Evidence 2.0

As is usually the case, it did not take long for Version 2.0 to come out.  Two days into my evidence of learning project, I realized adaptations needed to happen.  A great brainstorm session with my friend and colleague Adam Pierce produced a new version of an evidence sheet.  Adam & I have been collaborating on how to track student evidence throughout the unit in different ways for the past two years.  Adam, an Economics and History teacher, was working from the beginning toward the end of a unit by means of a student-involved unit plan.  I have been working from the opposite direction, concentrating on the reflection and self-assessment end of the unit.  When I told Adam I was ready to attempt to combine the two ideas, he revisited his unit planner and came up with a very clean and simple document.

Like I said, after the first lesson or two, I quickly realized that my evidence sheet had to change.  My idea of giving space for students to take notes as well as space to include evidence into the same document was making the document difficult to read and follow for the students and for me.  As Adam was showing me his new and improved document, our minds were racing.  For me, it was truly a magical time of collaboration. I wish we would have recorded the process.  I really liked the way Adam had laid out his planner to simplify the end product.  His layout allowed the students to identify which learning targets the evidence is showing and an opportunity to reflect on feedback given during the unit.  I still wanted to give students an option to take notes so we included a link to a "Notes" page and added a section for the students to record what they needed to work on before the summative based on the feedback given from the formative assessments throughout the unit.  Version 2.0 product is now in use and looks like this:

We also added the column to the left of the learning targets to add a visual checklist for students as they provided evidence for each learning target of the unit.  In addition to this, I added a link (currently dead) that will link to the students' self-assessment & reflection about the unit that they will fill out after the summative.  Out thinking on this would be for ease of use for the students when reviewing at the end of a course, specifically in an IBDP course that spans over two school years.

I introduced this to my students yesterday and will again today with my second and third groups of students.  Initially, the students seem to have accepted the change and have given positive feedback about Version 2.0.  We'll see if the positivity continues today.

Evidence of Learning

I am trying something new with my Grade 9s this unit.  Because of the success I have had with my students self-assessing and reflecting on their learning after each summative, I am trying to attack this unit from both ends.  This time, I have designed an Evidence of Learning sheet that I have shared with each of my students.  I have adapted this from some of the examples of Unit Plans that Myron Dueck discusses in his book: Grading Smarter, Not Harder. I will still have them self-assess and reflect on their learning after the summative, but I am now going to have my students supply evidence of their learning throughout the unit, and most importantly before they sit for the summative.

I will still have evidence in the form of formal, and informal, formative assessments along the way throughout the unit. Now, I am simply having my students supply what they think is evidence that shows their level of understanding of each learning target before they take the end of unit summative.  My thought was simple, or at least it is in my head...we'll see how it turns out in the end.  I set up a table that provides my students with the learning targets for the unit that is broken down into chunks of how we will approach the unit, Quadratics, space for them to use for notetaking and space for them to supply their evidence for each learning target.  Here is what it looks like after one lesson (this is a screenshot of a copy of a student's work):

The learning targets for the unit are clearly identified at the top as well as within each section.  This student has decided to utilize the space for notetaking but they have not provided their evidence of learning, yet.

Here is another students' work from the same class:

As you can see, and much to my delight, both students are using this document as a resource for their notes.  Each student has opted to take their notes in their own way.  Student A has chosen to do more copy & pasting of resources where Student B has taken notes from what has been covered in class.

My students have already asked what constitutes "evidence" for each learning target.  My response has been:

• pictures of your working from homework, classwork, or formative assessments done during the unit
• links to websites you have created to show your learning
• links to other documents that I have provided that contain practice problems where you have shown your working
• pictures of completed activities done in/outside of class
• videos of you describing how/what you know

I may have to adapt this as we progress through the unit, but it seems to have been accepted by my students as clear and reasonable.  I am using Google Classroom and have sent this document to each of my students with an open-ended date of completion only because I am not sure at this moment what date they will take the summative.  I have told them that if they do not supply the evidence of their learning, they will not sit for the summative.  In this case, they will take that time to provide the evidence of their learning and have to make arrangements to sit for the summative at another time.

