Communicating Achievement to Students Formative Assessment in Action February 9 th and 11 th, 2009

Assessment gets to the of teaching and lets us decide how and when to offer support to learners. From Making Assessment Elementary by Kathleen & James Strickland, 2000

Assessment

Formative Assessment Model Accurate Assessment Effectively Used Communicate How? Be sure students understand targets. Students are user’s of information Students track progress and communicate, too. Why Assess? (purpose) Assess What? (clear target) Assess How? (sound design) Students can assess, too.

Feedback is an important component of the formative assessment process.

Communicating Student Progress Through Feedback District & School Feedback 3-4 times a year Tetra Data, Alignment Studies, Program Evaluation Feedback to Parents Trimester #1, #2, #3 Feedback to Students Feedback to Teachers Determine the Purpose for the Communication

Why study and practice effective feedback to students? Like the art of questioning, providing feedback is an effective teaching strategy when used well Not all feedback increases student learning  If you would just…, I could give you an A.  “Buckle down.”

Why study and practice effective feedback to students? Brian Cambourne’s research reveals conditions that inhibit student learning. One of them is faulty or inadequate feedback from a teacher to a student. Student confusions, misconceptions, and partial understandings are cleared up through effective feedback.

Why Study Feedback? Grades and points tend to be a distracter to effective feedback. Research experiments have established that, while student learning can be advanced by feedback through comments, the giving of numerical scores or grades have a negative effect, in that students ignore comments when marks are also given.

Why Study Feedback? Feedback is useful information about what happened. Grant Wiggins “Feedback occurs during the practice events to change student achievement.” Jan Chappuis “It is just-in-time, just-for-me information delivered when and where it can do the most good.” Susan Brookhart

Effective Feedback Brainstorm characteristics of effective feedback on academic learning.

Referencing Today’s Work How To Give Effective Feedback To Your Students Susan M. Brookhart Preview Chapters 1 & 2 on ASCD store.

Feedback Strategies Decide how to deliver the feedback  Timing  Amount  Mode  Audience

Feedback Content Decide what to say or write  Focus  Comparison  Function  Valence /va-lence/

Feedback Strategies and Content How  Timing  Amount  Mode  Audience What  Focus  Comparison  Function  Valence

Amount Pick the most important points  Concise Choose points that relate to major learning goals  Precise Consider the student’s developmental level  Written feedback given to a poor reader is ineffective.

Amount Purpose:  For students to get enough feedback so they know what to do but no so much that the work has been done for them (differs from case to case)  For students to get feedback while “teachable moment” points but not an overwhelming number Examples of Good Amounts of FeedbackExamples of Bad Amounts of Feedback  Selecting two or more points about a paper for comment  Giving feedback on important learning targets  Commenting on the least as many strengths as weaknesses  Returning a student’s paper with every error in mechanics edited  Writing comments on a paper that are more voluminous than the paper itself  Writing voluminous comments on poor-quality papers and almost nothing on good-quality papers Read and discuss the purpose and examples of amount of feedback. Tell another person at your table a short story of when you were an “overfeedbacker.”

Audience Determine who should receive the feedback. Individual feedback helps students to feel their learning is valued by their teacher  Conferring  Interview Group or class feedback works best if most of the class missed the same concept on an assignment, which presents an opportunity for reteaching.  Debrief  Minilesson

Audience Purpose:  To reach the appropriate students with specific feedback  To communicate, through feedback, that student learning is valued Examples of Good Amounts of FeedbackExamples of Bad Amounts of Feedback  Communicating with an individual, giving information specific to the individual performance  Giving group or class feedback when the same mini- lesson or reteaching session is required for a number of students  Using the same comments for all students  Never giving individual feedback because it takes too much time Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback audience. What are the connections between determining the appropriate audience and current instructional practices? Consider how teachers decide whether to offer feedback through a minilesson, lesson debrief, or conferring.

Focus On the work itself :| On the process the student used to do the work :)  “Teach the Writer, not the Writing” Lucy Calkins On the student personally :(

Focus On the work itself grade correctness proficiency level as a grade neatness format Contributes to leaning about the task at hand and does not transfer well to further learning :|

Focus On the process the student used to do the work Information on how students approached the task Connections between what they did and the quality of the task Information about possible alternate strategies Contributes more to further learning than feedback about the task :)

Focus On the student personally smart student you could do better – buckle down good thinking well done this was hard for you  Does not contain information that can be used for further learning, so it’s not formative.  Encourages the idea that intelligence if fixed and that achievement is not linked to effort :(

Focus On the work itself :| On the process :) On the student personally :(

Focus Purpose:  To describe specific qualities of the work in relation to the learning targets  To make observations about students’ learning processes and strategies that will help them figure out how to improve  To foster student self-efficacy by drawing connections between students’ work and their mindful, intentional efforts  To avoid personal comments Examples of Good Amounts of FeedbackExamples of Bad Amounts of Feedback  Making comments about the strengths and weaknesses of a performance  Making comments about the work process you observed or recommendations about a work process or study strategy that would help improve the work  Making comments that positions the student as the one who chooses to do the work  Avoid personal comments  Making comments that bypass the student (e.g., “This is hard” instead of “You did a good job because…”)  Making criticisms without offering any insights into how to improve  Making personal compliments or digs (e.g., “How could you do that?” or “You idiot!”) Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback focus Why might these statements be considered shocking? All errors in mechanics must be corrected and writing must be perfect before it can be sent home or posted for viewing. Mathematics papers must have all errors in computation corrected before it is considered finished.

Function Descriptive or Evaluative? Students are less likely to attend to descriptive feedback if it is accompanied by an evaluative mark Make feedback observational Give students opportunities to use the descriptive feedback in future practice

Function Evaluative  Grades - A, B, C, D, F  Words- great, wow, needs work, Good Job!  Symbols- stars, check, plus, minus, stickers Descriptive  Focuses on the intended learning  Pinpoints strengths and teaching points

Function Purpose (for Formative Assessment):  To describe student work  To avoid evaluating or "judging" student work in a way that would stop students from trying to improve Examples of Good Feedback FunctionExamples of Bad Feedback Function  Identifying for students the strengths and weaknesses in the work  Expressing what you observe in the work  Putting a grade on work intended for practice or formative purposes  Telling students the work is "good" or "bad"  Giving rewards or punishments  Giving general praise or general criticism Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback function. Read each statement on the function quiz and determine whether the statement is descriptive or evaluative.

Analysis of Feedback to Students Read through the examples of feedback. Review the analysis.

Application Task Follow the directions at the top of the large form...Feedback to Students. Compose two realistic academic feedback examples, exchange with your partner school for analysis, and debrief the results as partner schools.

Partner Schools Monday  Valley View with Knollwood  Beadle with Wilson  Horace Mann with Black Hawk  Meadowbrook with Rapid Valley Wednesday  South Canyon with South Park  Pinedale with Corral Drive  Robbinsdale with Kibben-Kuster  Grandview with Canyon Lake

Effective feedback provides critical “point- of-need” interaction to accelerate student learning. Marie Clay Providing effective feedback allows students to work in their “construction zone”…the place of cutting edge learning. Dorn, French, & Jones

Feedback is good if it gets the following results: Students do learn – their work does improve. Students become more motivated – they believe they can learn and they take more control over their own learning. Classrooms become a place where feedback, including constructive criticism, is valued and viewed as productive.

“Schools can sometimes take on the feel of a production shop...students cranking out an endless flow of final products without much personal investment or care. The emphasis is on keeping up with production, on not falling behind in class or homework, rather than on producing something of lasting value.” Berger, 1996