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Outcome

The Result

Students become active agents in their educational process as they learn how to use feedback, set goals, monitor their own progress and select strategies that move their own learning forward. According to an OECD research report, formative assessment practice has been shown to be highly effective in raising the level of student attainment, increasing equity of student outcomes and improving students' ability to learn. Further, schools which use formative assessment show not only general gains in academic achievement, but also particularly high gains for previously underachieving students.

Teachers help students accomplish the above and move learning forward. According to the same OECD report, teachers who engage in formative assessment report a changed classroom culture, clarity regarding goals, varied instructional practices and more positive interactions with students.

Just as educators have long supported students in "learning how to learn," we seek to help teachers and students in "knowing how to know."

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Students become active agents in their educational process as they learn how to use feedback, set goals, monitor their own progress and select strategies that move their own learning forward. According to an OECD research report, formative assessment practice has been shown to be highly effective in raising the level of student attainment, increasing equity of student outcomes and improving students' ability to learn.

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Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

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Engage in the Formative Assessment Process

Our goal is to provide access to a variety of resources to help educators, teams, schools, and districts implement a high quality formative assessment process.

* Indicates the "start" of the formative assessment process

1. Plan learning targets -->
2. Use teacher designed formative practices--> 3.Interpret evidence -->
4. Provide formative
feedback to student-->
5. Adjust current learning
goals-->

*Continue the process

View this diagram to see student & teacher roles in the formative assessment process.

Please Note:
The Wisconsin Department of Instruction tries to use the term "formative assessment process" -- the overall cycle shown above -- and "formative practices" -- the teacher strategies that drive this process in lieu of "formative assessments." This is because the strategic use of formative practices to elicit feedback from students is not a test event, but rather an instructional process.

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Our goal is to provide access to a variety of resources to help educators, teams, schools, and districts implement a high quality formative assessment process. * Indicates the "start" of the formative assessment process 1. Plan learning targets --> 2. Use teacher designed formative practices--> 3.Interpret evidence --> 4.

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HS

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We share evidence and practitioner-based learning strategies that empower you to improve K-12 education.

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A Simple Way to Deconstruct Learning Outcomes

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Education Week - Peter DeWitt's Finding Common Ground

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Today's guest blog is written by Larry Ainsworth, author of "Unwrapping" the Common Core: A Practical Process to Manage Rigorous Standards (2014). To "unwrap" or not to "unwrap"? - Actually, there is no question.
In addition to the voluminous numbers of standards teachers must impart to their students each year, there is the added challenge of really understanding what the standards means. It's one thing to read a standard and get a general sense of what it's about. It's another thing to thoroughly understand what it explicitly and implicitly indicates. What is it that students must know and be able to do as stated in each of these learning outcomes?

"Unwrapping" is a simple method that all teachers in all grade levels can use to deconstruct the wording of any standard in order to know its meaning inside and out.

Why is this important? If teachers aren't crystal clear about the full and precise intent of a given standard, how can they accurately teach it? How can they accurately assess student understanding of it? How can they clearly communicate to students the specific learning intentions for a unit of study? Answer: Without first analyzing the standard, they can't.

"Unwrapping" the Priority Standards (those standards pre-determined by teachers to require the greatest emphasis) is the very first step in planning effective instruction and assessment.
How to "Unwrap"
Working alone or with colleagues, teachers examine each Priority Standard within a particular unit of study. They underline the teachable concepts (important nouns and noun phrases) and circle or CAPITALIZE the skills (verbs) that students are to demonstrate. Some of these concepts and skills represent surface or concrete learning (lower-level foundational knowledge and procedures); others represent deeper or abstract understanding (higher-level insights and applications). Together, these "unwrapped" concepts and skills represent what students are to know and be able to do by the end of the unit of study.
ELA and Math Examples
Here's an example of an "unwrapped" sixth grade Priority Standard in the strand of Reading Informational Text:

RI.6.6: DETERMINE an author's point of view or purpose in a text and EXPLAIN how it is conveyed in the text.

And here's an example of an "unwrapped" second grade math Priority Standard in the domain of Number and Operations in Base Ten:

2.NBT.9: EXPLAIN WHY addition and subtraction strategies work, USING place value and the properties of operations.

In both of these examples, the key concepts (nouns and noun phrases) that students must learn have been underlined, and the specific skills (verbs) that student must demonstrate appear in CAPS.

This same process would then be repeated with the three or four other Priority Standards assigned to these ELA and math units of study, respectively.
Create a Graphic Organizer
After the "unwrapping" step is completed, teachers next prepare a graphic organizer (outline, bulleted list, concept map, or chart) as a visual display of the "unwrapped" concepts and skills. They then determine each skill's approximate levels of Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Depth of Knowledge. This reveals each skill's level of cognitive rigor. (Note: Both taxonomies are used to assist educators in accurately matching the identified levels of cognitive rigor to selected- and constructed-response questions when they later write their unit assessment.)

The majority of educators I've worked with prefer using a three-column chart in which the concepts are listed in the first column, the skills in the second column, and the levels of rigor in the third. In this way, they can see "at a glance" all of the learning targets and corresponding levels of cognitive rigor that will be the focus for instruction and assessment during the unit. In addition, the concepts listed in the first column provide many of the unit's vocabulary terms.
ELA and Math Examples
Here are two abbreviated examples of ELA and math graphic organizers that contain the same "unwrapped" concepts and skills as shown above. (Note: A completed graphic organizer would also include the other "unwrapped" Priority Standards for the unit.)
Not Just "Word Shuffling"
Transferring the underlined concepts and capitalized skills from the standards document to the graphic organizer may appear to be mere "word shuffling," but it is much more than that. Even though the first task is to separate concepts from skills, the two remain tightly connected. It is the reorganization of the concepts and skills into this visual format that enables teachers to grasp a standard's precise meaning and to determine its degree of cognitive challenge.

