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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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When students clearly understand classroom expectations, they're better able to assess and improve their performance.

Photo by Allison Shelley for American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action

The third-grade classroom is busy. Students are in the middle of making slime, and you can sense the level of engagement across the class. The teacher is working very hard to make sure that students are clear on the goals of learning: to understand the relationships between solids, liquids, and gases. The students can see success criteria posted on the wall and examples of successful work spread across the room. Visiting teachers are engaging in random checks of understanding to ensure that students are clear on expectations.

As part of the school's improvement process, teachers and principals are visiting classrooms and interviewing students on their understanding of the expectations of learning, the students' self assessment on their progress, and what next steps they need to take to meet established goals. The team was in the third-grade classroom and filmed student interviews; they discussed the key findings with the teacher after class.

Here are samples of two interviews of students in the same classroom.

Teacher: What are you learning?

Student: We're learning about slime.

Teacher: How do you know if you are successful?

Student: We don't want the slime to stick to us.

Teacher: What are you learning?

Student: We're learning about solids, liquids, and gases.

Teacher: How do you know if you are successful?

Student: We can define and relate each phase. Right now we're learning about solids, liquids, and gases by creating slime.

The teacher is doing great things. The question is whether all students are following the teacher's lead. Building student clarity is a constant pursuit: We never arrive, but it's worth our focus.

Clarity Research Snapshot

When students are clear on expectations of learning, they tend to double their rate of learning. Moreover, when students are clear on expectations, they have a better chance of assessing their current performance and using feedback accurately. As John Hattie explains in Visible Learning, self assessment, feedback, and student clarity yield substantial growth in student learning. Yet the implementation of this idea is extremely difficult.

Let's take a look at some challenges and solutions to implementation.

Challenge 1. Novices don't really understand rubrics: Experts love rubrics because the bullet points clearly delineate the core expectations that they want students to learn. Novices don't fully appreciate the bullet points because they simply don't have a concrete example of what's written. As such, they scan the tool for items that are familiar to them: activities (such as getting into groups), tasks (such as completing six problems correctly), and contexts (such as exploring bridges). Because of this scanning for the familiar, students begin thinking about group work, assignment completion, and bridges and are therefore less likely to be any clearer on the standards they're learning about.

To focus students on the actual learning, teachers are encouraged to start with examples of great work that meets the expectations of the teacher. The more students see examples of great work in multiple contexts, the better able students are to use rubrics to evaluate their own work as well as to give, receive, and use feedback. This also makes it easier for them to focus on the core content that the teacher is after.

Challenge 2. Telling people the expectations clearly doesn't mean the expectations are clear to them: As a school leader, I have found that simply sending a clear message to people doesn't ensure that they are clear on my message. Almost every message I send must be followed up with clarifying emails, meetings with parents and/or faculty, and a series of communication check-ins. As such, developing clarity isn't one way. Clarity is interactive and built through multiple engagements.

Providing students with work samples that illustrate success

Asking students to identify the parts of the work sample that make it successful (i.e., criteria for success)

Writing out the criteria for success with students

Co-construction is an interactive process that enables students to build clarity of expectations. Co-construction is the active involvement of building success criteria with students rather than presenting success criteria to students. Here is one example of co-construction:

Use the fishbowl protocol to share their feedback, and process the accuracy of the feedback to the expectations of the lesson or unit

Begin units with discussions on what mastery looks like, and have students evaluate the differences between various levels of mastery

Challenge 3. The classroom is mostly hidden from teachers, and students give each other inaccurate feedback: As Graham Nuthall tells us in The Hidden Lives of Learners, the majority of the classroom experience is hidden from the teacher's observation. In the hidden classroom, kids typically give and receive most of the feedback to and from their peers, and most of that feedback is incorrect. To address this, we should consider having students do the following:

Students' achievement and attitude improve when they have the tools to own their own learning. As educators, it's up to us to provide those tools.

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Making Learning Targets Clear to Students

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When students clearly understand classroom expectations, they're better able to assess and improve their performance.

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Curriculum Mapping with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs

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In this free webinar series, Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs will walk you through what it takes to create, manage, and review curriculum maps throughout the year to maximize students' potential for success.

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Setting the Stage for Curriculum Mapping (ASCD) 

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Setting the Stage for Curriculum Mapping (ASCD) 

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Ed Leadership article:  Storyboarding Your Curriculum

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Ed Leadership article:  Storyboarding Your Curriculum

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When curriculum is laid out like a journey, students become curious and engaged.

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In November 2008, John Hattie's ground-breaking book Visible Learning synthesised the results of more than fifteen years research involving millions of students and represented the biggest ever collection of evidence-based research into what actually works in schools to improve learning.

Visible Learning for Teachers takes the next step and brings those ground breaking concepts to a completely new audience. Written for students, pre-service and in-service teachers, it explains how to apply the principles of Visible Learning to any classroom anywhere in the world. The author offers concise and user-friendly summaries of the most successful interventions and offers practical step-by-step guidance to the successful implementation of visible learning and visible teaching in the classroom.

Visible Learning for Teachers is a must read for any student or teacher who wants an evidence based answer to the question; 'how do we maximise achievement in our schools?'

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Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning

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Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning: Hattie, John: 8601401019015: Books - Amazon

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Center for the Professional Education of Teachers

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By ROBERTA LENGER KANG

When the back to school sales are at their peak, students and parents are picking out the cutest notebooks and the coolest backpacks. Meanwhile, educators are feeling the pressure and anxiety that comes with the start of the school year - particularly as they think about their curriculum.

Different school communities and districts have different approaches to designing curriculum. Some purchase big box curriculum sets with prescribed lessons, while others have the opportunity to design their own, which can be exciting - and also a bit daunting.

