Transcript The High School Litter Box: If Something Stinks, Change It!

The High School Litter Box: If
Something Stinks, Change It!
How Formative Instructional Practices Changed One School’s
Culture & Climate
Presented By: Angie Gentile [email protected]
& Ryan Werry [email protected]
Who We Are!!
Our School
• Warren Local High School
• Vincent, OH
• Rural Community
• ~800 student population
• 96% Caucasian
Us
• School Improvement
Coordinators
• English & Science Teachers
• Combined 36 years experience
Our Story
• Disconnect between students’ grades and standardized
tests
• Students not doing homework
• Same students failing over and over in majority of classes
• Sound familiar?
Step 1 in Cleaning Up the
Litter box: Book Study
• A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken
Grades by Ken O’Connor
• Voluntary
• Met once a week after school
• Read 3 chapters per week
• Discussed positives & negatives of each fix
15 Fixes for Broken Grades
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Fix 1: Don’t include student behaviors in grades; include only achievement.
Fix 2: Don’t reduce marks on “work” submitted late; provide support for learner.
Fix 3: Don’t give point for extra credit or use bonus points.
Fix 4: Don’t punish academic dishonesty with reduced grades.
Fix 5: Don’t consider attendance in grade determination.
Fix 6: Don’t include group scores in grades
Fix 7: Don’t organize information in grading records by assessment methods; organize by
standards/learning goals.
Fix 8: Don’t assign grades using inappropriate or unclear performance standards; provide clear
expectations.
Fix 9: Don’t assign grades based on a student’s achievements compared to other students.
Fix 10: Don’t use assessments that do not accurately assess standards.
Fix 11: Don’t rely on the mean.
Fix 12: Don’t include zeros in grade determination; use alternatives (reassessing, “I” for incomplete).
Fix 13: Don’t use information from practice/homework to determine grades.
Fix 14: Don’t summarize evidence accumulated over time.
Fix 15: Don’t leave students out of grading process.
Now it’s YOUR Turn!
• The next step in cleaning the litter box was to examine our own grading
practices.
• Instructions:
• 1) Individually, rank the 3 fixes you think would be the most controversial in
your school. (5 minutes)
• 2) Turn to a neighbor and discuss your rankings. Are they the same? Which
ones are different? (5 minutes)
• Just like you, our staff had a lot of dissenting opinions, so we
developed a list of non-negotiables for grading practices. (Look at the
end of your handouts.)
Grade Fixes Weren’t Enough!
• Students’ grades still didn’t accurately reflect what we
thought they knew.
• Too many students were still falling between the
cracks. (at-risk, special ed., economically
disadvantaged)
Formative Instructional Practices
to the Rescue!
• We became a Race to the Top school.
How Some Feel About RttT!
RttT Brought Batelle for Kids & Formative
Instructional Practices to Us: Yeah!
Definition of Formative
Instructional Practices
Formative instructional practices
(FIP) are the formal and informal
ways that teachers and students
gather and respond to evidence of
student learning. (Battelle for Kids)
Focused Learning: Planning for Instruction
Curriculum
• Clear Learning Targets
• Learning Progressions
Assessment
• Designing for Accuracy
• Assessing with Purpose
Instruction
• Making the Learning Clear
• Feedback & Responsive Teaching
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Formative Instruction
Components
Focused
Learning
Focused
Assessments
Focused
Feedback
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Step 1: Curriculum/ Focused Learning
• What do we want students to know or know how to do?
• This step comes first from your content standards.
• Make clear learning targets in student-friendly language every class
period.
• Can be stated as “I Can” statements”
Example: I can explain how perspective affects how I comprehend historical
text.
Focused
Learning
Focused
Assessments
Focused
Feedback
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Step 2: Focused Assessment
How do you know what students know or don’t know?
3 Step Process
1. Diagnostic- formal or informal
2. Formative
3. Summative
Focused Learning
Focused Assessments
Focused Feedback
Diagnostic Assessment
• Definition: Also known as “preassessments,” these
assessments provide instructors with information
about students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions
before beginning a learning activity.
• Examples/Resources/ Techniques: Anticipation
Guides, Continuum of Understanding, Four Corners,
Poll Everywhere, Gallery Walk, KWL Charts
Formative Assessments
• Definition: “provides the information needed to adjust teaching and
learning while they are happening. In this sense, formative
assessment informs both teachers and students about student
understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made”
(Association for Middle Level Education) ; assessment FOR learning;
practice; NOT included in a student’s final “grade”
• Examples/ Resources/ Techniques: observation, questioning
strategies, self and peer assessment, quizzes, rough drafts, student
and teacher conferences
• Some of Our Favorites: http://pinterest.com/aerbgent/formativeinstructional-practices/
Summative Assessments
• Definition: “ a means to gauge, at a particular point in time, student
learning relative to content standards.” “Summative assessments happen
too far down the learning path to provide information at the classroom
level and to make instructional adjustments and interventions during the
learning process”(Association for Middle Level Education); assessment OF
learning; what appears in the gradebook
• Examples/Resources/Techniques: State assessments, District benchmark or
interim assessments, End-of-unit or chapter tests, End-of-term or semester
exams, Scores that are used for accountability for schools (AYP) and
students (report card grades).
Reassessments
• Definition: summative assessments that are given to students AFTER
some type of intervention has taken place; reassessments measure
the same standards as the original summative assessment but are
NOT the same assessment; reassessment scores replace the original
summative assessment score IF the reassessment score is higher.
• Examples/Resources/Techniques: another version of the summative
assessment; different way of taking the assessment (oral); rewrite of a
paper, smaller group Socratic Seminar, presentation to teacher
Step 3: Focused Feedback
• What do we do for students who have not yet
met the standard?
• What do we do for students who have mastered
the standard?
• How do we communicate to students their
strengths and areas where they need more
practice?
Focused Learning
Focused Assessments
Focused
Feedback
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WhatWhat
message
does
your
Message Does your
feedback
send?
Feedback
Send?
Formative Instruction Practices
Teachers
Students
Leaders
Create a
feedback
friendly culture
that engages all
Learn in a
students in the
feedbackfeedback loop.
friendly culture. Create
conditions that
support and
foster a
feedbackfriendly culture.
Focused
Feedback
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Effective Feedback
 Directs attention to the intended
learning or learning targets,
pointing out strengths and offering
specific information to guide
improvement.
 Occurs during the learning, while
there is still time to act on it.
 Addresses partial or total
understanding.
 Does not do the thinking for the
student.
 Limits corrective information to the
amount of advice a student can act
on.
Putting It All Together
What We’ve Learned from FIP: Data
Chemistry
Chapters 2 & 11
Comparison of Test Scores Before FIP and After FIP
Chapter 2
A
B
C
D
F
13%
10%
10%
8%
60%
After FIP
39%
19%
12%
7%
23%
Chapter 11
A
B
C
D
F
26%
16%
7%
7%
43%
35%
24%
13%
6%
24%
2008/2009
Before FIP
2012/2013
2008/2009
Before FIP
2012/2013
After FIP
What We’ve Learned from FIP:
Classroom Management
•Reassessment
•Managing Data
•Classroom Organization
A Final Thought: FIP Me, Baby!