The assigning of approximate Bloom's and DOK levels to the concept-skill pairs on the graphic organizer is a mentally stimulating (and sometimes challenging!) exercise, but one that teachers find extremely valuable. While working through the process, trust your professional judgment, and let yourself practice deciding these levels. Collaborate with grade-level or course-level colleagues whenever possible, and "agree to disagree" while you are deciding the levels. Keep in mind that you can always revisit and revise your initial decisions later--usually during the drafting of assessment items. You are then zeroing in on what the "unwrapped" concept and skill are calling for so you can write an assessment question that closely matches.
Your Turn
The power of this professional practice reveals itself in the doing of it! Here's a simple way to get started:

1. Identify three or four Priority Standards as the focus for an upcoming unit of study.

2. "Unwrap" each Priority Standard by underlining its key concepts (nouns and noun phrases representing what students need to know) and circling or CAPITALIZING the skills (verbs representing what students need to demonstrate).

3. Create a graphic organizer that includes all of the "unwrapped" concepts and skills. Assign an approximate Bloom's and DOK skill level to each concept-skill pair. A highly recommended resource for this step is a set of matrices created by Karin Hess ( click here). Whereas this document applies specifically to math and social studies, a separate document is available that applies to math and science.

4. When finished, double check that every concept and skill in the "unwrapped" Priority Standards appears on your graphic organizer. In this way, you can confidently set aside the standards documents and plan your unit of study directly aligned to your targeted Priority Standards.
[Where to Next?
In addition to the two initial "unwrapping" steps presented here, the full process also includes the identification of Big Ideas and Essential Questions. Derived from the "unwrapped" Priority Standards, Big Ideas are the key understandings, the "aha's" or "take aways" you want the students to discover on their own by the end of the unit of study. Teachers pose open-ended Essential Questions at the beginning of the unit to engage students to discover for themselves the related Big Ideas. In a subsequent blog post, I will describe and illustrate how to derive the Big Ideas and Essential Questions from the "unwrapped" Priority Standards.]

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Unwrapping the Standards: A Simple Way to Deconstruct Learning Outcomes

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Today's guest blog is written by Larry Ainsworth, author of "Unwrapping" the Common Core: A Practical Process to Manage Rigorous Standards (2014). To "unwrap" or not to "unwrap"? - Actually, there is no question. In addition to the voluminous numbers of standards teachers must impart to their students each year, there is the added challenge of really understanding what the standards means.

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How we persuade students to believe and act on "smart is something you can get"

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Jon Saphier joins Justin Baeder to discuss his book High Expectations Teaching: How We Persuade Students to Believe and Act on "Smart Is Something You Can Get".

Interview Notes, Resources, & Links

About Jon Saphier

Dr. Jon Saphier is the founder and president of Research for Better Teaching, and the author of 8 books, including The Skillful Teacher, which has sold more than half a million copies and is used around the world.

Subscribe to Principal Center Radio

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Jon Saphier-High Expectations Teaching: How We Persuade Students to Believe and Act on "Smart Is Something You Can Get"

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Jon Saphier joins Justin Baeder to discuss his book High Expectations Teaching: How We Persuade Students to Believe and Act on "Smart Is Something You Can Get". Dr. Jon Saphier is the founder and president of Research for Better Teaching, and the author of 8 books, including The Skillful Teacher, which has sold more than half a million copies and is used around the world.

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Teachers' expectations can influence how students perform

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In my Morning Edition story today, I look at expectations - specifically, how teacher expectations can affect the performance of the children they teach.

The first psychologist to systematically study this was a Harvard professor named Robert Rosenthal, who in 1964 did a wonderful experiment at an elementary school south of San Francisco.

The idea was to figure out what would happen if teachers were told that certain kids in their class were destined to succeed, so Rosenthal took a normal IQ test and dressed it up as a different test.

"It was a standardized IQ test, Flanagan's Test of General Ability," he says. "But the cover we put on it, we had printed on every test booklet, said 'Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition.' "

Rosenthal told the teachers that this very special test from Harvard had the very special ability to predict which kids were about to be very special - that is, which kids were about to experience a dramatic growth in their IQ.

After the kids took the test, he then chose from every class several children totally at random. There was nothing at all to distinguish these kids from the other kids, but he told their teachers that the test predicted the kids were on the verge of an intense intellectual bloom.

As he followed the children over the next two years, Rosenthal discovered that the teachers' expectations of these kids really did affect the students. "If teachers had been led to expect greater gains in IQ, then increasingly, those kids gained more IQ," he says.

But just how do expectations influence IQ?

As Rosenthal did more research, he found that expectations affect teachers' moment-to-moment interactions with the children they teach in a thousand almost invisible ways. Teachers give the students that they expect to succeed more time to answer questions, more specific feedback, and more approval: They consistently touch, nod and smile at those kids more.

Researcher Robert Pianta offered these suggestions for teachers who want to change their behavior toward problem students:

"It's not magic, it's not mental telepathy," Rosenthal says. "It's very likely these thousands of different ways of treating people in small ways every day."

So since expectations can change the performance of kids, how do we get teachers to have the right expectations? Is it possible to change bad expectations? That was the question that brought me to the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, where I met Robert Pianta.

Pianta, dean of the Curry School, has studied teachers for years, and one of the first things he told me when we sat down together was that it is truly hard for teachers to control their expectations.

"It's really tough for anybody to police their own beliefs," he said. "But think about being in a classroom with 25 kids. The demands on their thinking are so great."

Still, people have tried. The traditional way, Pianta says, has been to sit teachers down and try to change their expectations through talking to them.

"For the most part, we've tried to convince them that the beliefs they have are wrong," he says. "And we've done most of that convincing using information."

But Pianta has a different idea of how to go about changing teachers' expectations. He says it's not effective to try to change their thoughts; the key is to train teachers in an entirely new set of behaviors.

