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!