Cultivating a course curriculum is one of the most important and most complicated tasks for educators. It requires deep content knowledge and an accurate anticipation of student ability throughout the school year. Teachers need to differentiate the most important content and the most important skills in the most effective sequence - all while knowing that the decision to teach one thing is also the decision not to teach a hundred other things. The pressure to plan it in just the right way can be overwhelming.

This process will always be a challenge, but it doesn't have to be painful! In our curriculum-focused coaching projects, we support educators as they examine, design, implement, and refine customized or adapted curricula. Each educator and classroom is unique, but curriculum planning often brings up common questions. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear from educators as we support them in the planning process.

What goes into a curriculum map?

A well-developed curriculum map should provide an overview of the course at-a-glance. Maps are most valuable when they include a clear picture of the course goals, how those goals intersect with the content knowledge, thinking skills, relevant standards, and a plan for assessments. Here's a good checklist for a curriculum map:
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Sequence of units aligned chronologically (Unit 1, 2, 3 . . . Marking period 1, 2, 3 . . . Quarter 1, 2, 3)

Course goals (Teaching objectives, essential questions, enduring understandings)

Content knowledge (Key concepts, topics, themes, or vocabulary)

Thinking skills (Critical thinking skills, or academic skills)

Relevant standards (Reference to 2 -3 relevant standards to the unit)

Assessments (Brief description of the formative and summative assessments for each unit)

What's the difference between a curriculum map and a unit plan?

A curriculum map provides an overview or summary of the course, while a unit plan provides the details needed to develop each individual lesson. A unit plan may include specific resources to use in a particular unit, a pacing calendar that outlines the learning goals for each week or each day, lists of vocabulary words, and a plan for differentiating instruction for different learners. Unit plans tend to be longer and include more explicit plans that illustrate the arc of the unit and provide the necessary details to develop daily lesson plans.

There is a critical distinction between the curriculum map as an overview and the unit plan as the detailed guide to support lesson planning. Curriculum maps that include unit plan-level details often become massive documents that are difficult to read. They can become a dumping ground for edu-speak-jargon that doesn't really mean anything. As educators, we want to remember that these documents are tools to support and facilitate our planning process. If they don't do that, they aren't ultimately very valuable.

How much detail should be included?

When it comes to the curriculum map, we want to include information clearly and succinctly, which means we can eliminate jargon or unnecessary details. For example, it's valuable to list relevant standards on a curriculum map because it will give a picture of how all standards are being addressed throughout the school year and how they're sequenced within each unit. However, standards often have a lot of very specific, formal language. Simply copying and pasting the entire standard into the curriculum map is thorough, but not always helpful. It isn't reasonable to expect that anyone will read with that level of specificity, it isn't particularly helpful to teachers who need to see these standards broken down in the unit plan, and it can become extremely repetitive if the units utilize the same standards. In these situations, we recommend using the standard code, and summarizing the standard in a short phrase or sentence. This provides a simple and clear alignment with the standard, demonstrates the educator's understanding of the standard, and keeps the information focused and clear. The same rule can be applied in other categories as well.

How should the map be formatted?

Formatting is often a personal choice, and different people prefer different styles. We recommend using a horizontal chart with a column for each critical component, and a row for each unique unit. The value of this format is the at-a-glance nature. If we can read from left to right along a row, we're getting an overview of each unit in the course. When we can complete the curriculum map in 1-2 pages, we get a good picture of the course goals and the sequence of learning the students will experience. This allows the curriculum map to act as a touchstone planning tool for teachers, and becomes a great document to share with school leaders, parents, and even students.

Can curriculum maps be changed?

One of the things that makes writing curriculum a daunting task is the sense of its permanence. It makes sense to want to keep the curriculum fluid, as the most effective teaching is influenced by a wide range of variables like current events, student cohorts, and shifts or changes in the field. The fear of permanence can often become a justification for not creating a curriculum map. But the benefits of long-term planning, for teachers especially, cannot be underestimated.

The most effective curriculum maps are living documents that provide planning support to teachers throughout the year and communicate the intentions of the course to others (administrators, parents, students, other teachers). We recommend that teachers regularly reflect on their lessons and unit plans as they're implementing the curriculum so that they can make adjustments, remember what worked and what didn't, and update the curriculum as necessary. We revisit our curriculum over the summer or at the beginning of the school year to account for the learning of the previous year.

What are the steps I should follow to make a curriculum map?

In the curriculum mapping process, we see a relatively consistent approach that favors backwards planning, which suggests that teachers should first determine the end point (the ultimate goal or final assessment) and then plan backwards from there. This process is meant to create a clear alignment between content, skills, and instruction.

If this process works for you, use it! The problem is that this process doesn't apply to all teachers or all situations. When it doesn't work, it can create major obstacles in the development process. Our recommendation is to start with what you know, generate your ideas based on any entry point you can find, and fill in the blanks along the way. Then, reflect and revise on the plan from an alignment perspective to ensure that the planning process maintains instructional integrity.

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Cultivating a course curriculum is one of the most important and most complicated tasks for educators. It requires deep content knowledge and an accurate anticipation of student ability throughout the school year.

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Establishing Your School or District's Reason to Map (ASCD) 

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Establishing Your School or District's Reason to Map (ASCD) 

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Evaluation Criteria for Selecting a Curriculum Mapping Platform (sample) 

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Evaluation Criteria for Selecting a Curriculum Mapping Platform (sample) 

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 Evaluation Rubric for Curriculum Mapping Platforms

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How to Make Your Questions Essential - G. Wiggins 

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How to Make Your Questions Essential - G. Wiggins 

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Essential questions rarely arise in a first draft. Here’s how to construct good ones.

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A Giant List Of Really Good Essential Questions

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Essential questions are ‘essential’ in the sense of signaling genuine, important and necessarily-ongoing inquiries.

