One of the most impactful results of our ongoing work with
curriculum design, review, and revision is the development of a shared
understanding of what exemplary curriculum looks like at Nipmuc Regional. We
began by collaboratively crafting essential questions and enduring
understandings, by discussing and deciding upon skills and content, and
by carefully aligning learning experiences to standards.
As Nipmuc completes Stage 1 of its curriculum work, we
have added a layer of assessment goals on top of the curriculum. Departments
are working together to build common assessments, making decisions about the
tools we use, what we measure, and how we use the results. To support this
work, we spent some time with our department chairs developing some key reminders
to build assessment capacity.
Included below are 5 reminders to build assessment
capacity.
1. Different assessments, different purposes. As we
work together to build common assessments, our first task is to solidify a
shared understanding of the different types of assessments and when to use
them. Included below is set of definitions of some of the essential tools in
our teachers' tool-kit.
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| Types of Assessment (created w/ Post-It Plus & Notability) |
2. Formative assessment = Assessment FOR student
learning. During the past two years we have increased the use of formative
assessment as a critical part of teaching and learning. We’ve made progress
through two main developments. First, we used the NEASC process as a way to
evaluate our practice and reflect on progress. The Standards for Accreditation
provided us with a solid starting point to develop a shared understanding of
formative assessment and how it is used.
The standard for instruction (not assessment) asks that
teachers adjust their instruction to meet the needs of every student by using
formative assessment. It also asks that they improve their instruction by
reviewing formative assessment results. Our conversations through the
self-study process and use of Google Docs to create a catalogue of formative
assessment strategies highlighted the many ways that we captured data about
student learning in order to change teaching.
As highlighted in the chart above, formative assessment
isn’t about grades or report cards. Formative assessment isn’t for the student;
it’s for the teacher.
3. Get your feedback fast...go digital. The second way
our school has expanded its use and understanding of formative assessment is by
going 1:1. Putting iPads in everyone’s hands not only made formative assessment
easier but also helped us to gain a common understanding of how it can be used.
As I visit classrooms I see a diverse range of tools being put to use
including Kahoot!, Google Forms, Socrative, PollEverywhere, Plickers and VersoApp among others. Each tool has
different reasons why it works. Kahoot! gamifies formative assessment making it
fun and a little suspenseful for the students. Socrative gets used a
bit more formally, with teachers benefiting from the real time view of
individual student and whole class success with a question. Google Forms allow
access to powerful data by exporting to Google Sheets or compiling stats,
answers, and comments in the summary page.
While all of the tools have different strengths, there is a
great deal of commonality in the information they present. What makes these
tools valuable for formative assessment, though, isn’t the information
provided but how the teacher uses that information. Effective use of these
digital tools means responding on the fly. Teach the concept, check the
learning, adjust the instruction. Great teaching is still a human capacity… the
technology simply allows great teachers to respond faster.
4. Performance assessment leads to higher-order
thinking. Throughout last year we worked with Quality Performance
Assessment to develop ways to measure achievement of our 21st century learning
expectations. What we learned from that process - beyond the impact of
protocols and calibration on our professional work - was that making learning
authentic leads to higher-order thinking.
Performance assessment asks students to show their learning
by completing a task. Our assessments ask them
to analyze or examine; to critique or defend;
to design or construct. You can't develop a performance
assessment task without using these verbs. In order to perform well they must
not only remember or understand but also analyze, evaluate, and create.
5. Make common assessments a common
occurrence. Common assessments are periodic assessments that are
collaboratively designed by all teachers of the same course. The
assessments are aligned to the Stage 1 of curriculum and represent the power
standards of the unit. Common assessment results are analyzed
collaboratively to guide instructional planning in the future.
Creating a digital catalog of our skills, content, essential
questions, and enduring understanding gives us the potential to have a
rigorous, aligned, shared set of learning experiences for our students. Without
this work completed, we would not be able to establish common
assessments.
As we expand common assessments, we must first agree
upon what makes an assessment "common". The first answer to this
question is that the assessment includes the same questions that are
asked of students across all sections and teachers of a course. Different
teachers, same assessment. Second, the assessment should be given at the
similar point on the curriculum map. It's important that students are taking
the assessment after reaching the same point in the curriculum. Third, the data
gathered from the assessment is put to use in a purposeful way.
By aligning content standards with assessments and
deliberate instruction, teachers develop a depth of knowledge about their
content standards, improve their ability to design assessments, learn to better
link assessments with instruction, and plan for intervention for students who
continue to struggle
In order to be able to build common assessments you need a
few key ingredients including:
- a written curriculum in a common format ...Check
- regular common planning time embedded in the school day for teacher collaboration… Check
- a tool like the “Assessment Validation Protocol” to evaluate assessment quality… Check
- collaborative faculty members who support their colleagues' professional growth… Check
We’re ready to make common assessments a common practice!
Maureen Cohen's "Assessment FOR Learning"
Maureen Cohen's Assessment Literacy Video Tutorial Series
Edudemic's "Every Teacher's Guide to Assessment"
Follow me on Twitter @JohnKClements or @NipmucNews
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