Using Common Formative Assessments to Help Teachers Reflect on Their Practice

[@ellencarpenter3635]

You're a great speaker. I laughed out loud with your comparison to a physical vs. an autopsy (formative vs. summative).

[@katieclark7800]

EDUC 642 Clark-I highly enjoyed this video. I really appreciated the analogies on Formative and Summative Assessments (“Formative-Cook tastes the soup; Summative-Customer tastes the soup”). I agree that we need to do more than just use assessments to figure out where our students stand in proficiency, and use this data reflectively to improve our professional practice. I loved the speaker's comment that “louder and slower is not reteaching” and that we should not focus on “the things we cannot control when the answer is in the room”. He made important admissions that professional collaboration is not without challenge and requires mutual trust and that teachers should feel that their administrators are welcoming them into the collaboration; it also must not feel like “good teacher/bad teacher”. I think those are really important points, because we often run into such challenges when trying to formally use data reflectively and collaboratively.

[@heatherhoward2558]

This was a great video about how to effectively utilize PLC meetings to analyze and interpret student data. Formative and summative assessments are often mixed up by teachers and the soup tasting analogy was a great way of helping teachers understand the difference. Formative assessments should be done daily and should inform your teaching for the next day. There's so many different formative assessments that can be engaging for students. For instance, exit tickets, parking lots, four corners, pinch cards, and so many others. I often consider that "final big test" in the end as the summative assessment. I think a key take away for this video is for teachers to be reflective in their practice and collaborate with their team to make improvements to their practice. Working with team members can just add another tool to a teacher's tool belt of tricks. Bringing data to to table and being reflective is extremely important.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Heather MooresEduc642 We will be talking about many of those (in)formative assessments in class. You absolutely captured the key points - collaboration, reflection, and improving teaching and learning :)

[@a.j.harris2832]

This is excellent! Thank you!

[@codyknowlton2557]

Great speaker! Great analogies!

[@angelasorensen9427]

EDUC642 Sorensen: I love this video! The biggest take away I have is that so often, we are quick to blame outside factors in the overall academic success of our students as opposed to realizing that the answers to our problems lie right in our own classroom. Each student differs drastically from the students before them, despite many environmental factors being the same. We have "those kids" in our classroom, but we often are too quick to judge the students on factors that we do not have control over. We, as educators, need to realize that we have the power to help these students overcome and improve otherwise impossible feats. We need to meet the needs of each individual group of students and take it one step further to meet the needs of each individual student.

[@colleenkeeley1659]

EDUC642Keeley: After watching this video there were so many points and topics brought up about assessments that I hadn't really thought of myself. The part that stood out to me the most was when he talked about teaching a lesson and having it go great with every student being successful. Then reteaching that same lesson to a new class and having no one understand it, and then as a teacher not knowing how to re-teach the same topic in a new and creative way. Of course its always great to meet with your department and share ideas but I think it makes it that much better when Kenneth Williams went over more effective points to hit within those meetings. Some of those key points being, there must be trust among your team, the admin. needs to create a safe environment, and having collaboration be an expectation, not an option. By using assessments in an consistent and effective way, while also collaborating with your department, I feel those are key take- a- ways from the video to have a successful lesson and more success with students.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Colleen Keeley Colleen - welcome. I am glad that you found the video informative and that your take-aways were some of the critical points that I was hoping students would latch onto.

[@margaretvincent9762]

CFAs are perfect as exit tickets to make sure we can move on to the next step on Day 2. Unfortunately we don't have much team time (and none in our content area) to share data. So I'm left looking at the data for my specific classes only. Though, our previous PLG meetings drove home the idea that all aspects of our lesson MUST support the daily mastery objective. So, making an exit ticket to support that became simpler -and is used to make sure students understand.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Courtney Roux Finding time to share ideas is always difficult. As you read more and watch these types of videos perhaps you can work to be a change agent within your building. Perhaps if you bring some of the ideas o the table you will begin to see change.

[@sethburt6462]

EDUC642 Burt - I have run into the same issues as the speaker when he addressed the concern of blaming the students for not understanding the material. I come across it all the time at my school and it is nothing but detrimental to the students AND the learning climate of the school as a whole. We have PLC's, but I hear from many teachers that this time is often wasted complaining about the students, administration, or even fellow teachers. I would be interested in showing this information at my next department meeting on Monday so my colleagues in PLC's can try to get them back on track.

