Checks for Understanding vs. Formative Assessment

What's the difference between a Check for Understanding and a Formative Assessment? One essential factor:

With Formative Assessment, you use the information to inform future instruction. That instruction may occur in the next few minutes, days, or later in the school year, but the teacher uses the information gained from the assessment to adjust instruction to meet student needs. You may find that no adjustments are necessary because your Formative Assessment showed you that your students are right on track.

Click here to see a list of Formative Assessment strategies you can use right now.

Assessment for Learning Strategies

Happy Wednesday!

Looking for an easy way to quickly access formative assessment strategies in one place? Look no further!

This week we have compiled several frequently used and effective formative assessment strategies that teachers are finding helpful to collect data to drive instructional decisions. These strategies are geared toward elementary level students. Ideas shared in previous coach tips have also been added to this document. Click here to access the document in Google Docs, and preview below:

We hope that this will be a helpful tool when lesson planning. As always, let us know how we can be of help!

Smiles,
Kristin, Nicole and Shelly

Moving Students from Fixed Mindset to a Growth MIndset

Last week's Teaching Tip shared information and resources to better understand growth mindset. Carol Dweck, who created the term, did a TED talk in which she urges teachers to adopt the phrase "not yet" in terms of unmastered learning targets in the classroom. She also encourages us to help kids move away from their fixation on grades and on the need for validation by:

• Praising and rewarding effort, strategy, and process (as opposed to intelligence or ability)
• Ensuring that we as educators don't ourselves adopt a fixed mindset toward kids whom we assume won't be able to learn or grow

Sometimes we run into kids whose fixed mindsets are so strong and their voices so loud that we struggle for words and strategies to counter their beliefs. If you find yourself trying to move a student from a fixed mindset  to a growth mindset, you might want to utilize some responses from "Mindset Kit/Seven Common Growth Mindset Scenarios and Responses,pdf"

Here are few of the responses to get you started:

• “Let’s take one step at a time. That way we can see where we might need to focus more attention and time.”
• “This looks like pretty demanding stuff. What would a focused first try look like?”
• “Let’s discuss some strategies for tackling this.”
• “Remind yourself that you just can’t do it ‘YET.’ Let’s think through some next steps to take.”
• “What was difficult? Let’s focus on the difficulties to see if we can figure it out.”
• “I can see a difference in now compared to ______ from last week/yesterday. What has changed? Talk me through what happened.”

Increasing Student Achievement Through a Growth Mindset

According to Hattie’s research, “Developing assessment capable students who know the learning target for the lesson, can describe where they are in relation to the criteria for success, and can use that information to select learning strategies to improve their work is the number-one factor for improving student achievement” We all want that for our students and our own children, but how do we develop assessment capable students?

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix posted on Pinterest that we can share to help answer that question. Trust us, we’ve spent countless hours trying to find one! What we have discovered from the research is that there is a clear connection between developing assessment capable students and a Growth Mindset.

Dr. Carol Dweck, the author of Mindset; The New Psychology of Success describes this connection in a recent article: Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset'

"My colleagues and I learned things we thought people needed to know. We found that students’ mindsets—how they perceive their abilities—played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset). And when students learned through a structured program that they could “grow their brains” and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better. Finally, we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset and its benefits."

As we learn more about the power of the Growth Mindset, we will definitely share. Recently we learned that ClassDojo (an online behavior management system) has worked with Stanford University’s Project for Ed Research that Scales (a group that studies students’ motivation and resilience) to create a 5 part series to help teachers, students, and parents learn about the growth mindset. Check out the following article and videos to learn more.

ClassDojo’s Critters Want to Teach You About Growth Mindsets

ClassDojo Videos

There is also a great resource for parents to assist them in talking to their child about Growth Mindset on our very own Tahoma website. 

Growth Mindset on the Tahoma website

Finally, you might consider reading Mindsets in the Classroom, which is currently being offered as an on-line book study and will be offered again in the spring.

Of course the best way for all of us to learn is from each other. Please share your stories with us so we can all grow together!

Kristin, Nicole and Shelly

Growth Mindset and Student Growth

Have you ever had a student proclaim, "I'm just no good at _______________!"  (fill in your subject area).  These students can benefit from learning about growth mindset.

A growth mindset is, "a belief system that suggests that one's intelligence can be grown or developed with persistence, effort, and a focus on learning" (Ricci 3).  Clearly, a growth mindset helps students achieve growth with any skill.

Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, says, "...students' mindsets--how they perceive their abilities--played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students' mindsets, we could boost their achievement.  More precisely, students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset).  And when students learned through a structured program that they could 'grow their brains' and increase their intellectual abilities, they did better.  Finally, we found that having children focus on the process that leads to learning (like hard work or trying new strategies) could foster a growth mindset...".

Take this Mindset Self-assessment to find out if you have more of a fixed or a growth mindset.

As secondary teachers, it's important to help student understand and believe that they can grow and improve their skills, but teachers must also acknowledge that there are limits.  We can all improve our basketball skills, but we can't all be Michael Jordan.  

To learn more about growth mindset, check out these videos made available by the psychology department at Stanford University.