For years, Pianta and his colleagues at the Curry School have been collecting videotapes of teachers teaching. By analyzing these videos in minute ways, they've developed a good idea of which teaching behaviors are most effective. They can also see, Pianta tells me, how teacher expectations affect both their behaviors and classroom dynamics.

Pianta gives one very specific example: the belief that boys are disruptive and need to be managed.

"Say I'm a teacher and I ask a question in class, and a boy jumps up, sort of vociferously ... 'I know the answer! I know the answer! I know the answer!' " Pianta says.

"If I believe boys are disruptive and my job is control the classroom, then I'm going to respond with, 'Johnny! You're out of line here! We need you to sit down right now.' "

This, Pianta says, will likely make the boy frustrated and emotionally disengaged. He will then be likely to escalate his behavior, which will simply confirm the teacher's beliefs about him, and the teacher and kid are stuck in an unproductive loop.

But if the teacher doesn't carry those beliefs into the classroom, then the teacher is unlikely to see that behavior as threatening.

Instead it's: " 'Johnny, tell me more about what you think is going on ... But also, I want you to sit down quietly now as you tell that to me,' " Pianta says.

"Those two responses," he says, "are dictated almost entirely by two different interpretations of the same behavior that are driven by two different sets of beliefs."

To see if teachers' beliefs would be changed by giving them a new set of teaching behaviors, Pianta and his colleagues recently did a study.

They took a group of teachers, assessed their beliefs about children, then gave a portion of them a standard pedagogy course, which included information about appropriate beliefs and expectations. Another portion got intense behavioral training, which taught them a whole new set of skills based on those appropriate beliefs and expectations.

For this training, the teachers videotaped their classes over a period of months and worked with personal coaches who watched those videos, then gave them recommendations about different behaviors to try.

After that intensive training, Pianta and his colleagues analyzed the beliefs of the teachers again. What he found was that the beliefs of the trained teachers had shifted way more than the beliefs of teachers given a standard informational course.

This is why Pianta thinks that to change beliefs, the best thing to do is change behaviors.

"It's far more powerful to work from the outside in than the inside out if you want to change expectations," he says.

In other words, if you want to change a mind, simply talking to it might not be enough.

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Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform

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Teachers' expectations about their students' abilities affect classroom interactions in myriad ways that can impact student performance. Students expected to succeed, for example, get more time to answer questions and more specific feedback. But training aimed at changing teaching behavior can also help change expectations.

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Study: 'Pygmalion Effect" Links Teacher Expectations to Student Success

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Study: 'Pygmalion Effect" Links Teacher Expectations to Student Success

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Education Week

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A new study from the Center for American Progress concludes that teachers' expectations for their students are strongly correlated with students' graduation rates. Unfortunately, the study also says that teachers don't necessarily have high expectations for all of their students, especially poorer students and those of color.

The study focuses on the Pygmalion Effect, the theory holding that higher expectations of a person lead to higher performance. The opposite can also be true: If low expectations are placed on someone, they're more likely to perform poorly. This means that a teacher's faith, or lack thereof, in a student's abilities may influence the student's future achievement.

Drawing on the results of a long-term study by the National Center for Education Statistics, the CAP study finds that students whose high school teachers had high expectations of them graduated from college at three times the rate of those whose teachers had low expectations.

Teacher expectations, according to the study, turned out to be "tremendously predictive," more so than student motivation or effort. Teachers, the study found, were also able to predict a student's college success with greater accuracy than parents or even the students themselves.

However, the study also reports that teachers generally have lower expectations of students of color and students from high-poverty backgrounds. Secondary teachers viewed high-poverty students as 53 percent less likely to graduate from college than their classmates from wealthier backgrounds. Black and Hispanic students were also deemed 47 and 42 percent less likely to graduate than white students, respectively.

The CAP researchers are careful to note that, in this instance, correlation does not necessarily equal causation. "It is possible," they write, "that teachers are simply making accurate predications given previous performance. In other words, one cannot rule out the possibility that teacher accuracy, rather than influence, can explain the predictive nature of teacher expectations for students' academic outcomes."

This is especially true where marginalized students are concerned. From the results of the study, it is unclear whether teachers base their expectations of poor, black, and Hispanic students on the fact that these groups are, statistically speaking, less likely to succeed academically or if there's an underlying bias at play. However, the study also notes that some educators have low expectations for low-income students of color even before entering the classroom.

Even if these expectations are predictive rather than causative, the CAP study emphasizes the importance of teachers having high expectations for their students. College-preparation programs and "rigorous academic opportunities"—which are themselves generally connected to higher expectations—can also increase the likelihood for success of students from all backgrounds, the study contends.

The authors also call for more "rigorous training" of teachers to improve "instructional capacity" and educators' understanding of the potential impact of their expectations. In particular, they cite the need for additional "hands-on training in high-performing, high-poverty schools."

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Study: 'Pygmalion Effect' Links Teacher Expectations to Student Success

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A new study from the Center for American Progress concludes that teachers' expectations for their students are strongly correlated with students' graduation rates. Unfortunately, the study also says that teachers don't necessarily have high expectations for all of their students, especially poorer students and those of color.

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When Implicit Bias Shapes Teacher Expectations

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When Implicit Bias Shapes Teacher Expectations

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NEA Today

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Whether or not a teacher "believes in" her students and expects them to succeed has been shown to affect how well that student does in school, particularly among disadvantaged students. But educators should be aware that those expectations can be influenced by their own implicit racial biases.

In a recent study that looked at interviews involving 16,000 U.S. teachers, Black and non-Black teachers were asked to predict their 10th-graders' future educational attainment. Would she graduate from high school? How about college? When asked about any specific Black student, White teachers were about 30 percent less likely than Black teachers to predict he or she would someday earn a college degree. For White students, the teachers' predictions, or expectations, were about the same.

