using a framework to design classroom assessments · gr. 5 three-act task: student reflection gr. 5...
TRANSCRIPT
Using a Framework to Design
Classroom AssessmentsSharon Jeroski, October 2018 (Revised)
Includes background information and details from Ministry of Education documents
Overview
• Standards for Assessment
• A Framework for Classroom Assessment
• Getting started …
Learning intentions
• Consider standards for assessment
• Explore “Frameworks” as a way of designing assessment
• Become familiar with recent Ministry resources for using frameworks
• Plan to explore one strategy for using a framework
Standards for assessments
• Purposeful/useful• Why do you need to know? Who will use this? • What changes? What’s different?• What if you didn’t do this– what would be lost?
• Possible• Time/resources/support?• Opportunity costs? (What could you accomplish instead?)
• Ethical• Impact on all learners? On each learner?• Impact on learning? Values? SEL?
• Accurate• Is it true? (valid) Consistent/dependable? • Not affected by factors that are irrelevant to the learning?
Assessment and the renewed curriculum
• Competency-driven curriculum The renewed B.C. curriculum emphasizes curricular competencies – the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop within each area of learning. Curriculum, instruction, and assessment are refocused on “doing.”
Content provides the vehicle for developing and demonstrating these competencies, and indicates how they may be different at different grade levels.
• Focus on classroom assessment The renewed curriculum emphasizes classroom assessment. Student progress in relation to the learning standards will be documented mainly by classroom teachers through formative assessment.
These shifts support students’ development of curricular
competencies and the Core Competencies. Our new focus on
the development of competencies (what students can do) is
influencing classroom instruction and assessment practices.
Increasingly, formative criterion-referenced assessment is creating the basis for responsive communication between students, parents, and teachers on where students are in their learning (“Where am I now?”) and what students need to do to improve (“Where to next?”).
Ministry of Education website
Activity: as you explore these materials, use the following chart to record your ideas
A Framework for Classroom Assessment
FamiliarWhat’s familiar?What connections can you make?
UsesWho might use this/find it useful?How might you/others use it?Where would you start?
NewWhat’s new/different?
QuestionsWhat questions do you have?What information/support might you/others need?
Teachers said …
• I know we are supposed to focus on curricular competencies in our assessment but what does that even mean? What does it look like?
• I’m developing cross-curricular units. I’ve cut up all the learning standards and pulled out the ones I will deal with. Now do I assess each one separately?
• If we are taking a more holistic approach, how does that fit with lists of learning standards on a drop down menu?
• Should I be creating a new assessment tool for each assignment? Yikes!• When I co-create criteria and tools with students how do I keep it focused
and manageable?• How can I help students see that my feedback and conferences focus on
the same criteria as my other assessment.
One approach
• Create a common set of categories and key criteria using the curricular competencies
• Use these to plan and develop more specific assessments including feedback and self-assessment
What’s important?
• These are framework resources that can help teachers develop more specific assessment and response tools
• They are voluntary resources that can be adapted and altered
• They were developed by BC teachers who had extensive experience working with the transformed curriculum
• There are many other examples of frameworks (e.g., BC Performance Standards)
• There is always more than one way to organize and focus assessment– this approach offers one way. Teachers can use and design other frameworks
Criteria Categories for Areas of Learning
Science ELA Social Studies Mathematics
Questioning Engaging andquestioning
Inquiry andquestioning
Questioning andinvestigating
Procedures and evidence Processing Evidence and interpretation
Connecting and reflecting
Analysis Analysis Analysis Reasoning and analyzing
Ethics Recognizing identity and voice
Ethics and decision-making
Understanding and solving
Communicating Constructing and creating Communication and justification
Communicating and representing
Key features of the Framework
• Offers a consistent approach across all grades and areas of learning
• Highlights key aspects of student development across grade level bands
• Reflects learning standards within grade levels and areas of learning
• Enables students to demonstrate the same learning in different ways
• Focuses on the “Do” of Know-Do-Understand
• Support communication among students, teachers, and parents
• Developed in grade bands; when applied, the content from specific grades is infused
Current materials
• Background paper: A Framework for Classroom Assessment
• Learning area packages for:• Social Studies
• ELA
• Science
• Mathematics
Background paper
A Framework for Classroom Assessment presents a conceptual framework for designing classroom assessments focused on the curricular competencies. It describes how, using the framework as a guide, teacher teams collaborated to develop observable criteria for Science, English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Mathematics to support classroom assessment activities.