You can also join the book study that will be offered in the spring on Mary Cay Ricci's book:

Differentiation Strategies

Looking for new ways to differentiate in your classroom?

Last week at the Teacher Leadership Institute, teacher leaders from all 4 elementary schools shared ideas about how they are currently differentiating for students in their classrooms. There were so many great ideas, we just had to share! Differentiation allows us to respond to student learning needs, and deliver responsive instruction based on information gathered through formative assessment.

We used a strategy called "Give One, Get One" to share strategies for differentiation

Differentiation Strategies generated by teachers:

• Visual and verbal modeling
• Level 4 tutors (students who are at a level 4 become tutors)
• Reader's workshop
• 1:1 reading conferences and goal setting
• Guided math groups based on unit pre assessments
• Math center rotations
• Differentiated reflections
• Math daily 4
• Small group reteaching
• Small group preteaching
• Creating individualized student goals
• Use of manipulatives
• Conferring
• Snap and read in writing
• Google Docs
• Anchor Sets
• Teaching multiple strategies to solve a problem
• Use of partners and peer to peer instruction
• Guided reading
• Giving students feedback
• Tiered lessons

An important thing to keep in mind is that in order for differentiation to be effective, assessment for learning must be an ongoing part of teaching and learning. Monitoring of student progress should always happen before, during and after learning in order to guide instruction.

Here are several strategies for differentiation by content area:

As always, please let us know how we can help!

Kristin, Nicole and Shelly

Student Self-Evaluation and Reflection

As teachers are aware, student self-assessment and self-reflection are considered instructional best practices, are part of Criteria 6.1 (“Self-assessment of learning connected to the success criteria”), and, according to Hattie’s research, have the HIGHEST impact on student achievement of all factors or interventions.

Sometimes, however, it is challenging to develop thoughtful questions that force students to consider metacognitively what they have learned, how they have learned it, and how their accomplishment meets the learning target and success criteria.

Feel free to choose from the assortment of self-assessment and self-reflection questions below to use or modify as needed for use at the end of an assignment, a essay/paper, or a project. They are divided into four categories: backward-looking, inward-looking, outward-looking, and forward-looking (adapted from  https://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/stw/edutopia-stw-replicatingPBL-21stCAcad-reflection-questions.pdf).

Questions for Student Self-Evaluation and Reflection

Backward-Looking

Self-Evaluation

1.              What process did you go through to produce this piece (or complete this assignment)? Explain the steps of the process and steps that you may have completed in addition to meeting the success criteria.

2.              Reflect on your progress toward mastering the learning target. In what ways do you think you need to improve?  What parts of the success criteria were a struggle for you? How did you overcome those struggles?

3.              What resources did you use while working on this piece? Which ones were especially helpful? Which ones would you use again? Did the success criteria and instructions guide you to those resources, or did you have to find them on your own? 

Self-Reflection

1.              How much did you know about the subject before we started? What additional learning did you acquire?

2.              Have you done a similar kind of work in the past (earlier in the year or in a previous grade, in school or out of school)? What new learning about yourself, about the process, or about the content does this piece reveal? In what ways have you gotten better at this kind of work?

3.              Does this work tell a story? If so, what does it reflect about you or about life?

Inward-Looking

Self-Evaluation

1.              As you review the rubric and success criteria, consider where you could have invested more effort and where you may have been stretched beyond your previous skill level.

2.              What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product? Did you fulfill all of the success criteria? Did you add additional personal success criteria to your work?

Self-Reflection

1.          How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?

2.          What did/do you find frustrating about this piece of work?

3.          What does this piece reveal about you as a learner? What new insights do you have about yourself as a learner after having completed this piece? Have you changed any ideas you used to have on this subject?

4.          Find another piece of work that you did at the beginning of the year to compare and contrast with this. How have you grown in terms of your specific skills and your ability to plan the process? What changes can you see? How did those changes come about?

Outward-Looking

 Self-Evaluation

1.     If you were the teacher, what comments would you make about this piece? Use the rubric and/or success criteria to determine your comments. Based on the rubric or grading criteria, what grade would you give it? Why?

2.     In what ways did your work meet the criteria for this assignment? In what ways did it not meet those criteria?  Did you exceed the criteria?

Self-Reflection

1.     Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar?

2.     What the one thing you particularly want people to notice when they look at your work? What do your classmates particularly notice about your piece when they look at it?

3.      If someone else were looking at the piece, what might they learn about who you are?

Forward-Looking

 Self-Evaluation

1.              What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again? Using the rubric and success criteria, explain what you would change in the next revision of this piece.

2.              What's the one element that you have seen in your classmates' work or process that you would like to try in your next piece? Was this element part of the rubric/expectations? Why would you want to add this element to your work?

3.              As you look at this piece, what's one thing that you would like to try to improve upon? Would this improvement result in a better evaluation on the rubric, or would it bring you greater satisfaction?

Self-Reflection

1.      What's one goal you would like to set for yourself for next time?

2.      What would you like to spend more time learning in this class?

3.      What do you need more help with?

4.      What might you want next year's teacher to know about you and your learning style, potential, challenges, struggles, etc.? What work would you show your future teacher to help him/her understand those things?