# data[].attributes.body
April 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Checking for Understanding April 2020_Mlf America

# data[].attributes.body
assessment guru

# data[].attributes.body
sketchnote video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bloom's Taxonomy: Why, How, & Top Examples

# data[].attributes.body
starting with assessment first

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sponsored by PowerSchool and ISTE U

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

When I taught seventh grade language arts, one of my favorite things to teach was S.E. Hinton's book The Outsiders. Every year, we began the unit with a discussion about the cliques that formed in students' lives, how these groups interacted, the unwritten rules that governed their behavior, and what happened when groups clashed or people formed relationships across group lines. After we did some reflecting, writing, and talking, we were ready to start the book.

The reading went fine, more or less. Some chapters we did in class (I would read to them, then they would read silently), and others at home. Some students became as absorbed in the novel as I'd hoped they would; others, not so much. Predictably, some fell behind in the book like they did with all assigned reading.

I checked students' progress with occasional quizzes, we did some work on plot and characters, setting and theme, and then, after a unit test over the whole book-containing mostly questions that asked students to identify characters, setting, and key plot points-we spent nearly three class periods watching Francis Ford Coppola's movie version of the book. And I got to drool over Matt Dillon in the movie's opening scene again and again and again. From start to finish, the whole unit took about three weeks.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why it was my favorite. Seriously. I mean, even though I loved the book, my students' response to it was mostly lukewarm. Maybe it was just the idea of teaching it that I loved. Maybe it was the connections I was able to make to the stuff students dealt with on a day-to-day basis. I don't know. I taught that book a few times, and even though I looked forward to it every time, I always finished the unit a little unsatisfied.

And it's only now, years later, that I'm starting to understand that dissatisfaction: I can't say with any confidence that my students actually learned something from that unit. Upon deeper reflection, I'm not confident that any of my students learned anything of lasting value from at least half the lessons I taught.

This is a hard pill to swallow, because I wasn't half bad as a teacher. I had decent relationships with my students and I believe most of them had good experiences in my classroom, but real, durable learning? I can't say how much of that actually happened.

I don't love admitting that.

But at least now I understand why my teaching didn't produce a lot of actual learning: I never set clear, measurable learning targets.

Things would have been so different if I'd known about backward design.

When teachers talk to each other about the stuff they're teaching, they often say things like this:
"What novels do you do in 8th grade?""Oh that'll be perfect. I can use this when I teach the American Revolution!"
"I don't think I can fit that in; we're doing moon phases next month."

We tend to talk about our teaching plans in terms of the broad topics we cover. This shorthand is practical; we're not going to drill down into specific skill and knowledge objectives while waiting our turn at the bagel table. But when I think about the lessons I gave my students, the ones I observed in my colleagues' classrooms, and the work I've seen my own children do, I think this shorthand might be a pretty fair representation of what many of us are still doing: churning out lessons that keep students busy with our content without ever getting clear about what we want them to learn.

Instead of starting with a topic, we'd do better if we start with an end goal, and that's where backward design comes in.

Traditional vs. Backward Planning

Traditional Lesson Design

For many years, teachers have been planning lessons and units of instruction like this:

Step 1: Identify a topic or chunk of content that needs to be covered.

Step 2: Plan a sequence of lessons to teach that content.

Step 3: Create an assessment to measure the learning that should have taken place in those lessons.

Notice that in this approach, the assessment is created after the lessons are planned. Sometimes it isn't created until most of those lessons have already taken place. The assessment is kind of an afterthought, a check to see if students were paying attention to the stuff we taught them.

For most of my teaching career, this is how I planned. It's presumably how most of my colleagues planned. I believe it's still how many teachers plan.

So what's wrong with it? Well, when we plan this way, we're more likely to include content and activities that have questionable value. When teaching the American Revolution, for example, if our goal is just to "teach about the American Revolution," we can throw in anything that has any relation to that topic: a coloring page of the Boston Tea Party, a colonial flag craft project, or a worksheet where students unscramble words like minuteman, independence, and Hancock.