[@sirenar1068]

EDUC642 Henderson. My school uses Common formative assessments to shape our instructive practices. In the science department, we bring our Writing on demand data to the meeting and discuss different ways to improve student writing. It is true that you have to be part of a team who is willing to collaborate with each other. I find our meetings to be informative and constructive and it helps to better inform my lessons. I really like that he struggled with the one size fits all instruction and that he had to learn that he needed to change the tools in order to reach his students. My first year I struggled with getting the tools needed to reach students. I still struggle at times with finding the tools to reach students but I do collaborate with my science team to find them.

[@tehutika]

EDUC642 Schneider I'm in my second year as a teacher, and I completely understand how it feels when this year's kids don't get what came so easily to last year's kids. I'm struggling not to compare them still, even knowing how different my classes are this year compared to last year, particularly in size. In my school, we spend some time collaborating, but it's mostly about the curriculum. We don't spend much time analyzing data and results.

[@jacquelinewu5602]

EDUC642Daoust - I like the description/comparison of a formative and summative assessment, as our students are the customers/consumers of what we’re serving up. Also, when speaking about team collaboration, I appreciate the reminder to swallow your pride and ask for help. If the students are “getting it” then we, as teachers, are not delivering it.

[@jeanneshaffer1355]

EDUC642Ferguson: I love the analogies at the beginning. I find that we don't do enough CFA's where I am. We have writing prompts but they get scored like a summative assessment and it is difficult to take meaningful information away from the scores to inform instruction. I used to use CFA's in another district and saw the promise of something really good coming out of them but we struggled with things like giving teachers enough time soon enough after giving students the CFA to look through them and collaborate so it too often became time wasted. With more time, they would have done wonderful things for informing instruction. One thing we used to do which was uncomfortable at first but ultimately really beneficial, was swap papers for the data analysis. It is really hard to look at your student work without trying to make inferences about what students may have meant. When you are looking at the work of students you don't know, you just take it at face value. When you get your students' papers back from someone else, you have much more honest data to look through. It also takes less time to go through the papers when you aren't stopping to think about what you expected from a student versus what they put on the paper.

[@Ern227]

EDUC 642: The video discussed meeting with you teammates and discuss how to improve a unit, what do you do if you do not have a team? I teach topics that no one else in teaches, what techniques I can use to improve?

[@katelynloughlin1458]

EDUC642 Wood - I love the formative/summative assessment comparison, really breaks down the understanding and makes it more simple. I also like the emphasis on reflection here. As teachers we assess our students daily. In this district we're also required to give unit assessments as well as ANet, and other types of assessment. After students take these assessments we're so quick to put a label on them: "Advanced, Proficient, Needs Improvement, Warning". But, now what? As teachers we need to ask our selves that question. What comes next? If students are at proficient then what I'm doing is working... but if they're not, what am I going to change?

[@mauracyr1915]

posting for EDUC642Grimaldi The real life example that for those who aren't in education is great. At some point in their life, everyone will cook something and, as such, will have to taste test until that right taste is achieved. Testing is like that. We have to continually see what a student knows until they have that right final taste of the knowledge. I also like that the team model is stressed and that the outside world should not make a difference in your classroom. With the team model, you can grow as a teacher. You learn and help others learn at the same time. This is a way to help your students achieve even more. These common assessments are for students to grow and improve how we teach. It is not about the grade, it is far beyond the grade. This video reminds us that we need to go beyond the grades to see what a student knows.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Eileen CyrEDUC642 You make some good points - I am confused by you saying "that the outside world should not make a difference in your classroom. ",

[@maryshaw3347]

EDUC642Shaw I agree with the speaker in that collaboration needs to be structured because it is hard to put data on the table...But if your time is used wisely, the data really tells you what is going on. This year, myself and one other biology teacher have the bulk of this class of students. We plan everything together, and use the same resources, but we teach very differently. It is interesting to see or hear the ways in which she presents the exact same content. I think it would be really cool to use data to decide who needs re-teach and to swap students. We have done things similar to this, but nothing has been formally done. In fact, with the few students that this has worked with, those students know they can go to either teacher if a concept is challenging them. I'd like this to be the case for more students, but the students really seem to understand that both teachers are a planning team...The next step is for them to understand that they are in charge of their learning to the point where they can seek out extra help. I am dealing with high school students so they can be guided to become more independent than this speakers' elementary school students, but it still really speaks to me.

