Build a real class learning community

Teachers can create a class community such as everyone knowing two things about everyone else in the class without having a learning community where students continually work together to better each other.   Likewise, teachers can have students work together (Student A does this/ student B does that….) without really collaborating (interacting and changing the individual or group’s ideas) .

I would propose using formative assessment to build a class learning community. When students continually help each other by peer-reviewing and offering new ideas to others, they  have a learning community.  For example, in pairs, the students have peer-reviewed each other’s brainstormed evidence for an English essay and the teacher has given the original authors time to make appropriate changes. Then they continue being formative by creating groups of three to four.  In turn, each author reads his/her thesis and his/her brainstormed evidence; the group has the responsibility of adding three to four new pieces of evidence to the original list. After they help the first person, they rotate through the group.  Each group has a single purpose: to help each author to have three to four new pieces of evidence.  Those groups are truly learning communities

What learning communities do you have in your class?

My new book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, my book

My book, Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available at

http://tinyurl.com/writingtuttle.

The book provides a systematic approach of observing students’ written work, diagnosing ( strengths and gaps and identify strategies to overcome the gaps),  giving feedback, allowing time for growth and reporting the growth within your classroom.  This formative assessment book breaks down the writing process into specific steps so that you can help the students be successful at each step.  The students build on their successes, not their failures. This book contains numerous strategies to help the students overcome each learning gap in the steps of the writing process. Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment applies theory to the classroom in a practical easy-to-do approach.  Formative assessment creates a truly student-centered class where the goal is for each student to be success in a very interactive manner of self, peer and teacher reviews.

I developed the book by using the techniques in my writing classes.  My this year’s writing students are at the same level of writing after their first essay as past students were at the end of the course!

My new book,  Successful Student Writing Through Formative Assessment, is available through Eye on Education.

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Your Students, is available through Eye on Education.

Formative Assessment Avoids One-Size-Fits-All Solutions

Grant Wiggins’ Big Ideas website published my latest article,  Formative Assessment: Not One-Size-Fits-All- Feedback.

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Frequent Formative Assessment: Road Trip Metaphor

Recently I’ve been thinking of learning as a road trip.  Our students start out on the trip but soon they may take a road that does not lead to the  destination. In many classes, the instructors do not find out that the students have been on the wrong road until the weekly quiz or even the unit exam. Formative assessment helps to monitor students as they drive. Students do not have to take the same road (differentiation) but they do need to end up at the same destination. Formative assessments helps  identify students who have wandered off on dead-ends, have  being caught going around traffic circles, or have taken roads that lead in the opposite directions from the destination. Formative Assessment shows them how to get back on a road that leads to the destination and then monitors that they are continuing on that road. Formative Assessment can monitor when students have stopped for an extended break. Formative Assessment celebrates their success as they arrive at the destination.

How do you use Formative Assessment to help your students reach their destination?

My book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students, is available through Eye-on-Education.

Be more positive than negative

Do you use a positive or negative mentality in your class? Do you focus on pointing out the positives of students’ learning or do you concentrate more on the negatives?

Tom Connellan, “Inside the Magic Kingdom”, pgs 91-95 asserts that

If students see…………………………….they perceive it as

1 compliment, 1 negative………………negative

2 compliments, 1 negative…………….neutral

3 compliments, 1 negative……………positive

I almost agree.  I think that students need an abundance of compliments before they really believe the comments are positive. I think that 3 to 1 is borderline positive. I would argue that a 5:1 ratio is needed for students to feel that they are doing positive work. If they feel that positive about their work, then they are willing to make formative changes.  If they do not feel very positive, they will not attempt the changes.

Try the 5:1 rule and see the change in your students.

For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

10 Standards-Based Formative Feedback Techniques for Your Class

Part of the handout for the conference session

1. Verify the purpose.

2. Be specific in the feedback.

3. Limit it.

4. Use an exemplar.

5. Use a formative rubric.

6. Have peer feedback.

7. Have students develop their own feedback.

8. Inform the class of progress and ask for strategies

9. Put the resources on YouTube.

10. Build in multiple checkpoints.

11. Provide graphic scaffolding.
    

12. Your ideas?
    

For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book,
Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

A Tight Formative Feedback Fit for Students

Today I put plastic insulation on the windows in my 1910 house. The insulation will keep the cold air from blowing in. The tricky part is to put the plastic on tightly. If it is not tight, then the air can blow it off.

I wonder how tightly our formative feedback fits our students? Do we give them general feedback such as “You need to improve your topic sentence. Remember to restate the thesis and then identify the category of this paragraph”. Or do we give specific feedback to one of our students who is a football player “Think of a topic sentence like a sports game. The goal is always to win the game. Each play is to win the game through doing (this play). A topic sentence has the same format of the essay thesis (the game purpose) and the particular paragraph game play.”

