Continuum of Assessment

“Effective assessment is more like a scrapbook of mementos and pictures than a single snapshot.  Rather than using a single test, one type, at the end of teaching, effective teacher-assessors gather lots of evidence along the way, using a variety of methods and formats.” –Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

Below is the diagram we used to talk about assessment last week.  It was “heavily borrowed” from Wiggins and McTighe, as is the rest of this memo. 

Their argument is that if understanding is our real goal, students must be taught how to understand through effective instruction, including modeling and practice, and continuously assessed in ways that measure the depth of understanding.  With these thoughts in mind, below is information about different types of assessment as described in the second edition of Understanding by Design:

• Informal Checks for Understanding, Observations, and Dialogues: These are often called “Formative Assessments” and consist of on-going assessment of student progress and understanding.  They provide feedback to students about their progress and to teachers about how to adjust instruction.  They are not typically scored or graded.  If they are, the scores usually don’t “count.”  Examples include questioning, observations, examining student work in progress, exit tickets, class discussions, conferencing, quick writes, and think-alouds.
• Tests and Quizzes: These are what we (and students) usually think of when we hear the word assessment.  They consist of content-focused items that assess for information, concepts, and discrete skills.  They usually have selected-response choices or short-answer formats, often with a single best answer.  They are typically “secure,” so the items are not known to the students in advance.
• Academic Prompts: These are open-ended questions or problems that require a student to think critically, not just recall knowledge.  Students must prepare some kind of response or product.  They typically do not have a single best answer and require higher level thinking and an explanation or defense.  These prompts may or may not be secure, but they are often questions typically asked only of students in school.
• Performance Tasks: Wiggins and McTighe define performance tasks as complex challenges that mirror the issues and problems faced by adults.  They range in length from short-term tasks, to long-term, multi-staged projects.  They are typically not secure, and evaluative criteria are known in advance.  Students have greater opportunity to personalize the task and yield one or more products and/or performances.  Important Note: Performance tasks are evaluative.  A performance task is different than assigning an “interesting project.”  Of course, interesting is good, but the performance tasks need to give conclusive evidence about the depth of student understanding of important concepts and skills.

Remember that the sign of true understanding is the ability to transfer knowledge and skills to new situations.  Authentic performance tasks as assessments are a necessity, not a frill, according to the UbD framework.  All of the other assessments listed above can provide evidence of knowledge.  Until students put the knowledge into action, however, we won’t know if they truly understand because we won’t be able to assess their ability to transfer.

Think About It 

This is lots of information.  Let it sit for a while.  Think about the assessments you use in your classes and about possible performance tasks.  By their very nature, you can’t have many, and to be effective, they must be well designed and thoughtful.

Coming along shortly, maybe even next week, will be a chance for you to experience two hypothetical assessments.  No need to cram.  No need to stay up late studying.  Just ponder what you now know about UbD.  And think about how we as a school might be able to report to central office our progress on this specific district initiative.  If you had to assess our school progress on UbD, how might you do so?  I hope to explore some options.

Have a great week, HSE.  Enjoy the snow and cold.  Today’s biting winds and arctic temperatures will make spring feel all the more wonderful.

Phil

A few extra words of wisdom that caught my attention this week:

“The test of a good teacher is not how many questions he can ask his pupils that they will answer readily, but how many questions he inspires them to ask him which he finds hard to answer.” 

                                                                                                  --Alice Wellington Rollins

Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child.

Listen to the DON’TS.

Listen to the SHOULDN’Ts

The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S.

Listen to the NEVER HAVES.

Then listen close to me—

Anything can happen, child.

Anything can be

--Shel Silverstein

Reflections on 1968

In the summer of 1967, our family moved from the Midwest to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  My father finished up his Master’s degree in pastoral counseling, my mother worked the night shift at a local hospital, and I attended segregated Dalton Elementary School as a fifth grader.

I have vivid memories from that year in Winston-Salem.  One is of the pervasive smell of the city, the home of R. J. Reynolds.  As suggested by the city’s name and nickname, R. J. Reynolds produced Winston, Salem, and Camel cigarettes—maybe they still do.  In the morning, I could step outside our apartment door, and every breath took in the smell of unprocessed tobacco.  The broad leaves would soon be turned into cigarettes, and their smell was sweet and rich, similar to honeysuckle.  It permeated the city before the morning winds blew it away.  Every Saturday we also visited the first Krispy Kreme donut shops, which got their start in “Camel City.”  Dad would load us up to get the kids out of the house, so Mom could sleep.  (The ladies at Krispy Kreme thought he was a single father and gave royal treatment.)

Less pleasant are the memories of Winston-Salem associated with issues of race.  This was when I first became race conscious.  Like most families, we have our internal oral histories that we repeat often when we get together.  From that year we tell stories of my mother’s ostracization at the hospital for providing equal care to all patients, regardless of race or religion.  She found herself eating her midnight “lunch” during the night shift alone and isolated.  My brother, who was in junior high, was targeted for harassment, but responded with maturity beyond his years.  As for me, I had my nose bloodied by two older boys who lived in our complex because our family had black friends over for supper.  I responded with less maturity than my brother.

That school year was also the year my elementary school was shut down on April 4, 1968, after the shooting of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Winston-Salem, still reeling from the riots in the fall of 1967, shut schools down schools as soon as they learned of Dr. King’s death.  We were released mid-day at Dalton Elementary, and our family stayed home the following days, watching Walter Cronkite and other reporters keep us up to date on what was taking place around the nation and across town.

