Three Resources About Conferring

Confession. I worry about conferring.

I worry that this valuable classroom practice will be lost in a fast-paced educational environment that values quantitative data (and its technical adequacy). 

Conferring will not result in a numerical score. It probably isn't reliable or valid. But, within about 60-seconds a conference can tell a teacher a whole lot about what a student knows and doesn't know quite yet while building a relationship with the student. 

Conferring is a valuable tool for formative assessment. 

The following resources provide some further information.

Resource 1: Conferring General Information
This resource provides curated information about conferring, including how it fits within a gradual release of responsibility instructional framework. It is part of a larger resource from the Department of Public Instruction about about instruction in English language arts.

http://bit.ly/ELAinstr

(Select "Independent Task" and "Conferring")

RESOURCE 2: Conferring How-To

The above document is part of a Classroom Strategies and Practices bank hosted at the Wisconsin RtI Center. It provides step-by-step directions and supporting record keeping forms.

The bank includes other assessment strategies and practices. (In addition, the bank includes instructional strategies and practices for each cluster within the CCSS ELA standards for reading literature and informational texts.

Resource 3: Conferring via GoogleHangouts
This great blog post (from Two Writing Teachers) describes one teacher's experimentation with GoogleHangouts as a place to host writing conferences.

Literacy (un)Conference 2014

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is pleased to announce the 2014 Literacy (un)Conference. This year's online conference (our second ever!) is a free-of-charge opportunity to learn more about:

Balanced Literacy Assessment for Early Learning

The information above can be downloaded through GoogleDrive for wide distribution.

All conference sessions are pre-recorded for easy viewing within the busy schedules of educational leaders. We recommend viewing the sessions in professional learning communities and returning to the sessions for later work. (All sessions and supporting material will be archived.)

A Twitter chat to discuss applications of new learning is scheduled for Monday, May 19 at 7:00 PM CST. #wisuncon

Contact Barb Novak, Literacy Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, for more information.

barbara.novak@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-5181

Note. The 2013 Literacy (un)Conference is archived. It includes sessions about:

• standards-based instruction and assessment
• planning for professional learning

Smarter Balanced: Resources for Professional Learning

Today's post is brought to you by Bobbi Campbell.

The following resources were developed by Madison Metropolitan School District in response to the 2015 implementation of the Smarter Balanced Assessment in grades 3 - 8.

Resource 1: 30-minute Overview (with speaker notes)
Can be accessed in GoogleDrive.

Resource 2: Facilitator Guide for Overview
Can be accessed in GoogleDrive.
The first facilitator guide is intended to be paired with the Power Point.  It provides information about the components of the test and includes examples.  

Resource 3: FAQ (for practitioners)
Can be accessed in GoogleDrive.
This is designed to be a quick snapshot of the Facts and Questions associated with Smarter Balanced Assessment. This version of the FAQ is designed for practitioners and referenced in the Overview presentation. 

Resource 4: FAQ (for administrators and instructional leaders)
Can be accessed in GoogleDrive.
This is designed to be a quick snapshot of the Facts and Questions associated with Smarter Balanced Assessment. This version of the FAQ is designed for administrators and/or instructional leaders and referenced in the Overview presentation. 

Common Assessments: Using the 4 Essential Questions

Today's post is brought to you by Jaimie Howe.

Our district has been focused on the full implementation of an RtI framework and system for the past several years.  The one area we always try to bring everything back to are the four essential questions associated with PLCs:

1. What do we want all students to learn?
2. How will we know they have learned it?
3. How will we respond when learning has not occurred?
4. How will we respond when learning has already occurred?

Coming back to these questions helps us put everything into perspective. As a literacy coach trying to support my teachers through this process and being the facilitator for many collaboration meetings,  I developed the following flowchart (based off of a similar chart that was developed by Solution Tree in accordance with The Professional Learning Communities at Work Coaching Academy (Solution Tree, 2011) I attended during the 2012-13 school year) to help teachers pull everything together in regards to PLCs, common assessments, SMART goals, CCSS standards, etc.

