Test Prep at Its Best
Raising NECAP Reading and Writing Scores
by Using What We Know about How People Learn
Presenter: Bill Rich
william_rich@ymail.com
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Sponsored by The Higher Education Collaborative
Quickie Introductions!
1. My name is...
2. I’m here because...
&
3. The most fun/interesting thing that’s happened to me this
summer...
Dr. Chris Jernstedt
Opinion-Based Pedagogy vs. Research-Based
Conclusive Design Principles for
Optimizing Learning
Reason
&
Feeling
The Biggest of
Today’s Big Ideas
1.
The best learning occurs in environments
that attend to the social, emotional, and
cognitive needs of learners.
The Biggest of
Today’s Big Ideas
1.
The best learning occurs in environments
that attend to the social, emotional, and
cognitive needs of learners.
Name of Your Crew
90 Second Task:
You must name your crew after a living
creature.
Any living creature.
Write it on a card, which we’ll collect.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
1.
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions
about how the world works. If their initial understanding is
not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for
purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions
outside of the classroom.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
2.
To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students
must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
(b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in
ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
3.
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help
students learn to take control of their own learning by
defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.
Crew Challenge #1
Identify the key concepts
(regarding teaching & learning)
from the two stories that Bill reads
from Daniel Coyle’s
The Talent Code.
Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code
Story #1
Clarissa & Her Clarinet:
The Thirteen-Year-Old Girl
Who Did a Month’s Practice in 6 Minutes
Story #2
Clifford’s Quest:
Discovering the Secret to Brazil’s Soccer Success
Crew Challenge #1
What are 3-5 of the most key
concepts
(regarding teaching & learning)
from the two stories that Bill read
from Daniel Coyle’s
The Talent Code.
Four Key Concepts
1. Mental Models
(Absorb the whole thing.)
2. Targeted Practice
(Compress the field.)
3. Rapid Feedback
(Tighten the loop.)
4. Emotional Trigger
(Find the feeling.)
Todays’ Big Ideas & Key Concepts
1. The best learning occurs in environments that attend to the social, emotional, and
cognitive needs of learners.
2. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If
their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to
their preconceptions outside of the classroom.
3. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep
foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and
application.
4. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control
of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.
5. Mental Models (Absorb the whole thing.)
6. Targeted Practice (Compress the field.)
7. Rapid Feedback (Tighten the loop.)
8. Emotional Trigger (Find the feeling.)
Today’s Agenda
1. Setting the Stage: Principles (Big Ideas) & Crews
2. Six Weeks: Studying a Sequence of Lessons
LUNCH
3. The Students Speak: THEE Students Reflect on Their
Learning
4. Beyond Six Weeks: The Coherent & Connected
System of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction
5. Your Next Steps
Crew Challenge #3
Make a plan for tracking the Big Ideas and Key
Concepts at work in these lessons.
Please be ready to refer to that you can find on our wiki
at:
tassvt.pbworks.com/
Six Weeks:
A Sequence of
Lessons
Some Context
THEE:
The Human Experience
(English)
Cliental
Team & Curriculum (Summer Reading Schematic)
Test Scores for Cohort
Grading Pilot
1st Day of Class
A Story about My Brother Timmy
Notebook Prompt #1:
The characters in our lives.
Burden,
A Graphic Short Story
Describe the plot--what happens--but you only have 5
bullets to work with, so you can’t be too detailed. It will help
if you imagine that you are creating this summary for
someone who has never read the narrative.
Out of all of the frames in the story, which three are the most
important. Rank them in their importance.
Are David’s actions ethical? In the space below, please
make a T chart that lists why his actions might be ethical and
why his actions might be unethical.
Question Posed
Is it okay to do bad things if,
in the end, the results are
good?
(Do the ends justify the means?)
Helping Mr. Rich Serve
Me Survey
Pre-Assessment
Collect Summer Work
Homework 1
60-90 Minutes Think Time
How is the human experience
different from other types of experiences?
Forecast Shoe Box
You Tube
Recommendations
Crews:
Consolidation Time
How do you see the Big Ideas and/or Key
Concepts
at Work so Far?