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How to Improve Your Teaching with a Curriculum Map

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How to Improve Your Teaching with a Curriculum Map

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Curriculum mapping is a reflective process that helps teachers understand what has been taught in a class, how it has been taught, and how learning outcomes were assessed. The curriculum mapping process results in a document known as a curriculum map. Most curriculum maps are graphical illustrations that consist of a table or matrix.

Curriculum Maps vs. Lesson Plans

A curriculum map should not be confused with a lesson plan. A lesson plan is an outline that details what will be taught, how it will be taught, and what resources will be used to teach it. Most lesson plans cover a single day or another short time period, such as a week. Curriculum maps, on the other hand, offer a long-term overview of what has already been taught. It is not unusual for a curriculum map to cover an entire school year.

As education has become more standards-based, there has been an increased interest in curriculum mapping, especially among teachers who want to compare their curriculum to national or state standards or even to the curriculum of other educators who teach the same subject and grade level. A completed curriculum map allows teachers to analyze or communicate instruction that has already been implemented by themselves or someone else. Curriculum maps can also be used as a planning tool to inform future instruction.

In addition to assisting with reflective practice and better communication among faculty, curriculum mapping also helps to improve overall coherence from grade to grade, thus increasing the likelihood of students achieving program- or school-level outcomes. For example, if all of the teachers in a middle school create a curriculum map for their math classes, teachers in every grade can look at each other's maps and identify areas in which they can reinforce learning. This also works well for interdisciplinary instruction.

Systematic Curriculum Mapping

Although it is definitely possible for a single teacher to create a curriculum map for the subject and grade that they teach, curriculum mapping is most effective when it is a system-wide process. In other words, the curriculum of an entire school district should be mapped to ensure continuity of instruction. This systematic approach to curriculum mapping should involve collaboration among all of the educators who instruct students within the school.

The main benefit of systematic curriculum mapping is improved horizontal, vertical, subject area, and interdisciplinary coherence:

Horizontal coherence: Curriculum is horizontally coherent when it is comparable to the curriculum of an equal lesson, course, or grade level. For example, the learning outcomes for a 10th-grade algebra class at a public school in Tennessee are horizontally coherent when they match the learning outcomes of a 10th-grade algebra class at a public school in Maine.

Vertical coherence: Curriculum is vertically coherent when it is logically sequenced. In other words, one lesson, course, or grade prepares students for what they will be learning in the next lesson, course, or grade.

Subject area coherence: Curriculum is coherent within a subject area when students receive equitable instruction and learn the same topics across subject area classes. For example, if one school has three different teachers who teach 9th-grade biology, the learning outcomes should be comparable in each class regardless of the teacher.

Interdisciplinary coherence: Curriculum is coherent in an interdisciplinary sense when teachers of multiple subject areas (such as math, English, science, and history) work together to improve the key cross-curricula skills that students need to succeed in all grades and subjects. Some examples include reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Curriculum Mapping Tips

The following tips will help you through the process of creating a curriculum map for the courses you teach:

Only include authentic data. All of the information in a curriculum map should reflect what is actually happening in a classroom, not what should be happening or what you wish was happening.

Provide information on a macro level. You do not need to include detailed or specific info about daily lesson plans.

Make sure that learning outcomes are precise, measurable, and clearly identified.

It helps to use action-oriented verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy to describe learning outcomes. Some examples include defining, identify, describe, explain, evaluate, predict, and formulate.

Explain how learning outcomes were achieved by the students and assessed.

Consider using software or some other type of technology to make the curriculum mapping process easier and less time ​time-consuming

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How to Improve Your Teaching with a Curriculum Map

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Find out what curriculum mapping is and how teachers use it. Then, get useful tips for developing your own curriculum map.

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A visual approach to understanding and designing curriculum that engages and connects students to a compelling narrative of their learning journey.

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SAMPLE UNIT: GRADE 3: PLACE VALUE & NUMBER COMPARISONS 

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SAMPLE UNIT: GRADE 3: PLACE VALUE & NUMBER COMPARISONS 

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Copy of 1_Grade 3: Place Value & Number Comparisons

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Sample: English I:  I'm a Survivor-Stories of Strength 

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Sample: English I:  I'm a Survivor-Stories of Strength 

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 English I- I'm a Surviivor: Stories of Strength 

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The what, when and how of assessment.​

Generating rich, robust and comprehensive evidence of student learning requires assessment design.

Assessment design is an important aspect of unit design, ensuring that formal and informal assessment reveals students' progress toward intended learning goals.

Assessment design considers the what, when and how of assessment.

For team dialogue

1. How well do our unit designs clarify what is important for students to know, understand, do and become (intended learning)?

2. To what extent will our assessment design enable us to assess growth and progress in the intended learning?

3. What do we notice about the strengths and areas for further development in our unit and assessment designs?

The 'what' of intended learning is what students are expected to know, understand, do and become, or the development of:

knowledge and understanding

capabilities and skills

attitudes, motivations and dispositions.

In Victoria what students need to learn is set out in the Victorian Curriculum F-10 . It incorporates the Australian Curriculum and reflects Victorian standards and priorities. Victorian government schools are required to use the Victorian Curriculum F-10.

Content descriptors in the Victorian Curriculum F-10 are generally defined in terms of:

concepts to understand

skills to acquire

the knowledge needed to engage with a discipline.

Level standards offer advice on assessment and a progression of learning over time. The rationale for each discipline often defines significant dispositions students need to develop for success.

Capabilities that are important for learners in today's world are also defined in the Victorian Curriculum and elaborated in other sources such as the new pedagogies for deep learning.

The Melbourne's declaration on the educational goals for young Australians defines what all educators should be working towards. This shows that all students should become:

successful learners

creative and confident individuals

active and informed citizens.

Extensive research by respected academics such as Guy Claxton and Carol Dweck identified the importance of cultivating dispositions and mindsets necessary to become successful learners.

