A Collaborative Approach: Looking at Student Responses to the SLA Performance Tasks

Of Critical Importance It is important to remember that the SLA tasks are formative in nature...designed to provide teachers with formative information to assist them in effective programming for the upcoming year. As you examine your students’ work, consider your response to the following questions. o What are the strengths and areas of concern for the group of students you will be teaching this year? o How can you use the information to best help all of your students be successful?

Getting to Know the Standards: What qualities define student work at a variety of levels at the beginning of grade 3?

Understanding Provincial Standards for Early Grade 3 Examine the anchor papers provided by Alberta Education. Engage in a discussion about quality of student response. o How is a Level 5 response different from a level 4 response? o How is a level 4 response different from a level 3 response and so on? Continue the discussion until there is consensus.

Applying the Provincial Standards Practice applying the provincial standards by working with a limited sample of student responses that represent a range of quality. Working in a small group, each teacher selects one piece of student work. Number each paper with a sticky note. Each teacher requires a paper copy of the Alberta Education SLA Performance Descriptor documents for each sample of student work that will be reviewed. Literacy Performance Task Descriptors Numeracy Performance Task Descriptors

Applying the Provincial Standards (continued) Each teacher assesses the work sample independently and records his/her judgments on the paper copy of the Performance Task Descriptor document. At this point, there should be no discussion or sharing. Pass the paper to the right and repeat. Continue to pass the papers until all the student samples have been assessed.

Confirming the Standards When the samples have been assessed by each group member, discuss them in turn. Compare the assessment decisions made by each member of the group. Where there are disagreements, discuss and come to a consensus as to what the most accurate judgement might be.

Critical Decision Time With the standards confirmed, teachers could decide to work collaboratively with a partner to assess work from both classes, or independently assess their own students’ work.

Making a Decision Benefits of Working Collaboratively provides an opportunity to discuss student products in relation to standards reduces the tendency to factor in preconceived ideas about students and instead, attend to the product in relation to the standards provides a sense of what students in another class at your grade level are capable of doing Reasons for Working Independently time efficiency distance from colleagues might prevent collaboration

Time to Begin Work with an elbow partner or work independently to assess student work. When you are unsure or if there is disagreement about how to assess an aspect of the work, include other teachers and engage in a discussion to come to consensus.

Remember… Performance assessment is an essential part of a balanced assessment program. Although time consuming, performance tasks provide valuable information about what students know and can do. The results of the early Grade 3 SLA performance tasks can assist teachers in making sound instructional decisions to support student learning. It’s worth the effort!