Analyzing Assessments and Infusing Academic Dialogue

1. Analyzing Assessments and Infusing Academic Dialogue

2. Today’s Goals • Identify resources for determining the depth and rigor of standards. • Analyze questions to determine alignment with standards. • Analyze & provide strategies for feedback given to students. • Analyze significance of academic dialogue.

3. Success Criteria • Able to use the appropriate Rigor Matrix to determine difficulty versus complexity of assessment items. • Able to use the Analyzing Assessments and Assignments to critique assessments. • Able to infuse feedback, feed-forward, and academic language in assessment review.

4. Effect Sizes

5. Think, Write, Pair, Share • What percentage of assignments are aligned to grade appropriate standards? • What percentage of assignments require students to only recall or apply basic skills or concepts? • Why?

6. The Need? • 1500 middle school assignments studied by Education Trust • According to study of middle grades study only about 38% of assignments aligned to grade appropriate standards. • About 85% required students to only recall or apply basic skills and concepts. https://edtrust.org/resource/classroomassignments/

7. www.michiganassessmentconsortium.org/als/standards-for-teacherswww.michiganassessmentconsortium.org/als/standards-for-teachers An assessment literate individual is one who understands how student assessment can enable them to better carry out their role in education, believes that assessment can improve teaching and learning, and puts into place activities and behaviors reflecting these beliefs (MAC,2015).

8. What does good assessment look like? • It mirrors good instruction! • Just like instructional materials, assessment materials include • Questions that are worth asking and require that students • read closely • think deeply, analyzing important points • use evidence to support their answers

9. In Groups: • Read through the assessment example. • With your group answer questions 1, 2, and 4 on the Analyzing Assessments and Assignments Handout. Be sure to give specific and actionable feedback.

10. Difficulty v. Complexity Difficulty Complexity A measure of the thinking, action, or knowledge that is needed to complete the task. In assessment, how many different ways can the task be accomplished. • A measure of effort required to complete a task. • In assessment, a function of how many people can complete the task correctly.

11. Less Complex Fluency Stamina • Low Difficulty • Low Complexity • High Difficulty • Low Complexity • Easy • Hard Expertise Strategic Thinking • Low Difficulty • High Complexity • High Difficulty • High Complexity • More Complex Doug Fisher April 2016

12. Title goes here Caption goes here

13. With your group: • Analyze the assessment for questions 5, 6, 7, and 8. • Remember to provide specific and actionable feedback!

14. Effect Size

15. Fisher & Frey, 2009 Feed up:establishing purpose Check for understanding: daily monitoring of learning Feed back:providing students with information about their success and needs Feed forward: using student performance for “next steps” instruction and feeding this into an instructional model

16. Feedback

17. Feedback

18. Feedback is not enough

19. Feed forward Where to next?

20. Feeding forward involves… Misconception analysis Error analysis Error coding Fisher and Frey

21. Error Analysis Fisher and Frey To align instructional practice To analyze student work To make instructional decisions

22. In your small groups, look at the feedback teachers have provided to students on the assessments (question 9). What feedback and feed-forward would you give the teachers? Go back to the previous questions you have answered what feed-forward would you give on those questions?

23. Comparing Traditional Assessment to CCSS Assessment – Vocabulary CCSS vocabulary items focus on determining the meaning of words using context. Vocabulary items usually assess Tier 2 words*, and the tested words must be important to the central ideas of the text. *Words that have wide use in academic writing and are important to student learning across many topics and all grade levels. They also: Are critical to reading comprehension Have power for students, in that they generally are members of word families and appear in many forms (e.g., secure, insecure, security) Can be used in a variety of ways and connect to other words and concepts Provide precision and specificity in describing a concept or event

24. How important are words? Nearly a century of research (Whipple 1925, NAEP 2012) Feature of complex text that likely causes greatest difficulty (Nelson et al 2012) Vocabulary assessed in grade 1 predicts 30% of grade 11 comprehension (Cunningham & Stanovich 1997)

25. The problem compounds

26. The Mathew Effect: Vocabulary Do More Reading of multiple texts on a topic Integrating topics across the curriculum Vocabulary instruction in context Encourage free choice independent reading of nonfiction and informational text

27. The Mathew Effect: Vocabulary Do Less Random word lists Decontextualized vocabulary practice Requiring students to read at one level (but on any topic)

28. Assessing Vocabulary • Do the vocabulary items test Tier 2 words or phrases? • Do the vocabulary items use context from a text to determine meaning? • Any items that simply give students a line or two of text and ask them to make meaning of a target word should not be used on your assessments. • Do vocabulary items have a Part B asking students to identify context? If not, could a Part B easily be added? • Do the vocabulary items relate to central ideas? Do they test words that help students build their understanding of the passage?

29. In your small groups, analyze for question 3. Include feedback and feed-forward analysis.

30. So what about question 10?

31. Summary • What does a good assessment look like? • 2-3 sentences to summarize your learning • Explain the significance of triangulating: feedback, feed-forward, and academic language. • 2-3 sentences to summarize your learning

32. So, What Does This Process Look Like at the District Level?

33. Start With Principals/Administrative Teams Dear Teachers, As a part of the administrative team’s learning we will be analyzing classroom assessments. To this end classroom assessments will need to be collected. Homework is not included in this part of the review. Over the next two weeks please collect assessments you give to your students. In addition to a copy of the master assessment with answers, please submit copies of one sample each from A, C, and F work or High, medium, and low work (for those not giving grades).  Please make sure the student names are blacked out on the copies you send. Finally, please fill out and add the attached document to each of your assessments. Thank you

34. Look at the Big Picture

35. Connect With Us and Continue the Conversation! • Amy Youngblood • amy@eduoptimus.com • @EduOptimus1 • Dr. Tanya Vest • tanya@eduoptimus.com • @TanyaVest