Do your students understand your formative feedback? Unless they understand it, they cannot move forward. Does your formative feedback tightly fit them or will they blow it off.

For any one who is interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

High Quality Student Work Early in the Semester

My students have given their first speech in my college oral presentation course. I analyzed their entering speaking skills and adjusted the curriculum. We have gone over the speech rubric, analyzed three speeches using the rubric, analyzed the text of one speech, and created a template that incorporates good presentation. They organized their ideas with a graphic organizer. We spent time going over techniques for relieving nerves. They did a practice speech to a partner who gave feedback. As my students gave their first speeches, I was in shock. Wonderful Shock. Their speeches were actually at the same high level as the final speeches of my students from last semester even though this semester’s students are only in the third week of class. I had raised the bar for these students, they understood the high expectations and they had the tools to help them reach that high.

I congratulated the class on a superior job in presenting. I look forward to hearing their other speeches as they shine even more.

How do you structure your class so that your students soar in their learning? What do you do so that this year’s students do drastically better than last year’s?

If you are interested in implementing formative assessment in the classroom, my book, Formative Assessment: Responding to Students is available through Eye-on-Education.

Celebrate Student Successes and Move Forward

This semester I am trying to celebrate student successes more frequently. I let students know when they have successfully demonstrated a task, a goal or even the standard. I emphasize what they are doing well. So far, students have had a very favorable response. Many seemed shocked that I point out some many successes. I am trying to build in them a feeling that they are successful learners. Also, when I do give them formative feedback on a learning gap, I focus on how they can improve. They see that they can transform this into a success based on their past successes.

Do you build on students’ successes or failures?

Bike training wheels and scaffolding

I watched a young boy ride his bike that had training wheels.  I saw him dip toward one side to be supported by the training wheels.  A few seconds more and he dipped toward the other side, again the training wheels supported him. He was able to move forward, instead of falling, due to the training wheels.

I wonder how much we provide training wheels for our students as they learn our subject area. Do we provide them with support, scaffolding, so that they can only dip so far before the scaffolding supports them? Do we build in success checks frequently so that we can find out their learning gaps and then help them? Or do we let our students fall down?

Formative Feedback & Focused Handouts

So far this year I have created numerous “handouts” to help students overcome learning gaps.  I create each handout as I see the learning gap in one student.  Then I have the handout for when I see the same learning gap in other students.  In my writing course, I’ve created handouts for such topics as topic sentences, thesis statements,  plurals, run-ons, and fragments. I had to go down to the “ground zero” in writing the handouts- providing many examples, providing simple practice (with answers on the other side), etc. to guide the student through the learning gap.  I only give out the handouts to those students who display the specific learning gap.  I’m glad that I’m building up a library so that next semester I will be able to help more students.

Peer Evaluation and Formative Feedback

Students should not be “grading” each other. They should be doing formative assessment and giving formative feedback to their peers. As a person emailed me, students do not learn to be formative unless they are taught.

In elementary, language arts learn give valuable feedback telling several good things and then to give constructive feedback wording like “I wonder what would happen if ….” Middle school schools can identify if parts of a science lab reports exist. They can identify if certain essay writing has a thesis statement and topic sentences. They can share their strategies withe their peers. By late middle school, students should be capable of giving detailed feedback based on checklists, rubrics, exemplars, etc. Again, each comment helps the peer t to improve.

We talk about life long learning and one aspect of that is wanting to improve. Peers can offer valuable feedback. Often peers can word things in ways that are very understandable to the other students as opposed to the jargon of some teachers. Peers can provide feedback more frequently than the teacher.

How to help your students to grow in giving formative feedback.

Constructive Criticism = Formative Feedback Bragging Rights

As I’ve mentioned, I have tried very hard to use formative assessment in my classes this semester.  One student wrote  in his end-of-the-semester evaluation the instructor “has mastered constructive criticism and his feedback is always positive.” I have found it a challenge to give short and meaningful feedback that will move the students forward in their learning.  Giving them specific enough feedback so that they know how to improve has required me to be precise in my statements to students.  Giving them examples has, I think, helped them to feel positive about the feedback; they know the change is do-able.

Every student’s paper has been an opportunity for me to improve in my skill and, in my ability to help them more.

What type feedback do you give?

Situational Groupings and a Spreadsheet

I’ve switched from standard grouping to situational groupings. In situational group, the students are regrouped based on the frequent formative assessments done in the classroom. Therefore, the students in each group and the purpose of each small group differs. These groupings change frequently. This week’s “lack of transitions”group disappears based on the next formative assessment but a new grouping of “run on sentence” students appears based on the assessment of their papers and may last several classes.

