Standards-Based Grading takeaways

By The DTC Team,

Today the DTC instructional team attended the second in a series of in-person workshops focusing on Standards-based grading as presented by Lee Ann Jung and Thomas Guskey and hosted by IL ASCD and District 214.

This is a brief summary of some of the topics covered:

• Inclusive Grading:

• We explored the differences between accommodations and modifications for assessments.  While many can be sorted into either category, ultimately the questions to ask are what are your standards and and what are you truly assessing?

• If something that you’re not measuring impacts what you do measure, you no longer have a valid measurement of student learning.

• The students who need the most feedback about their learning are frequently the ones who receive the least: Artificially inflating grading demotivates students. 

• Modifications should not be permanent--they may change at any point. 

• Can you say that a grade is based on modified expectations? Office of Civil Rights: Response Here.

• Standards and scales:

• Limit the number of standards students are expected to master.  When determining what to assess, consider what is necessary, fundamental and urgent?

• Adding a number does not necessarily make a goal measurable. For example, 80% does not necessarily equal mastery. Instead consider a skill along the lines of "student can identify all site words within 2 seconds each."

•  Intervention planning should be targeted, consistent, regular, and shared by multiple parties who are invested in the student's life.

•  Teams should identify skills, determining the setting(s), and describe how they will be measured.

More information and resources can be found at standardsbasedgrading.org.

Why Should We Attend Conferences?

By Kim Miklusak

I am thankful in our district that we have the opportunity to be reimbursed for most--if not all--of the cost of attending some conferences both locally and nationally.  At the end of November I had the opportunity to attend #NCTE15, the Annual Convention for the National Council of Teachers of English.  It was the first time I had attended this conference since I was in college!  Last summer, some of our instructional tech teachers had the opportunity to attend ISTE. Right now, Linda Ashida is attending and presenting at the Learn Forward Conference with Lori Abbott.  These are just a few examples of the many opportunities our teachers have had recently (please share more!).

One thing that struck me most about attending NCTE was the open collaboration and sharing between not only presenters and audiences, but also between people in the audience; connections made between elementary, high school, and university staff; and the people connected on Twitter through the hashtag.  I was able to attend session strands in rhetoric, writing, and social justice--three topics I have been focusing on in my own professional development this year.  Currently I am working on a blog series to summarize and share what I have learned.

Ultimately the goal of attending these conferences doesn't end just at personal professional development, but it then continues to also multiply the learning back at our own school.  I was able to bring materials back to my team and to suggest other ideas for our curriculum and instruction.  I think so often teachers get bogged down with the day-to-day and year-to-year demands of the classroom and lives.  It's vital, I believe, for each of us to--as often as we can--get out, share our ideas, feel affirmation for what we are doing, be challenged by new ideas, and learn in order to grow.

Introducing new vocabulary, concepts

by Kirsten Fletcher

Where would we be in this profession if we didn't have colleagues who shared great ideas? I saw this on Twitter the other day, and it made me feel a little more justified in sharing ideas that weren't mine.

So in the spirit of collaboration, here are two fun ideas that I implemented recently to "hook" students into new material.



I started with a word wall. I saw a word wall hanging in Anna Izzo's classroom a few weeks ago and really liked the visual reminder of advanced vocabulary that her Italian students could use as a reference. When I asked her about it, she said the idea actually came from Mark Heintz. Who knows where he got it? Collaboration!

At any rate, Anna had students brainstorm vocabulary on a topic, look up words they thought would be useful for discussing the topic in Italian, then write them on butcher paper that she posted in the classroom. Sounds simple, right? So last week when I started my new AP theme on science and technology, we began by brainstorming, looking up words that students found useful, and making our class list. The process of writing the list generated some good discussion (and spelling practice for our class secretary).


From here we moved on to the quote activity. I learned this from Dawn Samples, an amazing world language educator and administrator who recently led a workshop at the Fall ICTFL (Illinois Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Conference. Basically, the quote activity works like this.

• I searched for quotes in French pertaining to science and technology. 
• I printed out enough that I had at least two quotes per student. 
• I seated students in a circle, and each student started with two quotes. 
• They read both, then kept the one they liked best / agreed with and passed the other. They continued reading and passing for several minutes. 
• Next, students paired up and read their quote to their partner. They had to justify why they chose it and make a connection. 
• They did this with several partners before reporting out to the class. 

I feel like the quote activity allows students to interact with material in so many ways. The reading step not only exposes them to new vocabulary in context, but also encourages them to think critically. You could even use pictures, infographics, cartoons, etc. instead of quotes. The partner sharing gives them the opportunity to articulate their ideas and demonstrate comprehension. It enhances both listening and speaking skills.