Research on motivation, engagement and agency, such as that of Valerie Hannon and Learning Futures, also links students attitudes and motivations to their academic achievement.

For team dialogue

1. How will we find out what our students bring to this learning-what they already know, understand and can do?

2. How will we learn about their attitudes, motivations and dispositions towards this learning?

3. As well as being informed by the expectations set by the formal curriculum, how might we partner with students to create a motivating context for new learning?

The 'when' of assessment illuminates where students are in their learning at the start, middle and end of a unit, which includes determining:

1. the entry levels of students about intended learning

2. how to monitor learning progress as curriculum or unit designs are implemented, so that teaching can be adapted to better target student learning needs

3. the overall impact of a unit's learning experiences can be determined through a culminating assessment plus other targeted assessments.

For team dialogue:

1. How well are we gauging the entry levels of our students about new intended learning?

2. How effectively are we monitoring learning progress throughout a unit?

3. How well do our final assessments reveal growth and development?

An additional consideration is how best to uncover different dimensions of learning. This involves inviting students to say, make, write or do something to reveal:

the depth of their knowledge and understanding

the level of proficiency in their skills and capabilities

how disposed they are to learn.

Knowledge and understanding

The most common ways to uncover and monitor growth in knowledge and understanding involves asking students to say or write something to make their thinking visible. Common techniques include:

standardised assessments such as written tests

concept maps that can be revisited over time to show growth in understanding of big ideas

KWWL (know, want to know, why, learned) charts

visual organisers such as linking charts that help students reflect on new learning

the development of rubrics for deep learning.

Skills and capabilities

As skills and capabilities generally mean doing something, design considerations involves working out what best enables students to reveal their levels of proficiency.

This may involve:

school-wide assessments, such as testing

your observations of your students

the performance of a self-assessment task by students.

Attitudes, motivations and dispositions

Designing to assess attitudes, motivations and dispositions require thinking through how best students, in a safe context, can reveal:

how they see themselves as learners

how they are disposed to be about the intended learning.

This can be assessed by translating research in this area into indicators or reflective prompts that students can respond to. You can then follow this up with a conversation, 'digging deeper' into what their responses mean.

Another data source can be found in the annual Attitudes to Schools Survey (AToSS) survey items where these start with 'I ...' and therefore reveal something about the learner.

For team dialogue

1. What do we all think it means to "uncover different dimensions of learning"?

2. What assessment opportunities do we privilege in terms of inviting students to say, make, write or do something to reveal where they are in their learning?

3. Which students benefit from the ways we choose to assess learning? What are some equity implications?

Multiple sources of data and evidence collection

Any account of a student's learning and development needs to be rich, robust and comprehensive. Quality assessment design ensures that multiple sources of data and evidence are collected.

Data triangulation - that is, using at least three sources of assessment data - capitalises on strengths and reduces weaknesses that can stem from using a single source.

Sources of assessment data and evidence can include:

Standardised assessments from government authorities and reputable suppliers

Standardised assessments from government authorities and reputable suppliers play an critical role in supporting triangulation of data and evidence when they are aligned with unit and assessment design. For example, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) provides access to a range standardised assessments on the insight assess portal.
VCAA on-demand offers a selection of adaptive assessments in English and mathematics.

Please note that for reasons of equity, we do not include links to commercial tools or resources in the absence of systemic endorsement or provision of these tools.

Locally generated assessments mapped to the Victorian Curriculum

Quality assessment design can include locally generated assessments mapped to curriculum achievement standards. They can provide rich opportunities for building the assessment capability of adults and students.

Teacher judgements against curriculum standards

Teacher judgements against curriculum standards give a broad indication of where students already are in their learning. Judgements are available at least twice a year and, taken together over any twelve or twenty-four month period (depending on the learning area or capability), cover the breadth of the formal curriculum. Teacher judgements provide comparable data points that, when combined with other data and evidence, shed light on how well students have progressed in the intended learning.

For team dialogue

1. To what extent are assessment approaches in our school triangulated? What is working well? What might be strengthened?

2. To what extent are the consistency and quality of teacher judgements in our school supported by collaborative moderation and other verification processes? What is working well? What might be strengthened?

Locally generated assessments are strongest when they are:

built on the foundation of your deep understanding of the student about the formal curriculum, domains of learning and stages of learning and development. This often requires a significant investment of time for teachers to work together to 'unpack' the formal curriculum and come to understand it personally and collectively

developed in ways that build students' assessment capability, so that they understand the purpose of assessment, what is expected of them and how they will be assessed by their teacher, self or peers.

We offer several resources for consideration in generating local assessments that will reveal growth over time. These include:

validated research and other documents, which elaborate on the continuum of learning in the Victorian Curriculum. This resource offers several examples of such research that can deepen and extend our conception of what students are expected to know, understand, do and become

assessment tools and examples developed by schools and researchers to support the collection and interpretation of evidence of student learning growth.

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The what, when and how of assessment.​ Generating rich, robust and comprehensive evidence of student learning requires assessment design. Assessment design is an important aspect of unit design, ensuring that formal and informal assessment reveals students' progress toward intended learning goals. Assessment design considers the what, when and how of assessment.

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This post is authored by Allison Zmuda, Marie Alcock and Michael Fisher and was first published on the Solution Tree Blog.

Based on The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement

In many classrooms, assessment is still an event. It might be an end-of-unit event, a benchmark event, or a “because it’s Friday” event. Whatever the assessment reason, inviting a more formative approach gives opportunities for frequent feedback in a couple of different ways.

1. It shows the learner how well they are progressing toward a particular target, skill, or standard.

2. It shows the learner which strategies work best for the learner to reach their targets.

In The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement (2017), we propose a simplified descriptive rubric to help teachers manage formative feedback, both at the beginning of a learning scenario and throughout it.