"We cannot determine whether the black teachers are too optimistic, the non-black teachers are too pessimistic, or some combination of the two," wrote one of the study's authors, American University's Seth Gershenson, in an an August blog post. But, he noted, it is worrisome nonetheless, "as systematic biases in teachers' expectations for student success might contribute to persistent socio-demographic gaps in educational achievement and attainment."

The study also found that the racial mismatch of expectations was stronger for boys, and that the most optimistic group about Black male students was Black female teachers (even more so than Black male teachers.)

"These results are not meant to, nor should they, demonize or implicate teachers," wrote Gershenson. "Biases in expectations are generally unintentional and are an artifact of how humans categorize complex information." Hopefully, the authors suggest, the study's findings will lead to helpful discussions.

Although the U.S. public school system now has more non-White students than White students, White teachers still account for 84 percent of the teaching force.
What is Implicit Bias and Can it Be Fixed?
Implicit biases are defined by the Kirwin Institute as attitudes or stereotypes that are activated unconsciously and involuntarily. They are not the same as biases that a person might try to hide because they're unpopular or socially incorrect. Social scientists believe that implicit biases are learned as young as age 3, and may be fueled by stereotypes perpetrated in the media, or beliefs passed along by parents, peers, and other community members.

"Our belief here is that we all have implicit biases," said Maureen Costello, director of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center working toward equity in schools. And it's not just teachers, she points out. Recent studies, prompted by police shootings in Ferguson and elsewhere, have looked at implicit biases among law enforcement officers and found that both White and Black officers often have implicit biases about Black community members.

The consequences for Black communities policed by biased officers has been tragic, but it can be equally consequential in schools, points out Becki Cohn-Vargas, the co-author of Identity Safe Classrooms: Places to Belong and Learn. "This is not about blaming or pointing fingers," she said, but it clear that the decisions made by teachers also do affect children's life trajectories. Unequal discipline, for example, may fuel the school-to-prison pipeline that has disproportionately affected students of color.

But what's important to know about implicit biases is that, once people are made aware of them, those biases can be successfully addressed. "We can mitigate them. We can interrupt them. You can train your mind to catch yourself," said Costello. "It's like breaking a habit, but the first thing you have to do is become aware of the habit."

Awareness is the first, foundational step. (To take an Implicit Assessment Test (IAT) online, visit Teaching Tolerance's Test Yourself webpage.) The second step, suggests Costello, is developing a sense of reflectiveness. Ask yourself, "Is the way I'm approaching this student affecting outcomes?" And consider the data available in your classroom: Who do you call on, and how often? (Do you need to switch to a randomized technique, like pulling popsicle sticks?) How do you seat students, or group them? Are you treating everybody the same when it comes to homework, or are you giving a break to the kid you think has a bad home life or little chance of getting to college?

Researchers also suggest it's helpful to "refute" and "counter" the negative stereotypes that fuel biases, said Cohn-Vargas. That means recognizing these stereotypes really aren't true, and opposing them with ideas that are: for example, it's not true that all Black boys are loud and disruptive; it is true that students who talk a lot often are enthusiastic.

Cohn-Vargas suggests it's also important for educators to recognize their students as people who are individuals.

Much of this kind of work is done by culturally competent NEA members, trained by NEA trainers, through NEA's National Diversity Training Program. Additional resources to help NEA members work with students who may not look like them are available online, including NEA's Diversity Toolkit and Teaching Tolerance's "Culture in the Classroom" project.

"I'm actually encouraged by some of the things happening in positive psychology," said Costello. "If you end every day by journaling or writing down three things that were great in your class, and give yourself a little time for mindfulness and meditation, you can help retrain your mind to see the positive rather than the negative."
Photo: Associated Press

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When Implicit Bias Shapes Teacher Expectations - NEA Today

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Whether or not a teacher "believes in" her students and expects them to succeed has been shown to affect how well that student does in school, particularly among disadvantaged students. But educators should be aware that those expectations can be influenced by their own implicit racial biases.

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Ways to communicate high expectations to students

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Ways to communicate high expectations to students

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This site is a collaborative, objective resource for educators and administrators who are committed to enhancing student achievement. We invite you to share your knowledge, ask questions, and get expert insight into the issues educators face each day.

Connect with other PLC practitioners with insights, tips, and questions.

Examine evidence of improved learning and effective practices from model PLCs.

Download samples, investigate a variety of helpful links, and more.

School leadership teams lead everything under the sun. For example, they . . . Read more

I have mentioned before that I met a mentor of mine, Dr. Sharon Kramer, . . . Read more

The professional learning community (PLC) process has become . . . Read more

An announcement posted on the school district's website, www.mineralpointschools.org: "The Mineral Point Unified School District received outstanding academic news from the Cooperative Educational Service Agency #6 in Oshkosh. CESA 6 engaged in a study of its Effectiveness Project districts who have seen exemplary academic growth from the 2012-13 to 2015-16 school years. Of districts participating in the Effectiveness Project, Mineral Point saw unmatched academic growth. CESA 6 has been a leader in educator effectiveness across the state. Their team of professionals partnered with Wisconsin educators to design the CESA 6 Effectiveness Project, a multi-tiered professional evaluation system for teachers, educational specialists, school . . . Read more

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This site is a collaborative, objective resource for educators and administrators who are committed to enhancing student achievement. We invite you to share your knowledge, ask questions, and get expert insight into the issues educators face each day. Connect with other PLC practitioners with insights, tips, and questions.

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Answer Garden

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AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic brainstorm tool for online brainstorming, real time audience participation and classroom feedback.