This random approach creates two problems.

The first and most important problem is a lack of durable, transferable learning. One reason so many of us don't remember much of what we learned in school is that we learned it through this haphazard, topic-driven approach. These random activities are taking up precious time that could be spent on much more valuable stuff.

The other is poor student engagement. Our students know when they're being asked to do something pointless. If they don't see the relevance of what they're learning or a direct line between the content of your course and a desirable outcome, they'll tune it out. Sure, many students will do what you ask anyway, because they want good grades and the benefits that come from them. But they're not learning. If you don't believe me, ask them.

Backward Design

In their book Understanding by Design, which was originally published in 1998, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe introduced us to backward design, an approach to instructional planning that starts with the end goal, then works backward from there. The "full" version of Wiggins and McTighe's original approach is pretty complex and can be time-consuming to implement. If you're ready for that, I recommend digging into their book. For now, though, I'm just going to share the most basic version of backward design.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Identify what students should know and be able to do by the end of the learning cycle.

Step 2: Create an assessment to measure that learning.

Step 3: Plan a sequence of lessons that will prepare students to successfully complete the assessment.

The difference in order is significant: Plan the assessment first, then plan only lessons that will contribute to student success on that assessment.

I was first introduced to this concept in my sixth year of teaching, and the genius of it completely blew me away. I used it when planning my next unit and experienced the biggest spike in student success I'd ever seen. On top of that, I was actually excited about teaching the lessons I had planned. For the first time, it felt like none of my class was wasted; everything actually mattered. There was something a lot more satisfying about doing things this way.

Let's take a look at an example to illustrate the difference between a unit planned the traditional, topic-driven way, and the same unit planned with backward design.

Before and After: The Lunar Cycle

The Before, Where the Final Product is a Test

At some point in their school careers, students study the phases of the moon. One pretty typical way to teach this is as follows:

A lecture or video about the phases of the moon, followed by a worksheet to label the phases.

An interactive activity like scraping the filling out of Oreos to represent the lunar phases.

Following a teacher's sample, creating a physical model of the moon phases using something like styrofoam balls.

A unit test that requires labelling the phases of the moon from memory and answering multiple-choice questions about the lunar cycle, eclipses, and seasons.

In many classrooms, teachers also have students track the appearance of the moon over the course of a month, so that might be added as well.

Following this plan, a teacher would feel pretty satisfied that they "covered" the topic of moon phases. But if we look at the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), the standard relating to moon phases says that grade 6-8 students will:

" Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons" ( MS-ESS1-1).

Note the language here: Students are meant to develop a model, then use it to describe these patterns. But in the plan above, students merely copied a model, and they didn't use it to describe anything; even if the model required some written captioning to explain what was going on, because the model was a copy, it can't be safely said that students were really the ones describing the system.

Then there's the test. If we assume that a large portion of a student's grade is based on the test, then students are not being measured on their achievement of that standard. The standard does not require students to memorize the phases of the moon. Nor does it ask them to "demonstrate knowledge" of how the whole system works. The standard wants students to develop a model and use it to describe the system.

It would be easy to blow off this distinction, to say Bah, same difference. The test asks students a lot of questions that would show an understanding of these concepts, so we're covered.

But not really. Asking a person to develop a model is a much higher-order task than asking them to copy a model. Describing systems and patterns is way more challenging than selecting the correct description.

Developing models and explaining things is the work of real scientists: They notice phenomena, study it, then figure out how to represent those phenomena in order to make it clear to other people. To say, "Look at this! It's interesting and it explains why things are the way they are!"

And that's exactly what the NGSS authors had in mind: "Any education that focuses predominantly on the detailed products of scientific labor-the facts of science-without developing an understanding of how those facts were established or that ignores the many important applications of science in the world misrepresents science and marginalizes the importance of engineering." (National Research Council, 2012, p. 43).

In other words, a superior education will teach students to think and practice like scientists. If we don't plan learning experiences that make that possible, we're giving them a sub-par education.

