Tag Archives: Assessment

Achievement-Action: #20minwms

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When I logged into iGoogle this Saturday morning, I was greeted by this image:

Achievement is certainly preceded by action. Yesterday, on Friday, I was inspired by the ACTION a sizeable handfull of teachers took when they embarked on the “20 minute experiment.” Explained more fully in the permalink above, Jill Gough encouraged a number of us to engage in an experiment that would synthesize: 1) some of David Souza’s brain research on primacy and recency, 2) formative assessment, and 3) tweeting as a means of forum discussion. Among several others, a ninth-grade physics teacher agreed to participate and became immediately involved. He provides a summary of how he implemented the experiment at Quantum Progress. Throughout the day, participating teachers would take a brief “commercial break” 20 minutes into class and ask students to summarize what they had learned so far. Together the class would craft a 140-character tweet to summarize their learning, and they would post to the teacher’s Twitter account with the hashtag #20minwms. As the tweets appeared, we could all see what was being learned in the participating classes. We even received a spirited and curious inquiry about what we were doing from a Director of Teaching and Learning at a neighboring school. As the day progressed, the number of involved teachers grew – a snow ball was born!

Can you imagine the potential of this process to serve as formative assessment for teachers and students? To connect the learning that occurs between and among classes? To break down the walls that exist between classes? To serve as a window into learning for parents? To archive an essence of what was happening during a day of school? To…

It is about learning, isn’t it?! It takes action, it requires some risk taking, and it certainly is fun when we do it together!

Synergy 8 Draft Thesis Statements

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During this final week of the Synergy 8 pilot course, students prepared a quick piece of writing about their ONE most enduring lesson learned from the experience this semester. On Tuesday, they prepared draft thesis statements from which to prototype and revise. You can view a brief slide deck of the students’ draft thesis statements on SlideShare.

Grades – A Measure or a Rank

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Is a course grade a measure of a student’s learning? Is a course grade merely a way to rank students for whatever gateway comes next? Can a course grade be both and do a good job at each task?

Recently, a good colleague sent me a link to a New York Times Education article on grading at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The article begins like this…

It could be a Zen koan: if everybody in the class gets an A, what does an A mean?

The answer: Not what it should, says Andrew Perrin, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “An A should mean outstanding work; it should not be the default grade,” Mr. Perrin said. “If everyone gets an A for adequate completion of tasks, it cripples our ability to recognize exemplary scholarship.”

The article author Tamar Lewin goes on to explain that UNC is considering adding more context to its grading – a median average to accompany the mean average, as one example. In my opinion, the more context that can be added to a grade, the better! A grade devoid of meaningful context is not worth much. Why? My answer: because grades mean so many different things to different people.

Just read the article to get a snapshot of the confusion surrounding grades. I am not sure that such a thesis was intended by the author, but that is what the article concisely points out for me. For the schools that declare something like “no more than 35% of students can receive A’s,” they are clearly siding that grades are merely rankings. Relative achievement numbers so that the students can be lined up against a wall from “best to worst” – at least as well as such can be done with the likely imperfect instruments used to evaluate student learning (in theory).

But shouldn’t grades be real measures of learning? In the ideal, shouldn’t a grade give a learner an indication of how he/she performed relative to a clearly articulated standard…a mutually visible quality criteria (mutual in that the teacher and the student can see the same target equally well)? In this case, a grade is an absolute achievement number, not a relative achievement number. Such a grade would indicate to a student how he/she measured against a clear learning goal – NOT how he/she measured simply relative to other people.

What if Mr. Perrin taught a seminar course of 20 students, and all twenty students happened to be the “best” 20 students on campus? (Just go with me for a minute.) If Mr. Perrin had established and made known to his students (better yet…established with his students) the clear learning targets, AND if the 20 students had all achieved at the highest levels according to those clearly established targets, THEN shouldn’t all 20 get “As?”

Granted, if all 20 got As, it would make it very difficult for a receiving institution to know which one of the 20 students was “the best of the best.” But don’t grades fall short of their true meaning and intent when we use them as simple, imperfect rankings? If used for their true meaning and intent, shouldn’t the grades be for the primary purpose of the RECEIVER of the grade?! Should not the grade be an indicator to the receiver – the earner – of the grade that “Oh, I understand this material and this set of skills – the grade indicates that to me’? Or should the grade just be…”Oh, I am ranked 8th of 20 in this course. I was not in the top 35%. I must not know the material that well”? What if all of the top 8 MASTERED the content targets…the course objectives…the quality criteria? Is it just “too bad” for that 8th student?

Maybe the course instructors don’t really know what the clear targets are. Or maybe they don’t know how to articulate clear targets to the students. Or maybe they just didn’t articulate any targets to the students. Or maybe the targets are complex enough that simple numerical averages are not enough to communicate one’s understanding of the material and skills. Does my weight, alone as a number, indicate my level of health? Does my BMI, as a stand-alone number? Or would more context be helpful?

More context of the learning objectives is needed. Kudos to UNC for realizing that more context is needed. I hope Mr. Perrin considers that grades might be best used for communicating to the learner rather than to the next gateway through which the learner must pass. No wonder students “grade grub.” If the grade is just a relative benchmark for lining me up so that I can be “assessed” for the next program, then I would grade grub too! I am a learner – why would I not learn such a behavior if the grade just indicates a ranking. To grub a point is the most simple way to increase my rank – a decent plan A to move up the ranks. How can we blame students for such a behavior if we create the system that promotes such behavior?

