ACTIVATING STUDENTS AS LEARNING RESOURCESIN THE CLASSROOMPresented by:

Nancy Schwerin

Objectives: Agenda:To define

formative assessment and the players involved

To identify ways to make students learning resources for each other

To identify activities that activate students as owners of their own learning

Look at the researchParticipate in Formative

Assessment Lesson/Activity

Identify strategies to use in your discipline

Participate in Formative Assessment Lesson/Activity

More ways to include Formative Assessment in your classroom

Conclusion

What is Formative Assessment?

“Assessment carried out during the instructional process for the purpose of improving teaching or learning” (Shepard et al., 2005).

What is Formative Assessment?“Evidence about student achievement which is elicited, interpreted, and used by teachers, learners, or their peers to make decisions about the next steps instruction that are likely to be better founded, than the decisions they would have made in the absence of that evidence.” (Wiliam, p.43)

Understanding Formative Assessment

Where the learner is

going

Where the learner is right now

How to get there

Teacher

Clarifying, Sharing,

and Understand

ing Learning

Intentions

Engineering effective discussions, tasks, andactivities that elicit evidence of learning

Providingfeedback that moves learning forward

Peer Activating students as learning resources for one another

Learner Activating students as owners of their own learning

Wiliam, p. 46.

Making the Case for Students as Learning Resources for One Another

CASE STUDYParticipants •3 teachers (in 2 U.S. Schools)

• Each teacher taught four 7th grade science classes

Duration •14 week experiment•2 projects, which were each 7 weeks long

Commonality

All 3 teachers taught the same curriculum

Control Group

Once a week two of each teacher’s classes discussed what they liked and disliked about the topic of instruction

Experimental Group

Once a week two of each teacher’s classes discussed how their work was going to be assessed

Wiliam, p. 53.

Sharing Learning Intentions

01020304050607080

32 2839

53

Lower Achieving Group

Pre-TestControl Group Experiemental

Group

0

20

40

60

8059 52

68 73Higher Achieving

Group

Pre-Test

Results •Low Ach. Control Group Increased By 7 points•Low Ach. Experimental Group Increased by 25 points•High Ach. Control Group Increased by 9 points•High Ach. Experimental Group Increased by 21 points

CASE STUDY

Wiliam, p. 55.

Making the Case for Students as Learning Resources for One Another

Conclusions from Case Study:Difference in emphasis of one activity per week

yielded drastically different resultsIn the Experimental Group low achievers improved more

than 3 times that of the Control GroupIn the Experimental Group high achievers improved more

than 2 times that of the Control Group points

By talking about the expectations and the way in which work was going to be assessed, the students learned exactly what quality work looks likeLessened the gap between low and high achievers

Sharing an Active Reflection Lesson

My Original Objectives:Students will conduct two classroom observations.Students will write a detailed description of

one observed lesson.Students will write a summary of the other

observed lesson.

After describing the lessons, the student will deduce the learning intention(s) and write an objective statement using Bloom’s verbs.

Schwerin’s Observation Evaluation Activity

Put yourselves in the shoes of the students…

Directions:Find a Partner Read the student Classroom Observation Summaries.

Identify the observed Learning Objectives. Underline the Learning Objectives within the summary in blue.

Read the student Learning Objective Statements.Determine if the learning objective is academic? Explain

how this objective is connected to the subject.Circle Bloom’s Taxonomy verb(s) in red/pink.Indicate the level of each of Bloom’s verbs by writing the

level in green next to verbs.

Incorporate an Active Reflection Activity in your Classroom

Directions:Think about the units you will teach during

second semester.Collaborate with your table to generate

ideas for incorporating an active lesson reflection into your classroom.

Record your ideas on chart paper.IDEAS:

Ideas for Active Reflection Activities : Formative

AssessmentAP Calculus

Group of 4 receives their practice exam and a blank exam

They compare their answers and agree upon the best composite answer

ScienceStudents rank exemplars of lab

reportsSocial Studies/ Govnt.

Students identify the characteristics of the top 3 essays and apply these characteristics to their own essay

Wiliam, p. 39-40.

Effects of Formative Learning Assessment

What are the benefits of using an Active Reflection Activity?•Increases critical thinking•Delays emotional response to student grade•Improves student understanding of the learning intention•Provides active involvement of students in their own learning•Lessens teacher work load

Wiliam, p. 39.

Sharing Another Formative Assessment: An Active Reflection Activity

Directions:There are 3 English

Essays, of varying quality, on your table.

There is also teacher feedback concerning an essay on each strip of paper.

Match the teacher’s feedback to the appropriate essay.

•How does this activity inform teachers? •How does this activity inform students? •What do the students have to actively reflect upon?

Formative Assessment TechniquesRed /Green/Yellow Cups

Creating Green or Yellow Cup StudentsNo Hands – Don’t allow students to

choose whether or not to participate“No hands up except to ask a question.”

(Leahy, Lyon, Thompson & Wiliam, 2005)Popsicle Sticks - Selecting students at

random is a radical change in the “classroom contract.” (Brousseau, 1984)

Prior to Parting…Please Determine:How you will utilize students as learning

resources for other students during the upcoming semester?

How will you actively engage your students in their own learning during second semester?

How the activities or techniques, which you just referenced in your responses to the previous questions, will inform your instruction?

ReferencesBrousseau, Guy. Theory of Didactical Situations

in Mathematics: Didactique Des. 1984. Print. Leahy, Shioban, Christine Lyon, Marnie

Thompson, and Dylan Wiliam. Classroom Management: Day by Day, Minute by Minute. 2005. Print.

Shepard. ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING DEFINED. Print.

Wiliam, Dylan. Embedded Formative Assessment. 2011. Print.