Conference Wiki
http://tassvt.pbworks.com
/
2nd Class
Shoe Box Greeting
If you submitted your summer work last class,
complete the assignment titled, “If You Did the
Summer Assignment.”
If you did not submit your summer work last class,
complete the assignment titled, “If You Didn’t Do
the Summer Assignment”
Grading
Conversation
Grading Graph
Grading
Current grading practices in most secondary schools are a
hodgepodge of impressions and biases that reward
compliance rather than providing an accurate depiction of a
student’s growth toward clear standards of performance.
Grading and averaging all the work students do causes
students to focus on gaming the system rather than
seeking and using teacher feedback that will improve their
performance.
Current grading practices in most high schools do not
prepare students for the kind of grading practices that
happen in most colleges/universities, where the majority of
a student’s grade depends on the students’ performance
We will:
Show students examples of competent and mastery
performances so students can close the gap between where
they are and where they need to be.
Provide targeted and ongoing feedback that helps students
improve their performance and begin to take charge of their
learning.
Determine a student’s grade a) primarily by assessing and
reporting students’ current skills level in relation to explicit
standards of performance; b) secondarily by assessing and
reporting student’s learning habits and growth over time.
Grading Policy
Summative Assessment (Big Game) =
60%
Learning Habits = 20%
Growth = 20%
Learning Habits
Rubric
Persisting
Applying Feedback
Organizing
Listening
Contributing
Scoring/Grading
Work
on a 4-Point Scale
A
93 - 100
3.6 - 4.0
B
85 - 92
2.7 - 3.5
C
77 - 84
1.7. - 2.6
D
69 - 76
0.7 - 1.6
F
0 - 68
0 - 0.6
Work
on a 4-Point Scale
Find the Grade
Teacher 1
0
80
80
85
90
335
Teacher 2
0
2
2
3
3
10
william_rich@ymail.com
Homework 2
Should We Let the Humans Live?
You Tube Clip
3rd Class
Shoe Box: Collect Homework
To Kill or Not to Kill?
NECAP Practice #1: Model 1 (PDF)
Homework 3: Handwritten Response to a
Quotations
Exit Card: 1. How am I feeling about this class so
far?
2. Is there anything Mr. Rich can do to
A Powerful Sequence
of Writing Instruction
1. Distribute a Prompt that Looks Like Final Performance
2. Provide a Teacher-Generated Model Response to the
Prompt
3. Provide a Limited-Language Rubric for Students to
Evaluate the Model
4. Ask Students to Write a Response to the Prompt, Using
the Model and Rubric as a Guide
5. Provide a Rubric for Students to Evaluate Their
Response
6. Teacher Uses Rubric to Provide Feedback to Students,
http:education.vermont.gov/new/html.
pgm_assessment/necap/resources/rel
eased_items.html
Class 4
Shoebox:
Submit Handwritten Essay Started in Previous Class
Your View of the World: Optimistic / Pessimistic?
Study Videos:
You Tube: Mad World
vs
What a Wonderful World
Homework 4: “My View of the World”
Mini-Lesson: Organization Requires Planning & Rewriting
Redistribute Handwritten Essay Started in Previous Class
Classes 5 - 7
Return Summer Work (Collecting Usable
Feedback)
Homework Started in Class: Revise One Part for a
4/4
Finish Handwritten Essay #1
4-Way Thinking Introduction
(Summarize, Interpret, Analyze, Evaluate)
Apply 4-Way Thinking to Lyrics of Tom Waits’ Song
Powerful Writing
Sequence Repeated
1. Distribute a Prompt that Looks Like Final Performance
2. Provide a Teacher-Generated Model Response to the
Prompt
3. Provide a Limited-Language Rubric for Students to
Evaluate the Model
4. Ask Students to Write a Response to the Prompt, Using
the Model and Rubric as a Guide
5. Provide a Rubric for Students to Evaluate Their Response
6. Teacher Uses Rubric to Provide Feedback to Students,
Who Then Revise Their Response
Classes 8-11
Complete Second Handwritten Essay (Analysis of Song
Lyric)
Begin Third Hand-Written Essay (Response to Short Story)
Multiple Choice Test Taking Strategies
On-Demand Writing Tips
Big Game Incentives
NECAP Rap: Dream Makers
During NECAP
NECAP Debrief Day 1
NECAP Debrief Day 2
Slide Show
Feedback Examples
The Students Speak:
Part I
Part II of
Crew Challenge #2
Based on today’s, Big Ideas, Key Concepts, and Anecdotes,
how might schools apply these ideas systemically to achieve
a coherent system of curriculum, assessment, and
instruction that leads to ongoing improvement in student
performance?