At Target | Approaching Target | Notes
| |
| |

Formative Assessment Rubric from The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this rubric. (2017)

This version of rubric-making cuts out all of the levels and the potential subjectivity that goes with leveling out a rubric. This way, it’s just the target and whether or not a student has met it. The descriptive feedback is then personalized for each student depending on how they are progressing and the strategies they are using.

Formative feedback is one of the easiest ways to get personal with student learning, and students learn more when the relationship is tended to as much as the grade.

As an example, we recently worked with Kindergarten teachers in Gasport, NY as they sought to upgrade their checkpoint assessments. We specifically honed in on writing and had conversations about what the standard was asking of students. In this case, the standard for narrative writing, which is the first one they assess, states: “Use a combination of writing, drawing, dictating, and/or oral expression to narrate an event or events in a sequence.” (New York State Education Department, n.d.)

Below is a version of their task, with an amended version of the rubric specific to their purposes.

Narrative Performance Task*:

Choose a short-story picture book related to the season or thematic topic.

Ask the class to reenact / retell the story (with discussion of vocab, main idea, and details).

Share the prompt: What happens next in this story? Perhaps have a group discussion about what could happen next. Brainstorm ideas…

Ask students to draw a picture that illustrates what happens next in this story.

Allow students to share their drawings with each other and discuss what they drew and what they think happens next.

Allow a few minutes for discussion with a partner. Give outlined or unlined paper. Then use your typical classroom writing process to support students in completing the writing prompt.

The complete response should include a picture and whatever sentences, words, or letters the student can add. An adult may assist with sounding out or spelling words and/or transcribe the child’s words if desired. Dictation is permitted.

Please distinguish the child’s independent production from words or letters produced with adult help by underlining any part of the writing done with teacher support (and recorded in the rubric). The writing sample will be most useful to other teachers if it is easy to tell where help was given.

Note that at this first checkpoint, kindergarteners have limited writing experience.

*Adapted from the Narrative Writing: On Demand Prompt for Kindergartenfrom Student Achievement Partners. (2013)

Approaching | Proficient | Surpassing
| Narrate an event or events in a sequence using a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. |

Each of the areas of the rubric are meant for feedback and anecdotal documentation. Also note that students have until the end of 1st grade to attain the writing as an individual skill. Up until the end of 1st Grade, students can continue to use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. The “and/or” here is very important, particularly the “or.” It was crucial that these teachers came to a consensus understanding of this particular standard’s intention as they created this common assessment.

A second example comes from an AP U.S. History teacher Laura Stott in Madison, CT who clarified proficient or “meets expectations” for the students in connection to an oral history project. What is noteworthy here is that these descriptors can be used with minimal modification for other assignments. In this way, students pay attention to growing key skills over time (over the scope of an assignment and across multiple assignments) rather than orienting themselves to a new set of descriptors.

Requirement | Needs Improvement | Meets Expectations | Above and Beyond
Criteria #1: Developing a Thesis Statement through Synthesis | | You have combined multiple ideas and pieces of evidence from your interview and a variety of research sources to develop a thesis statement that demonstrates thoughtful insight on your topic’s historical significance. Your central thesis causes the reader to think, “I’ve never thought of that before” and to want to explore your ideas further. |
Criteria #2: Historical Context | | You provide an accurate, thorough and relevant historical context for your interview, gathering information from a variety of research sources, including at least one primary source. You include specific examples and evidence to illustrate your points. You clearly address why the historical trends discussed are relevant to your interview. |

Using a simplified descriptive rubric helps both teachers and students see the progression toward their goals. This type of formative assessment and feedback offers something that a summative assessment cannot: the capture of conversational and anecdotal thinking and learning as it’s happening. We see this as much more valuable information than regurgitative end-of-learning assessments.

Also of note here is the different ways in which teachers were able to adapt and then apply the simplified descriptive rubric. That is the ultimate Quest mindset: use the tools the way you need to in order to have maximum impact.

To learn more about how formative assessment plays a key role in Quest-based learning, check out our new book The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement, coming from Solution Tree this fall.

References:

Alcock, M., Fisher, M., & Zmuda, A. (2017) The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement. Solution Tree.

New York State Education Department. (n.d.). New York State Revised English Language Arts Learning Standards. Retrieved September 04, 2017, from http://www.nysed.gov/teachers/new-york-state-revised-english-language-arts-learning-standards

Student Achievement Partners. (2013, August 06). Narrative Writing: On-Demand. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from https://achievethecore.org/page/1287/narrative-writing-on-demand

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Simplified and Personalized: Formative Assessments - Learning Personalized

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Whatever the assessment reason, inviting a more formative approach gives opportunities for frequent feedback in a couple of different ways.

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CHECKLIST: Implementing Curriculum Mapping 

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CHECKLIST: Implementing Curriculum Mapping 

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CHECKLIST: Curriculum Mapping Implementation_HHJ  

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Designing Authentic Assessments: U. of Chicago

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Designing Authentic Assessments: U. of Chicago

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Authentic assessments involve the application of knowledge and skills in real-world situations, scenarios, or problems. Authentic assessments create a student-centered learning experience by providing students opportunities to problem-solve, inquire, and create new knowledge and meaning.

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Elements of Authentic Assessments

There are several elements to consider that make an assessment more "authentic" (Ashford-Rowe, 2014; Grant, 2021; Wilson-Mah, 2019;), including:

Accuracy and validity - The accuracy of the assessment refers to how closely it resembles a real-world situation, problem, disciplinary norm, or field of study. The assessment validity refers to the alignment of grading criteria to the learning objectives, transferable skills (e.g., communication, critical thinking, etc.), workforce readiness skills, and disciplinary norms and practices.

