EdPuzzle is a site that allows users to select a video and easily customize it by editing, cropping, recording audio and adding questions to make an engaging presentation or learning experience. It is also a great formative assessment tool; a unique way for students to demonstrate their understanding.
Kirsten Fletcher has found EdPuzzle to be a great tool to engage her students in learning and she facilitated a workshop to share with her colleagues for our October 2017 Institute Day.
We have heard from several teachers who attended her session about how Kirsten's examples have inspired them to use EdPuzzle in their own classes.
The notes from the session serve as a great resource for those that missed it and due to popular demand, Kirsten has offered to repeat the session for our Teaming on Tuesday Learning Lab on October 24th.
We hope you'll join us! Not at EG? You can join us remotely! Just send us a direct message to the Collab Lab Twitter,and we'll send you a calendar invite and link to join us via Zoom!
This is the second post in a series focusing on involving students in the assessment process. For the first post, click here.
In continuing to include students in the assessment process, I am exploring methods of self-reflection and peer editing, as well as open to suggestions that I hope other educators will share with me. For our second quiz, I had my regular Algebra II students edit their own quizzes. First, I had them take the quiz as they normally would, and I made marks (in blue) only if the problem was incorrect. I gave no scores. Then, the next day I handed back the quizzes, along with a green pen, to each student. Students corrected the problems that they got wrong in the green pen.
The conversations were awesome!The topic is simplifying radicals, so it is common for students to make silly mistakes or make the same mistake throughout all problems.Many students quickly realized what they did incorrectly and were able to make the necessary adjustments to their work.For the students who struggled on this topic more than others, I was able to give them more one-on-one instruction to better understand this topic.
I loved this activity, and I'd rather not call it an assessment. I feel that the students learned so much from being given a "second chance." The struggle that I have is that I am obligated to report something in the gradebook. This year, I am only reporting summative unit test scores towards students grades, so all quizzes are going in the formative assessment category in the gradebook (a 0% category).Because of this, I had some flexibility on how to report this to be as informative as I wanted.For the score, I averaged the two scores, and in the comments section, I reported both the original score and their edited score (as seen to the right). I LOVE the comments section!
I'm continuing to explore new methods to build a positive learning experience and student self-reflection from the assessment process. I would love to hear any ideas that you have as well, so comment here, tweet at me, or stop down in the Collab Lab!
Last week I wrote a blog about how I've changed "test days" into "Learning Celebrations" and how I reflect on them with students, specifically in my AP Psychology classes. I received a comment to my post asking if perhaps my experiences and results would be different in non-AP classes that might not be as cumulative or "academic." Thankful for the feedback, I wrote the following reply about how I've implemented the same procedures and ideology in mainstream classes I teach as I have to my AP classes. Similar to the AP classes, these mainstream classes have experienced positive outcomes in terms of assessment results and a change in overall classroom culture and student mindsets.
My Reply Thanks for the questions! I also taught mainstream US History classes last year and now a Criminal Law class this year that are not AP level. I used the "Learning Celebration" concept with those classes as well with the same success in terms of developing a positive culture in the classroom and improved results on assessments from previous years. I take a day after the Learning Celebration to reflect in those classes too using team tests, individual test corrections, self-reflections, or other activities to be able to identify what they knew and what they didn't.
The pictures below are of my most recent Learning Celebration Reflection Day in my Criminal Law classes where students worked to not just identify what questions they answer incorrectly, but why. By doing this kind of reflection, students would better understand what they need to work on for the next Learning Celebration: Did they get the wrong answer because they misread the question? Didn't read all the answer choices? Didn't study that content? Etc. I got this idea from a colleague (Mark Heintz, AP World History and Human Geo teacher) to get students to not just care about the score they received, but the thinking process involved in recalling information and answering those questions.
While those classes are not as cumulative as an AP class (though they will need to know the content for the Final Learning Celebration at the end of each semester), I still want to stress the importance of filling in the gaps of knowledge so they won't get wider over time. I always like to make connections to previously learned material as I go through the course, so if the students never learned that content in the first place and didn't get a chance to realize that through our reflection, then it hurts their ability to learn the new information later on as well.
