Module 2: Building An Assessment Plan

Module 1:

What is the difference between ​Assessment a​ nd ​Evaluation?​ Assessment is the basis of recording
what the students are learning and gathering information to inform our teaching. Evaluation then
is the process of deciding whether or not the student has met that criteria and how well they’ve
learned it.

Assessment for learning involves:

● Checking to see what has been learned and what needs to be learned next
● Accessing specific and descriptive feedback in relation to criteria that focuses on
improvement
● Involvement by the student in assessment.
This allows teachers to determine what information needs to be collected for the teachers next
teaching steps and the students next learning steps.

Involving students in assessment while decreasing evaluative feedback shows the largest gains
for all. If students evaluate too early they eliminate descriptive feedback and can impair their
learning.
Classroom Assessment.
1. Teachers review the standards, collect and review samples and think through the
evidence they’ll want their students to learn.
2. Bring students into the process to set criteria which leads to self assessment, goal setting,
peer assessment and collect evidence of their learning to get feedback.
3. Teacher’s evaluate and sum up the learning from students from multiple sources over
time.

How to conduct a research project:

1. Learn to gather information and how to make sense of it for yourself, what choices to
make for info that you will use. What do you think is important for a research project?
2. When students are engaged in the learning beforehand, it allows the sharing of
information for others and move from passive learners to active learners and build more
neural pathways and can access their learning more easily and for a longer period of time.
What is the real world application? Students have a chance to learn and prepare to learn.
3. When students are involved from the beginning, they are more ready to learn, when
shaping their learning more likely to understand what is expected, access prior
 knowledge, have ownership and more likely to give themselves descriptive feedback and
give teachers the info they need to adjust their teaching.
4. We see what we expect to see and hear what we expect to hear.
Connecting students with what they know to what they need to know, it creates a better learning.
When samples are either too limited or too far from where they are they won’t be able to start on
their learning journey.
12:46 Teaching instructing students on creating the research project.

Doing something more than once, students will learn what they know and what they need to
know.
Teachers Process for Assessment:
Talking about the Learning:
● Understand what is expected of them
● Access prior knowledge
● Have ownership
● Give themselves their own descriptive feedback
● Give info to the teacher so they can adjust their teaching.

Showing Samples and Discussing the Evidence:

● Giving students examples lets them understand what success can look like and they can
build metal models.
● Connecting their prior knowledge helps them to understand what they need to do in order
to learn.
● If samples are too limited it will fail to orient the students to what they need to do next;
too far away students may not know how to get there from where they’re supposed to be.

Getting on with the Learning:

● Giving students time to learn about what they already know and what they can learn from
one another gives them a chance to access prior knowledge and allows them to develop a
deeper understanding of their learning.
● Students need time to practice repetition in order to learn.

Practicing:
● Make criteria, share the process of learning with each other and give descriptive feedback
that allows for students to have the opportunity to learn.

Self-Assessment:
● Self assessment helps to confirm, consolidate and integrate new knowledge. ​What do we
think we learned? What worked? What didn’t? What might we do differently next time?
Revisiting Criteria:
● As students learn and assess they define and redefine the criteria; this translates to more
specific learning and quality of work.

Feedback to Forward Learning:

● Self assessment allows students to give themselves feedback which informs their learning
and lets them know what may need to be done differently.
○ Teacher gives students timely feedback 4x
○ Students self reflect on the criteria given to them at the beginning (2x feedback)
○ Peer assess with two corrections
○ Self-assess again with descriptive feedback
○ Teacher returns the work with descriptive feedback.

Setting Goals:
● This is based on looking at the criteria and having a clear idea of how to meet that criteria
and how to understand assessment.

Ongoing Assessment for Learning:

● Metacognition -​ derives from self assessment where students have the chance to think
about their learning. “​An event is not an experience until you reflect upon it.”

Assessment is based on:

1. Understanding the target/goal
2. Having a mental image of success
3. Students self-monitoring
4. Setting the criteria
5. Being invested in learning
6. Learning the language of assessment

Module 2: Beginning with the End in Mind

Get the standards and documents and gather them together and put them into tactile form and
start to organize them. Start with the subject that you are most familiar with.

