Children First Intensive
Target Population Learning Targets &
Assessment For Learning
Jan. 31, 2008
Adapted by D. Abu-Lughod for Network 14
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Agenda
 Welcome
 Text-based Discussion
 Check In – Where we are vis a vis Learning Targets
 Math Crosswalk – standards, strands, bands and performance
indicators
 Math Triangulation – Scantron, Acuity and Math Error Analysis
 Student Interviews – finding a target through conferencing
 ELA Crosswalk – standards, performance indicators
 ELA Triangulation – Scantron, Acuity, Running Record
 Evaluating a classroom assessment
 PMI
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Text-Based Discussion Protocol
 Guidelines
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Listen actively
Build on what others say
Allow people to finish their thought
Refer directly to the text, specifying page and paragraph
Watch your air time
 Procedure: Review the text and select a significant quote or passage.
 Go-Round: Each person reads the passage s/he has selected and explains
why that passage is significant to him or her. (3 minutes per person)
 Discussion: Facilitator opens the discussion by asking a question, or
whether there were any connections among the passages that were shared,
or whether there was a passage that someone else shared that resonated in
some way. Facilitator should read text carefully and develop questions that
can move the group deeply into the text.
 Summary: The group should summarize the discussion, identifying common
themes and threads.
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Learning Targets
Although each of the Target Population students
share a sub-skill that they are struggling with,
each student may be struggling with a different:
–Knowledge gap
–Misconception
associated with its mastery
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Learning Target—grain size
The Learning Target is the right grain
size when the teacher knows exactly
what needs to be learned/taught next.
“The second evaluative dimension revolves around the degree to which
teachers understand what they are supposed to be teaching. If
teachers have only a murky idea of what constitutes the knowledge or
skills they are supposed to be teaching…then those teachers will often
end up teaching the wrong things.”
W. James Popham “Instructional Insensitivity of Tests” in Phi Delta Kappan October 2007
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Learning Targets
Definition
Learning Target:
the specific knowledge
(facts, concepts, reasoning
(ways of thinking) or skills
(ways of behaving) that
students need to master.
The specific Learning
Target for each student is
determined by investigating
where that student’s
understanding is breaking
down.
Learning targets may be
different for different Target
Population students within
a given sub-skill.
Tools
Assessments for
Learning:
– Reading Inventory
Examples
Phonics
– Vowel confusion
– Word endings
– Classroom
Assessment
– Student Work
– Diagnostic
Assessment
– Student Interviews
or conferencing
Fractions
– Conceptual
understanding of
denominator
– Order of operations
– Periodic
Assessment –
targeted distracter
analysis
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Commonly Called…
State
Acuity
Schools
Standard
Strands
Strands
Bands
Bands
 Topics
 Topic Bands
 Units of Study
Performance
Indicators
Grade Level
Expectations
Grade Level
Indicators
Inquiry Team
Work
Standards
Skill
Sub-Skill
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Mathematics Standards
The Mathematics Standards are a
compilation of five Content Strands and
five Process Strands. The five Process
Strands cut across all of the content
strands.
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Instructional Support by: Nickelos Grant, OAIS
Mathematic Content Strands
Numeration
•Number Systems
•Number Theory
•Operations
•Estimation
Statistics and Probability
•Collection of Data
•Organization and Display of Data
•Analysis of Data
•Predictions from Data
•Probability
Algebra
•Variables and Expressions
•Equations and Inequalities
•Patterns, Relations, and Functions
•Coordinate Geometry
•Trigonometric Functions
Measurement
•Units of Measurement
•Tools and Methods
•Units
•Error and Magnitude
•Estimation
Geometry
•Shapes
•Geometric Relationships
•Transformational Geometry
•Coordinate Geometry
•Constructions
•Locus
•Informal Proofs
•Formal Proofs
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Mathematic Process Strands
•Problem Solving
•Representation
•Communication
•Connections
•Reasoning
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What are the Skills of Measurement?
STANDARD (Strand)
SKILL (Bands)
Measurement
 Units of Measurement
 Tools and Methods
 Units
 Error and Magnitude
 Estimation
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What are the Sub-skills of
Measurements?
STANDARD
(Strand)
SKILL (Band,
Topic Band)
SUB-SKILL (Performance
Indicator)
Measurement
Units of
Measurement
Select tools and units (customary)
appropriate for the length measured.
Use a ruler/yardstick to measure to
the nearest standard unit (whole and ½
inches, whole feet, and whole yards)
Measure objects, using ounces and
pounds.
Recognize capacity as an attribute
that can be measured.
Compare capacities (e.g., Which
contains more? Which contains less?)
Grade 3
Measure capacity, using cups, pints,
quarts, and gallons.
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What is the Learning Target?
STANDARD
(Strand)
SKILL
(Bands)
Measurement Units of
Measurement
Sub-skill
(Performance Indicators)
Learning
Target
Compare capacities (e.g.,
Which contains more? Which
contains less?)
Student does
not understand
concept of less
and more.
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Finding the target with Acuity and Scantron
 Our periodic assessments offer a top down approach
to help you identify a student subskill and help the
teacher narrow down the range of what to teach next.
 Sample Grade 5 student documents
– Scantron
– Acuity
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Finding a Target through error analysis
Student work offers a bottom up approach to help you
identify the unique student learning target and help the
teacher know exactly what to teach next.
You can often learn more from the wrong answers than from
the right ones.
No one assessment will give you all the information you
need.
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Mathematics error analysis—continued
Would the results of this assessment
tell you what you needed to teach next?