The After, Where the Final Product is a Model and a Presentation

So if we re-do this unit plan with backward design, we'll need to start by developing an assessment that would measure success with that standard. That means the assessment would not be a test where students merely label the moon phases, but a student-developed model of the moon phases along with some kind of presentation where students use that model to explain lunar phases, eclipses, and seasons.

When designing this final assessment, it's essential that the teacher crafts a rubric that clearly outlines specific, high standards for both the model and presentation. The rubric should list criteria for the accuracy and functionality of the model, plus the quality of the presentation itself. Here's an example of what that might look like:

With a good rubric in place, we then work backwards to determine what lessons students need to do excellent work on the final assessment.

Direct Instruction: Students still need to know the basics of the lunar system. Memorization is not the goal, so we're not grading for that, but students do need to know the information well enough to explain it and use the right vocabulary, so we can keep the lecture or video from the original plan. And having them work with the information a bit on some kind of worksheet or with some kind of online practice is fine, but I wouldn't give points for this work. If you need to motivate students to do it, require them to demonstrate proficiency (like scoring at least 80% on the match game with a set of Quizlet flashcards) before they can move on to the next step.

Active processing with models: Next, give students a chance to work with a model so that they experience the cycle in action. This will deepen their understanding of the earth-sun-moon system, which will better prepare them to give their own presentations. Something like this interactive model from CK-12 allows students to manipulate the time of day and the position of the moon to see how these variables change what we see in the sky. Working in groups, students could use the simulator to answer questions about the moon's appearance depending on what phase it's in and the time of day, then transition into making and checking predictions based on those variables.

Presentation practice: If students are going to do well on the final presentation, they'll need practice in explaining the lunar cycle in their own words. Using an existing model (such as the interactive mentioned in the previous step), have students explain the lunar phases, including information about the seasons and eclipses, to a partner or small group. Ask the listening partners to "coach" the presenter if their description has any holes or inaccuracies. Hearing their peers explain the system, along with attempting the explanation themselves, will help them use the language of the lunar cycle more fluently.

Model development: Now students begin developing their own models. The standard does not specify that this has to be a physical model, so you could offer students choice: The model could very well be made with styrofoam balls, but it could also be a hand-drawn diagram, a slideshow presentation, an animated video, a children's book, or even a short skit they present to the class or record on video. Many of these options, like the children's book, include the "presentation" piece right along with the model. Give students time in class to work on these models; this will ensure that they do their own work and will allow you to give feedback if a student is heading in the wrong direction. Remind them regularly that the explanation of the model is nearly half their grade, so they should consider scripting that out if their presentation is going to be "live."

Model presentations: Finally, students present their models. If you have a lot of students opt to give a "live" presentation this could take several class periods, which could be pretty mind-numbing since the subject matter is exactly the same for everyone. To cut down on that overall time, only have students present to the whole class if the class is actually participating in the model (like in some sort of skit or simulation). Otherwise, students can record their presentations on video or present to you one-on-one while their classmates work on something else independently.

With this "after" version, every lesson is designed to prepare students to give excellent presentations at the end. The whole time, they are using the lunar cycle vocabulary, correcting each other's misconceptions, and just like scientists, thinking about how to explain concepts to other people.

Some Questions About Your Lessons

Okay, so we've looked very closely at one small unit for a middle school science class. Now, take this same process and apply it to the things you teach.

1. What exactly do your standards require? Do they ask students to memorize and identify facts, or do they ask them to describe, explain, analyze, or create? (It's probably the latter.)

2. If it's the latter, how closely do your assessments measure those standards? Do they actually require students to do the describing, explaining, analyzing, or creating (which would likely require them to write, present, or create some product), or do they merely ask them to recognize when someone else does it in the form of an answer on a multiple-choice test?

3. Do you need to adjust your assessments so they more closely align with the standards?

4. If you do, the next step is to rework the lessons that lead up to that assessment. Does every lesson contribute to student success on that assessment? Could some of your lessons be omitted because they don't connect directly to the assessment? Are you missing anything? For example, if your assessment requires students to write in academic language and support their ideas with evidence, you should include some lessons that give students practice with that kind of writing.