Ministry of Education website
Learning Area Packages
1. Framework: key criteria based on the curricular competencies, organized into 5 categories for VOLUNTARY USE
2. Samples from BC teachers of how these might be applied. Designed to show some possibilities and the range of applications. ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY
Package outlinesELA Math Science Social Studies
Categories and criteria
Categories and criteria Categories and Criteria Categories and criteria
SAMPLE APPLICATIONS
K Descriptive feedback, goalsetting
Gr. 1 Observations and conversation
Gr. 2 Observational activities K rubric (Evidence, Continuity and Change)
Gr. 3 Exit slip assessments for Short Story reading activity
Gr. 5 Three-Act Task: Student reflection
Gr. 5 Communicating student progress
Gr. 5/6 Self-assessment: inquiry on current or historical issue
Gr. 6 Student reflection: one-minute speech
Gr. 6 Peer interview: Portfolio
Gr. 7/8 Learning map for questioning
Gr. 7-9“Textbook writer task” : proficiency rubric
Gr. 8: Student reflection-Theme analysis
Gr. 8 Financial Literacy Project: Observation, reflection, conversation,
Gr. 9 Case study assessment Gr. 9 Activity & guiding questions: Evidence and interpretation
ELA Kindergarten: Application Example
Criteria category
Kindergarten criteria Descriptive feedback
Goal setting
Engaging and Questioning Listens and responds
Discovers that story/text has purpose
Makes connections and uses background
knowledge to show understanding
Nora has learned about school structures, like
waiting your turn, sharing spaces, and the
way we go about learning in our day. She
enjoys story time and sharing her life
experiences.
In the next term, Nora will be working on
askingquestions related to the topic.
Processing Makes meaning from sharedstory/text
Identifies basic language features and
story structure
Nora listens to stories and can reflect on key
ideas. She contributes her ideas to the
group and asks thoughtful questions.
Nora is working to recognizebeginning,
middle and end of story/text.
Analyzing Makes connections with self
Makes predictions and visualizationsabout
story/text
Nora is learning to use reading strategies
and has a keen ability to identify details
within a story.
Nora will continue to make connections with
self, text and world to extend her learning.
Recognizing Identity and Voice
Connects story/text with personal
experiences
Recognizes that story/text reflects family
and community
Communicates about self and family
Shares ideas, feelings andperspectives
Listens to the ideas of others
Nora is learning about herself. She is finding
her place in the classroom community. Nora
often shares stories about her family and her
experiences.
During a story, she was able to see how the
main character was like her grandmother.
She was very proud of this connection!
We will continue to nurture the growth of
Nora’s new-found voice.
Constructing and Creating Experiments with print to tell a story
Shares ideas, feelings and opinions
Orally shares a story
Nora enjoys the writing 21 immensely. She
loves to represent her ideas through pictures
and print. She willingly talks about the
stories she creates and was most proud of
her Halloween night story and how her dog
was afraid of the fireworks.
Nora is working toward printing a personal
narrative to tell her story.
How can a framework support assessment?
• Purposeful• Tied to learning standards (supports learning)
• Possible• Offers consistency• Common language
• Accurate• Tied to learning standards (valid)
• Ethical • Can offer transparency• Ensures students are clear about intentions
Courtesy of Joy Nugent and her grade 3-4 class in [email protected]
Background (From Ministry Documents)
• The following slides describe a framework for classroom assessment that is presented on the Ministry of Education website at:
https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/assessment/a-framework-for-classroom-assessment.pdf
• The classroom assessment website also offers other resources including videos featuring BC teachers and students:
• Https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/classroom-assessment-and-reporting
Focusing on curricular competencies …
• The B.C. curriculum specifies curricular competencies for each area of learning and grade level/grade range
• The curricular competencies are the skills, strategies, and processes that students develop over time. They reflect the “do” in the know-do-understand model of learning.