The situational grouping is facilitated by the use of a spreadsheet in which I score/rate student’s performance and specific skills so that I can have the computer sort for those who scored in the low 2 and 1 range in the 4 point scale (4 = above proficient). A quick sort and I know the students in my next grouping. The harder part is to find focused instructional materials that help those students overcome that learning gap.

Revisions and Formative Feedback: Getting Better

As my students have been handing in their essay revisions, I have come to the realization that I am improving in giving formative feedback. When I notice that students have not made critical changes in their revisions, I discover that my earlier statements feedback statements are not specific enough such as for descriptive essay comments like “Refocus this to be descriptive. Describe things in detail”. These comments are still too vague for the students to know how to improve.

I am learning to be more precise and to include examples. A much better formative feedback would have been “How can you make this more descriptive? You might consider showing many of the senses (sight, sounds, smells, tastes, texture) so that the reader can experience being there. For example, you may use expressions like “a blistering hot day”, “my heart beating like a drum solo” and “her eyes danced with the deep blue color of the ocean” so that the scene comes alive for the reader. What senses will you include? (The examples were modified from the student’s own writing.)

In my more recent formative feedback for writing, I limit my feedback to two to three critical issues and provide very specific examples. Then when I get back the students’ revisions, I can see that they have integrated those critical changes into their papers. The changes in the students’ papers depend on my formative feedback. If I am vague, then they make vague changes.

What type formative feedback do you give?

 

Feedback that serves a purpose or that confuses

I get lost easily. A few years I spend one half hour in getting from point A to point B in a large city because I kept on getting lost.

I wonder how lost most of our students are when we give them feedback such:

Study more!
Get serious!
Focus/ Concentrate!
Think /Think it through!
Try harder!
Redo/ Revise / Rewrite!
Reread the chapter/handout!
Look it over!
Do it right!

Using formative assessment we give them precise suggestions that guide them in their improvement. Our formative feedback does not leave them wondering what to do.

Do you have other words that you will no longer use as you change to formative assessment?

Feedback vs Formative Feedback: Take a Snow Covered Boat North

I saw a snow covered boat being towed up north into the snow belt of Central New York. I wondered about the logic. Maybe the driver is looking forward to the summer.

Many teachers evaluate what they do in a unit at the end of the unit. They decide what they could do better the next year they will teach that unit. They may decide to make changes in an upcoming unit based on some new information they have on the students’ strengths and learning gaps.

How often do teachers evaluate during the unit and make changes within the unit to provide students with formative feedback so that the students can improve in this present unit? Waiting until next year (summer for the boat) to make changes does not benefit this year’s students. If students are to learn the goal, then teachers need to evaluate (formative assess) what is happening frequently in the class and constantly give formative feedback for the direct improvement of students. Students may sink without our present help. Summer will be too late! Let’s give students daily or at least every other day feedback that moves them forward in their learning in this present unit. They can sail forward with our daily formative feedback and bask in their learning.

Diagnosis of Student Writing and Formative Feedback

As I prepare for my college writing courses, I am realizing more and more than I was not trained in giving formative feedback in students’ writing. Yes, I can mark up students’ papers but I do not think that I have given students useful information on how to improve. I’ve identified their problem (run on sentence; lack of vivid description) but have not helped them to translate that into an specific improvement action.  Certainly, phrases like “awkward sentence”,  “write better sentences”, “be more descriptive”  and  “use the same  tense” do not provide the learner with practical information to be able to improve; those statements are observation statements, not formative feedback.

I am trying to create checklists and success lists so that students know what is required and how they can do it. I am struggling to  find resources to help me.

Imagine if all English teachers worked together to identify students lapses in learning and suggested a specific way to improve for each lapse.  If each English teacher contributed one lapse and one practical suggestion for improving the students’ writing, we could create a powerful learning environment.

Homework Feedback Using Models/Exemplars

We spent numerous classes going over the outcome of writing a persuasion letter. I had my students write (“word process”) several persuasion letters for homework. When they came into the class with their homework, I gave them a model/exemplar written answer for each of the homework letters. I asked them to compare their own letters with the model letters. They wrote in the margin of their letters what they now would do to improve their letters. I gave them the option of redoing their letters before they handed them in.

Their students offered great self-reflections. “I realize by their listing the items, they are easier to read.” “They started off by really getting their attention. I just made a general statement.” “The letter made me really want to buy the product. They showed how my life would be so much safer with it. I had listed some advantages but did not emphasize the emotional appeal of these advantages.”

How do give your students feedback on their homework through models?