5. Finally, will the assessment be weighted heavily in your gradebook? (It should be.)The lessons and activities leading up to the final assessment are there to give students exposure to the knowledge and practice with the skills necessary to perform on that final assessment; ideally, they should receive no grades at all on those activities. If you absolutely must assign some points, be sure the final assessment is worth a heck of a lot more than those smaller tasks.

Like I did, you probably also have some favorite lessons and activities. Some of these might turn out to be not just fun to teach, but also solid in terms of equipping students with knowledge and skills that will last.

If it turns out that those favorite lessons don't really align with any standards, you might be able to revise them so they do. Or you might keep them for other reasons-not every minute of class time has to be spent on standards-based instruction. Some activities have value because they help us get to know each other better, they help students develop social-emotional skills, or they simply offer a bit of fun. But if a lesson doesn't do any of these things, if it's disguised as learning but is doing little more than keeping students busy, it's time for it to go.

Using a process like backward design helps us get better at making these decisions. By making this approach part of our regular practice, we'll be able to look back on a day, a week, or a year of teaching and say with a lot more certainty that when they were under our care, our students learned.
Reference:
National Research Council (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/13165.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are we planning with clear, measurable, meaningful learning goals in to guide us, or are we just keeping students busy?

# data[].attributes.body
and the tools that work for each

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Formative assessment-discovering what students know while they're still in the process of learning it-can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes-for teachers, not students-because we're using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point-no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it-isn't enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way-all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That's why it's important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day's work while students are getting settled-you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn't get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?

How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now I'm feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can't kill a student's grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid's response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy and you'll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions ("What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?"), and you'll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they're sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students' understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don't have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students' learning.

For more introverted students-or for more private assessments-use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it's helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the " muddiest point" in the lesson-the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column-you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they're all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards-"I agree," "I disagree," and "I don't know how to respond") and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they're ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you're only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it's OK to put it aside and try something different.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Within these methods you'll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they're still learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's so important to stop frequently during your lessons to check for understanding with your students. After all, is there a worse feeling than being met with blank faces after you've delivered an entire lesson? Use these strategies throughout the day to make sure everyone is on track. Here are twenty fun and simple ways to see who's good to go, who's almost there and who needs some one-on-one.

1. Use technology.

Source: The Primary Peach

One of the quickest ways to check for understanding is to have your kids hop on their device and use one of the awesome tech tools like Quizlet, Kahoot or Google forms to show what they know.

2. Ask open-ended questions.

Source: Ciara O'Neal

If you ask yes/no questions to check for understanding, some students may default to yes because they don't want to admit that they're not quite there yet. Asking open-ended questions requires a little more thought and helps draw out where they really are.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

3. Ask students to give a physical response.

Image source: YouTube

This can be a fun way to end a lesson, and students love it! Ask students to do something like put their hands on their head for yes and stand on one leg for no. Or ask a question and tell students to clap once if the answer is true and do jazz hands if it is false. Use your imagination and change it up each time.

4. Use emojis.

Source: Teach and Shoot

Prepare cards to leave at students' desks like the one above. Let students attach their clips to show their level of understanding.

5. Ask questions "on the fly."

Stop frequently to ask questions as you go through your lesson. See if students can make connections, define words, answer questions and explain concepts. Make it a natural part of your process so that your students will know they are coming and pay attention.

6. Use checkmarks.

Source: Mrs. Beattie's Classroom

Take a page out of The Daily Five 's book and create these checkmarks to help your students remember to check for understanding as they read.

7. Show your thumbs.

Source: Shutterstock

Sometimes all it takes is a quick thumbs up or thumbs down (or even thumbs sideways) to make sure your students are all still on board. Stop frequently to check in and have your students hold them up high so you can take account.

8. Use exit tickets.

Source: Mr. Elementary Math

Download this cute freebie to create these exit tickets. Students can write the question of the day at the top and turn in their responses on the way out.

