Using Formative Assessment Practices to Promote Rigorous Learning

As educators, we are always in the process of answering these essential questions that drive our daily practice: 

What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

What will we collect as evidence of learning?

What will we do when students don’t get the learning?

What will we do if they already know the learning?

How will we provide feedback to students so they know how to get to proficiency or extend the learning?

The nation’s achievement gap is wider than ever with many sub-groups still performing significantly below their white, asian and wealthier peers. As we shift to valuing authentic learning aligned to college and career expectations it seems that the achievement gap is really an “access and quality gap.” Engagement with quality, authentic, responsive, rigorous core instruction for ALL students will go a long way to making the opportunity gap disappear forever – a lifelong personal goal.

But how? As educators there is so much out of our control. It’s overwhelming on a good day to think of meeting all kids’ needs. But for a minute, let’s dream and dream big. What if instruction was framed by a process that provides frequent information about the learning going on and students were aware of where they are in terms of meeting shared learning goals and what steps to take if they are not?

The process of formative assessment involves day to day, minute by minute assessment for LEARNING. Using the term formative learning just may be more accurate as it describes a process that is not about a test, but more about partnering with students in their learning to create a flow of actionable feedback for both teachers and students to act on to accelerate learning. 

Assessment for learning facilitates the kind of differentiation crucially needed to address ALL students’ needs. Through a process of goal setting, documentation and reflection teachers and students collaborate together to make learning as visual as possible so learning and teaching moves are transparent and actionable.

How to set up a formative assessment system in your classroom?

  1. What is the intended learning? Set clear learning goals based on grade level skill and content with students and make it visible. 
  2. How will learning be elicited? Create and deliver learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning and document the process. 
  3. How will evidence of learning be interpreted? Students and teachers reflect and interpret the evidence of learning. 
  4. How will evidence of student learning be acted upon? Students and teachers act on the evidence to accelerate and/or validate the learning.
Tools for Teachers
Formative Assessment Process

To learn more visit: https://smartertoolsforteachers.org/landing/formative

Access for All: Using a Universal Design for Learning Approach to Implement a Rock-Solid Instructional Core

Often our instincts are to scaffold pretty heavily so students don’t experience too much difficulty or to ignore students’ learning needs for the sake of rigor and grit. We want them to feel comfortable in class and stay as motivated as possible. But all too frequently, complex texts and challenging maths have been systematically removed from the hands of our struggling students who are overwhelmingly people of color. This is systemic racism by design in action. The consequences are stark. Many students have become very dependent learners and not provided dynamic structures and routines to build the intellectual muscle necessary to excel at the table of scholarship. Developing relevant intellectual curiosity with efficacy is core to our humanity and this intentional stymying of students’ information processing limits life opportunities.

The current response to the ongoing systemic under-educating of students of color is to purchase intervention programs that move students away from the instructional core with hopes that sprinkling them with decontextualized skill builders will transfer even though they will be further behind having missed core instruction. The instructional core includes three interdependent components: teachers’ knowledge and skill, students’ engagement in their own learning, and academically challenging and culturally relevant content (Elmore, 2002).  Instead of sorting and selecting students away from the instructional core, how about we make the instructional core really really solid! Ideally the instructional core tackles the dependency cycle by ensuring that students experience complex texts and tasks that require critical thinking and deep levels of engagement. We need to do things differently. Really differently.

Universal Design for Learning, based on concepts of providing equal access to persons with disabilities, has a great potential to guide us as we implement a rockstar instructional core. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) asks us to accommodate learning differences by planning in advance and making instruction available for more students, at lower costs, and reduce the need for after-the-fact steps such as intensive interventions and referrals to special education.  While intervention is still important, it is often too late. UDL is meant to proactively evaluate instructional and environmental needs prior to learning. The principles of UDL require making curricula, materials, and environments accessible and usable for all students in the building in all their full essence. As educators, we need to craft new ways to make education more convenient for time-pressed students, less harmful for people from diverse backgrounds, and more flexible for persons with different learning styles. If we make students’ core learning experience robust and we pay close attention to the learning, there is less need to catch kids up. Intervention support then can be based on fine-grained data and provided quickly in the moment.

So what does this look like? Highly collaborative and responsive. One way to look at this is through the lens of professional inquiry. If we have systems in place where we know students well through data, and regularly collaborate about how to address what we learn from data and have access to materials that support our plans for ALL kids ALL of the time, we can be better positioned to engage students in the kind of work that sparks the accelerated learning that UDL promises. Some students may need to hear a text aloud; some students may need extra language support, while some students may need a graphic to help them learn. All students need to learn how to organize content so they can learn content. Along with implementing UDL, an intentional commitment to every adult developing cultural competence creates a more responsive system that capitalizes on students’ identities to help motivate and sustain them in relevant scholarship. Classrooms can be designed to be noisier with more co-construction of knowledge with students. Designing spaces and learning throughways in anticipation of the humans we aim to serve goes a long way to inviting all students to the table of scholarship and keeping them there

Distance Learning Support for Teachers – 5 Key Tips

woman in pink shirt sitting by the table while smiling

During this unprecedented time, we need to shift in ways that are challenging to say the least. Teaching is already challenging and this pushes us even further out of the comfort zone. But there are opportunities with Distance Learning to go deeper with students and to use technology to enhance the learning experience for students as best we can. Here are some ideas and resources. 