On this day, we ended the activity by adding any new words we learned from the quotes to our word wall. Since then, we have continued to refer back to the word wall with any new reading or listening activity to keep the vocabulary relevant. We have added many useful words that I would never have thought to put on a vocab list. Since the word wall is hanging in the room, I have referred to it in lower levels as well. It's never too early to expand our vocabulary!

Getting Formative Feedback as a Teacher

By: Rachel Barry

Formative Assessment has been a focus of our Leader Learners, PLT, and Collab Lab meetings this year.  We have been discussing the importance of providing students written feedback and how that means more to students than a grade in the grade book.  In some of my graduate school courses, we discussed the importance of student input in their education.  When thinking about these two ideas, I realized that I need to ask my students for formative feedback in order to best meet their needs.

To obtain this feedback, I created a Google Form consisting of 5 open-ended response questions, with each question required to be answered.  I didn't take down their names so that students would feel comfortable in being honest with their answers.  Here is a list of the questions that I asked:

1.  What is your favorite part of math class?

2.  What do you dislike about math class?

3.  What motivates you in school?

4.  What are your feelings towards grades? (Are you more inclined to work hard? Do they discourage you? Would you rather not have a gradebook?)

5. Do you like working at your own pace? (Or would you rather the whole class move at the same pace, even if it means it is too fast for some and too slow for others?)

The question that I was most curious about was Question 5, as this is a new way of learning for many students.  You can learn about this individualized learning model that I have been implementing in this previous blog post.  I will be honest that I was apprehensive of this process, and I was nervous that students would vocalize their dislike of the model.  Upon looking at the data, 73 of my 90 students completed the Google Form.  Of the 73 students that completed the form, 51 responded positively to working at their own pace, 15 responded negatively, and 7 were indifferent.  

So, what should I do with this information?  Going forward, I have decided to find a happy medium.  For students that are comfortable working at their own pace, they can continue to do so, as the resources are available to them on Schoology.  For the students who would prefer to work as a class, I will pull them aside in small groups to go over the notes.  This hybrid format may work out positively for both groups of students.  My hesitation is that it may take too much time away from my answering of students' questions.  I am going to see how this works in the next unit and reevaluate then!

Getting an Outsider's Perspective

Written by Quinn Loch

At the last EGLLT meeting one of our focuses was on setting clear targets for our students. We saw lots of examples of how teachers communicate their learning targets to their students and it's always great to see how other teachers in the school do things in their classrooms. Sometimes I feel trapped in a bubble and it is inspiring to see things from another angle.

It got me wondering if my students could understand the learning targets that I provided them. This understanding is crucial for the student. If students don't know what they're aiming for, how can they succeed and meet the goals that you set for them? It can be difficult to step back and get an objective look at your own learning targets, so I turned to my colleagues from other content areas for feedback. If my colleagues couldn't follow or understand the learning targets, how could my students?

Inspired by Mark Heintz, I printed the learning targets for one of the freshman biology units along with some of the assessments, skills practice, and readings for the unit and taped them up to the whiteboard wall in the Collab Lab.

Over the next couple of days, some of the DTC's made comments and asked some questions. It was apparent that not everything was clear. There are areas where I am lacking specificity and some of the language isn't very student-friendly, especially for a freshman student. Of course I want my students to know words and descriptors like "differentiate", but I can communicate things in a more straightforward and unambiguous manner that would lead to less confusion.

Some of the changes are easy fixes, but should go a long way in leading my students' to success. The feedback that I received gave me a fresh perspective and would encourage my colleagues to do the same. 

Comprehensible input for everyone

by Kirsten Fletcher

What resources do you use in your classroom? Are they at the appropriate level for your students? If not, how can you modify your instruction so that all students can master content?  Reading Mark Heintz's blog post on ditching the textbook yesterday made me think of the principle of comprehensible input.

http://languageeducation.pbworks.com/w/page/60937285/Comprensible%20Input

In world language instruction, comprehensible input is a key concept based on the research of Stephen Krashen. It basically states that students learn best when the language they hear is just above their current level of comprehension. In other words, they are given just enough new information to challenge them to build upon their background knowledge, but not so much that they become discouraged and give up.


