DESCRIPTIVE FEEDBACKFrom A to Meaningful

ian.landy@sd47.bc.catechnolandy.wordpress.com

@technolandy "I would like to acknowledge that we are gathering and learning today on the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation. I give this acknowledgement to show recognition, respect, and to give thanks."

grades confuse me %s scare me

things have changed

Why the shift?

• not a new: as I found in my dads journal from 1967: Grades are end-products - not merely by-products of learning - to many of our capable students. The university professor should not be surprised when a bright young graduate student inquires “Will this count towards our grade?" The junior high school teacher and the fifth grade teacher are asked the same question by their students. - Can We Stop The Merry-Go-Round of Grades by Bea Bates.

Why the shift?• Grades are the symbols of failure - proof to a

number of students that they can do nothing well.

• Grades produce anxiety in elementary students before the promised whipping if grades did not improve.

• Grades meant athletes and musicians dropping sports and band because of grade levels

• Failing grades in university leading to suicide attempts by college freshmen

Why the shift?• Ouch: Must we wait another sixty years for these

empirical questions to be answered (again, from 1967)

• are grades necessary to motivate learning?

• to cull underachievers from classes in high school?

• for admission to university?

• From 1910s-1960s “research over the last half century has uncovered some of the fallacies and inadequacies of marking procedures"

Early Starts• The John Dewey High School Adventure

• Students did not receive numerical grades, instead four basics:

• M = Mastery

• MI = Mastery in Independent Study

• MC = Mastery Conditional (marginal)

• R = Retention (failure)

• Yes - universities accepted these students

High Tech High

• When you think back on your own time in school, what experiences had the biggest positive impact on you? How important were lectures and multiple-choice questions? For you, what were the “right conditions” for real learning and personal development?

• We like to think we were motivated by “chasing the A” but there’s always been mysteries about “the grade that was given” while we were encouraged to “work harder” or even more ambiguous “work smarter not harder”

• How much of an opportunity do your students have for independent study? Pursuing their own interests? Free time for exploration? Should this “20% time" from google that links to ideas such as “passion projects" be part of “school”?

• How would this look on a report card…?

first attempts in learningF.A.I.L.

Why the shift?Evaluation -

A Major Phase of the Creative Process (links with competencies….!)

Creative Process: 1. Preparation 2. Incubation 3. Intuition 4. Active Creation 5. Creation

…. the evaluation process should be one which inspires creators to write again and again in an enthusiastic, alert manner. Evaluation should be one of valuation not one of devaluation or deflation - R.K. Carson UBC

Again, it should be emphasized that evaluation must build competence with confidence.

Do more numbers give you more or less confidence in indicating what a student has learned…? (yep - sorry - leading question but I’m the AF who will ask my kid with a 95% score what the 5% they don’t know is...)

Some tough Questions• How many tasks and tests are norm referenced?

• What is the margin of error within each task?

• Are expectations clearly articulated AND understood?

• Does every task need assessment?

• Is practice (or formative assessments) enough?

• Do %s and Letter Grades take these into consideration?

Fix 1 D

on’t include behaviours

Fix 2 Late work O

K

Fix 3 No extra points

Fix 4 No reduced grade punishment

Fix 5 Grades not based on attendance

Fix 6 Group scores not grades

Fix 8 Use clear descriptors

Fix 9 D

on’t compare students

Fix 10 Use quality assessments

Grading Repair Kit Based on Ken O’Connor’s “A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades”

Fixes for Practices that Distort Achievement

Fix 1: Don’t include student behaviours (effort, participation, adherence to class rules, etc) in grades; include only achievement.