9. Flash whiteboards.

Image source: Pinterest

Ask one quick question that shows students are keeping up and have them write their answers on individual whiteboards. Do a quick sweep before they put them down. Pull any students together that still need more and re-teach.

10. Give it a four-finger rating.

Source: Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade Tidbits

Teach your students this quick check method and check in often to see where everyone stands. Pair up students who flash a 3 or 4 with students who flash a 1 or 2.

11. Do a Quick Write.

Source: Sly Flourish

Ask just one question and have students jot a quick paragraph on an index card to show that they understand. Have them share their answer with a partner or collect the cards to review for the next day.

12. Post your name on the stop sign.

Source: Musings From the Middle School

This teacher blogger asks students to check for understanding by writing their name on a post-it, then attaching it to the stoplight on the appropriate color. She then groups students who need re-teaching and advises students who are ready to move on.

13. Give them a Yes/No question.

Check for understanding by asking students to flash a red piece of construction paper for no (they need a little more explanation) or a green piece of construction paper for yes (they get it and are ready to move on). Alternatively, laminate squares of red and green construction paper and glue them back to back to large popsicle sticks to make paddles for your students to show.

14. Do a self-assessment.

Source: Not So Wimpy Teacher

Download this free resource and print up a stack of self-assessment cards in different colors for different subjects. Pass them out as exit tickets to plan for the next lesson period.

15. Draw a T-chart.

Ask your students to tell you five (or whatever number you think is sufficient) things they learned from the lesson. Have them make a T-chart and on the left-hand side write a fact or opinion, and on the right side, give evidence to support their fact or opinion.

16. Do a quick sort.

Source: The Science Penguin

Ask one question that you feel shows an understanding of the concept you are teaching. Have students write their answers on cards and collect them. Sort cards into piles: Got it, Almost There, and Re-Teaching Needed. Divide students into groups based on their answers and keep teaching.

17. Pick a card, any card.

Source: Upper Elementary Snapshots

Print these free cards, laminate them, and connect them together with a ring or twist tie. Give one copy to each student to keep on their desk. When it comes time to check for understanding, students can just flip to the appropriate card, and you can do a quick check by color to see who still needs help.

18. Display mini flip charts.

Source: The Elementary Math Maniac

Make your own or if you're not the crafty sort, buy 12 of these desktop flip charts for $16.49 from Really Great Stuff.

19. Use cooperative learning structures.

Source: 4th Grade Racers

This teacher/blogger uses cooperative learning structures to check for understanding in a fun and engaging way.

20. Reference this chart.

Source: Mia MacMeekin

This amazing infographic shows all kinds of imaginative ways to check for understanding. Print out a copy and display it in your classroom for inspiration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Avoid the sea of blank faces at the end of a lesson with these teacher-tested and easy-to-use ways to check for understanding.

# data[].attributes.body
video

# data[].attributes.body
sketchnote video

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Formative Assessments: Why, When & Top 5 Examples

# data[].attributes.body
video

# data[].attributes.body
digital tools for assessment

# data[].attributes.body
process portfolios

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Student Portfolio Ideas to Drive Effective Learning

When you imagine creating a student portfolio, what do you see?

Perhaps you envision a careful curation of final products: a collection of excellent work that's been revised, polished, and prepared for presentation. But, is emphasizing only the final product really the best way to drive learning?

What if we leveraged portfolios to capture the process of learning in addition to the products? At GOA, process portfolios are emerging as a tool in the push toward competency-based learning. The key difference between these portfolios and others is that the evidence of growth comes from process artifacts (discussions, project plans, working drafts) rather than a sampling of summative assessments.

As we begin working with students on process portfolios, we're already seeing four compelling ways they're working.

1. Process portfolios are a growth mindset's best friend.

The connection between long-term learning and helping students develop a growth mindset is at the heart of Carol Dweck's Mindset. The ideas that our abilities are plastic (rather than fixed) and that we can always improve suggests we should highlight how students' effective efforts lead to growth.

