3d: Using Assessment in Instruction

Congratulations to this week's comment winners: Angie and Carly!  A morning beverage will be coming your way this week.  We love hearing your classroom connections to the components of Danielson.  We are looking forward to hearing from everyone each week.  

NEW CONTEST ALERT!!  

We will provide PLC treats to the first team that has FULL participation in commenting this week. 

This week we are focusing on Component D of Domain 3: Using Assessment in Instruction.  Assessment has evolved over the last few years and it no longer signals the end of instruction.  While it is important to know if students have learned what we set out to teach at the end of a unit, assessment for learning along the way is an important part of classroom instruction.  In order to assess student learning for the purposes of instruction, teachers must have a "finger on the pulse" of a lesson, monitoring student understanding and offering appropriate feedback to students.

Teacher actions in monitoring student learning may look very similar to those used in monitoring student behavior, but have a fundamentally different purpose:

Similarly, the questions you ask for the purpose of monitoring learning are fundamentally different from those used to build understanding:

Monitoring student learning and feedback are strengthened by a teacher's skill in making mid-course corrections and adjustments, seizing a teachable moment, or using student interests to enrich an explanation.

The elements of component 3d are: 

Connections to the
Personalized Learning Elements
from
The Institute @ CESA 1

• Assessment criteria
• It is essential that students know the criteria for an assessment.  At its highest level, students themselves have a hand in articulating the criteria.
• Monitoring of student learning
• A teacher's skill in eliciting evidence of student understanding is one of the true marks of expertise.  This is not a hit-or-miss effort, but is planned carefully in advance.  Even after planning carefully, however, a teacher must weave monitoring of student learning seamlessly into the lesson, using a variety of techniques.
• Feedback to students
• Feedback on learning is an essential element of a rich instructional environment; without it students are constantly guessing at how they are doing and at hoe their work can be improved.  Valuable feedback must be timely, constructive, and substantive and must provide students with the guidance they need to improve their performance.
• Student self-assessment and monitoring of progress
• The culmination of students' assumptions of responsibility for their learning is when they monitor their own learning and take appropriate action.  Of course, they can do these things only if the criteria for learning are clear and if they have been taught the skills of checking their work against clear criteria.
• Lesson adjustment
• Experienced teachers are able to make both minor and (at times) major adjustments to a lesson, or mid-course corrections.  Such adjustments depend on a teacher's store of alternate instructional strategies and the confidence to make a shift when needed. 

Shelly uses questioning to assess student understanding during a science lab.

In a proficient classroom...

Students appear to be aware of the assessment criteria, and the teacher monitors student learning for groups of students.  Questions and assessments are regularly used to diagnose evidence of learning. Teacher feedback to groups of students is accurate and specific; some students engage in self-assessment.  If impromptu measures are needed, the teacher makes minor adjustment to the lesson and does so smoothly. 

Sarah works with a small group to assess their readiness.

What might this look like? 

• The teacher confers during small group or independent work, offering suggestions to students.
• The teacher uses specifically formulated questions to elicit evidence of student understanding.
• The teacher asks student to look over their papers to correct their errors; most of them engage in this task.

In a distinguished classroom...

Assessment is fully integrated into instruction, through extensive use of formative assessment.  Students appear to be aware of, and there is some evidence they have contributed to, the assessment criteria. Questions and assessments are used regularly to diagnose evidence of learning by individual students.  A variety of forms of feedback, from both teacher and peers, is accurate and specific and advances learning.  Students self-assess and monitor their own progress.  The teacher successfully differentiates instruction to address individual students' misunderstandings.

Carly has students use their arm to show where they hear "th" within a word.
She is able to quickly identify misconceptions with this formative assessment.

What might this look like?

• The teacher reminds students of the characteristics of high-quality work, observing that the students themselves helped develop them.
• While students are working, the teacher confers, providing specific feedback to individual students.
• The teacher uses exit tickets to elicit evidence of individual student understanding.
• Students offer feedback to their classmates on their work.
• Student evaluate a piece of their writing against the rubric or writing checklists and confer with the teacher about how it could be improved.

Things to reflect upon...

• Are the standards of high quality work clear to your students?
• How do you collect evidence of student learning?
• How do you use the evidence to plan responsive instruction?
• How do you involve students in in assessment of their own work?
• How do you provide specific and timely feedback?

* Much of this work about the Danielson Framework comes directly from a "Teachscape" information document called "Framework for Teaching."

Comment question of the week:

How do you use assessment for learning to drive flexible grouping?

Remember to encourage your team to comment as well! 

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It was a great day!