Todays’ Big Ideas & Key Concepts
1. The best learning occurs in environments that attend to the social, emotional, and
cognitive needs of learners.
2. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If
their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to
their preconceptions outside of the classroom.
3. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep
foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and
application.
4. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control
of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.
5. Mental Models (Absorb the whole thing.)
6. Targeted Practice (Compress the field.)
7. Rapid Feedback (Tighten the loop.)
8. Emotional Trigger (Find the feeling.)
NECAP Results
NECAP Reading Results
4
3
2
1
CMS 06
10%
57%
23%
10%
CHS 09
38%
35%
14%
12%
NECAP Writing
Results
4
3
2
1
CMS 06
4%
24%
42%
30%
CHS 09
11%
46%
38%
6%
The Biggest of
Today’s Big Ideas
1.
The best learning occurs in environments
that attend to the social, emotional, and
cognitive needs of learners.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
1.
Students come to the classroom with preconceptions
about how the world works. If their initial understanding is
not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn them for
purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions
outside of the classroom.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
2.
To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students
must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge,
(b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a
conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in
ways that facilitate retrieval and application.
Three Key Findings from
How People Learn
3.
A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help
students learn to take control of their own learning by
defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in
achieving them.
Four Key Concepts
1. Mental Models
(Absorb the whole thing.)
2. Targeted Practice
(Compress the field.)
3. Rapid Feedback
(Tighten the loop.)
4. Emotional Trigger
(Find the feeling.)
educere
“to lead forth or draw out”
midwife term meaning
“to be present at the birth of”
Final Thought
“Behaviour that’s
admired is the path to
power among people
everywhere.”
--Seamus Heany
Wisdom from Lao
Tzu
“Confront the difficult
while it is easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.”
Wisdom from a T.A.S.S. graduate:
“Finding our own point of readiness
and beginning there is as important
for you as for your students.
Not beginning is a guaranteed way to
avoid progress.
Biting off too much invites
discouragement and failure.
Begin where you are and chart a
timeline of your own progress.”
Exit Card
How’d we do, and what
are your 2-3 top take
aways?
What questions are you
leaving with?
Evaluation Results
Principle 1: People learn best when they are provided regular
feedback that they use to improve their performance.
Totally Agree/Somewhat Agree:
59
Somewhat Disagree/Totally Disagree:
5
Principle 2: People learn best when they practice over time to
prepare for a performance; mistakes made during practice
should not be cause for a significant penalty; and the success
of students should largely depend on their final performance
(Big Game).
Totally Agree/Somewhat Agree:
56
Somewhat Disagree/Totally Disagree:
8
Principle 3: People learn best when they collect
snapshots of their growth over time and consider how to
become a more skilled learner.
Totally Agree/Somewhat Agree:
49
Somewhat Disagree/Totally Disagree:
15
Principle 4: People learn best when provided models,
check lists, and rubrics that make performance
expectations clear.
Totally Agree/Somewhat Agree:
59
Somewhat Disagree/Totally Disagree:
5
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
Continue in THEE:
40
Spread beyond THEE: 9
Reject and Return to
Traditional Grading: 11
Don’t Know:
1
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“This is the only class that allows me to focus
on my growth of my work and the day-to-day
stress a of grades isn’t there. In my other
classes I finish my work just to get an A, but in
THEE I don’t worry about that and I try to fix
my work to the best of my ability.”
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“In my opinion getting feedback o my work has
greatly improved the quality of the piece of
work I got feedback on as well as the quality of
future pieces of work. I like getting a lot of
feedback because it lets me know where I
specifically need to improve. A grade doesn’t
say too much.”
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“The best part of this system is how the
teachers give you feedback on what you need
to improve rather than what another students
needs to improve.”
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“Having more feedback gives us the tools to
make our performances better. As we get our
work to the best it can be, we get the grade
we want and our work is the best it can be.
Feedback is super important because it helps
me and I can apply it in other places. Overall, I
hated this method at first because of the lack
of progress reports and everyone likes to
know where they stand in a class. Keep it!
Just give more progress report with the current
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“You can’t grade differently from every class. It
hurts or inflates my grade.”
Principle 1: People learn best when they are
provided regular feedback that they use to improve
their performance.
“This years grading system sucked ass! Quit
trying to be special and grade this crap like a
normal class. This bs grading system might
have been the most frustrating thing I have
ever had to deal with, and I know everyone
agrees with me!”
over time to prepare for a performance; mistakes
made during practice should not be cause for a
significant penalty; and the success of students
should largely depend on their final performance
(Big Game).
“It is better to practice and practice for a big
assessment rather than be penalized for trying
and making mistakes along the way.
However, some sort of penalty should be in
place for those who skip practice.”
over time to prepare for a performance; mistakes
made during practice should not be cause for a
significant penalty; and the success of students
should largely depend on their final performance
(Big Game).
“I loved how during this year we would
practice so hard by writing a lot of papers. This
process made it so when it came to quiz and
test time, it was basically routine.”
over time to prepare for a performance; mistakes
made during practice should not be cause for a
significant penalty; and the success of students
should largely depend on their final performance
(Big Game).
“It is better to practice and practice for a big
assessment rather than be penalized for trying
and making mistakes along the way.
However, some sort of penalty should be in
place for those who skip practice.”
Principle 3: People learn best when they collect
snapshots of their growth over time and consider
how to become a more skilled learner.
“People need to see how they have done over
a course. They need to see their mistakes,
and learn from them. Cause if you don’t show
people what they have done over time and
they keep making the same mistakes, then
how would they know to fix them?”
Principle 3: People learn best when they collect
snapshots of their growth over time and consider
how to become a more skilled learner.
“I do fine in all of my other classes without
keeping a record of all my work and referring
to it at the end of every quarter. If anything I
found this annoying.”
Principle 4: People learn best when provided
models, check lists, and rubrics that make
performance expectations clear.
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“I think it definitely should because this
approach helped me focus on my growth
rather than my grades, and that was what
really helped me become a better student.”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“No. I feel we should stop changing things and
just keep it the same. I did way better in my
last English class. I feel its too unorganized
and it didn’t help me one bit. It may have
helped some but I really don’t like this
change.”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“I think that you should return to a more traditional grading
system. I’m sure that the majority of the THEE students feel
this way too. I feel pretty irritated that we were used as a test
group to measure the success of a grading system, and feel
like this class was a complete joke. I find it pretty ridiculous
introducing an unfamilar grading system to 11th grade
students who have been accustomed to a more traditional
grading system over the course of high school I recommend
highly never doing this again.”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“I think it definitely should because this
approach helped me focus on my growth
rather than my grades, and that was what
really helped me become a better student.”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“I really like it and it should continue. I have
had the most improvement in this class than
any other class. This grading system is great
and has helped me become a better writer
and learner.”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“Yes! It helped me a lot this year with
everyhting we did. I didn’t have to worry about
getting bad grades as long as I tried my
hardest and had good quality work. I think it
would help other classes too so we don’t have
to worry about the grading system because we
are able to fix work to make it our best.
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“I think they should be kept and spread into
more areas. At first I hated it but now I look
back and see that it was really helpful and I
learned a lot this year. These methods are
great. Keep them!”
Should these new grading practices be continued
and maybe even spread beyond THEE, or do you
think we should reject these new grading
practices?
“Continue them because you may be onto
something GREAT and AMAZING!”