There is definitely more to Stephen Krashen's hypothesis, but my focus here is on how to make all learning comprehensible to students. Why do we continue to assign reading passages to students that are so far above their ability level? If the material is too easy, they gain nothing. The same is true if it is too difficult; they can not access the content and therefore can not link it to prior knowledge. Of course, we can try to bridge the gap by providing visuals, graphic organizers, examples, etc. However, it might be worth our time to re-evaluate the input itself.

http://mslizethbrown.weebly.com/tangibles.html

I recently attended the ICTFL (Illinois Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) conference where I participated in a session led by Emily Walk. She taught strategies for presenting new information through comprehensible input. While many of the tips were specific to language, here are some suggestions from that session that are universal. Many of these are not new, but they are good reminders of how to make content more comprehensible to our students. Hopefully you'll find these useful:

• Always make content meaningful and relevant.
• Always incorporate multiple learning modes in direct instruction (visual, audio, kinesthetic).
• Instead of memorizing vocab lists, have students order and/or rank concepts and justify their reasoning.
• Instead of starting with the vocab list and then giving fill-in activities, start with vocabulary embedded in reading. An easy way to do this is to fill in those blanks for students to see if they can understand terms from context before even studying them.
• Conduct class surveys about concepts and have students create graphs to explain / summarize.
• Break up sentences into two parts where students match the first half with the second half (i.e. cause - effect).
• Before fill-ins, try matching opposites, true/false or logical/illogical exercises.
• Have students illustrate concepts they have read.
• Pick a side: have students take a stand by moving to one side of the room or the other.

A(P) World without a textbook

By Mark Heintz

Let me preface this blog post by stating that I had one of my most successful years in my AP World History course as measured by pass rate and the number of students who took the exam.  Despite that success rate, some things nagged at me.  I assigned a lot of work. Most of it was very targeted, I could tell if the students completed it, and it prompted them with feedback to help them move forward in the learning process. However, it was a lot of work, and I don't feel that a student should spend that much time outside of class.  So, every time I asked my students how much time they spent on the course, their responses wounded me.

Here is what I wrote about the textbook last spring: The book our district adopted is a challenge.  To be fair, I was on the textbook adoption committee and approved the book. But, I digress.  First, the book is at a college reading level.  Second, the book assumes the students have a great deal of background knowledge.  The book is great for students who know a lot of history, but almost all of my students are taking their first world history course. The students spend a lot of time outside of class trying to decode the text book.  No matter what pre-reading strategies are done in the classroom, it is still very difficult for my students to comprehend the material.

Last year, my attempt to help students centered around creating materials to help them with understanding the textbook, but I didn't feel good about that. Why was I doing all of this creation and instruction around reading a textbook? I would rather have spent time on primary sources or targeted feedback.  This year, I took a hard look at the AP World course guide. 

Furthering the issue, this year my students have a lower average on their Plan reading score and Plan composite scores by over one point compared to last year. So, the book is a major challenge and often pushes kids to believe they cannot achieve. First quarter has been a struggle. To say the least, the first two unit exams did not go well at all. 

In response to those poor test scores, I broke down each objective for the students.  It was very tedious, but incredibly rewarding. I found I taught too many things and neglected others.  But, more importantly, I now know what exactly I want the students to know. In a class that is meant to cover the entire history of the world in one year, it is easier when you know what you want your students to know. 

It is not easy to decipher what the College Board is looking for. Here is what the College Board provides.

I broke it down by the following:

I then have the students complete objective checks in class from time to time to see if they need more instruction on the topic. Here is what that quiz looks like:

I got the idea from the science department. They have been doing some fantastic work with breaking down what they want their students to know.  I give the students the objectives and as we go through the lessons, we fill out the answers. Then they just simply have to repeat. The problem with the course is that there is a lot of information to digest. So, it is a cumulative effect. The best part is, the students have a self-reflection built right into the objective check. Do you know it or do you not know it? The kids then know which objective they need to go back and study for the next check. 

I posted earlier about Schoology checklists and how to leverage them. I created 10-20 questions for each objective. So, the one above really has two objectives, and I created 14 questions for the Byzantine and 12 questions for the Sui, Tang and Song.  These quizzes serve as their homework. The quizzes provide instant feedback and a short reading that can redirect them to the correct answer.  

I have ditched the textbook as the core homework. I do use it as a resource from time to time in class, and it is always available to students if they want to read it.  My students are now reading more primary sources. I still employ pre-reading strategies to have the students access the primary sources. My students are writing more than they ever have before.  They are writing their understandings of the content. They are analyzing prompts more frequently.  They are doing the work.  

The big question is, does it work? I have given three summative unit exams with 50 questions each this year: River Valleys, Classical, and Post-Classical.  The average on the River Valley test was 31/50.  The average on the Classical test was 32.89.  After which I made all of the changes described above.  The success...the class average on the Post-Classical test was 40.6.  My students are doing less and getting more out of it.