Creating a list of standards and learning outcomes is the first place to start. This can be done by
starting with students understanding what they already know, can do and can articulate; and then
the teachers teach. A larger range of students learning means a larger resource that teachers must
draw on. Based on knowing the subject matter and also how to teach the different groups that are
in class respective of different learning abilities.
When we know what we’re doing, we are able to mentally prepare and set ourselves up for
success. This allows students to know what they are supposed to be learning, they can
self-monitor, make adjustments and ultimately learn more. This is based on three concepts:
1. Describe the learning destination for students ​and ​parents
2. Share it with students
3. Use it
*Words can obscure meaning; so start small.

Learning Outcomes Possible Evidence

1. Willingly participates in all activities 1. Checklist via observation

2. Willingly takes risks
3. Positive attitude towards a 2nd
language culture
4. Shows practice of vocabulary and
structures
5. Works cooperatively with partner
and/or small groups
6. Shows independence in learning i.e.
uses resources
7. Can demonstrate learning visually,
orally and in writing
8. Makes connections outside of the
classroom and subject area
2. Volunteers consistently
3. By observation
4. Tests, quizzes and daily work
5. Observation via product production
and group evaluation
6. Looks in Fr/Eng dictionary before
asking
7. Projects, assignments and
presentations
8. Observations and projects

Sharing It:
Students need to be aware of “​What needs to be learned​” and not solely the teacher

Using It:
Create a document that shows what the learning intentions are and how to track the students
progress in each.
Three-way report: students do self-reports, teacher does a report and the parents review the
evidence and are invited to add to the report.
Categories:
1. Destination: produce quality pieces of writing, develop English language skills etc
2. Evidence: writing pieces: autobiographical short stories, plot diagrams, reading responses
 3. Samples/Models: past student writing samples, samples of past student journals
4. Evaluation: produces quality written assignments that meet set criteria, show multiple
drafts that are edited and revised for content , spelling grammar and punctuation

Module 3: Determining Reliable & Valid Evidence of Learning

Collecting evidence in three ways:

From Products From Observation From Conversation

These 3 sources create the trends, reliability (students producing the same result at different
times) and validity (when the evidence matches the quality of standards/outcomes) of how
classroom assessment is increased. This is known as ​triangulation.

From Observation

● Formal and informal presentations

● Drama presentations
● Scientific method being applied
● Music-related activities
● Reading aloud
● Group activities/partner activities
● Talking about their own work
● Giving opinions
● Communicating with others in a group setting
● Working with partners
● Contributing thoughtfully with peer feedback

Example:

What is the purpose of the

learning activity? What are
students expected to learn?

What particular focus will I

choose for this observation?

How will I record and

organize my observations so
 they are useful?
From Products

These can be things such as projects, assignments, notebooks and tests.

**Different ways to show what we know: diagram/timeline/poster/story/oral
presentation/poem/build a model/design a web page/create a puzzle/make a video or movie/make
a podcast/design a t-shirt/do a report/write a song/collage/build a diorama/write a play/do a
journal entry/create a puppet show/do an e-journal entry etc.

From Conversation

Opportunities include: class meetings, individual or group conferences, students do

self-assessment, when they assess their work in relation to criteria, analyze work samples for
portfolios or prepare to report to their parents about their learning.

Questions we can ask them are: what was their best effort? What was difficult or easy? What
would they do differently next time? What risks did they take as learners?

Creating a Plan:

Evidence is enough, the right kind for the subject, and also reliable and valid from multiple
sources collected over time. This can be both ​qualitative​ and ​quantitative.

Is it Enough?

There should be enough evidence to be able to identify patterns and trends in a students learning.

Is it the Right Kind?

If the evidence is triangulated then you are more likely to collect the right type of evidence.

Is it Reliable and Valid?

