Creating Common
Assessments
Submitted by Lynee Tourdot
Why talk about
assessment?
“You can enhance or destroy students’
desire to succeed in school more
quickly and permanently through your
use of assessment than with any other
tools”
• Rick Stiggins, ETS
What makes a difference
at the classroom level?
The teacher (assessment being a big part of
what makes a good teacher)
• Milwaukee Reading Study
• Several studies with same socioeconomic
population; one teacher 27% pass state test,
another 72% (Marzano, 2003)
• 5 years of above-average teaching in a row could
eliminate the achievement gap (Kain&Hanushek, in
Haycock, 2005)
At your table, share an assessment
experience that either happened to
you or someone close to you (good or
bad)
Objectives for Today
• Overview of Assessments
– Formative, Summative, Common and PreAssessment
– Brief Intro to Marzano’s 6 Vocab Steps
ELL, Low Readers (High Readers)
• What is a Common Assessment?
– How to create a Common Assessment
Quick Review of
Assessment Terms:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
(Use some of the Marzano Strategies)
Pre-Assessment
Formative Assessment
Feedback
Summative Assessment
Common Assessment
Essential Learning
• Side Note
– Marzano—6 Steps to Teaching Vocabulary (so
students will remember)
• Provide description or explanation (not definition)
• Have students restate in their own words
• Have students construct a picture, symbol or graphic
representation of the term
• Engage students in activities to help them add to
their knowledge of the terms
• Involve students in games to help them remember
the terms.*
Pre-Assessments
• How do I get into the mind of the
student to figure out what they
already know about what I am going
to teach?
Pre-Assessments
How do we use pre-assessments?
• Given to all students
• Used to adjust instruction based on
what students know.
Pre-Assessments
Examples:
• Small Group discussion based on a question
– “What do you think caused the Civil War?”
• A Pre-test
– Try this problem: 2½+3¾
• A KWL
– What do you Know?, Want to Know? (What you
learned comes later)
• List everything you know about training
within your heart rate. What questions do
you have about training within your heart
rate?
Fill out Vocabulary Sheet
• Pre-Assessment
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
What are some Pre-Assessments that you
use, or could use for the unit/topic you
are working on?
Formative Assessments
Like a
Medical Checkup
Formative Assessments
Other Names for Formative Assessment
• Assessment FOR Learning
• Ongoing Assessments
Formative Assessments
Some examples COULD BE: (if used for giving
feedback and adjusting instruction)
• Guided practice, or homework**
• exit slips
• using a white board to assess understanding
• quizzes
• thumbs up, sideways or down
• think alouds
• feedback given for revision on assignments, etc.
• These do NOT have to be graded.
Formative Assessments
How are they used?
• Adjust instruction
• Address misconceptions or
misunderstandings
• Give feedback
Effective Feedback and
Monitoring Progress
• What is effective feedback?
– Helps student to make improvements
– Makes the student think
– Is specific—rather than “good job”
“Practice does not make perfect unless it
provides the opportunity for feedback”
(Darling-Hammond, 2005)
Kinds of feedback: Israel
-264 grade 6 students in 12 classes in 4 schools; analysis of 132
students at the top and bottom of each class
-Same teaching, same aim, same teachers, same coursework
-Three kinds of feedback: scores, comments, scores and comments
• Feedback
Scores
Gain
none
Attitude
top-positive
bottom-negative
Comments
30%
all—positive
What do you think happened for the students who were
given BOTH scores and comments by the
teacher?
Feedback
Scores
Gain
none
Attitude
top-positive
bottom-negative
Comments
30%
all—positive
What do you think happened for the students who were given
both scores and comments by the teacher?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Gain: 30% Attitude: All positive
Gain: 30% Attitude: top—positive, bottom—negative
Gain: 0% Attitude: All—positive
Gain: 0% Attitude: top—positive, bottom—negative
Something else.
ETS, 2005, from Butler (1988) British Journal of Educational Psychology, 58,
1-14
Formative Assessments
William (1998) found that focused efforts to
improve formative assessments produced learning
gains greater than one-half standard deviation,
which would be equivalent to raising the score of
an average student from the 50th percentile
(average) to the 85th percentile.
In other words, formative assessment, effectively
implemented, can do as much or more to improve
student achievement than any of the most
powerful instructional interventions, intensive
reading instruction, one-on-one tutoring, and the
like.
(as cited in Darling-Hammond, 2005)
Fill out Vocabulary Sheet
• Formative Assessment
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
• Feedback
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
What are some Formative Assessments that you
use, or could use for the unit/topic you are
working on?