Finally, more than any other year I have taught before, I took a great deal of class time in the first week of school to hammer home the idea of the Growth Mindset with all of my classes, both AP and mainstream. I have a bunch of posters in my room dedicated to the idea that failure is not an end result, but rather every time you fail is simply an opportunity to learn. I refer to Thomas Edison "learning" 1000 different ways of how NOT to make a light bulb before his final success. I talk about the importance of simply trying your best, being willing to try and be wrong, and when all else fails, just keep trying. That an error does not become a mistake unless you refuse to correct it. That you never fail until you stop trying. That you shouldn't do something until you get it right, you should do something until you can't get it wrong (I use a basketball analogy for that one). That "whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." I refer to these concepts constantly throughout the year as reminders as we go. It's not just a one-day, "rah-rah" kind of thing in our class...it's about building a positive culture and mindset throughout the school year.
It definitely is difficult to convince teenagers to care more about and focus more on the process than the end result (grade), but just getting them to think a little bit differently about the importance of the process is extraordinarily helpful. I've seen a TED Talk about how the greatest predictor of success is Grit and read articles about how failure can be our best teacher. I communicate those ideas so that when students do hit a road block in their learning or don't do well on an assessment, they are ready, willing, and able to continue on and just keep trying.
I hope this helps you think about how it can apply to other classes. Obviously the "Statistics" part of the reflection I do with my AP Psych is more specific because it connects with content we learn, but I still look at the averages and most missed with my mainstream classes on our reflection days. Thanks again for your questions and good luck with your classes!
By Dan Saken Learning Celebrations
Two summers ago, I read an article by a Baylor Sociology professor that claimed students in his class performed better on assessments when the teacher reframed "Test Days" by instead referring to them as "Learning Celebrations." So, always looking for ways put a positive spin on things, I decided to make the change myself starting last school year. I told students that instead of taking "tests" where students are worried about what they didn't learn, we would instead focus on celebrating what they did learn.
While I definitely received numerous odd looks and eye rolls from students when I first introduced the idea, "Learning Celebrations" have become an important part of the class vernacular for both myself and my students. We even blast "Celebration" by Kool & The Gang as students arrive to class (in addition to some really bad dancing by myself) to give them an extra boost of positive vibes before we start the Learning Celebration. And though the simple name change hasn't done away with all anxiety students may feel when taking a unit assessment or magically led to all students earning A's, I did see an increase in class averages from previous years on a majority of my assessments.
Taking Time to Reflect on Learning Celebrations
A vital part of Learning Celebrations is actually getting to celebrate how well students performed the day after. My classes set aside the day after a Learning Celebration to give students time to reflect on how they did and give them opportunities to see what they knew and what they didn't. Student are always anxious/excited to see the grade they received, but it is even more important (especially in a class that is cumulative like AP Psychology) that students get a chance to fill in any gaps of knowledge that may exist.
A student who scores an 85% on an assessment is seemingly in a pretty good place grade-wise, but that still means that the student did not know 15% of the content. If students don't reflect and learn the right answer to a question they missed, that 15% could continue to get wider and wider. This would then form a considerable gap in their knowledge, leading to them making the same mistake when faced with a similar problem later on. I have a poster in my room that states, "An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it." That kind of thinking guides our Learning Celebration Reflection.
Team Retake of the Learning Celebration
I have various activities I use on reflection days throughout the year, but the one I like to do with the first unit is a team retake. Students are placed in homogeneous groups of 3-4 based on their individual scores (but they don't know how they scored until after the team retake). I also try to group students that don't normally sit by each other or work together as much as possible to get them interacting with more of their classmates and possibly reduce distractions. They are tasked with retaking the entire multiple choice section of the Learning Celebration, with the promise of earning some extra points if they do even better on the team retake than they did individually.
The conversations, debates, and friendly disagreements are incredibly rewarding to listen to, especially when they have "Aha!" moments related to questions or answer choices they may have read or interpreted wrong the first time through. Their ability to arrive at those moments through self-realization or guidance from classmates is a lot more meaningful with a longer-lasting impact than if I simply told them the right answers myself. When groups finish the retake, everyone in the group gets their individual scores back, getting time to see what they got right and wrong themselves, helping peers with questions they answer incorrectly, and ensuring their errors do not become a mistakes.
Using Statistics and Modeling Content
Once all groups have finished the retake, I talk about the class average and single out the most-missed questions for further review. Last year, I added one more thing to my reflection days as a way to further connect to the content we learn in Unit 1 of AP Psychology. The first unit is on Research Methods, which includes a part on statistics and how data is used to interpret results of studies. On an Excel spreadsheet, I calculated the Mean, Median, Mode, Skew and Standard Deviation of the data on an Excel spreadsheet, along with creating a Histogram (bar chart) to see if there was a Normal Curve....all terms we learned in the first unit. I'm no Excel whiz, but YouTube is a magical place to learn how to do things!