• When assessment focuses on competencies, not tasks, everyone doesn’t have to do the same thing
• Competencies are portable
Criteria categories
• Based on curricular competencies – the “doing” in the KDU model• Reflect key competencies within an area of learning• Do not change from K through Grade 9• Can facilitate cross-curricular approaches• Teachers may choose to use some or all for a particular task or context• Developed by teachers for teachers• For voluntary use -- intended to support teachers in their assessments• Some categories are taken directly from the curriculum; others were
developed by synthesizing the curricular competencies into a smaller number of categories.
Note: These present one framework; there are many other possibilities.
Criteria• are strength-based
• focus on what students can do
• incorporate key aspects of the curricular competencies at that level• focus on evidence of learning
• provide observable descriptions specific to grade levels.
• follow a similar pattern across grades, creating a continuum• give teachers a quick look at what comes before/after the grade they are working with• offer support in assessing/planning for students who are not yet demonstrating grade-level
criteria
• are relatively broad• allow flexibility and tailoring to specific tasks/situations
• are typically limited in number per category• keep focus and emphasis on what’s most important
• may not all be relevant in a specific situation
Development across grades
• The criteria categories and criteria bring an assessment lens to the Know-Do-Understand model, supporting formative assessment and a criterion-referenced approach.
• Developed for grade bands, reflecting the reality that key criteria in most learning areas do not change dramatically from one grade to another. (However, their application within the content specified does change by grade level)
A framework can enable students to demonstrate the same learning in different ways
• Assessment describes and provides feedback on the extent to which the learner has developed competencies, not the facility with which they perform specific tasks. “To what extent can students demonstrate this competency?”
• When assessment is task-driven, all students perform the same task. the question becomes “To what extent can the student perform this task or answer these questions?”
• When assessment is competency-driven, the task is the vehicle for demonstrating one or more competencies. Different students may demonstrate the same competency through many different tasks. They are able to choose.
Know-Do-Understand
• Assessment criteria are created from the curricular competencies rather than the content and/or big ideas.
• However, the content and big ideas are integral to the process; the curricular competencies require the use of content to build greater understandings.
• The focus on the “do” from Know-Do-Understand reflects the fundamental intentions of the B.C. curriculum.
Strength-based assessment and self-assessment
• Focus on competencies – core and curricular --what students are able to do and what they are trying to do
• Not deficit – do not say/write• Can’t, unable to etc.
• Even be careful of “not yet able to” …
• Continuum – adding to competence (especially in depth – but also in range)
• Curriculum and core competencies give us the pattern and aspirations. We don’t need to track what they can’t do, we need to track what they can do
Look back at your chart …find a starting place or a “moving on” idea
FamiliarWhat’s familiar?What connections can you make?
UsesWho might use this/find it useful?How might you/others use it?Where would you start?
NewWhat’s new/different?
QuestionsWhat questions do you have?What information/support might you/others need?
Continuing tensions as we look at assessment of the renewed curriculum
• Strength-based • How to address misconceptions?
• Progressions/continua• Do these make rubrics inappropriate? How specific? Where do we get them?
• Part-whole – deconstructing-reconstructing• We sometimes forget to put the “whole” back together again – a student is more
than a collection of competencies
• Genuine curiosity vs. control• Asking to find out versus asking to match our thinking
Some Advice …
• Assessment strategies and approaches, like most learning, move from fluency to control to precision. Allow yourself to be fluent first! That means try a lot of things, try often, try in different ways, and keep exploring
• Think about the assumptions and underpinnings of the assessment tools you use – for example, when you want to use a continuum vs rubric/performance standard; when you need questions (not answers); when you need to focus on oral feedback; ... Form follows function – everything depends on purpose
• If you are just getting started with student self-assessment, help students see the work as formative -- de-escalate stakes, don’t make it too formal, model changing on the fly, don’t laminate or calcify! And sometimes, arrive the next day with a different version
• Don’t get “stuck’ – we are in a very fluid time – in BC, things are changing and developing quickly – sometimes hard to keep up
• Keep checking: is it purposeful? Possible? Ethical? Accurate?