5 Key Tips:

  1. Use the technology available that you are most comfortable with and demand support 
  2. Deeper learning is more learning: Focus on big, engaging ideas and chunk the learning so students build skills more independently over time and consider embracing project based or thematic learning as a container
  3. Be SUPER consistent with schedule, routines and procedures and keep them SIMPLE and COHERENT
  4. Set up a flexible responsive communication channel with parents and caregivers
  5. Practice self compassion and acceptance as much as possible and spread this to students and families by focusing heavily on kindness and respect while online

Resources by Tip:

Tip 1: Free Distance Learning Resources

Tip 2: Deeper Learning Really is More

Tip 3: Coherency is Your Friend

Tip 4: Communication with Your Community

Tip 5: Self Compassion and Respect Online

I AM OFFERING AFFORDABLE VIRTUAL INSTRUCTIONAL AND LEADERSHIP COACHING FOCUSED ON DISTANCE LEARNING WITH AN EQUITY LENS.
Email me at skirkman@ask-education.org
PLEASE ALSO Subscribe by email to follow me ABOVE. 

How you make students feel means the world to them

Quotes image of I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou said it best above. Managing ourselves during times of stress can be challenging. What we say to students, how we say it and how it makes students feel is crucial for a safe learning environment. Students know what makes them feel good about themselves and what makes them feel successful. When I asked my students what makes them feel good here’s what they said:

  • Smile when you see me.
  • Call me by my name.
  • Listen to me when I talk.
  • Don’t make assumptions about me, ask me questions.
  • Let me know that you missed me when I was absent.
  • Recognize my own special talents even if they don’t show up on my report card.
  • Give me a chance to succeed in at least one way each day.
  • Praise me when I do something well.
  • If you do not like something I do, please help me understand that you still like me as a person.
  • Respect me even if I still struggle to respect others and myself. I’m still learning.
  • Show me that I have a lot of options for the future, and that I can set my own goals.
  • Insist I aim high. Always. Even when I don’t want to.

Ask your students what motivates them. Try to reach a young person with these self-esteem builders every day.  High self-esteem builds stronger people and stronger communities. Remember, students experiencing success, even if small, is key to motivation. Motivation is key to learning.

TRY THIS ICE BREAKER AND GET SOME STUDENT VOICE ON THE WALLS

Click Here: BIO-POEM

 

See You at Linked Learning #LLCON 2019!

Gearing up for #LLCON 2019! I will be presenting: Tools for Transforming Teacher Team Capacity and Leading Sustainable High Quality Pathways on Weds, March 20 at 3:30, Room Crystal A!  

Here are my takeaways from last year:

Great Learning at Linked Learning Convention 2018!

I had a fantastic time at the Linked Learning Convention! So many educators from all over came together to learn about how to make the high school experience engaging for students while preparing them for college and careers through industry themed Pathways. I even got to meet an inspiring young chef who is a senior at an alternative school in Oakland who came to present at the conference about work based learning. IMG_0978

The Community Science Workshop Network was on hand to provide opportunities for participants to tinker, make, and explore their world through STEM and the Environment.

I was honored to present two sessions: Integrated Curriculum Design Studio and CCASN’s College and Career Pathways Leadership Guide.

IMG_0979

I hope to see folks at Educating for Careers Conference next week where I will be presenting CCASN’s College and Career Pathways Leadership Guide: New Tools to Solve Problems of Practice on Monday, March 5 at 1:15-2:30 in Room 308 of the Convention Center.

It’s Time to Use Reading Science!

This APM Reports documentary by Emily Hanford Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? is a really thought provoking piece about how children read and how kids and families land in the middle of the tug of war over how kids read – phonics vs. whole language still at it. We can all agree that everyone needs to learn how to read. When we examine prison populations and reading literacy rates we starkly see why. Better readers do better. Is reading natural? If we just give kids lots of books, is that enough? Where does phonics fit in? For how long? The education community does not agree.  I am a scientist at heart. I must follow the science of reading to formulate my bottom line.

Reading instruction must be dynamic and include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. Reading is natural for some but not others especially if you have a processing difference like dyslexia or are coping with trauma. Kids need support with phonics blending AND they need to learn whole words. Real tasks that use real texts across content areas to build background knowledge is essential for ongoing vocabulary development and reading comprehension.

Here are my Top 5 Reading Tips Based on Reading Science:

1. Phonics is ESSENTIAL through at least 1st grade and should continue as needed through strategic grouping.
2. Spelling instruction is important but should never hold students back from new learning or be overdone.
3. Word study or morphology with roots, prefixes and suffixes teaches kids to crack the code as they develop as readers starting in 3rd grade especially when gamified.
4. Leveled, “just right books” can limit access to and practice with complex language so beware.
5. Science, social studies, art and music build students general content knowledge and develop and even accelerate reading comprehension skills.