I share all that data and the graph with the students so they can see the statistics at work, especially with a concept such as standard deviation, which can be confusing for students. Statistics are not overly relevant in most of the other units over the rest of the course, but I continued inputting data from the Learning Celebrations to show students on reflection days and it has become a mainstay in the reflection process.
Correlation Does Not Prove Causation! (But it's still informative!)
One last way I tried to connect the content with our reflection was through a demonstration of correlation. In the Research Methods unit, one of the most important concepts is that "Correlation does not prove causation!" However, identifying correlations can give us valuable information on how two variables might be related. One required assignment I have for each unit is completing a Unit Review Quiz on Schoology that takes 20 random questions from a question bank. Students can take the Review Quiz as many times as they like, getting a different set of questions each time, and I take their highest score as their grade. Since there is no way to reasonably gather data on the amount of reading, studying, note-taking, etc. each student does to prepare, the best accessible and objective data point I have to see if there is a correlation with success on the Learning Celebration is if students had actually taken the Review Quiz.
I calculated the average score of students who completed the Unit Review Quiz at least once vs. the average score of students who did not do the quiz at all.
Period 1: 78% (took quiz) vs. 67% (no quiz)
Period 2: 74% (took quiz) vs. 70% (no quiz)
Period 3: 80% (took quiz) vs. 74% (no quiz)
I stressed the idea that "correlation does not prove causation," so I wasn't claiming that taking the Schoology Review Quiz automatically led to higher scores. But the data did show that those that took the quiz were at least more likely to score higher than those who did not. Not only was I able to again connect to the content we learned in the unit, I'm hoping it will inspire more students to take advantage of the review tool in preparation of future celebrations. After all, reflecting on Learning Celebrations is a lot more enjoyable when the scores show there's something to celebrate!
By: Rachel Barry Following up on yesterday's post on the ways teachers build relationships with and among students on the first day of school, I wanted to share a more in-depth look at my first day of classes. This past spring and summer, numerous math teachers around the district embarked on an opportunity to take a massive open online course (MOOC) from Stanford University called How to Learn Math for Teachers. This course focused on how to change student mindsets towards mathematics, pedagogical strategies to promote active learning, and build critical thinking skills. (Small plug...there were about 80 teachers across the district - math, science, special education - who took this course, and it was AWESOME!). Prior to taking the class, I felt that I had a strong understanding of how to change the focus in class from grades to learning, however, this class gave me numerous more strategies to emphasize this more through how I communicate and how I create effective classroom activities. Here are some activities that I did on the first day of classes to both build relationships as well as challenge students to think critically. Would You Rather...? In groups, I had students develop a "Would You Rather...? statement, one per group, and wrote it on their tables (see whiteboard tables here). Then, the students rotated around the groups and voted at each table.
In my AP Statistics class, I took this a step further and had students discuss the expected outcome prior to voting. This is a key concept of statistics, so I loved being able to bring it up on the first day. In this class, we continued the first day by performing a simulation where they worked in groups, getting to know one another, and getting introduced to statistics. In my regular Algebra classes, I had the students calculate the percentages of tallies for each. It was interesting to see the various methods that students used (proportions, decimals, etc) and whether or not the set up two equations or if they calculated one and then subtracted that from 100 to get the other. We then had a class discussion on how many math problems can be solved using different steps or methods. This lead perfectly into my next activity... Number Sense Activity For this activity, I put this problem on the board and showed students how to solve this using traditional methods. Then I challenged them in their groups to come up with FOUR other ways to solve this problem.
Some students hit the ground running, while others sat back. It was interesting when most groups got two right away (15 + 15 + 15 + 15 and 4 + ... + 4), and then they hit a road block. Some students immediately started drawing (a grid of 15 x 4, four circles with 15 dots in each), and others sat back and observed. Many students also separated or broke down the numbers (10 x 4 = 40, 5 x 4 = 20, 40 + 20 = 60 or 15 x 2 = 30, 15 x 2 = 30, 30 + 30 = 60). The last method, though only two of my three classes saw it, was time.
As groups were finishing up, I was having students share at the front of the board. I have always struggled getting students (probably me coming up with excuses as to why it may not work) to do this regularly in class, so I decided to just start it on the first day, as a class norm.
I repeated this method with 25 x 7, and the students were much quicker, using other groups' methods. Many students then saw the connection to money.
Rectangle Activity
For the next activity, I drew this figure on the board and asked students "How many rectangles are in this figure?"