Demonstration of learning - The outcomes of an assessment should allow students to demonstrate learning in ways that reflect their field of study, for example, a performance or a product that is authentic to their future career. Or the assessment should allow for student choice based on interests and skills; for example, one group of students decides to create a podcast to demonstrate their learning in general education coursework.

Transfer of knowledge - The assessment should provide the transfer of knowledge from theory to practice and from one task or experience to another. For example, students writing a blog post about a scientific principle that was demonstrated in current events replacing a traditional essay or paper on the scientific principle.

Metacognition - The process of reflecting on learning should be purposefully planned for students to make connections to prior knowledge, experiences, and different subject areas. For example, metacognition can be encouraged in authentic assessments by asking students to evaluate their progress, self-assess their product or performance, and reflect on their thought processes and learning experiences during the authentic assessment.

Collaboration - The assessments should provide opportunities for interaction that are aligned to the real-world situation. For example, if the task is typically completed by a team in the field, then the assessment should be completed collaboratively by a group.

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Flexibility - The assessment should provide flexibility in the timeline and due dates for meeting project benchmarks and deliverables to align with real-world tasks. For example, if the task would take a few weeks to complete while working full time then the timeline in the course should reflect this timing to ensure authenticity and manageability.

Environment and tools - The environment and tools used to provide the assessment should be like the environments and tools in the students' field of study or aligned with a real-world situation. For example, students taking a graphic design course utilizing software that is used in their field to create typography, logos, etc., or medical students practicing authentic tasks in a simulation room to mirror a hospital room.

Authentic assessments can also be referred to as alternative assessments or performance-based assessments. All of these assessments are considered "alternatives" to traditional high-stakes tests or research papers, and are based on the constructivist theory where students actively construct new meaning and knowledge.

Also, it is important to understand that authentic assessments can be used to assess students both formatively (during instruction) and summatively (when the instruction is over). Want to learn more about formative assessments or summative assessments? Please visit the Assessment & Grading Practices teaching guides in the Resources section of the CATE website.

Authentic assessments can be designed using different teaching methods like inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, problem-based learning, scenario-based learning, or design-based learning. Select each of the headings below to learn about how these teaching methods can support your design of authentic assessments.

Inquiry-based Learning

Problem-based Learning

Scenario-based Learning

Project-based Learning

Design-based Learning

Impact of Authentic Assessments
Authentic assessments have the potential to improve student self-efficacy (belief in own capacity), performance, and learning.

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Self-efficacy and confidence - in a review of research completed on fifteen studies of project-based learning, 90% of the students reported improved confidence and were optimistic that they could implement project-based learning in future careers (Indrawn, 2019).

Higher grades - In a general education writing course, students who participated in scenario-based learning showed consistently higher averages (one to two letter grades higher) than students who did not receive scenario-based learning (Golden, 2018).

Engagement and retention - authentic assessments have shown improved student engagement and learner retention through participation in authentic assessments.

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Direct evidence - authentic assessments provide direct evidence of students' learning and skills for instructors and students to better understand the learning taking place and plan the next steps for instruction and learning.

Student diversity - authentic assessments allow students to demonstrate their unique abilities, lived experiences, interests, and social identities.

Real-world artifacts - authentic assessments provide students with authentic tasks that can be utilized in professional portfolios, resumes, or interviews.

Workforce Readiness and Graduate Attributes

Authentic assessments' impact has also been viewed through the lens of workforce readiness and graduate attributes. For example, in a project-based learning experience, 78% of students reported that the experience prepared them to be workforce ready because of the real-world practice they received through the authentic assessment (Indrawn, 2019).

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Several graduate attributes have been identified as outcomes of authentic assessment participation (Foss, 2021; Indrawn, 2019; Karunanayaka, 2021; Elliott-Kingston, 2018; Murphy, 2017; Rowan, 2012), including:

Open-mindedness - students who participate in authentic assessments learn to be receptive to the diversity of ideas and multiple perspectives.

Comfort with ambiguity - students who participate in authentic assessments learn to live with uncomfortableness as they construct new knowledge and meaning.

Ability to engage in an iterative process - authentic assessments provide students with opportunities to ideate, evaluate, and reflect on ideas and learning. Students develop effective problem-solving skills through this iterative process that includes idea incubation.

Creativity - authentic assessments positively reinforce students' creativity through the inquiry process.

Learn to fail - authentic assessments provide formative feedback to help students build resiliency and strengthen their self-efficacy even when faced with failure.

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Take risks - authentic assessments encourage student risk-taking, and the instructor provides a safe and supportive learning environment for taking risks.

Search for multiple answers - students learn how to brainstorm ideas and develop numerous solutions to address problems.

Internally motivated - authentic assessments support students' internal motivation by providing opportunities for student choice based on their interests and future careers. Students develop metacognition and self-regulation skills as they reflect on their motivations, interests, and learning.

Take ownership of their learning - authentic assessments foster student ownership and autonomy. Students develop scholarship and a commitment to life-long learning through participation in authentic assessments.

Leadership - authentic assessments foster leadership, professionalism, and decision-making skills as students self-direct their learning and performance.

Citizenship and empathy - in many cases, authentic assessments ask students to reflect on an audience, end-user, or global community when solving a problem or designing a product. These experiences help to foster citizenship and empathy.

Considerations for Authentic Assessments
There are several variables that you should consider as you begin to design an authentic assessment:

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The education and experience level of students - consider how you will support students who may not have the professional skills yet to complete the authentic tasks (see the Student Success during Authentic Assessments in the HOW section of this guide).

The subjectivity of authenticity - consider how you will ensure that the designed assessment is authentic to the students. Please note that authenticity is subjective in nature; this means that what one person views as authentic might not be regarded the same by another (see the Elements of Authentic Assessments in the WHAT section of this guide for ways to make your assessment more authentic). Will you provide students with an opportunity to give you feedback to improve authenticity? Will you engage with practitioners in the field to ensure the authenticity of scenarios, problems, or prompts?