Summative Assessments:
Like an
Autopsy
Summative Assessments:
Other Names for Summative Assessment
• Assessment OF Learning
• Final exam, final project, final
assessment
Summative Assessments:
How are they used?
• End of the unit/topic, or at an end point
within the unit or topic.
• Feedback for the next time you teach it—
not usually going back to re-teach.
• Make sure the assessment matches your
ESSENTIAL Learning
– What do you really want kids to learn?
– Book tests don’t often do this.
Summative Assessments
Types of Summative Assessment:
• Final Written Exams/Tests (but they don’t
all have to be like this!)
• Open-ended questions (see Kathie Nunley’s
book on Layered Curriculum)
• Projects
• Choice of activities or projects, etc.
• Debate
• Role-play a scenario (SEPUP Science)
• Multi-genre research
Fill out Vocabulary Sheet
• Summative Assessment
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
What are some Summative Assessments
that you use, or could use for the
unit/topic you are working on?
Why do we need
assessments to be
“common”?
Answer these questions
in your group:
•
•
Pre-Assessment
What are common assessments?
How are they different from giving the
same test at the end of the unit
(summative assessment)?
(Choose a person to report out from your
group)
Common Assessments
Common Assessments
Description
• Can be formative or summative
• Based on Essential Learning
• Used for grade level or content teams to
look at student work, check for
understanding, and share instructional
strategies to improve student learning
• (So much more than the end of unit book
test!)
Let’s try it…
Fill out Vocabulary Sheet
• Common Assessment
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
What is a Common Assessment that you
use, or could use for the unit/topic you
are working on?
So why are Common
Assessments Important?
Choose One--What has the
biggest impact on student
achievement at a school-wide
level? (Marzano Research)
1. Guaranteed and Viable
Curriculum
2. High Expectations of Student
Achievement
3. Effective Feedback and
Monitoring Progress
The Answer:
#1—Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum*
#2--High Expectations of Student
Achievement
AND
#2 Effective Feedback and Monitoring
Progress*
*(Related to Common Assessments)
What is a Guaranteed
Curriculum?
• Opportunity to Learn (Guaranteed to
be taught)
– Intended Curriculum (standards/curric. maps)
– Implemented Curriculum (actually taught)
What are some ways to
make sure intended
curriculum is taught?
• Make sure essential learning is
clearly identified
• Use the same assessments
• Grade student work together to
clearly identify desired outcomes
• Have frequent discussions about
instruction related to student results
What is a Viable
Curriculum?
• Viable Curriculum
– Identify the Essential Learning
– ….if we taught all of the standards it
would take more than 22 years….
Essential Learning
• What do you really want students to know and be
able to do?
• What would you want them to remember about
the unit 5 years from now?
Example:
Civil War: What is most essential to remember?
Dates, Times, Battles?
or Causes of Conflict leading to the Civil War?
Within your group…
• Think about the unit/topic that you
brought with you today
Without discussion…
• Write down the 3 most “essential
learnings” that should be taught in
that unit/topic.
• Share the three priorities in your
group
• Try to come to an agreement in your
group on the three “essential
learnings”
• Record them on the top of the
Learning Plan Sheet
Fill out Vocabulary Sheet
• Essential Learning
– Description in your own words
– Picture to remind you of the meaning
What is the Essential Learning for the
unit/topic you are working on?
Review of Vocabulary
• Pick a partner at your table
• One of you sit with your back to the
front
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-Assessment
Feedback
Summative Assessment
Essential Learning
Common Assessment
Formative Assessment
Choose one of the
Essential Learnings
(Summative Assessment)*VIDEO
• Discuss in your group
You are all done teaching that
essential learning….
– What will it look like when a student
understands that essential learning?
– How will the essential learning
be assessed?* Examples…
Try one together…
Then in your group…
In what ways can I check
for understanding along the
way?
• (Formative Assessment)
• What are the natural check points?
• How will I assess understanding of the
essential learning while teaching the unit?
• What type of assessment makes sense?
• You will do other formative assessments
that are not Common Assessments
Steps to Creating a
Common Assessment
Team Process:
1. Determine the Essential Learning for the unit you
will be teaching
2. Determine the BEST way to assess the Essential
Learning
3. Determine the criterion for the assessment
4. How will students be given the criterion? It should
be NO SECRET
5. Use the Assessment to Refine, Rework, Revise and
Re-teach
6. Meet as a group to assess student work
Other Thoughts…
• Backward Design (Understanding by
Design)
• Take Small Steps
• Get students involved
• Show SAMPLES!
• Collaborate on Student Assessments!