It is a muddy concept right now, but I am very impressed by my students' willingness to take on this challenge.  I just hope that I am ready for the influx of evidence they will provide.  I am thinking I will be doing formative check-ins throughout the unit and providing comments on their document as feedback so there are not any students that do not have zero evidence in their document when it should be full.

If nothing else, this will be an exploration in my learning as well as my students' learning.  I will keep you posted.

What's more important, compliance or learning?

Last week we had our parent-teacher-student conferences.  (Yes, you may know where I am going with this already.)  As a Grade 9 & Grade 11 math teacher, I saw several parents.  I had some very quality discussions with students and parents alike.  I made some breakthroughs (hopefully) that will last the remainder of the school year.  I did some self-reflecting about some students that I may not have made the strongest bond with this year and challenged myself to find new ways to connect with them this quarter.  As a parent, I also sat on the other side of the table and listened to my colleagues about my two sons.

Through these conversations on both sides of the table, I began to ponder the question...What's more important, compliance or learning?  I ask this because in many of these conversations, including some that I was in as a teacher of someone else's child, I really began to wonder which is more important to people.  I cannot lie and say that I do not welcome compliance by my students.  However, I don't actively seek it out either and try not to let this, or any habit, interfere with determining where a student is in their learning.  As amazing as mathematics is and as incredible as my lessons may be, I don't expect every student to hang on every word I say or be 100% into every learning activity I compose. I don't even expect them to get as excited about a new online resource I subject them to because I think it is really cool and interesting.  I am realistic, for the most part, and understand that some students just are not into it or may need a brain break because their think tank is full.  Sometimes students just need to do their own thing for a bit before they can jump back into full engagement mode.

We chase students around every day making sure they "get to class" on time, bring their materials to class, be ready to work at a seconds notice, only go to the bathroom when it is not an inconvenient time for us (I'll talk more about this in a minute), remember to do the all important homework (most of which will never get checked for anyway), and to basically be compliant to every rule, in every class, which may be different for every teacher they have, every day all day long.  We also tell them that they need to be self-advocates, speak up for themselves and for others that may not be able to, or want to, speak up for themselves, follow their passions, and volunteer to better the community every chance they get.  Talk about mixed messages!

Let's start with being late to class.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for being on time to class.  I just don't make it a big deal if a student is late.  What (usually) happens to a student that is late to class?  Well, they probably have to turn around, leave class, go get a note from the last teacher they were with or a note from the office, then bring that note back to class before they can join the class that they were just sent away from.  Not only is this process a waste of time (and paper), it does not make sense.  If the point is for us to try to make sure the students are in class and learning, then why send them out again so they are completely away from the learning that is happening in the classroom?  I am sorry, I just don't buy into the punitive idea that "they have to have some punishment for being late."  This in no way makes any sense to me.  Now, if a student is chronically late or consistently comes to every class 20 minutes late every day this is a different story and is cause for an intervention meeting with the student.  This outlier, however, does not constitute the need for punitive tardy policies.  Maybe we need to look at the message we send students.  If we want students to be in class on time, we need to give them real reasons to do so other than there is a punishment for not doing so.

What about the bathroom?  Since when did this become such a big problem?  I really do not get this one.  Seriously.  What is happening in any classroom that is SO important that you cannot let a student go to the bathroom?  Okay, maybe that student has a tendency to "wander" around and not go to the bathroom at all.  Maybe this wandering is a coping strategy that the student has learned because they have been programmed to think that they must be 100% engaged in everything that is going on in every classroom every second they are in a classroom?  My favorite is the off-handed response that came to my head when I was talking to my wife about this...maybe, they had gas and needed to excuse themselves from the classroom as to avoid embarrassment.  As odd, humorous and outlandish as this sounds, it is a possibility.  Or maybe, just maybe, that child really did need to go to the bathroom.  Either way, what does it matter?  Is what we are doing in class really THAT important that a 10-minute bathroom/brain break is going to cause a gap in the students learning so deep that the student can never recover?  I doubt it.  Just remember this at the next faculty meeting when you have to use the restroom or need to step out to "take a phone call."  This also goes hand-in-hand with getting to class on time.  What are we concerning ourselves with, the overall quantity of time spent in class or quality of time spent in class?   Food for thought...According to John Hattie's 2017 Updated List of Factors Influencing Student Achievement, External Accountability Systems have an effect size of 0.31 (below the 0.40 size of "normal learning") whereas Response to Intervention systems have an effect size of 1.29.

