny Bengsston

“Much of the feedback that students get has little or no effect on their learning.”

(Dylan Wiliam)

“Teachers who spend time crafting helpful comments are wasting their time if they also give a mark.”

(Dylan Wiliam)

Image: http://www.solution-tree.com/authors/dylan-wiliam.html

16/20

What is a grade?

“…an inadequate report of an inaccurate judgement by a biased and variable judge of the extent to which a student has attained an undefined level of mastery of an unknown proportion of an indefinite material.”

(Paul Dressel, Facts and fancy in assigning grades, 1957. p.6)

Interest in learning is diminished and thinking is

more superficial

“Students need some feedback about how they are doing in terms of marks, grades or levels, but I suggest this should be no more than once every two or three years in primary schools, maybe once a year in lower secondary , and perhaps once a term when before school-leaving or university-entrance exams.”

(Dylan Wiliam)

Image: iStockphoto

“If I had to reduce all of the research on feedback into one simple overarching idea it would be this: feedback should cause thinking.”

(Dylan Wiliam)

Students must be required to respond to feedback

Ladder of Feedback

Suggest

Concerns

Value

Clarify

Image: iStockphoto

“Experience success and failure not as a reward and punishment, but as information.” (Jerome Bruner)

Student-Teacher Feedback• Question Formulation Technique• Critical Incident Plan• Exit Cards, eg. One-Minute Essay• End of Unit Reflections• I learned…I liked…I wish…I wonder…• I used to think…Now I think…• Pedagogy discussions at the end of term• Student Surveys• Reflective essay using examples from your own work

during the year to show how you have grown as a learner

Reflective Essay“At the beginning of History this year I was more dependent on rope learning/spoon feeding to try and help me to become a more independent learner. Although I think spoon feeding might have helped me get a better mark in an assignment or exam after that you are left with nothing you can ever really use again. Using the different teaching methods such as practical exercises, assignments each term and teacher vs textbook and many others to make us, the students, think for themselves when trying to get an understanding of the topics. This experience is something that we can take and build on in the future to help us in places like senior years and university.”

(Max, Year 9, 2015)

Austin’s butterfly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqh1MRWZjms

KiSH Critique

1. Be KindPresenting your work for critique puts you in an incredibly vulnerable position. For the critic, on the other hand, it’s easy to get carried away when you’re critiquing work, especially when you feel like you know exactly what a piece of work would benefit from, and inadvertently say very hurtful things. Thus, this ground rule cannot be stressed enough.

2. Be SpecificEven if you are being kind, you are not doing anybody any favours if you are vague. ‘I think Melanie’s writing is really good’ does not cut it in a critique. ‘I like the way Melanie uses lots of different verbs in her writing so that you feel like you’re a part of the action’ is much better.

3. Be HelpfulCritique is not just about naming what is strong and weak in a piece of work, it is also about working out how to go about improving that work.

Kind I really like the way you……………….. Excellent ……………….. throughout The most successful thing about this was ……………….. I enjoyed reading this because ……………….. It was especially good when you ………………..

Specific In the first/second/third paragraph ……………….. I think ……………….. is quite difficult to understand/could be explained

better/could include more detail etc. Your sentence/paragraph about ……………….. was ………………..

because………………..

Helpful Think about adding ……………….. Think about taking away……………….. Have you thought about………………..? To improve your………………..try……………….. Perhaps you could………………..

Documentation: https://vimeo.com/36323323

Reggio educators refer to documentation as “visible listening”

Image – Wamda: http://www.wamda.com/2012/05/4-ways-to-create-a-culture-of-observation-at-your-startup

Qualitative forms of sharing evidence like student work, photos, and video are powerful ways to provide a more complete picture of student learning

Image: http://feministing.com/2014/12/08/7-things-you-should-know-about-evidence-in-campus-rape-proceedings/

Kid Cam: https://vimeo.com/112387481 Image: Tim Kaegi

“Assessment is an intrinsic part of documentation”

(Carla Rinaldi in Documentation and Assessment: What is the Relationship? )

Image – All Things Learn: https://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/learner-engagement-in-a-culure-of-learnacy-part-01/john-hattie-quote/

Assessment is a conversation, not a number

Learning or Performance?

“The Board of Studies does not require a number to be used (in relation to assessment) until Year 12.”

“Grading is an end of course judgement.”

“School protocols squash the reality of what the Board requires out of sight.”

• Too much testing• Focus more on learning objectives and less on covering content

I BLEW IT!I tried something new and innovative

and it didn’t work as well as I wanted

This coupon entitles me to be free of

criticism for my effortsI’ll continue to pursue ways

to helpmy students be successful

I used to think…

Now I think…A routine for reflecting on how and why our thinking has changed

Image: iStockphoto

A B C D/FVolume So loud I can’t hear

myself thinkLoud enough that I can’t hear myself speak

Loud-ish in some parts of the room but quiet in others

So quiet I can hear the toilets flush

Tempo Rapid: Hands are hurriedly smacked together

Fast: Hands are quickly brought together

Leisurely: Hands are hit together at an unhurried pace

Slow: Fingers are slowly tapped together

Dynamics Erupts suddenly, builds to a deafening crescendo that is sustained for a second or more, then fades slowly and reluctantly

Builds up for a second, peaks, then fades

No change in dynamics: Half-hearted throughout

Begins with a silent pause, pitter-pats for a second, then fizzles

Applause Rubric

Cameron PatersonE: cpaterson@shore.nsw.edu.auT: cpaterso