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Rules for error analysis
 Use a minimum of 3 examples of each problem type.
 Have students record their work.
 Faulty procedures CAN lead to correct responses.
 Listen to students explanations of their mathematical
processes.
 Become familiar with common error patterns.
 Errors can help demonstrate students' mathematical
strengths since some errors are mathematically
sound procedures applied in the wrong context.
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Diagnostic procedures in mathematics
An ideal diagnosis should provide information about:
1. The mathematics content which the learner has
mastered.
2. The processes with which the learner operates.
3. The types of teacher-learner interactions which are
most effective/efficient for the learner.
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Student interviews
Under the right conditions, students can provide
valuable information on their own knowledge gaps and
misconceptions.
When conferencing with a student:
• Have a clear purpose: to understand what the learner is
struggling with (or where s/he is getting stuck in the learning
process)
• Establish a safe space – no risk, no judgment
• Show authentic curiosity about how the learner is trying to
make sense
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Student interviews—small group activity
Directions:
– Form groups of three.
– Identify one person in the group who is having difficulty
learning something—NOT related to work.
- This person will be the “learner.”
– Select one person to be the interviewer.
- This person will ask questions to determine where the
“learner” is having difficulty.
– Select one person to be the scribe.
- This person will take a low-inference transcript of BOTH
the questions and the answers.
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Student interviews—
low-inference transcripts
Low-inference transcripts are a detailed
record of what took place – what is
actually said and/or done – just the
words and/or the actions.
WITHOUT JUDGEMENT!
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Student interviews— directions
 Interview the “learner” about their
learning.
 Record what the interviewer and the
learner say.
 Analyze the transcript to identify the
characteristics of:
 Effective strategies to ensure a safe
environment.
 Effective questions to ensure that you
understand how the learner is trying to make
sense.
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Student interviews— Whole group share out
 What strategies did you find effective in ensuring
a safe space?
 What questions did you find effective in helping
you understand how the learner was trying to
make sense?
 What are the implications of this strategy for the
work of Inquiry Teams in trying to identify the
learning targets for a target student in a specific
sub-skill?
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Assessment FOR Learning:
Running Record miscue analysis
Running Record miscue analysis
– Formative assessment on the run
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Independent reading requires three
cueing systems to be consolidated
1.
Meaning (Semantic cues)– “Does my reading make
sense in relation to what the author is telling me?”
2.
Structure (Syntactical cues)– “Does it sound right if
I say it this way?”
3.
Graphophonic (Visual cues)– “What have I noticed
about this word?”
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Different readers
Successful Readers
Struggling Readers
 Integrate all the cueing systems,
reading fluently and expressively
with a focus on meaning.
 Have not yet learned how to
integrate multiple sources of
information.
 Rely on one source of
information (meaning, structure,
visual) at the expense of others.
 Are deprived of important
feedback from these other
sources.
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When and why take a Running Record?
 Often
 To determine student’s ability to read and understand
text
 To determine the processing system a reader is using
(what is he using and what is he neglecting?)
 To identify points of confusion for the reader
 To effectively plan next teaching steps
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Advantages of Running Records
Running Records allow us to collect
evidence of reading behaviors that indicate a
reader’s mental problem-solving strategies.
These behaviors give us insight into what
may be going on in inside since reading is
invisible (unlike writing which is both in-thehead and on the page.)
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Running Records: A powerful and
objective tool for monitoring and teaching
 Main Criterion is Accuracy
 90-95% words correctly read
 Evidence of successful processing of cueing systems
 Length of text—long enough to get a good sampling
of child’s processing
 Comprehension must be evident
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Analyzing Running Records
Some guiding questions for the teacher:
 Is the student trying to make sense of what is being
read? (meaning information)
 Is knowledge of language patterns being used?
(structural information)
 Is knowledge of the letter-sound relationships being
used? (phonic information)
 Is knowledge of letters, words, and print conventions
being used? (visual information)
 Are confirmation and self-correcting strategies being
used?
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Assessments OF and FOR Learning
Assessment OF
Learning
Assessment FOR
Learning
Purpose
Measure students
mastery of standards
Track where students are
at any point in the process
of mastery
When
Conducted after
instruction
Conducted during
instruction
Student
Role
Get the highest score Get better over time
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Assessments FOR Learning
The Teacher’s Role:
 Understand the skill and sub-skill
 Deconstruct the sub-skill into Learning Targets the
students can understand
 Identify or create an Assessment FOR Learning to
determine where students are in mastering the
Learning Targets need to meet the standard
 Use the Assessments FOR Learning in collaboration
with students to track student improvement over time
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Assessments in use—
small group activity #1
Use one question from the sample assessment to
answer the following questions at your table:
What does the assessment allow you to see?
What does it not allow you to see?
How accurately does it allow you to infer what the
student does not know?
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“Stiggins Matrix”—
small group activity #2
Some assessment methods are better suited to assess
different learning targets.
In small groups at your table, use the Stiggins Matrix
(Page 100; see also pp. 90-93) to determine if your
assessment question employs the right method to
achieve its goal.
Please complete the Stiggins Worksheet in your folder.
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“Stiggins Matrix”—
whole group debrief
What are the implications of the “Stiggins Matrix”
for your work in your school?
How can you support your school’s understanding
of what an appropriate assessment would be?
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Implications for the Work
 If a coherent system of Assessments FOR Learning
and Assessments OF Learning were in place, what
would it look it in the classroom?
 What are the implications for your Inquiry Team?
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