Need help developing your reading approach based on reading science? Let me know. I can help.

skirkman@ask-edcuation.org

Screen Shot 2018-11-01 at 10.52.08 AMBuilding Blocks of Reading

 

Taking the Time for Reflection

The end of the school year is often a frenzy of activities and we all can’t wait for the summer to begin. We make a huge energetic push to get the kids and ourselves to the finish line so and the lure of sleeping in a little later and the summer adventure we have planned are naturally on the forefronts of our minds. But are we missing out if we don’t make time for some reflection on our year? Time flies and the school year ramps up and we think, “what was that system improvement I wanted to make?,” or “I know I wanted to tweak this unit but I can’t remember what I wanted to do and now I don’t have time to do it,” or “I really was never able to reach that student and I really need to do better for kids but how?” We often don’t have the opportunity to innovate or iterate because as soon as the year starts up again, the madness begins and we start our race to the finish line once again.

Taking the time to do a written reflection at the end of the school year is a powerful ritual that can go a long way to moving the needle for teachers and principals but also for the students we serve. Teachers who engage in reflection rituals often end up sharing this reflective practice with students. Same goes for school and district leaders. Self knowledge of accomplishments and areas for improvement helps our brains and the systems we create grow. Reflective mindsets are more open to collaborative inquiry and can more easily adapt and be responsive to challenges and changes and interrupt the status quo that continues to marginalize way too many students and families. The more reflective rituals are honored, the more they take root and flourish.

Here is a process for reflection that helps us be systems thinkers as we “go wide” to assess our current reality and lift that which we want to celebrate and replicate and that which we need to tweak or stop doing altogether.

An After Action Review is a high level set of reflective prompts that foster reflection in a short period of time.

Try this set of prompts:

  1. Based on your goals for the year, what was supposed to happen?
  2. What actually happened?
  3. What do you think accounts for the difference?
  4. Think of student who you had great success with. What actions did you take do you attribute to this success? What other factors in the system were at play?
  5. Now think of a student who you did not reach. What actions did you take do you attribute to this challenge? What other factors in the system were at play?
  6. What will you do with what you have learned from this reflection? Write out a list to act on.

What are some of the ways you reflect? Feel free to leave a comment.

And after some purposeful reflection…go to the beach! For real. Recharge those batteries. You so deserve it and in case not enough people said it – THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR KDIS EVERYDAY!

 

 

 

It’s A-G Course Submission Time!

The University of California’s annual “a-g” course submission period is February 1 – September 15 and the May 31st Phase 1 deadline is fast approaching.
In order for students to accomplish their a-g requirements to be eligible for UC, high schools must submit course descriptions for approval in order for the course offering to “count”  so timely submission and approval is imperative for our students.  A-g Course Descriptions are essential to robust Programs of Study and also can be opportunities for teachers to collaborate on curriculum development and can support instructional coherence. The AG Course Management Portal has an extensive list of already approved Course Descriptions that schools can adopt and provides anytime access to:
  • Draft and submit new “a-g” course
  • Check the status of course submissions
  • Search and view “a-g” approved courses
  • Update your institution’s demographic information

Another amazing resource for a-g approved Course Descriptions is University of California Curriculum Integration (UCCI). UCCI Course Descriptions have the distinction of being “integrated” with Core Content + CTE industry themes. While these course were mainly designed to be used in College & Career Pathways, any CA high school can adopt them.

 I have had the opportunity to write approved descriptions and also to build out the approved courses into fleshed out units and have found the work so rewarding. Here is a link to some of the work I coordinated: tinyurl.com/UCCICourses2015

 

Teachers collaborating on Curriculum development is the best professional development in my view! #learningbydoing

 

 

See You at Linked Learning #LLCON 2019!

Gearing up for #LLCON 2019! I will be presenting: Tools for Transforming Teacher Team Capacity and Leading Sustainable High Quality Pathways on Weds, March 20 at 3:30, Room Crystal A!  

Here are my takeaways from last year!

Great Learning at Linked Learning Convention 2018!

I had a fantastic time at the Linked Learning Convention! So many educators from all over came together to learn about how to make the high school experience engaging for students while preparing them for college and careers through industry themed Pathways. I even got to meet an inspiring young chef who is a senior at an alternative school in Oakland who came to present at the conference about work based learning. IMG_0978

The Community Science Workshop Network was on hand to provide opportunities for participants to tinker, make, and explore their world through STEM and the Environment.

I was honored to present two sessions: Integrated Curriculum Design Studio and CCASN’s College and Career Pathways Leadership Guide.

IMG_0979

I hope to see folks at Educating for Careers Conference next week where I will be presenting CCASN’s College and Career Pathways Leadership Guide: New Tools to Solve Problems of Practice on Monday, March 5 at 1:15-2:30 in Room 308 of the Convention Center.