Assessment FOR and OF Instruction

Assessment FOR and OF Learning

Realizing that Friday was a lot of information, and a lot of accumulated late hours... I wanted to provide a quick overview of Standard 4: Assessment to bring our conversations about this topic back up to the front of your thinking!

Richard Stiggins' work (Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right—Using It Well, 2004) identifies the 5 Keys to Quality Assessment, which we reviewed last week.  As you plan for your instruction this week - and think about ways to assess students' understanding, here are some things to think about:

• Clear Pupose:   Why am I assessing this?  Who will use the results to inform what decisions?   Is the purpose to impact my instruction, and/or inform other stakeholders (students, parents, district) about how the students are doing?

• Clear Targets:  An instructor needs to have a clear picture of what achievement is going to be measured. If you don't begin with clear and understandable statements of the intended learning, you won't end up with sound assessments. What am I expecting kids to know and be able to do?  Am I communicating these targets clearly?   What will it look like when they get it?

• Sound Assessment Design: This key ensures that the assessor has translated the learning targets into assessments that will give accurate results.Which assessment methods are most likely to produce accurate results for the different learning targets?  What is the best way to measure learning for this topic?  How will I check for understanding mid-way through my lesson, to make sure we're on the right track?  How will I check at the end of the lesson to determine my next steps of instruction?
• Effective Communication:  The instructor must plan to manage information gathered from the assessment appropriately, and report it in ways that will meet the needs of those involved. How will I measure student learning?  How will I keep track of it? How will I let them know their strengths and areas of need?  

• Student Involvement:  Students learn best when they monitor and take responsibility for their own learning.  How will I get students to interact and engage in the learning?  How will I set the stage to have students track their own progress?  How can I support students in figuring out their next steps?

I know Lori's name came up in many conversations on Friday - please let her know if you'd like her coaching support.  Also, let me know if I can support you in any way.  Whether it be in planning ways to monitor student learning related to your SLO, or figuring out how kids are doing with a concept before the formal assessment - these keys should provide guidance to your thinking.  I am hoping you can take what we talked about regarding assessment,  and integrate it into your daily teaching, so that we can monitor and adjust to best meed the needs of our students.

Thank you, again, for your hard work and engagement on Friday!
Sue

Teacher Standard 4

The teacher systematically gathers, analyzes, and uses relevant data to measure student progress, guide instructional content and delivery methods, and provide timely feedback to students, parents, and stakeholders.

Balancing Act

Balancing Act

There are two important aspects of teaching:  data and curriculum AND building relationships.  This past week has been filled with both!  As you prepared for conferences, you studied your students so that you got to know their strengths and weaknesses, and then used your assessment data to confirm your thinking.  You shared what you knew about your students with their families in an effort to build a collaborative relationship between home and school.

As we all know, the data piece of our job is important.  We will continue to look at data as we go through grade level roll thrus this week to look at current reading progress.  On Friday, we will talk about how to use assessment to gather data, and then how to use our data as we begin to write our SLOs.  Data helps drive what we do every day. But  what is impressive is how you do the other half of your job.  Each of you work diligently to get to know your students and their families, and you are constantly problem solving ways to best meet students' needs.  You are creating personalized interventions, adjusting your schedule to accommodate behaviors, communicating with parents to work together on concerns,  providing opportunities for students to showcase their strengths, setting high expectations and letting kids know you believe in their ability to reach them... going above and beyond to support the needs of your students.  It is through this hard work that you remind your students that you believe in them, and you care deeply about them.

As I walked around during conferences last week, I heard from many parents about how happy they are with all of the teachers at Houlton.  You are good at what you do.  I can't tell you how many times I have been told how lucky I am to work with the Houlton staff.  And I absolutely agree! You make it look easy to find the balance between the business (data and curriculum) and the pleasure (building relationships) of this really exhausting job!

Thanks for all you do... You are masters at a very difficult balancing act!

Conference Time!

Conferences are an important time to connect with families, and to provide an update on how things are going these first six weeks of school, both academically and socially.  I am impressed how well you know your students, have data to share, and how we are our student's  biggest advocate, cheerleader, and coach.    We are fortunate at Houlton to have such supportive and involved families - they are grateful to have their students here!

Here are some tips:

1. Send a questionnaire home to get a focus for parent concerns.  This gives you a heads-up if there's something you need to prepare for.
2. Take the "sandwich" approach. Start with something positive, continue with the things that the child needs to work on, and finish with something positive.
3. Plan the essential things you want to share - strengths and an area to work on, including essential data and work samples.  Don't feel like you have to discuss MAP and PALS assessments.  We will have those printed out for you, along with explanation letters.
4. Listen and respond to parent concerns.  Sometimes they have insight, or hear things, that we aren't even aware of!  Our goal is to make Houlton a productive learning environment - and parent input is an important part of that!
5. Describe areas of difficulties and accommodations you are doing to support them - but don't diagnose students.
6. Speak about your student the way you want someone to talk about your own child
7. Get support from Sue or Kristen as needed!  Email us to let us know - and we'll be there!

Optional Resources for Conferences.

Good Fit Reading Chart

Reading Continuum

Leadership and Learning

 

According to the Center for Educational Leadership, instructional leadership is guided by these principles:

• Instructional leadership is learning-focused, learning for both students and adults, and learning which is measured by improvement in instruction and in the quality of student learning.
• Instructional leadership must reside with a team of leaders of which the principal serves as the "leader of leaders."
• A culture of public practice and reflective practice is essential for effective instructional leadership and the improvement of instructional practice.

In the upcoming week, I will be starting my first round of drop in and informal visits.  An instructional coach at heart, I am very excited to see your work in action. Through this process, I have three goals: 

• I want students to see me involved in their learning.  Our work at Houlton is a collaborative effort that includes everyone, and I want our students to recognize that they have an entire team on their side, leading them to success.
• I am a learner myself, and gravitate towards opportunities that provide me with new ways to think about things.  Through my nine years as an instructional coach, I have been inspired by the work I have seen across the district, and continue to seize the opportunity to process all of the highly effective instructional strategies I observe in Houlton's teachers each day.  This, in turn, allows me to continue to support and lead others in their continued growth.
• As a team of leaders, it is our job to reflect on our instructional practices.  It is my goal, my responsibility, and my privilege, to provide you with feedback that will lead you to continue to grow and learn as an educator.  This is an exciting, and very natural, part of my job.  And the result?  Learning for both students and teachers.

I look forward to our work together!

Sue