Now that students were acquainted with one another, the brainstorming started much quicker. In each class, after about a minute or two had passed, a student asked "Is a square a rectangle?" YES! Exactly what I'd hoped! We then had a (short) discussion about the importance of asking questions and challenging me throughout the course by asking "Why?" Then students continued working. It was very cool to see students using colors, breaking down the figure, etc. (If you want to know, there are 18!)
Fractions Activity
The last activity was for me to formatively assess students' prior knowledge of fractions. Our first unit focuses on simplifying exponents and radicals, and if students do not fully understand the basics of fractions, they will struggle when we throw in variables, exponents, and square roots.
I wrote random fractions on a bunch of notecards. Each student was given a notecard and a partner. Each pair was given a die. Students were to roll the die, and if the die landed on an odd number, they added the fractions, while if it landed on an even number, they subtracted the two fractions. Once they solved for the correct answer, one person traded their notecard with one of another group. They repeated the process. Next, they used the same notecards and rolled the die with an odd number meaning that they would multiply the fractions, and an even number would mean dividing the fractions. They switched cards, and repeated.
Survey
Finally, students opened their iPads, logged into Schoology and pulled up a Google Form survey. In this survey, I ask them both routine questions (when is your lunch/study hall, who is your counselor, when is your birthday, etc.) and getting to you know questions (what are your future career goals, is there anything that I should know that would help me better teach you?)
The AP World exam just transpired and I am in full reflection mode. I asked my students a few questions about things they felt they needed based on the test they just took. The students felt they needed more writing practice throughout the year. They felt they needed more individual practice with feedback on their ability to perform on the spot. To give some context on the test, the exam has four components. Part one is fifty-five stimulus multiple choice questions. Part two is four short responses. Part three is one document based question (DBQ). Part four is one long essay exam. While AP does give a course framework, the students do not know the prompts or documents ahead of time.
To adequeately gather enough assessment data for each component, it takes a lot of class time. To prepare the students for each component and give feedback along the way so students feel success, it takes a lot of class time. Despite the enormous use of classtime, I feel they are one of the best elements of the class because they require the students to think. Since they take a lot of class time, I have often taught small elements of the essays in the first few units, but never had hard checkpoints or summative assessments for each writing component in each unit.
Based off the student feedback and my feelings on the year, I created an assessment chart to ensure a linear progression of the skills required for each component of the exam. I wanted to hold myself accountable to formally assessing each part in each unit with the exception of the first unit which is a very short unit. I did not want to assess the entire essay in the beginning because it would be too difficult and too time consuming.
To give an example of the progression, in the second unit, I will give the students a two document DBQ. The students will only be required to write a thesis, give contextualization, and connect the two documents to their argument. This will not require fifty-five minutes like it will at the end of the year. It only assess three skills, which I can easily provide feedback to the students to help them grow by the next assessment. Each unit I add a skill or documents to progress them towards the final product of seven documents. Unit three adds the synthesis skill. Unit four moves to four documents. Unit five adds source component and five documents. Furthermore, it gives me data on what my students have mastered and need help on at a very early stage in the year. They do not need to be able to write a DBQ until the middle of May.
I have selected the DBQ's for each unit already and tailored the documents to get at the skills being assessed. I am hoping that this holds me accountable to ensuring that students are progressing in the skills to be successful. Furthermore, my hope is that the students will master the skill in smaller doses so I can make them feel comfortable with the exam, hold them to a higher writing standard in the end, and not spend as much class time in the last few weeks leading up the examination.
By: Rachel Barry This is the second in a series of blog posts discussing the collaboration of the Collab Lab and our EG Ed Prep students. Please follow along on our journey using the hashtag #214EdPrep or clicking on the label #214EdPrep in the word cloud! Students in the District 214 Ed Prep Program will be competing in an "impromptu lesson" challenge among students from other schools. For this competition, they will placed in groups to develop a lesson plan on a given a topic. The Collab Lab will be following along and supporting our EG students through this process. To give students ideas for this lesson, their teacher Kim Sander and I decided to provide the class with "Spark Sessions". As a staff, we have used Spark Sessions at numerous teacher-led Institute Days to provide new instructional ideas, feedback methods, and brainstorming tools for teachers to use in their classrooms. We figured a similar process would help ignite lesson ideas within the students.
On the first "Spark Sesson" day, I presented students with two different modes of formative assessment: Classkick and Socrative. Spark Session 1: Using Classkick to provide feedback to students To begin, I had students enroll in a Classkick activity (code: QGT VY4) composed of Math, Human Geography, and English questions.