Complexity - consider how you will ensure that the assessment's level of complexity is aligned to the learning objectives, course outcomes, and real-world situation, problem, or field of study.

Instructor's role - consider how you will interact with students during the authentic assessment (see the Student Success during Authentic Assessments in the HOW section of this guide). How will you ensure that your role supports the education and experience level of your students? Will you provide guidance, facilitation, or direct instruction during the authentic assessment?

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Student ownership and choice - consider what level of student responsibility and choice that will be present in the authentic assessment. Will students have minimal responsibility if you are using direct instruction, or will the students have higher levels of responsibility if you are guiding student-directed inquiry? Will students have the opportunity to choose how they will demonstrate their learning with a final product or performance?

Formative feedback - consider how students will receive formative feedback during the authentic assessment. Who will provide the formative feedback (instructor, TA, peers, or self)?

Manageability - consider the manageability of the authentic assessment regarding class size and course modality.

In large class sizes consider incorporating authentic assessments through partner or group work to reduce grading and feedback time as well as encourage communication and collaboration skills of students.

In online courses consider incorporating asynchronous peer review to provide opportunities for student interaction and feedback.

Alignment of assessments and instruction - consider how you will utilize authentic learning instruction to support student achievement in authentic assessments. For example, if using design-based learning during a group assignment then consider utilizing design thinking during your lectures and activities.

There are numerous types of products and performances to choose from when designing an authentic assessment. This is not an all-encompassing list of authentic products or performances, but more of a starting point for ideas. Instructors should also consider allowing students or groups to brainstorm ideas for products or performances and self-select a format.

Writing for an Actual Audience

Performances

Design of Products

Creation of Products

Other Types

A well-planned and communicated authentic assessment will help improve student performance and student satisfaction during the authentic assessment.

Communication of Authentic Assessments

Expectations and Grading for Authentic Assessments

Facilitation and Guidance during Authentic Assessments

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Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence

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Authentic assessments involve the application of knowledge and skills in real-world situations, scenarios, or problems. Authentic assessments create a student-centered learning experience by providing students opportunities to problem-solve, inquire, and create new knowledge and meaning.

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This post is authored by Allison Zmuda, Marie Alcock and Michael Fisher and was first published on the Solution Tree Blog.

Based on The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement

In many classrooms, assessment is still an event. It might be an end-of-unit event, a benchmark event, or a “because it’s Friday” event. Whatever the assessment reason, inviting a more formative approach gives opportunities for frequent feedback in a couple of different ways.

1. It shows the learner how well they are progressing toward a particular target, skill, or standard.

2. It shows the learner which strategies work best for the learner to reach their targets.

In The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement (2017), we propose a simplified descriptive rubric to help teachers manage formative feedback, both at the beginning of a learning scenario and throughout it.

At Target | Approaching Target | Notes
| |
| |

Formative Assessment Rubric from The Quest For Learning: How To Maximize Student Engagement. Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this rubric. (2017)

This version of rubric-making cuts out all of the levels and the potential subjectivity that goes with leveling out a rubric. This way, it’s just the target and whether or not a student has met it. The descriptive feedback is then personalized for each student depending on how they are progressing and the strategies they are using.

Formative feedback is one of the easiest ways to get personal with student learning, and students learn more when the relationship is tended to as much as the grade.

As an example, we recently worked with Kindergarten teachers in Gasport, NY as they sought to upgrade their checkpoint assessments. We specifically honed in on writing and had conversations about what the standard was asking of students. In this case, the standard for narrative writing, which is the first one they assess, states: “Use a combination of writing, drawing, dictating, and/or oral expression to narrate an event or events in a sequence.” (New York State Education Department, n.d.)

Below is a version of their task, with an amended version of the rubric specific to their purposes.

Narrative Performance Task*:

Choose a short-story picture book related to the season or thematic topic.

Ask the class to reenact / retell the story (with discussion of vocab, main idea, and details).

Share the prompt: What happens next in this story? Perhaps have a group discussion about what could happen next. Brainstorm ideas…

Ask students to draw a picture that illustrates what happens next in this story.

Allow students to share their drawings with each other and discuss what they drew and what they think happens next.

Allow a few minutes for discussion with a partner. Give outlined or unlined paper. Then use your typical classroom writing process to support students in completing the writing prompt.

The complete response should include a picture and whatever sentences, words, or letters the student can add. An adult may assist with sounding out or spelling words and/or transcribe the child’s words if desired. Dictation is permitted.

Please distinguish the child’s independent production from words or letters produced with adult help by underlining any part of the writing done with teacher support (and recorded in the rubric). The writing sample will be most useful to other teachers if it is easy to tell where help was given.

Note that at this first checkpoint, kindergarteners have limited writing experience.

*Adapted from the Narrative Writing: On Demand Prompt for Kindergartenfrom Student Achievement Partners. (2013)

Approaching | Proficient | Surpassing
| Narrate an event or events in a sequence using a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. |

Each of the areas of the rubric are meant for feedback and anecdotal documentation. Also note that students have until the end of 1st grade to attain the writing as an individual skill. Up until the end of 1st Grade, students can continue to use a combination of drawing, dictating, oral expression, and/or writing. The “and/or” here is very important, particularly the “or.” It was crucial that these teachers came to a consensus understanding of this particular standard’s intention as they created this common assessment.

A second example comes from an AP U.S. History teacher Laura Stott in Madison, CT who clarified proficient or “meets expectations” for the students in connection to an oral history project. What is noteworthy here is that these descriptors can be used with minimal modification for other assignments. In this way, students pay attention to growing key skills over time (over the scope of an assignment and across multiple assignments) rather than orienting themselves to a new set of descriptors.