[@jessashe7024]

EDUC642 Ashe How can we as teachers use formative assessments to better improve ourselves?

[@kylegarron5404]

EDUC642Garron: The idea that not every class is the same is what resonated with me in this video. I've always looked for "the best" way to teach my content, but really, the best way is always changing. The students change, the technology available to us changes, and our own knowledge changes. Collaboration between instructors on a team only serves to make each member of the team a better, more informed teacher, and the students will only benefit from it.

[@camerondwyer9307]

EDUC642Dwyer: This entire video was extremely useful, I thought the analogy used to compare summative and formative reflection was especially powerful. In addition, I think it's crucial to understand the difference between the teacher acquisition of a 'skill' and a 'tool' in order to help facilitate a more complete lesson and comprehension by students.

[@claireducharme9315]

MV rất hay, i like it 😄💛🙂

[@michelledorsey3139]

EDUC642Dorsey: The biggest thing I took away from this video is the importance of bringing data to the whole team, not just keeping it to ourselves. It is important to work together with other teachers. It is important to notice when you need to reteach and reteach the next day. It is important to focus on our students in our meetings. Reflection based of comparison with other teachers is also key and very helpful.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Michelle Dorsey Teaching can be such an isolating profession. Because of the situation that you are currently in - your job is collaborative by design. Plus you have a fabuloso mentor !!

[@gRaCi3La89]

Yes!! I've been there!!

[@brendalizvallejo5740]

EDUC642Vallejo: I agree 100% that teachers should be bringing their assessment data to a table of their colleagues. Other teachers can certainly have some strategies under their belt that can allow for greater student success. I wonder if there should be training on how to carry out these PLC groups? I have been fortunate enough to participate in groups of these kinds and have witnessed teachers who DO get offended and feel that they are being referred to as a "bad teacher". I have also seen teachers who are not willing to budge in their practice and refuse to take suggestions from others. So my question is, how can we make sure that our PLC runs a successful group when bringing their classroom assessments to the table?

[@mauracyr1915]

+Brendaliz Vallejo I think we need to think in terms of baby steps. We may not be able to get 100% buy in from others but can we get 10% buy in and consider that success?

[@briannarivers1124]

EDUC642Rivers The line between self-reflection and blame can become very fine during the midst of struggle, success and staying “on pace.” There is a definite growth mindset that comes when shifting the focus from "teaching to learning." I think team collaboration as a means to assess data and identify effective strategies is critical and putting control back in the hands of educators and reducing the blame on the population.

[@samanthavega8457]

educ642Edwards: Something that resonates with me from this video is when he says "we can't focus on thing we can't control." Meeting with teams and reviewing assessment data to identify if as a teacher I need a tool or a skill will improve my teaching in the long run, i can only focus on what happens in my room. I currently meet with my 7th grade team of teachers twice a week. We often use that time to discuss consistencies and instructional strategies, because my school is so small there are not other grade level teachers that teach the same subject but each of us works with a coach and/or ILT to assess data and our ILT will spend time on the skill portion where as a team we focus on the tool piece.

[@kelizabeth417]

EDUC642LEFFERTS: I liked his example of how teaching fractions to one year’s group was so well received as opposed to the next year’s group where the same teaching practice was such a miss. This is such an important lesson to know- how each ‘group’ of students can be so different from one to another. This particularly resonated with me because I have had experiences where teaching the same lesson can go extremely well for one group and then not so well for the next.

[@eileencyr7104]

+kristen lefferts Sometimes it is group dynamics and sometimes it is time of day an/or mood of the group. A strategy might work one group one time and then not work the next but work the third time. Teachers need to be able to change gears in response to students' responsiveness.

[@claireducharme9315]

MV rất hay, i like it 🙄🤐🤔

[@davidwalker4730]

EDUC642Walker: I think collaboration is an invaluable tool in improving teaching strategies/skills. A lot of what he was suggesting was under the assumption that you are working on a "team." My question is this: how can you most effectively use collaboration when you do not have students in common with your colleagues?

[@maureenburke2784]

EDUC642BURKE: The focus on using formative assessments to reflect and improve teaching is very important. Feeling safe with your team and sharing teaching struggles as well as student struggles identified through the assessments helps all members of the team. As the director of my center, I need to work harder to facilitate teacher reflection sharing to aid student learning.

[@eileencyr7104]

+Maureen Burke Given that some of your classrooms are set up as teams of teachers - I would think that this happens more naturally than in a single teacher classroom. I will be interested to hear how the data is shared within and across the classrooms.