The purpose of this activity included: - to see the uses in multiple content areas - to witness the impact of immediate feedback on learning - to learn the ways that Classkick allows the teacher to differentiate your instruction based on student need - to see how students can collaborate on the given problems - to observe the classroom management benefits of using this method of formative assessment - to add slides as students are working to extend their knowledge To learn more about the uses of Classkick in the classroom, view this previous blog post.
Spark Session 2: Using Socrative to provide feedback to students Once students had experienced the open-ended feedback of Classkick, I had students log in to my Socrative Quiz. This formative quiz consisted of Math, English, History, and Science questions all at the third grade level.
Here, students were able to see: - how to give students immediate feedback on multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions - how to use data to drive instruction - how to provide students with an explanation when they answer incorrectly View this blog post to see how Socrative can be used to provide immediate feedback to students. Student Thoughts I asked students which of these lessons they would most utilize in the classroom, and here were some responses: "I really liked the Classkick and how you could have the students working and doing different problems while the teacher is helping other students and checking answers at the same time. I think it will be good for warm up problems as well as review for quizzes." "I think in my future classroom I will use classkick for warm ups or formative assessments. I think it is effective and refreshing for students. It also provides an easier method of multitasking possibilities for the teacher." "I could see class kick being used really well for certain subjects. And socrative useful for others. Both have ups and downs in the class room but both are useful."
-"I think in the future I would use class kick
because I think it is good way to have kids do work at their own pace and get
help when they need. It helps shows the teacher what students still need help
on."
More blog posts to come. Follow #214EdPrep and @EGCollabLab for more!
This is the first in a series of blog posts discussing the collaboration of the Collab Lab and our EG Ed Prep students. Please follow along on our journey using the hashtag #214EdPrep or clicking on the label #214EdPrep in the word cloud! Students in theDistrict 214 Ed Prep Programat EGHS, taught by Kim Sander, have begun collaborating with the Collab Lab on varied professional learning experiences. This previous post explains a workshop we did with the EdPrep students on how to use Social Media to learn, lead, build community, and to expand their professional portfolio.
Most recently, the EdPrep students joined teachers in a class visit experience. Theclass was split into four groups, each accompanied by EGteachers, to observe a class for 20 minutes. We visited the classrooms of Persida Bujdei, Mark Heintz, Bonnie Kale, and Kim Miklusak.
The focus of the class visit was tolookfor examples of learning target(s) and how they are communicated, andformative feedback (given by the teacher and/or peers). Here is the a document we used to take notes and to facilitate our conversation afterwards.
After the class visits we returned to the EdPrep Classroomto debrief in a jigsaw conversation. Each group had at least one student from each class we visited, and at least one teacher facilitator.We discussed what we observed and learned in each classroom.
The students shared insight from both their student and future-teacher perspectives.The teachers were inspired, and we learned from them too! Here are some highlights of their observations:
Schoology quizzes before a test help students understand exactly what they know and don't know. It isn't graded, it is just for learning. Several students commented on how much they like these kinds of quizzes that they have done in some of their classes, and that they aren't graded.
Teachers gave clear explanations of how to do the practice for the learning targets, and then did a model problem/reading and then students worked in pairs. The modeling really helps. During the pair work the teachers gave feedback and students give each other feedback too. We talked about how this intentional scaffolding (I do, we do, you do) supports learning.
The whiteboard tables are so good to foster collaboration and feedback. One student said she was so sorry she was "too old" that she missed out on having the whiteboard tables in her English class last year!
The pros and cons of Quizlet live and Kahoot for feedback. Quizlet is good at the beginning of the unit as a "hook" and for collaboration, but if your group doesn't finish before the winning group wins, you don't see all of the questions. Kahoot is good to make sure every student sees all of the questions and gets individual feedback. It can get boring if teachers do them all of time. But they are so good for feedback.
It is helpful it is to plan activities with a model, small group work and time for students to then do it on their own (scaffolding).
We're looking forward to having the EdPrep students join us againfor future professional learning experiences. We have so much to learn from each other!
You can connect with them too! Follow their Ed Prep journey via #214EdPrep on Twitter. You can encourage them with a "like", a "retweet" or a comment! The would LOVE to hear from you!
As teachers, we are constantly reflecting. But as the semester winds down, we devote a particular attention to grades. That’s not to say we do not notice the successes and less than of our students throughout the semester, but we are more in tune with the trends within the grading system as the semester nears its end.