We encourage our students to be an advocate for themselves, but when they do we say they are being defiant.  We encourage students to come to us, their teachers, proactively and request an extension on assignment deadlines when they feel they are getting overwhelmed.  Then we just tell them that they need to figure it out or that they should have done better planning on their end.  We tell them to follow their passions.  Then when they do, and that passion is not what we think it should be, we tell them they are making poor decisions.  Why not step back, let our students actually experience some things for themselves?  Let them stumble, be there to support them through their journey and maybe even let them fail.  We learn from our mistakes.  Like Thomas Wayne said to a young Bruce Wayne "Why do we fall?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

If our students are programmed to follow directions and be compliant, they are learning, but only learning how to follow directions and be compliant.  I believe we are doing a grave disservice to our students by putting such a high value on compliance and not real learning.  Do your (my) homework.  Pay attention (to me) in class.  Get your materials out (so you can write down everything I say because it is that important).  I'm sorry but you cannot go to the bathroom (because you might miss something extremely important).

It is not as important that our students know molecular biology as much as it is to know why it is important to look at any system and how each part of the system interacts with every other part of that system.  It is not as important to know the fundamental theorem of calculus as much as it is to understand mathematics can have finite or infinite boundaries depending on the parameters of the problem.  It is not as important to understand what the poet/author was thinking or trying to convey to the reader as much as it is to encourage reading, creativity, and thinking for oneself.  It is not as important to know who painted the Mona Lisa or when as much as it is to appreciate the talent it took to create the masterpiece.  It is not as important to know what dates past historical documents were signed as much as it is to know the successes and failures of past and current governments.  Focus on the positives.  Concentrate on making connections with your students.  Ensure they know HOW to study, not just WHAT to study.  Most importantly, focus on the learning, not just how well a student complies with your set of directions.

What makes an assessment formative?

How many of your students say "Is this formative or summative?" every time you assign them a task?  On one hand, this is great.  Our students are at least somewhat interested in how we will be viewing their work and to what extent that work will impact their grade.  On the other hand, it is an unnecessary question...and not necessarily for the reasons you may be thinking right now.

Let's start with a simpler question...what makes an assessment formative?  Although I called this a "simpler" question it is anything but simple.  Don't believe me? Ask it to your colleagues at your next faculty meeting.  Unless you are in a school that has put loads of work into assessments to get to the point where you are using common language and understanding, you will find many educators do not give the same response.  This is not altogether a terrible event.  Quite the opposite, it is an opportunity to have deep, valuable discussions about assessment practices and assessment literacy.  I witnessed this first-hand at the beginning of the semester during a pre-service meeting when a slightly different question was asked.  The question posed to our faculty was "What do you think of when you think of formative assessment?"  The question was asked to teachers in all divisions, PK - 12.  The answers were just as diverse as the audience to which it was asked.  The responses were not terribly shocking to me.  I knew through various conversations with my colleagues that, as a faculty, we had many different definitions of what "formative" meant.  This includes within each division, and sometimes within a single department/grade level.  I give the administration credit for asking this question.  It shows awareness of the differing of interpretations of this within our school.  Now that the question has been asked, we can begin to address it from all sides.

Side note: Our school has recently gone through a major overhaul of our grading system.  We are transitioning from a traditional model of grading and reporting to a standards-based model of grading and reporting.  One of the shifts that have happened has been the adoption of the terms formative and summative.  These are the only two categories that a task can be labeled in our grade book.  Hence, for the most part, the question from the students.  

