Formative Assessment & English Learners

1. Formative Assessment & English Learners Getting Smarter Conference March 11, 2014 Dr. Karla Groth

2. Outcomes • Recognize the key features of the formative assessment process • Understand how educators can use the formative assessment process to support the needs of English learners • Consider the relationship between the 21st century standards, formative assessments, and English learners

3. Table Talk 1 - Chart First with a partner & then in your table groups, please discuss the following: • Explain your knowledge of assessments & English learners • Discuss one thing you hope to gain as a result of this session

4. Resources ELA/ELD Framework

5. Goals for English Learners • Attain English proficiency • Accelerate academic content learning

6. The Big Picture ELA/ELD Framework; Ch.8, p.6

7. Formative or Summative???? When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; When the guests taste the soup, that’s summative.

8. The Formative Assessment Cycle

9. Formative Assessment Defined “Formative assessment occurs in real time, during instruction while student learning is underway.” (Allal 2010; 90 Black and Wiliam 1998; Bell and Cowie 2000; Heritage 2010; Shepard 2000 2005).

10. The Purpose of Formative Assessment • Provide information about student learning in relationship to lesson goal/learning target • Provide teachers with information immediately usable to adjust instruction

11. The Essential Elements of Formative Assessment • Clear learning goals & success criteria • Eliciting gathering and interpretation • Responsive pedagogical action • Student involvement (Margaret Heritage, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014)

12. Short-Cycle Formative Assessment • Minute-by-minute Assessments • Daily/Lesson Assessments • Weekly Assessments

13. Three Questions • Where am I going? • Where am I know? • How do I close the gap?

14. Collaborative Structures & Formative Assessment “Collaborative professional structures, such as learning communities, should be the nexus of learning and work that teachers do relative to assessment (see Chapter 11) in which assessment is viewed as a cycle of inquiry.” (ELA/ELD Framework, Ch.8, p.4)

15. Practices & Routines • Collaboration • Participating in discourse practices • Careful listening and building on ideas • Joint development of thinking • Individual and group responsibilities (Margaret Heritage, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014)

16. Desired Outcomes of the Formative Assessment Process • Teachers and students have a shared understanding of what evidence gathering entails - common purpose • Creating opportunities through tasks and interaction for students’ language and content learning to be revealed • Evidence gathering planned and has place in the ‘rhythm’ of instruction • Private and public activity to reveal learning (Margaret Heritage, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014)

17. Feedback • Please provide your feedback on the day It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. C. S. Lewis

18. Student Involvement Feedback Teacher Feedback Peer Feedback Self-Assessment

19. The Teacher’s Role “Whatever the source of the evidence, the teachers’ role is to construct or devise ways to elicit responses from students that reveal where they are in their learning and to use the evidence to move learning forward.” (Sadler 1989) ELA/ELD Framework; Ch. 8, p.10

20. Student Role From Dylan William: • Provide feedback that moves learners forward. Comments that address what the student needs to do to improve, linked to rubrics when appropriate, promote further learning more effectively than letter grades do. • Activate students as the owners of their own learning. For example, have students assess their own work, using agreed-on criteria for success. • Encourage students to be instructional resources for one another. Peer assessment and feedback is often more acceptable and engaging for students than teacher feedback is. Educational Leadership December 2007/January 2008 | Volume 65 | Number 4 Informative Assessment Pages 36-42 “Changing Classroom Practice”

21. Formative Assessment’s Role in a Comprehensive Assessment System

22. Table Talk 2- Chart You have learned a little about the role of the teacher & the student: • What is the role of the site administrator in the formative assessment process?

23. A Summary • Formative assessment is a set of practices that supports quality teaching and learning • Formative assessment practices enable student agency • Teachers implement formative assessment practices through four signature pedagogies (Margaret Heritage, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014)

24. English Learners and Formative Assessment

25. Contingent Learning

26. ELA/ELD Framework Chapter 8: Assessment Assessment Cycles • Short-Cycle Formative Assessment • Minute-by-minute Assessments • Daily/Lesson Assessments • Weekly Assessments • Medium-Cycle Assessment • End-of-Unit/Project Assessments • Long-Cycle Assessment • Annual/End-of-Year Assessments

27. Purpose “This chapter describes what is involved in the skilled use of assessment to support student attainment of the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy and the CA ELD standards.”

28. The Formative Assessment Process and English learners • EL students may not be able to fully express their ideas because of their proficiency level • This should not be taken to mean they don’t understand the content or learning target • English learners (regardless of proficiency level) need to be engaged in intellectually-rich tasks at the same rigorous cognitive levelas all students

29. Feedback & English learners “When considering what kind of feedback to give their EL students, teachers should focus first and foremost on communication and meaning-making, rather than correcting every grammatical error, and they should encourage EL students to take risks when using English. These risks need to be taken in a safe and supportive environment where students are free to make mistakes as they learn English.” ELA/ELD Framework; Ch.8, p.29

32. Table Talk 3 - Chart With a Partner Discuss: • What aspect of formative assessment for English learners resonated the most with you? • What clarifications or additional information would be helpful or necessary for you in your current role?

33. Policy & Leadership Considerations

34. Policy Consideration in Supporting Formative Assessment for ELs • Recognize language demands of 21st century competencies for deeper learning • Build instructional capacity to develop ELs’ linguistic resources and content knowledge &skills simultaneously • Move to coherent, balanced assessment systems that support a learning culture • Clarify what FA means & looks like in a comprehensive assessment system (Robert Linquanti, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014)

35. 21st Century Language Demands (Presentation by Kenji Hakuta, 2013)

36. Another View (Presentation by Kenji Hakuta, 2013)

37. Building Instructional Capacity Teachers View Formative Assessment as a process NOT an event: • Clarifying and Sharing learning goals • Involving classroom discussions, questions, and activities that provide evidence of student learning • Providing feedback to move student learning forward • Activating students as owner of their learning • Activating students as learning resource to each other (“Five Key Strategies for Effective Formative Assessment, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,2007)

38. Why is Formative Assessment Critical English Learners? • Inherently dialogic, requires purposeful interaction to make meaning • Develops academic uses of language via collaborative grappling with content • Strengthens reflection and feedback for student and teacher (Robert Linquanti, Presentation Irvine CA, February 25, 2014) Interim Assessment Summative Assessment Formative Assessment Interim Assessment Teacher Student Student Student

39. Questions

40. What you think of me, I’ll think of me. What I think of me, I’ll be. Anonymous