[@clarecondon-grade5725]

EDUC642CondonGrade: My thought here is, teachers in the same grade-level-content-area could benefit from observing each other's instruction if one teacher is getting better results than others on formative assessments. This is not possible the way my school is structured currently, so regularly recording videos of instruction could be a great way for teachers to not only self-reflect but also help other teachers develop their instructional skills and borrow new instructional tools. I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this.

[@sportastic43]

EDUC642ZIEWACZ: Kenneth Williams makes learning the differences between individual growth through personal assessment and collaborating and using formative data interesting and valuable. His brief statement that working as a group should be an expectation, not an option, becomes clearer through every story he tells. I love how he describes the progress from year to year with his fractions tale, speaks a lot to the idea of being vulnerable and capable of learning from peers based on their formative assessment data.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Adam Ziewacz I am glad that you found it "interesting and valuable". Videos such as this serve as springboards for discussions and hopefully will serve to effectuate change.

[@roberttoffolon9889]

EDUC642Toffolon: I completely agree that collaboration and reflection are essential to improving our teaching instruction/skills. As a brand new teacher, I have collaborated with fellow teachers a great deal this year to discuss different strategies to adjust my instruction in class as well as going in and sitting in on other teachers classes to see how they deliver the same lessons that I do. I would like to begin to use data more often to reflect on my instruction and guide future lessons.

[@stevenspencer5664]

EDUC642SPENCER: Loved the examples used to explain formative and summative assessments. I have had issues in the past with finding or creating assessments that could accurately determine what my students got out of my lessons because the willingness to participate in any form of assessment was nonexistent. I used oral exams to coax my students into building up their confidence and open book tests (SPED high school US1,2 and World History). I gradually removed the books and added projects as a form of assessment. When district exams came I faced resistance because the tests were uniform and made for all students without consideration for my population. I would have to break these tests down into week long assessments. I like the idea of collaborating and having PLC's but we are often left out of the conversation because we are SEBS. As a team we get to meet often but when it come to integrating with the rest of our grade level teachers we are often left out. We would like to be on the same page with everyone else so our students could eventually transition into these mainstream classes but that collaboration isn't always so easy.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Steven Spencer I recognize this as a huge challenge. I would like you to consider the engagement part as your topic for your project for the Families course. We can talk more ...

[@stevenspencer5664]

Thanks!

[@jesusradicalculture]

EDUC642RAMOS: Wow. This video really open my eyes on how to improve my teaching. It is important that we as teachers reflect on our practices by using formative assessments. Using our team time to develop this strategies and to go over data for each group is a key component to develop new strategies and to help each other with new ideas and creating good lessons base on reflecting in each lesson. Having a great team and trusting each other is a key component to improving our teaching.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Enelida Benjamin Is this Misael? - We hope to do just that during this course :)

[@sarahpekar7630]

EDUC642PEKAR: Data is the ultimate “truth” for teachers. It does not lie about what tools or skills a teacher might need. For this reason, I think that presenting data is the best way to get both teachers and administrators to buy into the collaborative teacher group that Mr. Williams was talking about. I believe that aiding teachers in obtaining tools to maximize their performance will be the best strategy for student success. It seems like it can be a relatively simple process to help teachers get the tools they need to create an effective lesson. What follow up steps should take place if the data shows that a teacher is lacking a “skill(s)” rather than a “tool”?

[@eileencyr7104]

+Sarah Pekar I will challenge your "data truth" on Saturday (not naming you) and will share your question with the group.

[@christianabrock580]

EDUC642BROCK: The most important thing I took away was that in order for the formative assessments to work there has to be trust within the team that is analyzing the data. There can't be conversations about good teacher bad teacher, only conversations on what tools or skills are needed in order for formative assessments to work as a reflection tool.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Christiana Brock That is my take away as well - great minds think alike :)

[@ellengrenier4033]

EDUC642GRENIER: Loved the soup tasting metaphor to help clarify formative/summative assessments. I'm jealous of the thought of having a PLC because I'm not in the public school system and we don't have these types of structured supports in place. I'm in a small school and although we are all teachers of the deaf, it would be nice to have another K-1 teacher for collaboration.

[@mauracyr1915]

+Ellen Grenier Welcome to the group. Hopefully you may be able to find that community of learners within this course. There are several other ECED educators in this course.