Student reflection is critical to this work, and thus a foundational element of a process portfolio. GOA Filmmaking teacher Brendan Gill of Catlin Gabel School asks students to use Google Slides as process portfolios. Students synthesize feedback from Brendan and classmates, articulate themes in their own work, and establish an intention for upcoming assignments (see the example below from Amelie of Think Global School).

The focus is squarely on what students have learned about themselves, about their process as filmmakers, and about their next steps. Students post their portfolios weekly and comment on one another's progress, focusing on moving forward as a community of learners.

2. Process portfolios unlock possibilities for student-driven, personalized learning.

If students' process portfolios are based on their movement toward mastery of a series of skills or competencies, it becomes easier to design courses in which students choose their own pathways.

In GOA's Arabic program, Ala Hamdan, Rania Al Natsheh, and Matt Westman of King's Academy in Jordan work with 60 students at various levels of Arabic. Students are invited to add reflections to their process portfolios periodically and to choose the GOA core competencies they want to reflect and be assessed on. The result is that the reflections (and students' grades) are aligned to their personal goals and their individual Arabic competency, which allows our most driven Arabic 1 students to push deep into the Arabic 2 curriculum by the end of the year.
Read more on rethinking time in our Arabic classes
The same is true in Social Psychology, taught by Chris Stapel and Natalie Broderick ( Hong Kong International School). Using parallel units, students choose the topics that interest them and set their own competency goals. At any given moment, students might be in one of four different units.

The portfolio assessment in the classroom follows this process:

The students begin each module by choosing their personal growth goals from among a list of skills or competencies that the course aims to impart.

At the end of the module, they reflect publicly on their progress toward those goals and submit their portfolios to the teacher.

Teachers seek to provide actionable, outcomes-based formative feedback and time to digest and apply it.

Students take their teachers' feedback and use it to set goals and reflect on their progress over time.

Using the process portfolio pivots the focus away from specific content and summative assessments and toward the development and transfer of key skills over time, freeing the students to pursue the content that most interests them.

3. Process portfolios peg grades to skills developed rather than to assignments completed.

If grading amounts to a glorified bean-counting exercise (5 points for turning in this assignment, 10 points off that assignment because it was a day late, half-credit for not showing your work, etc.), students are bound to focus undue attention on the beans as opposed to the learning.

Using process portfolios makes it natural to base grades on the quality of the students' submitted evidence and reflection on their learning rather than their compliance with instructions. Carey Pohanka, GOA's Advocacy teacher from St. Christopher's School, has experimented with a system that leverages Google Forms to have students submit evidence of learning to their portfolios. It is the entire process portfolio rather than the individual daily assignments that are graded.

If the only thing that counts towards a grade is the teacher's (and the student's) assessment of the development of key competencies via that portfolio, one can't help but focus grading on what's important.

4. Process portfolios can lead to more equitable grading practices.

Several GOA teachers have used process portfolios to support a move toward rolling grades. The essential shift in both competency-based and standards-based grading is relatively simple: replace the assignment labels that run across the top of your typical gradebook with the skills or competencies you want students to develop, then give students multiple opportunities to submit evidence of development of those skills.

A learner might earn a 3/5 on a given skill in October, but that particular grade will improve as her skills develop throughout the semester. This approach can dial down the anxiety around early assessments and support a culture of reassessment focused on growth. What's more, moving toward rolling competency-based grading has significant implications for equity. With rolling competency-based grades, your grades will reflect more clearly what students are taking away from your course, rather than dwelling on the shortcomings with which they may have started the course.

In the end, the purpose of competency-based learning is to help students develop the skills necessary to become lifelong learners. Using process portfolios helps guide students towards documenting and reflecting on how and why they learn, not just what they learn.
How do you leverage portfolios in your own work? Does a focus on process over product help engage students in learning? Let us know on Twitter. Learn more about GOA's work on competency-based learning in this series of articles, or contact us for more information.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Advantages of Using Student Process Portfolios

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When you imagine creating a student portfolio, what do you see? Perhaps you envision a careful curation of final products: a collection of excellent work that's been revised, polished, and prepared for presentation. But, is emphasizing only the final product really the best way to drive learning?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
EdPuzzle is a free assessment-centered tool that allows teachers and students to create interactive online videos by embedding either open-ended or multiple-choice questions, audio notes, audio tracks, or comments on a video. Edpuzzle interactive videos can be made with videos from a number of websites, including YouTube, TED, Vimeo, and National Geographic.