This year I noticed a striking oddity when it came to my particular gradebook for World History. The lowest category across all of my classes was reading. Now that’s not to say that my students cannot read, dislike reading, or just avoid it altogether. But perhaps there was a flaw in the way we were assessing it OR in the strategies students were using to be successful.
Put simply, the reading of our World History sophomores is elevated compared to that of the Human Geography freshmen. While most would argue that this would seem or should be a natural progression in a school setting, what I mean by this is that the stakes are raised tremendously. As a member of both the Human Geography and World History teams the past three years, I have noticed that students generally succeed or find reading in Human Geography “easy” because the curriculum is about the world that they live in and in doing so help create. For instance, analyzing the impact the media has on stereotypes is a normal process because the students live it, feel it, and perhaps have strong opinions on the matter. World History, on the other hand, asks students to take a trip to the past, analyze verbiage from a different time, and find interest in the unfamiliar. Comparatively speaking, for a student the task of reading becomes more complex or daunting than ever.
As a result, I have made it a personal goal to incorporate more document-based work in the classroom this semester. I am doing so in the hopes that students experience growth in their reading skills and confidence. Furthermore, it will also require that they become engaged in historical inquiry. The usage of documents forces students to ask questions, collect evidence, and produce claims about the past. The difficulty with document-based work is that it can be extremely complex and time consuming. The benefit, as I have already seen, is that the students have become more engaged in the process and their learning has become more authentic as we continue to practice this skill regularly.
The Collab Lab is very excited about our recent professional learning adventures using Periscope and Google Hangout to connect us with colleagues in other D214 schools and beyond!
These virtual professional learning experiences offer a great opportunity learn from our peers--and see strategies live and in action--without having to leave our own buildings. The follow-up Google Hangout chats foster a rich exchange of ideas on teaching practices that impact student success in our classes.
Today Kim Miklusak hosted "Round 3" (Previous Collab Blog posts describe "Round 1" and "Round 2"). Kim invited colleagues to join her AP English Language class, live-streamed via Periscope, to see a student-led writing skills workshop.
At the beginning of the broadcast, Kim shared this written overview of the class to give context for the lesson that the virtual visitors would see:
Hi! I'm trying something new in class today; a student-centered writing skills workshop.
Students have selected (or been assigned) their weakest of the 3 AP Language essay types. Two days ago they planned their writing based on an old AP Exam essay prompt and yesterday they wrote their essay. Today and Friday they are doing a variation of a writer's workshop to read peers' essays and offer feedback. They will start in a group of people who wrote the same essay to check content. They will then rotate however they choose in order to work on skills-based writing elements from the rubric and peer editing docs with guiding questions. Students will then make edits based on the feedback. Friday they will read the AP anchor papers and highlight elements on their paper, writing a short reflection on what score they would get and why. There are no grades on this. It is just practice in their weakest essay type, timing, and skills. As an added rule, they are only allowed to ask me 2 questions this whole week. They have to rely on their peers and the samples to guide them.
We broadcast from Kim's class for about fifteen minutes to give a good idea of what the rotations looked like and how the students used the guiding questions to focus on peer assessment, self-assessment and revision. We were able to see the students directing their own learning and collaborating with their peers, while Kim served as the facilitator of the process. She circulated around the stations and listened to their conversations. On a few occasions she stopped to offer feedback to the whole class; but the students did most of the talking in this lesson.
After visiting Kim's class for ~15 minutes we invited D214 colleagues to join us for a 20-minute Google Hangout to debrief the lesson. We reflected on applications in our own classes of this kind of a student-centered writing process that uses clear criteria to guide both self-assessment and peer evaluation with multiple opportunities for non-graded formative feedback and revision.
We also discussed ideas to improve and expand our virtual collaborations, along with ideas to curate resources to share with other colleagues, even if they didn't participate in the class visit.
We will be hosting "Round 4" of virtual professional learning collaborations next week in Rachel Barry's Math Class (Tuesday 1/10). Mark your calendars and stay tuned to the Collab Lab Twitterfor more details on the schedule and the lesson. For now we can tell you that it will be an opportunity to see differentiation and formative assessment strategies using the app Class Kick.
Want to join us? Do you have ideas for virtual professional learning collaborations like these?
Please let us know!
Kirsten Fletcher has found EdPuzzle to be a great tool to engage her students in learning and she facilitated a workshop to share with her colleagues for our October 2017 Institute Day. 