The more opportunity to measure evidence, the greater the chance of finding reliable and valid
evidence. This can be done by using a thorough and wide range of collection techniques over the
term. This can be anything they say, do and create. Assess more; evaluate less.
Module 4: Describing Quality and Proficiency

Step 1: Samples and Exemplar Collections

● This can take on many forms such as maps, reading responses, writing projects,
mathematical thinking, problem solving etc. These help illustrate to the students what is
expected of them to know and do. This can also serve the teacher to know what is
possible and how to judge/evaluate work effectively.

Step 2: Using Samples in the Classroom

● This can be done when a teacher is developing criteria, show ways to represent their
learning, help others understand more about student learning and inform personal
judgement

Step 3: Using Samples to Develop Criteria with Students

● By looking at other samples of work, students can develop a sense of what is important
and can understand what work looks like at different phases of the project. They also
learn the criteria and can develop specific actions to meet those criteria

Step 4: Setting and Using Criteria

I. Make a brainstormed list
~when looking at a sample, the teacher brainstorms with the students about what they
think is valuable and important.
II. Sort and categorize the list
III. Make and post a T-chart

IV. Use and revisit and revise

Step 5: Using Sample to Assess Student Work and Give Feedback
Samples can show a student what a range of acceptable work is, what is outstanding, what
different ways ideas can be expressed and how to get started and where to end. I.e. students in
pairs with a checklist that the class has created on what ‘good’ reading includes. The non-reading
student listens and marks off what they thought was good. Donate their portfolios for other
students.

Step 6: Collecting and Analyzing Samples

1. FInd some interested and willing colleagues
2. Choose a focus for your investigation
3. Collect a wide range of samples
4. Analyze what is working
5. Build your own personal collection
6. Choose another focus and repeat the cycle

Module 5: Professional Judgement & Evaluation

1. What does the student know, what are they able to do and what can they articulate?
2. What areas require further attention or development?
3. In what ways can the students learning be supported?
4. How is the student progressing in relation to the standards or development for their age
range?

Four steps are evaluating the evidence, involving students and parents in reviewing the evidence,
summarizing strengths and areas needing improvement and finalizing the report. Mostly
subjective and is therefore dependent on valid and reliable evidence collection.

Evaluating the Evidence:

Evaluation is the process of looking at all the evidence and weighing it against the description of
samples and asking ​did the student learn what was to be learned? And how well?

Parent-Student-Teacher conferences are a good way for students and parents to be on the same
page and to have the opportunity to talk with the teacher about any issues that are coming up
with their child. They also have the opportunity to give 2 Stars and 1 Wish for their children.
Involving Students: Teachers can show the students their reports before they go home and can
ask some questions such as Does this make sense? Does it reflect your learning? Is it fair? Am I
missing anything?

What teachers can do:

● Use the legal requirements as the guideline for what you create
● Develop an assessment plan that summarizes the learning destination, the evidence
needed and the collected samples that reflect their work.
● Develop a description of achievement
● Involve students in the classroom assessment process
● Collect samples of growth over time
● Involve students in collecting and organizing their own evidence
● Spend time examining the evidence and do their own evaluation
● Check with students to see if the teachers evaluation makes sense
● Ask parents to review the evidence and invite them to do their own ‘report’ from their
perspective
● Meet with each student and their parents to discuss strengths, area’s of improvement and
goal that they are working towards
● Finalize the report after conversations with parents and students.

Module 6: Summing Up & Next Steps

Creating a ​learning team ​or ​professional learning community ​or ​learning circles ​can help
teachers starting out with the resources needed from other people and the support that they may
need to get through a round of assessment.

Steps for a Learning Circle:

1. Start Small
2. Get Organized Together
• ​Name the reasons for starting a group.
• Decide what the group might do or accomplish.
• Consider whether it will be more like a book club, a time to share
successful classroom assessment ideas, or a combination of both.
• Discuss whether to use a book (this one or another) as a guide.
• Develop a plan for where and how often the group might meet.
• Talk about how each gathering could proceed and be organized.

3. Share Responsibility