Tool Snapshot

EdPuzzle is a great formative assessment tool for teachers who run a flipped classroom , assign videos for homework, or want to encourage asynchronous communication.Teacher also can have students use EdPuzzle to show whether or not they achieved the goals at the end of the semester.

In EdPuzzle teachers can create online classes and upload original videos or select online videos, add interactive features, assign those videos to students, and send the video assignments to students' email addresses by providing either access code or a link. EdPuzzle enables teachers to keep track of how many students watched the video, what percentage of the video students watched, when they watched it, what questions in the video students answered right or wrong.

Sign up for EdPuzzle
The video transcript
EdPuzzle Tutorial
The video transcript
EdPuzzle & the SAMR Model

Dr. Ruben Puentedura's offers a lens for examining how technology is adopted in a classroom. As you strive to incorporate online tools into your classroom, we encourage you to use this model as an analytic tool.

Here is an example of how EdPuzzle might fit within the SAMR model:

Substitution: S tudents answer questions on a video rather than on paper.

Augmentation: Teachers can enhance the videos they show in class by adding their own narration into the video to clarify concepts or highlight key points.

Modification: Students use EDPuzzle to add multiple choice and open-ended questions to a video from the teacher. Once they have created their own interactive videos, students can exchange their videos with classmates, complete classmates' video quizzes, and provide feedback on the quality of their classmates' interactive videos.

Redefinition: Students and teachers can share their EdPuzzle interactive videos with people around the world, collect data from the individuals who respond to their questions, and analyze the data.

Far too often, technology is used as a direct substitute for other low-tech tools (e.g., pencil and paper). While substitution has some benefits (e.g., students develop their technology skills and knowledge), we encourage you to think about how you might use EdPuzzle to modify or redefine learning.

Learning Activities
Math
After covering the topic "slope," go to EdPuzzle and search for a video (e.g., how to find slope on a line) by using Khan Academy, which is a tool that contains tons of math videos. Embed your own voice and questions in the video, add it to your online class on EdPuzzle and share it with your students via online class on EdPuzzle. After that, ask your students to answer the questions in the video and track their answers and progress. Provide immediate feedback to scaffold student learning.
Science
In order to create awareness of climate change, each student finds a climate change-related video. They customize it by embedding their own voice and adding some questions in it. Then, students gather all the videos, synthesize them into one video in a meaningful way, and create a video gallery to present it in upcoming showcase in school.
Biology
By using National Geographic Channel on EdPuzzle, find a cheetah video and share it with your students. Give it as assignment for them and tell them to watch it before they come to school. Once they come to school, have them discuss the video in groups.
Social science
Students watch a video about the different types of government structures. They develop a list of questions about this topic and embed their questions directly into the video via EdPuzzle. They can share their EdPuzzle video with a teacher or expert (via social media) to solicit responses to their questions.

Resources

How to Use EdPuzzle

1. Choose teacher account

2. Click "Sign Up" and register for an account

3. Return to EdPuzzle and login

4. Go to my classes option on the top

5. Click on "add class" option to create a class

1. Name your class

2. Invite your students to your class

3. Click on search button on the top

6. Search for a video on the channels offered on the left side (e.g., EdPuzzle, YouTube, Vimeo)

1. Choose the video that you want to edit and click on "use it" button

2. Edit your video by using features on the top of the video

3. Click on "Save" button and go to my content on the top middle on Homepage

4. Select your video that you just edited and assign it to your students in your class by clicking on "assign/share" button on the top. And then, assign it for your class on EdPuzzle.