Fix 2: Don’t reduce marks on “work” submitted late; provide support for the learner

Fix 3: Don’t give points for extra credit or use bonus points; seek only evidence that more work has resulted in a higher level of achievement

Fix 4: Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades; apply other consequences and reassess to determine actual level of achievement

Fix 5: Don’t consider attendance in grade determination; report absences separately

Fix 6: Don’t include group scores in grades; use only individual achievement evidence

Fixes for Low-Quality or Poorly Organized Evidence

Fix 7: Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods or simply summarizing into a single grade; organize and report evidence by standards/learning goals

Fix 8: Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear descriptions of achievement expecta-tion

Fix 9: Don’t assign grades based on student’s achievement compared to other students; compare each student’s performance to preset standards

Fix 10: Don’t rely on evidence gathered using assessments that fail to meet standards of quality; rely only on quality assessments

Fixes for Inappropriate Grade Calculation

Fix 11: Don’t rely on the mean; consider other measures of central tendency and use professional judgement

Fix 12: Don’t include zeros in grade determination when evidence is missing or as a punishment; use alternatives, such as reassessing to determine real achievement or use “I” for Incomplete or Insufficient Evidence

Fixes to Support Learning

Fix 13: Don’t use information from formative assessments and practice to determine grades; use only summative evidence

Fix 14: Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time when learning is developmental and will grow with time and repeated oppor-tunities; in those instances, emphasize more recent achievement

Fix 15: Don’t leave students out of the grading process. Involve students; they can - and should - play key roles in assessment and grading that promotes achievement

Fix 7 Report on evidence

Fix 11 D

on’t use the ‘mean’

Fix 12 0’s don’t count

Fix 13 Summative evidence only

Fix 14 Emphasize recent achievement

Fix 15 Use quality assessments

sigh…the game of school…if points “count"

So….descriptive feedback

descriptive feedback starter pack

• focus on a positive (ie clear voice)

• find another thing that’s going well (great use of connecting thoughts to the lyrics)

• provide “one” thing to work on (when public speaking you need to make eye contact with the audience)

descriptive feedback

• Sugata Mitra (Hole in The Wall)

• Success of “the granny cloud”

• Only positive reinforcement and questions

frequency

1. not everything needs to be archived with feedback

2. the same thing does not need to be archived or assessed with descriptive feedback as everyone else

how to start…and evolve

• start simple and focused

• explore what works for the learner

• explore what works well for the teacher (eg don’t write a paragraph for every thing)

• rip the bandage off vs pull it off slowly (or wade into the lake or jump off the dock, pick a metaphor just know what you are doing it for)

implementation

Two Stars and a Wish

• Keeps a focus on the positive

• Sets “a” goal to stay focused on (overwhelming when ‘you have to fix everything’)

• This is just a ‘first step’ to practice descriptive feedback (Landy’s challenge to self once upon a time: only using descriptive feedback with math)

no scoring on the paper?

• Keeps a focus on the positive

• Sets “a” goal to stay focused on (overwhelming when ‘you have to fix everything’)

• This is a ‘second step’ to practice descriptive feedback (Landy’s challenge to self once upon a time: only using verbal feedback with writing but a LOT of feedback)

f’r instance

Easier?

• not necessarily “easier” than traditional marking - there needs to be a focus beyond “tallying marks"

• more “meaningful” feedback as it is focused on learner and not every learning event needs feedback (or a ‘grade’)

Make it meaningful, ongoing and practical

Focus on Standards

#sblchat alternating Wednesday 6pm#ATAssess alternating Tuesday at 6 pm

standards self created

• Create descriptors prior to a unit

• Collaborate on “student cam” statements

• Bullets being cut & paste are fine)

• Edit them

• If you wake up in the middle of the night...change something

Descriptive Feedback Loops

Parents

Students

Teacher

What's Right?

What's Next?Ongoing

Descriptive Personalized Learning Journeys

Differentiation (dare we say it…)

Disruptive

Fears? Excitement! Heck ya! What are they?

But….where might this lead us…?

Every. Student. On. An. IEP....

Big Small Steps

• Moving away from a GradeBook (gasp!)

• What do Students need to know about their Learning

• Does everyone need to show their learning the same way

• Numbers/Letters vs Descriptive Feedback

• If students can’t….

Changing the Gradebook

what if there were no gradebook…

Where may we go

Conferences

Compliance

Holistic Portfolio Review has always been “as valid" as any averaging methodology or task-completion focus

There are many ways to “translate" feedbacks into “scores"

Jerks like me challenging averages: mean median mode or range

What if students don’t do Anything?

Descriptive Feedback Loops

Parents

Students

Teacher

Communicating Student Learning

THANK YOU

@TECHNOLANDY

IAN.LANDY@SD47.BC.CA

TECHNOLANDY.WORDPRESS.COM