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Rick Wormeli : Formative and Summative Assessments

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Rick Wormeli : Formative and Summative Assessments

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Rick Wormeli: Formative and Summative Assessment

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Teaching Channel: Formative Assessment Practices

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Teaching Channel: Formative Assessment Practices

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The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is an organization of member states committed to providing tools and resources that support teaching and learning. The three core components of the Smarter Balanced Assessment System are summative assessments, interim assessments, and formative assessment practices. The videos in this series demonstrate how teachers implement the intent of the Common Core State Standards using the Formative Assessment Process. They were created as components of interactive modules in the Smarter Balanced Digital Library, but we are pleased to share them with you on Teaching Channel's website.

Formative assessment is a deliberate process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides actionable feedback used to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve students' attainment of curricular learning targets/goals.

There are four attributes in the Formative Assessment Process:

Clarify intended learning

Elicit evidence

Interpret evidence

Act on evidence

All of the videos in this series include the four attributes of the Formative Assessment Process and are segmented to highlight each attribute.

In the video segments focusing on clarifying intended learning, you will see teachers and students defining the learning goals and success criteria for the instructional task. For instance, in the video Formative Assessment: Collaborative Discussions, Kelly Bouchard engages her students in creating success criteria using guiding questions about what a collaborative discussion looks like.

See a variety of ways that teachers and students elicit evidence in the segments focusing on this attribute. In Formative Assessment: Understanding Fractions, you'll see fourth grade teacher Melissa Romano circulating around the room, asking questions, listening to students explain their thinking, and recording observational notes on student progress as partners work on candy factory problems.

Learn how teachers and students interpret evidence in the segments focusing on this attribute. For example, in Formative Assessment: Proportional Relationships, students in Charles Elsdon's seventh grade math class use a rubric to interpret evidence of their own and their peers' learning. Mr. Elsdon and the students identify the success criteria students meet and those they do not yet meet. They use this interpretation to adjust teaching and learning strategies.

The final segments spotlighting acting on evidence demonstrate how teachers and students adjust teaching and learning. Watch Formative Assessment: Understanding Congruence and see how high school math teacher April Pforts decides when students are ready to apply their learning about congruent figures to real world applications.

The teachers and students in this series provide a window into the Formative Assessment Process. We are pleased to have partnered with the innovative educators, engaging students, and Teaching Channel to create the videos and hope you find them informative.
Dr. Chrystyna Mursky is the Director of Supports for Instruction for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. She oversees the Consortium's initiatives related to the formative assessment process and professional learning opportunities for educators. With more than 30 years of education experience, Dr. Mursky has taught or served as an administrator at every level, from K-12 to higher education. For more information about Smarter Balanced, visit the website at smarterbalanced.org or follow on Twitter @SmarterBalanced.

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Formative Assessment Practices To Support Student Learning

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The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is an organization of member states committed to providing tools and resources that support teaching and learning. The three core components of the Smarter Balanced Assessment System are summative assessments, interim assessments, and formative assessment practices.

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Teaching Channel: Formative Assessment Resources: Try Them Today, Tomorrow, or Sometime Soon

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Teaching Channel: Formative Assessment Resources: Try Them Today, Tomorrow, or Sometime Soon

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Recently, Teaching Channel brought you into classrooms where teachers and students are using formative assessment to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve student learning:

While these videos take a deep dive into formative assessment, we also want to provide you with some quick tips and resources. These are some of our favorites:

Try These Today

These strategies are so simple and easy to do, you could try them today.

Hand Signals: Quickly gauge student understanding with hand signals by asking students for a thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate their level of understanding. Another popular hand signal is Fist to Five, where you ask students for a 1 to 5 rating of their understanding.

Four Corners: In four corners, you ask a question and students move to a labeled corner of the room in response. Once students are in their corner, you can either use it to get a sense of the class's understanding, or have the students stay in their corners for further discussion. While many teachers already use four corners for debates, by changing the type of question asked you can make this activity about assessment.

Exit Tickets: Exit Tickets are a great way to assess student learning. Students hand you a "ticket," which could be an answer to a question or a more complicated set of problems to complete. As a middle school teacher, I loved using quick writes as exit tickets. Before the end of a lesson, I would think about a concept that my students may have struggled with, ask a related question, and give them two to three minutes to answer it on an index card. Check out the first few minutes of Julie Manley's eighth grade classroom to see a quick write used as a pre-assessment.

Take notes! Note taking is a great way to keep track of student progress. You can take informal notes about common student misconceptions, great student thinking, or anything else you want to take into consideration. Keep it simple and use a notebook or a clipboard as Audra McPhillips does in her classroom, or try one of these note taking apps.

Try These Tomorrow

These formative assessment strategies are as easy to use as the ideas above, but they may take a little practice.

My Favorite No: Leah Alcala's My Favorite No Strategy is similar to an exit ticket, but you look at the student work in the moment and use your favorite "no" (wrong answer) to clear up misconceptions.

The Stoplight Method: This is a fun and effective way to collect data on student learning and instructional decisions. Students post what they learned (green light), their ideas and questions (yellow light), and if anything stopped their learning (red light).

Use Journals: Instead of you taking the notes on student thinking, get the students to write down their thoughts. Use journal time to take a quick glance at the writing - as well as check in with students - giving you a chance to adjust instruction as needed. Watch Math Journals: A Record for Students and Teachers to see how Ms. Lassiter uses them in her classroom.

Try These Next Week

There are so many awesome tech tools to use in the classroom. Here are some ideas for how technology can help with formative assessment.

Video: Normally thought of for flipping your classroom, video can be used to create pre and post assessments if you add questions about the concept. Students usually love watching video, and you'll be able to collect and analyze data. One free and fairly easy way to do this is with Google forms, where you can add YouTube videos. Here is a good list of other options to try.

Polling: Polling can be used to engage students while collecting data on student learning. While many teachers buy clickers, Sarah Brown Wessling embraces her students' cell phones by using Poll Everywhere for text message polling. ( Watch Sarah use Poll Everywhere with her students.) Or look for options that can be used on multiple platforms such as as Socrative, a tool Jim Sherred uses in his physics classroom.