BUT…if grades were a measure of my learning compared to clear targets, then “grade grubbing” might come more in the form of such questions as, “What did I not know as well on this content?” “How could I learn it better next time?” I love it when I hear these types of questions!

In the Zone

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Being a camp counselor at Camp Sea Gull altered my entire career path. At camp, Captain Lloyd, the camp director, used to tell me, “Bo, you teach kids how to swim; you do not teach swimming to kids.” Captain Lloyd was insistent that we taught children, not a subject.

Years later, my mentor in graduate school, Frank Pajares, insisted that we immerse ourselves in the writings, theories, and practices of Lev Vygotsky. Of particular importance,Dr. P wanted us to truly understand the ZPD – zone of proximal development. The ZPD is that cognitive “place” where a learner stretches to comprehend something just beyond his mental reach. Usually some coaching and scaffolding is required. Here is where learning takes place.

Now, as I reread W. James Popham’s book, Transformative Assessment,I am reminded that formative assessment is not so much an instrument or tool, as it is a PROCESS. Formative assessment provides the feedback for both learners – teacher and student – so that we can stay in the zone…the ZPD. When we are content driven, mere teachers of a subject, we don’t tend to evidence much real caring for the zone. We just have to get through the material. When we use learning targets, formative assessment, and the magic of feedback, we begin to teach the child. We start to realize the importance of differentiation because we are teaching learners who might have slightly different ZPDs.

When we teach a subject, we get the pace and methodology right for some in the class. For others, the material is too easy. For others still, it is too difficult. When we teach children, we pay attention to where they are as unique and individual learners. We require the process of formative assessment so at we can tweak, alter, and adjust instruction so as to stay in the sweet spot – in the zone – as much as possible.

Here is a great article that helps tie it all together: http://www.edweek.org/media/formative_assessment_next_generation_heritage.pdf

One Step at a Time

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With the gracious permissions of two extraordinary teachers, who also serve as co-facilitators of our middle school math PLC, I am pasting in a recent e-mail thread that transpired between the three of us, as well as one other teacher who teaches on the Algebra I team. As a school, we are making thoughtful transitions toward student learning that involve more real-life problem solving, project-based learning, and balanced assessment. Often the journey is difficult, challenging, and frightening. This journey forces us to reconsider some habits that we have developed as educators in our twenty-years careers. However, we are not alone, and we don’t have to “change everything,” especially not all at once. We can take one step at a time, and we can do so arm-in-arm with our colleagues.

Quick Cartoon “Commercial Break”

>>> JG 11/15/2010 1:49 PM >>>

Please watch when you can and let’s talk about it.
Conrad Wolfram: Teaching kids real math with computers
http://www.ted.com/talks/conrad_wolfram_teaching_kids_real_math_with_computers.html

>>> DD 11/16/10 11:51 AM >>>

It’s a great talk. I agree with most of what he said. My problem is I was trained the way he says we are inadequately teaching. I don’t know how to do what he says to do. I think you need to understand math a lot more than I do to see most real world connections. I have been hearing this idea a lot; but where is the curriculum? Where are some books that will help guide me to teach this way? If that isn’t on its way, then I guess I need to go back to school or get a new job. It is as daunting as if someone said I needed to take someone’s Latin class over and teach it.

I would like to discuss it in PLC.

>>> JG 11/17/2010 1:02 am >>>

Reading Dan Meyer’s blog offers good ideas:
http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

If you have not seen his TEDNYed talk, Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover, it offers a way to use our current books.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover.html

>>> Bo Adams 11/17/2010 5:16 AM >>>

DD,

I respect your thoughts on this, probably more than you even might realize. However, I truly believe that any journey, any journey at all, begins with one step. Just one step can start the path. You have already made MANY steps toward the type of teaching that Conrad describes. In fact, you have been doing it for years. With the support of the PLC structure, I think your Algebra I team has made MANY steps toward this journey.

As a runner, I travel a sinusoidal curve in my training. When I am at a low point, and I am trying to make a run of significant distance, I often pick a short-term point in my vision – maybe a street sign, maybe a telephone pole. I just tell myself to “get to that point.” Then, I pick a new point. Often I feel like Donkey (no comment from any of you necessary) when Shrek was coaxing him across the rickety-old bridge that separated Princess Fiona’s castle-of-captive from the other side of a lava-filled gulf. Donkey made it with encouragement, ONE STEP AT A TIME. He did not have to jump the entire gulf in one fell swoop. [Sorry to mix metaphors!, but I did call myself an ASS!]

SHRINK THE CHANGE. Just pick one thing during one class to try. 20 minutes worth. You do this type of “action research” all the time! You are used to it. You just have to pick the next step in your journey’s path. And you have lots of support in your team and in me!

Bo

>>> DD 11/17/2010 11:10 am >>>

That was a great suggestion. It seems simple but I need to remember that when I start to feel overwhelmed. One step at a time.

>>> Bo Adams 11/17/2010 11:29 AM >>>

How would you two feel if I put all of the below in my “It’s About Learning” blog? I could remove your names, or leave them if you don’t mind. I think these emails make for a good story that could help support others.