Getting back to the question...what does make an assessment formative?  In his article posted in Phi Delta Kappan magazine in December 2005, Rick Stiggins, the founder and President of the Assessment Training Institute, states that formative assessments "provide students, teachers, and parents with a continuing stream of evidence of student progress in mastering the knowledge and skills" that are being assessed as well as give feedback to the teacher about what teaching practices work/don't work throughout the process.  Great.  So, what does this mean?  (This question may also lead to a very interesting discussion in your department/division.)  There are two points that you should focus on if you are trying to determine whether or not a task/assessment can be considered a formative assessment.  The first point to consider is whether or not at the completion of the task the students will be better informed of what they know and/or what gaps they may still need to fill.  This can be accomplished using a multitude of different tasks and can be done in countless ways both in and outside of the classroom with or without the use of technology.  The second point is what you, as a teacher, do with the results from the task.

BUT there is more to this than just assigning and marking a task.  First, the teacher must give the students feedback about their knowledge and understanding of the learning target(s) that the task was/are being assessed.  Second, the teacher must determine whether or not the results/data gained from the task will guide the teachers' next steps of instruction (and sometimes make an on-the-spot decision to alter the current lesson).  Without the process of feedback and determination of next steps, the task is simply practice which is not a formative assessment.  For example, if you give your students a task to do, traditional homework is a great example of this, and then only check to see if they completed said task but do not view every students' individual response, don't give feedback about their response(s), and then don't use this information to set up current/future lessons you have only assigned a practice task.  There is nothing wrong with practice tasks, students need to practice tasks before they are assessed.  The fault is saying that these practice tasks are formative.

Here is another situation to consider.  Typically, an end of unit assessment is considered a summative assessment.  Think about the last summative you gave in your class when all of your students performed either at or above your expectations.  Now, think about that summative you gave where many, maybe even all, of your students did not do as well as you had expected.  Did you do anything different after the unsuccessful assessment?  Did you go back and possibly reteach a key concept or two because you knew that concept was going to appear again in a future assessment?  If you just put the students' marks in the grade book and carried on with the pacing guide, then that assessment is not one you can consider a formative assessment.  If we are being honest here, many of us have probably done this at least one time in our career.  Sadly, I am guilty of this myself, especially in my first few years of teaching, but now I see the benefits of focusing on learning and not teaching.  If, however, you gave feedback to your students about their progress and then you went back and re-taught a topic, or gave a mini-lesson about any of the items on the assessment, or intentionally altered your next lessons to include a revision of the missed concept(s) then you can consider your assessment a formative assessment.   And yes, it is ok to call an end of unit assessment a formative assessment while at the same time it is ok to take the data from a proposed formative assessment and use it as data toward a determination of summative assessment mark.  (If a student has mastered a learning target, they cannot unmaster it.)  If you wish to look into this more deeply, check out Common Formative Assessments 2.0 by Larry Ainsworth.

As you can see these two situations are extremely different and will have different outcomes based on what you as the teacher do with the data you gather from your students.  As teachers, we formatively assess our students all the time.  We may not (and I need to say should not) record these assessments formally in our grade books and the students may not even know they are being assessed.  The important things are that you know what your students are/are not learning and the students are getting constant feedback about their learning, which in the end is what is important.  Classroom discussions (these are actual two-way discussions, lectures are not discussions), exit tickets, quick online quiz games like Kahoot!, Quizizz, Go Formative, Quizlet, in-class partner or independent work, the list goes on and on for possible formative assessments that are not the traditional quiz/test.  There is still room for the paper & pencil assessments, but don't make them your only formative assessment.  Be creative in your search for student data.

To come back to the original pondering (again) of what makes an assessment formative, the answer is simple.  What happens after the task determines whether the assessment is formative, summative, or just practice.  It is what you do with the assessment that determines what kind of assessment it is, not what is contained in the assessment itself.  To borrow from He-Man, a childhood cartoon favorite of mine, "By the power of the Grade Book, YOU have the power!" to determine what you do with the assessment data you gather from each assessment you give your students.