Quizzing: If you really love interactive quizzes, take a look at Quia (Quintessential Instructional Archive), which provides a variety of tools, templates, feedback systems and shared activities and quizzes.

This list is certainly not exhaustive; a quick internet search will lead you to many resources on formative assessment. And, I'm sure you have a ton of ideas to share! Let's keep this list going - please add your great ideas in the comments section below.
Gretchen Vierstra taught middle school for ten years in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her 15+ years in education, she's also been a department chair, new teacher coach, curriculum developer, and policy analyst. She is an Education Content Manager at Teaching Channel.

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Recently, Teaching Channel brought you into classrooms where teachers and students are using formative assessment to adjust ongoing teaching and learning strategies to improve student learning: While these videos take a deep dive into formative assessment, we also want to provide you with some quick tips and resources.

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Participation Quiz: Real Time Teacher Feedback

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Different way to provide students with instant feedback. The Participation Quiz strategy is an easy way for teachers to give students real time feedback on how they are doing.

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Heather Clayton, the author of Making the Standards Come Alive!, is the principal of Mendon Center Elementary School in Pittsford Central School District, New York. She is also a co-author of Creating a Culture for Learning published by Just ASK.

Feedback in the Mathematics Classroom

According of John Hattie, feedback is one of the most powerful influences on improved academic achievement. In fact, after his synthesis of more than 900 meta-analyses, he found that feedback had one of the highest effects on student learning. This means that feedback can be one of our most effective instructional strategies for improving student performance because it has been shown to accelerate the rate of learning and amount of learning.

What is Feedback?

Feedback is the information we provide students about how they are performing relative to a goal. Feedback does not include judgments or evaluation, rather feedback tells our students what effects their actions have on their goals. Feedback clearly articulates for students what they understand and the areas where they still need to demonstrate proficiency, and guides them to use specific strategies for improvement.

According to author Dylan Wiliam, "Feedback involves a change of focus from what the teacher is putting into the process to what the learner is getting out of it." Feedback should help the learner answer the following questions "Where am I headed? How am I doing? and Where do I go next?"

Teachers may choose to provide feedback on any of the following:

The learner's success with a task
The teacher, using very clear criteria for success, helps the student to find places where errors have been made and to understand the steps to take to correct the errors. In these instances, teachers should ask themselves "Does the student's work meet the criteria for success? What did the learner do well? Where did the learner go wrong? What other information will this learner need to reach success with the task?"

The processes the learner is using
The goal of feedback in this area is to promote students' reflective thinking about their process. Students should be afforded the opportunity to self-correct their work. Students should be asking themselves "How did I get here and where am I going next?" Teachers can ask themselves "Where are the errors? Why were the errors made? What strategies did the student use? What is the students' understanding of the content/skills/strategies related to the task?"

The self-regulatory habits the learner is developing
Feedback should challenge students to reflect on the metacognitive processes they used to learn the content. Teachers can ask students questions such as "What happened when you...? What still confuses you? What is still hard? How has your thinking changed during the task?"

Feedback is also provided to the teacher by the student. When teachers listen to students and learn what they know, what they understand, where they are confused, where they have misconceptions, and when they are disengaged, amazing learning occurs for both teacher and student.

Tenets of Effective Feedback

Feedback is tied to a learning target and success criteria.
Before feedback is delivered, students should understand the learning target as well as the indicators for success with that target. As described in the "Learning Target" issue of Making the Standards Come Alive!, learning targets are student-friendly statements of what students are expected to learn during the lesson. Learning targets also include the criteria for success, so students are able to measure how they are doing relative to their goal and envision what success looks like. When students can compare their work with a clearly understood criterion for success, they are more likely to accept and value the feedback the teacher provides. Students can answer the question "I'll know I am successful when..." In fact, when students are able to make comparisons between their work and the indicators of success, they are actually generating their own feedback for learning.

Feedback is based on evidence.
When designing tasks, teachers need to ensure that the tasks they assign are aligned with the student learning targets. Feedback should be specific and based on observations of the students processes and work, not on inferences. In addition, feedback should be focused on the quality of the student work and not the learner themselves. It is the student work that is used to identify where improvements need to be made and how to go about making those improvements.

Feedback informs the student where they are relative to the criteria for success.
Using work samples at different levels of proficiency helps students to understand the criteria of quality work. In time, students become adept at recognizing errors in the work of others, and better at recognizing the strengths and areas of opportunity in their own work.

Feedback is actionable.
The most effective feedback is meaningful, specific, and useful. In other words, it provides information that allows the student to take action. It informs the student what needs to be done in the future and helps them to answer the question "What do I need to do more or less of next time based on this information?" Feedback should be focused and target one important thing that if changed would immediately yield noticeable improvement.

Feedback is comprehensible.
Feedback should engage and motivate students with their work, and be usable, and not overwhelming. By giving students time upfront to discuss what constitutes quality work, they are in a position to better understand and use feedback. When students are used to short, frequent conferences they have a greater awareness of the role that feedback plays in their learning.
To ensure the student has understood the feedback they've received, students should be asked to repeat back teacher comments in order to confirm that they know what to do next. After all, we want students to take an active part in monitoring and regulating their own learning.

Feedback is timely and ongoing.
In order to be effective, feedback needs to be delivered when the student is engaged in the work and when there is still time to make improvements. Once feedback is given, students need the immediate opportunity to use it. When feedback is provided during the learning, students make connections to their learning target and the indicators for success with that target.