Every year as MLK Day rolls around, I tend to think back to Winston-Salem.  As a father of a somewhat unique family, I find the day to be a good reminder that we have not arrived, but rather are on a journey.  My wife told me when we were dating that she wanted a large diverse family.  She wasn’t kidding!  Our nine kids make us look a little different than most.  We are white, black, and Asian.  We are both gay and straight.  We have hearing and deaf in our house, and we have the full range of academic abilities, from gifted to those who struggle academically.

For many reasons I am thankful for Dr. King’s pioneering work.  I am also thankful for less famous pioneers, such as my wife, father, mother, and brother.  I add teachers to this list as well, including many of you reading this email.  Lisa and I have experienced in our own lives and through the lives of our children acts of kindness and courage from teachers who will never receive national attention, but they are no less important to us and our children.

This I believe: For most of us, living up to Dr. King’s dream and continuing the journey is not about major initiatives, events, or actions.  It is not about one special day.  Rather, this journey is filled with countless individual acts and interactions carried out on a daily basis by people just like you and me, going about the daily business of doing our jobs and being intentional about treating people, all people, with respect and dignity.  

Thank you, HSE, for all you do to continue the journey by making every student feel included, valued, and loved.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Phil

Snow, Assessments, and 2014

Fourth in a Series on Understanding by Design: Assessment Evidence

When we moved from “The Region” and its Lake Effect snowstorms, I gave our faithful snow blower to my brother-in-law.  It seemed like a logical decision last year, but this past week has made me reconsider my thinking.  Of course, when you have a houseful of kids who are at the end of Winter Break and feeling restless, I had good recourse. 

We had to borrow shovels from the neighbors, but on Sunday night, the whole family was out in the cold digging ourselves out the first time.  Lisa and I showed the kids the techniques of breaking up the ice, shoveling to the edges of the driveway, and using legs to lift.  This allowed us to clear the drive in short order and to teach what needed to be done again—and again—in the coming days.

Thereafter, for the most part, I was able to sit in my chair and read books (The dystopian Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, set in a future Chicago where all people are divided into factions according to what they value most).  The kids went out and simultaneously relieved their boredom and cleared our walks and driveway.  It felt like a win-win situation (to me, not necessarily to the kids).  They did a pretty good job.  The walks were safe, and I was able to get the car in and out fairly easily all week.  The driveway didn’t look exactly as pristine as I like, but it was clear, and I saw definite improvements in technique with all of the practice.  (By the way, I am well into the third book of the Divergent trilogy and wondering into which faction a dad who makes his kids go out in sub-zero might fall.)

Method to the Madness: Assessment

This story of breaking child labor laws actually does have a point that pertains to school.  In the coming semester, we are going to spend time looking at assessments.  Understanding by Design has two broad categories of assessments: “Performance Tasks” and “Other Evidence.”  In UbD, our more traditional assessments (quizzes, tests, observations, sample work) fall into the Other Evidence category.  Wiggins and McTighe put increased emphasis on Performance Tasks. 

A quick explanation: In all of our content areas we have both procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge.  The former includes the skills and actions that are essential to your content, and the later includes those things that are important for students to know and understand.

The key in UbD is that word understand.  Remember that this word is defined very clearly by Grant and Wiggins.  Understanding is being able to transfer knowledge and skills to new situations and contents.

Here is the kicker: Performance Tasks can assess both procedural and declarative knowledge.

Using Performance Tasks to assess procedural knowledge is easy to grasp.  When I checked up on my kids’ progress in their ability to clear the driveway, I am obviously checking a Performance Task.  I would never consider giving them a multiple choice test about how to clear a driveway.  I would have them do it and assess their skill level.  I might give them some pointers and reminders, and I would likely need to put down my book and get out there and show them as well. 

Using a Performance Task to assess declarative knowledge is a bit more complicated, but no less important.  It involves the careful creation of tasks that assess the ability of students to transfer knowledge.  These might be separate from or a part of traditional assessments such as unit exams or final exams.

As Far as I Can Go

I don’t think I can take the snow analogy any farther, but I hope this is a good place to begin the discussion on assessment and Performance Tasks.  We can easily make the connection to using Performance Tasks to assess procedural knowledge.  The harder part is how to develop these tasks to assess a student’s understanding of both procedural and content knowledge.

I would like to leave you with a short assignment.  It is not a formal assignment, and it doesn’t need to be written down unless that helps you.  I suggest you put these thoughts on your metaphorical back burner and let them percolate for a week.  Think about the Goals, the Big Ideas, and the Essential Questions you have for your students this semester.  What do you want your students to know and be able to do by the end of this semester?  More importantly, what do you want them to understand well enough to be able to transfer to new situations and settings?

When the answers to those questions are firmly established by you and others in your course-alike groups, the next big questions are these asked by McTighe and Wiggins in an ASCD White Paper:

• How will we know if students have achieved the desired results?
• What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and their ability to use (transfer) their learning to new situations?
• How will we evaluate student performance in fair and consistent ways?

The answers to these questions might include your current assessments, but you might find that new Performance Tasks could be carefully designed to assess real understanding.

The Journey

This semester we are going to take a look at assessments and consider how we can improve them by using the UbD approach.  Some of this work will take place in our PD sessions, some will take place as part of your department work, some will take place as you create your Student Learning Objective, and some will be done on your own.

Remember that we are on a journey.  We may well get snowed under now and again on this journey, but together we will keep digging our way out.

Welcome back, HSE.  I hope 2014 is a great year for you personally and professionally.

Phil

Kudos this week to all of you who helped make Hamilton Southeastern High School an “A” school.  We have tremendous kids at HSE and a teaching staff who is dedicated to helping each student meet his or her full potential, regardless of state labels.  Today is a great day to be Royal!