Requirement | Needs Improvement | Meets Expectations | Above and Beyond
Criteria #1: Developing a Thesis Statement through Synthesis | | You have combined multiple ideas and pieces of evidence from your interview and a variety of research sources to develop a thesis statement that demonstrates thoughtful insight on your topic’s historical significance. Your central thesis causes the reader to think, “I’ve never thought of that before” and to want to explore your ideas further. |
Criteria #2: Historical Context | | You provide an accurate, thorough and relevant historical context for your interview, gathering information from a variety of research sources, including at least one primary source. You include specific examples and evidence to illustrate your points. You clearly address why the historical trends discussed are relevant to your interview. |

Using a simplified descriptive rubric helps both teachers and students see the progression toward their goals. This type of formative assessment and feedback offers something that a summative assessment cannot: the capture of conversational and anecdotal thinking and learning as it’s happening. We see this as much more valuable information than regurgitative end-of-learning assessments.

Also of note here is the different ways in which teachers were able to adapt and then apply the simplified descriptive rubric. That is the ultimate Quest mindset: use the tools the way you need to in order to have maximum impact.

To learn more about how formative assessment plays a key role in Quest-based learning, check out our new book The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement, coming from Solution Tree this fall.

References:

Alcock, M., Fisher, M., & Zmuda, A. (2017) The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement. Solution Tree.

New York State Education Department. (n.d.). New York State Revised English Language Arts Learning Standards. Retrieved September 04, 2017, from http://www.nysed.gov/teachers/new-york-state-revised-english-language-arts-learning-standards

Student Achievement Partners. (2013, August 06). Narrative Writing: On-Demand. Retrieved August 28, 2017, from https://achievethecore.org/page/1287/narrative-writing-on-demand

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Heidi Hayes Jacobs works with schools, organizations, and agencies to create responsive learning environments, upgrade curriculum, and support teaching strategies to meet the needs of contemporary learners. Her models of curriculum mapping and her design and approach to modernizing school ecosystems and learning spaces have been featured in numerous books, articles, podcasts, and software solutions throughout the world.

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Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments

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authorEvent:International Conference on the Strategies for Development of the Primary School Curricula, Belgrade, 1995

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Marie Hubley Alcock, Ph.D is a futurist educator and thought leader. She has authored and co-authored a number of books in the field of education on topics such as; contemporary curriculum design, meaningful assessment practices, questing and engaging instructional practices, the future of education systems and policy, game design in the classroom, virtual interdependent thinking in humans, standards based practices, and education technology in classrooms.

Dr. Alcock has also participated in the foundation of and running of several educational companies and non-profit organizations including Learning Systems Associates which is a national and international consulting firm and Tomorrow's Education Network which is a non profit dedicated to promoting classical and contemporary literacy development for students. This project led to the foundation of a professional development library for educators with over 1000+ resources available at minimal or no cost. She us currently on the board of 21st Century Learning International and LINKS a comprehensive education system (CES) company

Marie has been a teacher and administrator in private and public schools for over 25 years. She has been a professor at Walden University. She is an active advocate for learners of all ages and has said the "science of teaching is an invitational art". She is known for describing a quality curriculum as "one with balance between guaranteed non-negotiables and personalized, joyful, career inspiring experiences that can make the world a better place".

A selection of publications and media: co-author with Dr. Cathy Olliver-Owens et al. of the book, School Solutions from Educators Who Know What to Do, published October 2021.

co‐author, with Allison Zmuda and Michael Fisher, of the book, The Quest for Learning: How to maximize student engagement, published by Solution Tree in Oct. 2017.

co-author, with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, of: Bold Moves for Schools, How we create remarkable learning environments, published by ASCD in Feb. 2017.

co-author with Dr. Bena Kallick, A Virtual Continuum for Thinking Interdependently chapter in Costa, A and O'Leary, P (Eds.) The Power of the Social Brain:Teaching, learning and using interdependent thinking, published by Teachers College Press in 2013.

co-author with Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Dr. Debbie Sullivan, and Dr. Ann Johnson, of the Live Planner Book, Mapping to the CORE:Integrating the Common Core Standards with your local school curriculum, published by School Improvement Network in 2012.

Author Gaming in the Classroom in Jacobs, H (Eds.) Mastering Digital Literacy, published by Solution Tree in October of 2013. co‐author with Bill Sheskey for Classroom Websites in Jacobs, H (Eds.) Mastering Digital Literacy, published by Solution Tree in October of 2013.

Research experience includes: governance, stakeholder, finance, and performance reports and self-study observations for accreditations. Participation in university and doctoral research projects on literacy development in the brain, professional development practices, and memory retention among other topics.

Marie has written a number of papers and articles about student mobility, innovative models of education, standards based grading and reporting practices, curriculum mapping, gaming in education, educational leadership, and organizational change. She has been featured in 100+ videos including Brainwaves Video Anthology Series and 20+ courses available online or through specific universities or professional organizations.

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The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement (Strategies to Engage Students in the Classroom Using Guided Inquiry)

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The Quest for Learning: How to Maximize Student Engagement (Strategies to Engage Students in the Classroom Using Guided Inquiry) [Marie Alcock, Michael L. Fisher, Allison Zmuda, Heidi Hayes Jacobs] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.

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All 21st Century Skills Android Apps Art Arts ASCD 2012 Assessment Audio Automotive Studies Blogs Business Ed C21 Webinars Career/Tech Ed Chemistry Chess cmi2013 Common Core State Standards Content Resources Curriculum Collaboration Curriculum Mapping Deaf Education Dictionary Digital Literacies Digital Storytelling Digital Tools Early Childhood eCoaching Engineering English/Language Arts ePortfolios

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To process a transaction with a Purchase Order please send to member@ascd.org

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Creating Purposeful Curriculum Maps [Webinar]