Feedback in the Mathematics Classroom

Applying these tenets of high quality feedback in the mathematics classroom is critically important to our students' success. Our feedback to students should not only promote their learning of the math content, but also strengthen their application of the mathematical practices. In order to learn and retain their mathematical understandings, students need to be engaged in the process of doing mathematics and receiving feedback on their experiences. Therefore, in addition to specific content and skills, feedback should focus on the Standards of Mathematical Practice which emphasize students' ability to:

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them

Reason abstractly and quantitatively

Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others

Model with mathematics

Use appropriate tools strategically

Attend to precision

Look for and make use of structure

Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

When feedback is centered on the mathematical practices, students grow in the habits of mind needed to be mathematically proficient. Consider making observations of the students' work and the processes they are using. For example, at the start of a conference, quickly research the work the student has done, including the strategies or processes they are using to solve problems. Make observations of what the student has done well, along with any areas of challenge or confusion. You might start the feedback discussion with:

I'm noticing that you...

I can see that...

Based on my observations, you...

It looks like...

With these openers, the feedback is tied to the students' work and based on evidence, not in the learner.

Be sure to ask high quality questions to probe student thinking and promote reflection. In their book Engage in the Mathematical Practices: Strategies to Build Numeracy and Literacy with K-5 Learners, authors Kit Norris and Sarah Schuhl identify two different types of probing questions. The first are assessing questions, or those that scaffold instruction for students who are stuck. The second are advancing questions that further learning for students who are ready to move beyond the standard. Some of the questions they suggest are:
Assessing Questions to Use When Student is Stuck

How can you use a tool to make sense of the problem?

What else can you try?

What do you notice in the problem?

What do you wonder about the problem?

What is the problem asking?

What do the numbers represent in the problem?

What do you need to know?

What strategies might you consider using?

How will you know if your strategy works?

How will you show your thinking?

What could help you?

How is this problem like problems you have solved before?

Where have you solved a problem like this before?

Can you solve it in a different way?

Advancing Questions to Use When Student is Ready to Move Beyond the Standards

How can you represent this problem in a different way?

Can you create a word problem to match the equation _______________?

Can you create a word problem using _____________ that has an answer of _____?

How is _______ like _______? How is ______ different from ______?

What are you wondering about?

How can you represent this situation with numbers and symbols?

It is really helpful to identify an "anchor problem and solution" that exemplifies the work you are expecting students to do. Students will do best when they know exactly what is expected of them. This can be done through rubrics, checklists, and other scoring tools; it can also be done by giving the students an annotated example of the work you are asking them to do. Feedback then can be in direct alignment with the demonstrated criteria for success with the task. Providing an "anchor problem" not only lifts the quality of student work, but also provides guidance about what to do next.

It is important that students do not see the teacher is not the only source of feedback in the math classroom. Providing opportunities for students to engage in dialogue with their peers helps to clarify their thinking and reflect on their work. For example, one partner may ask "Why are you choosing to solve the problem in this way?" Students can also ask their peers questions such as "Why?" or "What do you mean?" and "Can you explain that in another way?" as they look to clarify their own understanding. Finally, when talking with a partner, students have the chance to listen to and reflect on the mathematical arguments of their classmates.

Taking time to analyze and discuss errors in a student's mathematical work can not only increase student engagement, but promote students' conceptual understanding. One way to leverage errors is to design mathematical tasks that are likely to expose students' misconceptions. While students are working, observe how they are approaching tasks and the errors they are making, then gather examples to use in a class discussion. Have the class publicly analyze and discuss these flawed solutions.

Strategically project anonymous work samples that include flawed thinking, then lead the class through a discussion. For instance you might ask questions like "What process did each student use? What do you notice about each solution? How are the solutions similar or different from each other? How is this work similar or different from problems like this that we have solved before? Is there a solution that is complete and correct? If so, which one and why?" Once the error is found, students can work in partners to correct the solution and justify their thinking. When re-convening the students it is important to solidify the mathematical points made during the discussion. Not only will discussions of students' errors clarify each student's understanding, but it will build a culture of risk taking and a recognition that we can all learn from our mistakes.

Norris and Schuhl also suggest using a consistent sequence of questions with students when they are problem solving. When consistently using these questions, the students begin to ask themselves the same questions as independent problem solvers. Students' answers to each question clarify their thinking, assist with a plan for problem solving, and help them to check for the reasonableness of their answer. A suggested sequence of questions is:
What is the problem asking?
How will I solve it?
Is this strategy working?
Does my answer make sense?

When effectively used, feedback provides students with accurate information about what they understand and can do, as well as areas where they still need to build proficiency. In the mathematics classroom, quality questioning is at the heart of effective feedback. Students should be clarifying their understanding, evaluating their work, finding errors, making corrections, and applying their learning to different problems.

When students are able to make comparisons between their work and the criteria for success, they are actually identifying for themselves what is working and what is not, as well as the steps they need to take for improvement. The goal of our standards is to produce students who are college and career ready, and feedback is one of our most powerful tools to help them get there.

Resources and References

Clayton, Heather. "Learning Targets." Making the Standards Come Alive! 2017
www. justaskpublications.com/just-ask-resource-center/e-newsletters/msca/learningtargets/

Hattie, John. Visible Learning for Teachers: Maintaining Impact on Learning. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Norris, Kit. and Schuhl, Sara. Engage in the Mathematical Practices: Strategies to Build Numeracy and Literacy with K-5 Learners. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2016.

Vagle, Nicole Dimich. Design in 5: Essential Phases to Create Engaging Assessment Practice. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press, 2015.

Wiggins, Grant. "Seven Keys to Effective Feedback." Educational Leadership. September, 2012.

www.engageny.org/resource/released-2017-3-8-ela-and-mathematics-state-test-questions
This link features released questions from 2017 grades 3-8 New York State Assessments in English Language Arts and Mathematics. There are annotated anchor problems for math that are effective to use with students when comparing student work to indicators for success.

www.teachingchannel.org/videos/math-test-grading-tips
This video, targeted to mathematics in grades 6-12, illustrates the strategy of highlighting mistakes in lieu of assigning grades. Through the use of this strategy, students are learning from their mistakes and strengthening their math understanding rather than focusing on the "grade

Please include the following citation on all copies:

Clayton, Heather. "Feedback in the Mathematics Classroom." Making the Standards Come Alive! Volume VI, Issue III 2017. Available at www.justaskpublications.com. Reproduced with permission of Just ASK Publications & Professional Development. ©2017. All rights reserved.