Image Sources

Research

Active Learning with Interactive Videos: Creating Student-Guided Learning Materials

Baker, A. (2016). Active Learning with Interactive Videos: Creating Student-Guided Learning Materials. Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning , 1-9.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
EdPuzzle is a free assessment-centered tool that allows teachers and students to create interactive online videos by embedding either open-ended or multiple-choice questions, audio notes, audio tracks, or comments on a video. Edpuzzle interactive videos can be made with videos from a number of websites, including YouTube, TED, Vimeo, and National Geographic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product and/or performance that serve as evidence of learning. Unlike a selected-response item (e.g., multiple-choice or matching) that asks students to select from given alternatives, a performance task presents a situation that calls for learners to apply their learning in context.

Performance tasks are routinely used in certain disciplines, such as visual and performing arts, physical education, and career-technology where performance is the natural focus of instruction. However, such tasks can (and should) be used in every subject area and at all grade levels.

Characteristics of Performance Tasks
Here are seven general characteristics of performance tasks:
Performance tasks call for the application of knowledge and skills, not just recall or recognition.

While any performance by a learner might be considered a performance task (e.g., tying a shoe or drawing a picture), it is useful to distinguish between the application of specific and discrete skills (e.g., dribbling a basketball) from genuine performance in context (e.g., playing the game of basketball in which dribbling is one of many applied skills). Thus, when I use the term performance tasks, I am referring to more complex and authentic performances.
2. Performance tasks are open-ended and typically do not yield a single, correct answer.
In other words, the learner must actually use their learning to perform. These tasks typically yield a tangible product (e.g., graphic display, blog post) or performance (e.g., oral presentation, debate) that serve as evidence of their understanding and proficiency.
3. Performance tasks establish novel and authentic contexts for performance.
Unlike selected- or brief constructed- response items that seek a "right" answer, performance tasks are open-ended. Thus, there can be different responses to the task that still meet success criteria. These tasks are also open in terms of process; i.e., there is typically not a single way of accomplishing the task.
4. Performance tasks provide evidence of understanding via transfer.
These tasks present realistic conditions and constraints for students to navigate. For example, a mathematics task would present students with a never-before-seen problem that cannot be solved by simply "plugging in" numbers into a memorized algorithm. In an authentic task, students need to consider goals, audience, obstacles, and options to achieve a successful product or performance. Authentic tasks have a side benefit - they convey purpose and relevance to students, helping learners see a reason for putting forth effort in preparing for them.
5. Performance tasks are multi-faceted.
Understanding is revealed when students can transfer their learning to new and "messy" situations. Note that not all performances require transfer. For example, playing a musical instrument by following the notes or conducting a step-by-step science lab require minimal transfer. In contrast, rich performance tasks are open-ended and call "higher-order thinking" and the thoughtful application of knowledge and skills in context, rather than a scripted or formulaic performance.
6. Performance tasks can integrate two or more subjects as well as 21st century skills.
Unlike traditional test "items" that typically assess a single skill or fact, performance tasks are more complex. They involve multiple steps and thus can be used to assess several standards or outcomes.
7. Performances on open-ended tasks are evaluated with established criteria and rubrics.
In the wider world beyond the school, most issues and problems do not present themselves neatly within subject area "silos." While performance tasks can certainly be content-specific (e.g., mathematics, science, social studies), they also provide a vehicle for integrating two or more subjects and/or weaving in 21st century skills and Habits of Mind. One natural way of integrating subjects is to include a reading, research, and/or communication component (e.g., writing, graphics, oral or technology presentation) to tasks in content areas like social studies, science, health, business, health/physical education. Such tasks encourage students to see meaningful learning as integrated, rather than something that occurs in isolated subjects and segments.

Since these tasks do not yield a single answer, student products and performances should be judged against appropriate criteria aligned to the goals being assessed. Clearly defined and aligned criteria enable defensible, judgment-based evaluation. More detailed scoring rubrics, based on criteria, are used to profile varying levels of understanding and proficiency.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A performance task is any learning activity or assessment that asks students to perform to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks yield a tangible product...

# data[].attributes.body
video tutorial

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Four reasons why I am absolutely LOVING Kahoot!

# data[].attributes.body
video