Common Assessment Flowchart is available AT THIS LINK

When you first look at the flowchart, it looks a bit confusing; however, if you truly follow the arrows and complete each step, it is a great organizational resource for teachers to use when planning and developing common assessments and SMART goals based on the CCSS.

Our Journey With Common Assessments

Today's post is brought to you by Julie Schwartzbauer.

“[Common formative assessments provide] regular and timely feedback regarding student attainment of the most critical standards . . . [and] also foster consistent expectations and priorities within a grade level, course, and department regarding standards, instruction, and assessment. . . . Most importantly, common formative assessment results enable educators to diagnose student learning needs accurately in time to make instructional modifications.” (Ainsworth, 2007, pp. 95–96)

Our grade level PLCs have been hard at work in Appleton learning about common assessments.  Many articles and professional learning opportunities have been put in place to help build teacher expertise in creating common assessments.  We also formed a Common Assessment Committee.  The committee had three or more grade level representatives from across the district, as well as specialists and literacy coaches.  The purpose of the committee was to design sample common assessments for teachers.  The teachers were then encouraged to use the samples within their PLCs, as a starting point for developing common assessments that were directly linked to their instruction and specific to the needs of the students in their classrooms.

The following is a list of steps we used in designing a common assessment:

1. Form the group (grade level teachers, specialists)

2. Meet as a team (PLC)

3. Decide which standard(s) to measure

4. Create an assessment

• Consistent with grade level Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
• Linked directly to instruction
• Tied to the needs of the students in the teacher’s classroom

5. Develop evaluation criteria (to assess the degree of understanding or proficiency)

As a starting point, we focussed on creating samples for the standards that appeared on our report card.

Our teachers are still in the process of understanding the true purpose of common assessments, but we definitely have jumped into the work required to build expertise.

Our Favorite Ten Letter Word

Today's post is brought to you by Andrea Reichenberger.

Assessment. Our favorite ten letter word fills a teacher with excitement or dread depending on the context. Okay, maybe “excitement” isn't the right word...

For the past year, we have been focusing a lot of time and energy on our school assessments.  Of course we have discussed the mandated assessments, but I’m steering away from those in this post. As we began stripping down the topic of assessment at the building level, we realized there was a serious disconnect between what and how we were assessing. The reality is, if our daily instruction isn't up to par and we aren't using daily formative assessments to drive our instruction and to provide feedback, we aren't going to see positive results on those mandated assessments no matter what they may be or how many of them there are.

We are diligent in our work toward becoming standards based, which is a topic all of its own. As educators and coaches, we should be introspective about our own learning and philosophy in regards to assessment. It isn't an easy concept to grasp and for some,it is a huge shift in mindset. Beginning these conversations also requires us to be mindful of the separation between assessment and grading.

If you are stuck and trying to get those assessment conversations started in your own school, start following Rick Wormeli on Twitter @RickWormeli.  He also just started a new blog and when I say new I mean he only has two posts http://rickwormeli.net/ but he also has some very informative and well presented YouTube videos on formative and summative assessment. http://youtu.be/rJxFXjfB_B4.  

Consequently, we created an assessment checklist to aid our teachers in their design or revision. Our intention was for them to look at their summative assessments, but we feel the tool also helps guide their thinking about the formative as well.  It is a living document and we have already revised it several times but we feel it is a good starting point.

The assessment checklist developed by Andrea's school can be viewed AT THIS LINK

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, we would love to hear them!

GoogleForms and Flubaroo

Today's post is brought to you by Carrie.

One tool that has changed the way our English PLC gathers and collects data is Google Forms. Through the use of Google Forms, our team is able to accumulate focused data around specific standards, provide timely feedback to students, and utilize data to drive instruction and interventions. The process we use is as follows:

1. Using Google Forms ( found under the “Create” button in Google Drive), we develop a quick check assessment that usually utilizes multiple choice questions, although it is possible to create forms for short answer and longer written responses. Each question is centered around a specific learning target or standard.

2. Once the form has been created, we then share the form, or link it to our school webpage, in order for students to access the assessment. (Tip: A good first question is for students to enter their name! Although the form automatically collects usernames, it is quicker and easier to look at results and data with names next to it!!)

3. At this point, we (the teachers) take the assessment in order to create an “answer key” for later. Google Drive will also automatically create a form in your Drive for responses.

3. After the assessment has been taken by the students, we insert a Script called “Flubaroo” in the Response Form. This can be found under the “Insert” heading. At the bottom of the pull-down menu is a “Script” option. Once this option is selected, the option to search the Script Gallery is given. Here is the place to search for Flubaroo.

5. At this point, Flubaroo will provide step by step directions for grading the assignment and results will be sent to you in a matter of seconds. Additionally, the teacher will have the option for the program to automatically provide the grades to each individual student.

This is a sample of the way the graded results will look:

Student Name:	Total %	#1	#2	#4	#5	#6	#7	#8	#9	#10	#11
Sample	80%	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
Sample	50%	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	1
Sample	80%	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sample	60%	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	1
Sample	90%	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Sample	90%	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Overall Totals:		90.9	45.45	45.45	45.45	59.09	77.27	81.81	54.54	45.45	81.81

At this point, we, as the teachers, are given a plethora of options for looking at assessment data. For example, not only are we given the grades for individual students, but lowest performing students are highlighted in red. In addition, the program also lists questions that were missed the most often (those highlighted in orange). Along the bottom runs the total percentages for each question. As a team, we ask ourselves why certain questions were frequently missed. For example we converse about: “Was there not enough instruction provided for this standard?” or “Was the question worded unclearly or inaccurately?” We can then use the data to go back and provide individual student intervention or whole class lessons on specific teaching points or standards.

Google Forms is a great option for collecting data that can help provide instructional and intervention opportunities. As an English PLC, the use of Google Forms has taken away some of the hassle and hours of grading individual multiple choice assessments. The time that we gain from using this tool gives us more time to better analyze results and change our instructional practices.

Organizing Data at a School-Level

Today's post is brought to you by Heather Zimmerman.

Do we have enough data?  What data should classroom teachers look at?  Which data should grade-level teams use?  Are we data rich and information poor?  

This school years these questions started to pop up, as there was a new focus on data.  With staff writing SLOs and the SLD rule, we found ourselves evaluating what data we collect and how we use this data.

In order to help with this process, my school created a Google doc spreadsheet and shared it with: the dean of students, the instructional support teacher, the literacy coach, the school psychologist, and the principal.  Before we met as a group, we added all assessments we used to the spreadsheet to see what we could come with.  

Here is how the spreadsheet is formatted:

School Data

Assessment

Grade Level

Literacy

Math

Behavior

Other

Frequency of Administration

Then as a group we met and started to sort the data on a whiteboard.  After much discussion we started to discuss different ways that would be useful to group the data.  

Here are a few ways we began to sort:

Assessment Types

Assessment Type	Summative (annually or longer)	Benchmarks and Screeners (2-4 times per year)	Diagnostic	Progress monitoring	Ongoing	Other
Description	Useful for system-level analysis and outcome measurement	Designed to be administered at check-points throughout the year; help to identify students meeting/not meeting pre-determined targets	Useful for in-depth analysis; target sub-skills in need of intervention	Sensitive to small changes in skill level; many alternate forms allow for frequent administration (weekly)		Provide context for academic/ behavioral data

After sorting this data, we decided to adjourn, so we could have time to process the data.  The goal is to come back together to discuss questions we have regarding the data.

Here are some questions we plan to address:

1. Do we have any gaps in data?  Where are these gaps? (Consider the needs of each team.)
2. Do we have any overlaps in data?  Are  there any assessments that collect certain data that the other does not?  Is there an assessment we do not need then?
3. What are our next steps in the data sort?

Through this process, as a group, we are able to see what sort of data is collected in the district.  We do not want to over-assess our students and therefore want to make sure all assessments have a clear purpose that helps student learning.