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Heather Clayton, the author of Making the Standards Come Alive! , is the principal of Mendon Center Elementary School in Pittsford Central School District, New York. She is also a co-author of Creating a Culture for Learning published by Just ASK. According of John Hattie, feedback is one of the most powerful influences on improved academic achievement.

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How Teachers Can Develop STEM Formative Assessments

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How Teachers Can Develop STEM Formative Assessments

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Practice Brief 18 -- Topics: Implementation Assessment

How teachers can develop formative assessments that fit a three-dimensional view of science learning

Teachers should be using formative assessments as they implement instruction for 3D learning. There is a pressing need to develop 3D formative assessments.

District Staff & PD Providers need models of what 3D formative assessments look like and design criteria to modify or adapt existing formative assessments.

School Leaders should support teachers in collaborative spaces to experiment with 3D formative assessments.

What Is The Issue?

The new vision for K-12 science education and corresponding Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) promotes a three-dimensional view of learning in which students learn and apply disciplinary core ideas (DCIs) and cross-cutting concepts (CCCs) as they engage in science and engineering practices (SEPs). But what do 3D formative assessments look like? What are the different types of 3D formative assessment that could be used in classrooms? Educators should work with their peers to develop and refine formative assessments that fit with the 3D model of learning.

Authors:

BY ERIN FURTAK, MARIAN PASQUALE & RACHEL AAZZERAH - JANUARY 2016

Reflection Questions

Where in your instruction might it be helpful to gauge students' progress toward intermediate learning targets?

Anticipate student responses to formative assessments before using them. What feedback can you develop to move students forward in their learning?

How can different formative assessments-whole-class conversations, written activities, and student work-give you a coherent picture of what students know and can do?

Things to Consider

Effective implementation of the NGSS can't be done with summative assessment alone. It requires different forms of ongoing classroom formative assessment.

3D assessments will require multiple components that work together to provide a coherent picture of student understanding of DCIs, CCCs, and SEPs. Responses to these components will provide multiple sources of evidence to guide a teacher in making inferences about what students know and are able to do, and also point toward next steps in instruction.

3D formative assessments can be informal and embedded in teachers' daily practice, or formal written assessments that are specifically developed to surface student engagement in 3D learning. A formative assessment can be as simple as posing a question to a student or listening to a group working on an investigation.

Formative assessments should engage students in the full range of science and engineering practices. This focuses assessment on making sense of phenomena and not factual recall. Assessments should focus on making sense of compelling phenomena. Some items should focus on multiple practices (from science, ELA, math).

Space should be provided for teachers to engage in collaborative design, enactment, and refinement of formative assessments. This can lead to improved student learning, coordinated classroom practice, and higher-quality formative assessments. Using preexisting lists of criteria and scaffolds for teacher assessment design can help make these learning community spaces more productive.

"It is critical that assessments help students internalize standards, become better able to reflect on and evaluate their own work & be motivated and capable of revising and improving it, as well as seeking out additional resources... to answer emerging questions."

- Next Generation Assessment

Attending to Equity

Formative assessment can narrow achievement gaps by generating info that can guide instruction for all students.

Formative assessments can be designed to be accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse students in ways summative assessments cannot-to allow students to respond in a variety of ways (e.g., in their native language or with the support of other students).

Effective formative assessments can be situated in compelling, everyday-relevant contexts that are more accessible.

Recommended Actions You Can Take

ALSO SEE STEM TEACHING TOOLS

STEM Teaching Tools content copyright 2014-22 UW Institute for Science + Math Education. All rights reserved.
This site is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Award #1920249 (previously through Awards #1238253 and #1854059). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Others may adapt with attribution. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Opinions expressed are not those of any funding agency.

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How teachers can develop formative assessments that fit a three-dimensional view of science learning : StemTeachingTools (en-US)

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Practice Brief 18 -- Topics: Implementation Assessment Teachers should be using formative assessments as they implement instruction for 3D learning. There is a pressing need to develop 3D formative assessments. District Staff & PD Providers need models of what 3D formative assessments look like and design criteria to modify or adapt existing formative assessments.

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Science Formative Assessments Collection | NSTA Learning Center

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Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction

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Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction

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Formative Assessment That Truly Informs Instruction

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56 Different Ways to Gather Evidence of Student Achievement

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56 Different Ways to Gather Evidence of Student Achievement

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An Additional 60 Formative Assessment Strategies

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An Additional 60 Formative Assessment Strategies

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An Additional 60 Formative Assessment Strategies

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Better Feedback for Better Teaching: A Practical Guide to Improving Classroom Observations

This book offers practical guidance for improving observer training, assessment, and monitoring so all educators can benefit from trustworthy observations that provide them with meaningful, accurate, and actionable feedback.

Jeff Archer, Steve Cantrell, Steven L. Holtzman, Jilliam N. Joe, Cynthia M. Tocci, and Jess Wood

Measures of Effective Teaching

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Better Feedback for Better Teaching: A Practical Guide to Improving Classroom Observations - K-12 Education

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This book offers practical guidance for improving observer training, assessment, and monitoring so all educators can benefit from trustworthy observations that provide them with meaningful, accurate, and actionable feedback. Jeff Archer, Steve Cantrell, Steven L. Holtzman, Jilliam N. Joe, Cynthia M.

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Instruction & Learning Through Formative Assessments

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Instruction & Learning Through Formative Assessments

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Instruction and Learning through Formative Assessments

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Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Supports

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Equitable Multi-Level Systems of Supports

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Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey

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Students Taking Responsibility for Their Own Learning with Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher