Communicating Achievement to StudentsFormative Assessment in Action

February 9th and 11th, 2009

Assessment gets to the

of teaching

and lets us decide how and when to offer support to

learners.From Making Assessment Elementary by Kathleen & James Strickland, 2000

Assessment

Formative Assessment ModelAccurate Assessment

Effectively Used

Communicate How?

Be sure students understand targets.

Students are user’s of information

Students track progress and communicate, too.

Why Assess?(purpose)

Assess What?(clear target)

Assess How?(sound design)

Students can assess, too.

Feedback is an important component

of the formative assessment process.

Communicating Student Progress Through Feedback

District & School Feedback 3-4 times a year

Tetra Data, Alignment Studies,

Program Evaluation

Feedback to Parents

Trimester #1, #2, #3

Feedback to Students

Feedback to Teachers

Determine the Purpose for the Communication

Why study and practice effective feedback to students? Like the art of questioning, providing

feedback is an effective teaching strategy when used well

Not all feedback increases student learning If you would just…, I could give you an A.“Buckle down.”

Why study and practice effective feedback to students? Brian Cambourne’s research reveals

conditions that inhibit student learning. One of them is faulty or inadequate feedback from a teacher to a student.

Student confusions, misconceptions, and partial understandings are cleared up through effective feedback.

Why Study Feedback?

Grades and points tend to be a distracter to effective feedback.

Research experiments have established that, while student learning can be advanced by feedback through comments, the giving of numerical scores or grades have a negative effect, in that students ignore comments when marks are also given.

Why Study Feedback?

Feedback is useful information about what happened. Grant Wiggins

“Feedback occurs during the practice events to change student achievement.”

Jan Chappuis

“It is just-in-time, just-for-me information delivered when and where it can do the most good.” Susan Brookhart

Effective Feedback

Brainstorm characteristics

of effective feedback on

academic learning.

Referencing Today’s Work

How To Give EffectiveFeedback To Your Students

Susan M. Brookhart

Preview Chapters 1 & 2 on ASCD store.

Feedback Strategies

Decide how to deliver the feedbackTimingAmountModeAudience

Feedback Content

Decide what to say or writeFocusComparisonFunctionValence /va-lence/

Feedback Strategies and Content

How Timing Amount Mode Audience

What Focus Comparison Function Valence

Amount

Pick the most important pointsConcise

Choose points that relate to major learning goalsPrecise

Consider the student’s developmental levelWritten feedback given to a poor reader is

ineffective.

Amount

Purpose: For students to get enough feedback so they know what to do but no so much that the work has been done for them

(differs from case to case) For students to get feedback while “teachable moment” points but not an overwhelming number

Examples of Good Amounts of Feedback Examples of Bad Amounts of Feedback

Selecting two or more points about a paper for comment

Giving feedback on important learning targets Commenting on the least as many strengths as

weaknesses

Returning a student’s paper with every error in mechanics edited

Writing comments on a paper that are more voluminous than the paper itself

Writing voluminous comments on poor-quality papers and almost nothing on good-quality papers

Read and discuss the purpose and examples of amount of feedback.

Tell another person at your table a short story of when you were an “overfeedbacker.”

Audience Determine who should receive the feedback.

Individual feedback helps students to feel their learning is valued by their teacher Conferring Interview

Group or class feedback works best if most of the class missed the same concept on an assignment, which presents an opportunity for reteaching. Debrief Minilesson

Audience

Purpose: To reach the appropriate students with specific feedback To communicate, through feedback, that student learning is valued

Examples of Good Amounts of Feedback Examples of Bad Amounts of Feedback

Communicating with an individual, giving information specific to the individual performance

Giving group or class feedback when the same mini-lesson or reteaching session is required for a number of students

Using the same comments for all students Never giving individual feedback because it takes too

much time

Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback audience.

What are the connections between determining the appropriate audience and current instructional practices? Consider how teachers decide whether to offer feedback through a minilesson, lesson debrief, or conferring.

Focus

On the work itself :| On the process the student used to do the

work :)“Teach the Writer, not the Writing”

Lucy Calkins

On the student personally :(

Focus

On the work itself grade correctness proficiency level as a grade neatness format

Contributes to leaning about the task at hand and does not transfer well to further learning :|

Focus

On the process the student used to do the work

Information on how students approached the task Connections between what they did and the quality of the

task Information about possible alternate strategies

Contributes more to further learning than feedback about the task :)

Focus

On the student personally smart student you could do better – buckle down good thinking well done this was hard for you

Does not contain information that can be used for further learning, so it’s not formative.

Encourages the idea that intelligence if fixed and that achievement is not linked to effort :(

Focus

On the work itself :| On the process :) On the student personally :(

Focus

Purpose: To describe specific qualities of the work in relation to the learning targets To make observations about students’ learning processes and strategies that will help them figure out how to improve To foster student self-efficacy by drawing connections between students’ work and their mindful, intentional efforts To avoid personal comments

Examples of Good Amounts of Feedback Examples of Bad Amounts of Feedback

Making comments about the strengths and weaknesses of a performance

Making comments about the work process you observed or recommendations about a work process or study strategy that would help improve the work

Making comments that positions the student as the one who chooses to do the work

Avoid personal comments

Making comments that bypass the student (e.g., “This is hard” instead of “You did a good job because…”)

Making criticisms without offering any insights into how to improve

Making personal compliments or digs (e.g., “How could you do that?” or “You idiot!”)

Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback focusWhy might these statements be considered shocking?•All errors in mechanics must be corrected and writing must be perfect before it can be sent home or posted for viewing.•Mathematics papers must have all errors in computation corrected before it is considered finished.

Function

Descriptive or Evaluative? Students are less likely to attend to

descriptive feedback if it is accompanied by an evaluative mark

Make feedback observational Give students opportunities to use the

descriptive feedback in future practice

Function

EvaluativeGrades - A, B, C, D, FWords- great, wow, needs work, Good Job!Symbols- stars, check, plus, minus, stickers

DescriptiveFocuses on the intended learningPinpoints strengths and teaching points

Function

Purpose (for Formative Assessment): To describe student work To avoid evaluating or "judging" student work in a way that would stop students from trying to improve

Examples of Good Feedback Function Examples of Bad Feedback Function

Identifying for students the strengths and weaknesses in the work Expressing what you observe in the work

Putting a grade on work intended for practice or formative purposes

Telling students the work is "good" or "bad" Giving rewards or punishments Giving general praise or general criticism

Read and discuss the purpose and examples of feedback function.

Read each statement on the function quiz and determine whether the statement is descriptive or evaluative.

Analysis of Feedback to Students

Read through the examples of feedback. Review the analysis.

Application Task

Follow the directions at the top of the large form...Feedback to Students.

Compose two realistic academic feedback examples, exchange with your partner school for analysis, and debrief the results as partner schools.

Partner Schools

Monday Valley View with

Knollwood Beadle with Wilson Horace Mann with

Black Hawk Meadowbrook with

Rapid Valley

Wednesday South Canyon with

South Park Pinedale with Corral

Drive Robbinsdale with

Kibben-Kuster Grandview with

Canyon Lake

Effective feedback provides critical “point-of-need” interaction to accelerate student learning. Marie Clay

Providing effective feedback allows students to work in their “construction zone”…the place of cutting edge learning.

Dorn, French, & Jones

Feedback is good if it gets the following results: Students do learn – their work does

improve. Students become more motivated – they

believe they can learn and they take more control over their own learning.

Classrooms become a place where feedback, including constructive criticism, is valued and viewed as productive.

“Schools can sometimes take on the feel of a production shop...students cranking out an endless flow of final products without much personal investment or care. The emphasis is on keeping up with production, on not falling behind in class or homework, rather than on producing something of lasting value.”

Berger, 1996