Check for Understanding 65 Classroom Ready Tactics: Formative Assessment Made Easy

By Kelly Gillespie and Susan Jenkins

Check for Understanding: 65 Classroom-Ready Tactics Formative Assessment Made Easy! In Visible Learning, John Hattie describes a powerful strategy to enhance student learning—formative assessment (effect size .90). Implemented with fidelity, the result is assessment-capable learners, a pivotal skill for post-secondary success. “Are my students learning?” Join us in reimagining formative assessment—a fluid, robust, daily practice. Step-by-Step Activation Guide 65 Tactics to Check for Understanding Live-Action Classroom Videos for Each Tactic THE STORY OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Part I – Formatives: What they are and what they are not Part II – Why formative assessment matters Part III – Best practice formative assessment Part IV – Leveraging formative data to enhance teaching and learning 65 CLASSROOM-READY TACTICS Contributing authors share tactics to check for understanding. Includes user-friendly instructions and video clips to model implementation at any grade level, any content area.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: May 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781483498072

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JENKINS

Copyright © 2019 KELLY GILLESPIE       SUSAN JENKINS.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0250-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9807-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019901605

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 06/21/2019

Dedication

To Gary–my husband, friend, and life-preserver.

Acknowledgements

This book represents the commitment, collaboration, and hard work of three key groups.

Southwest Plains Team – My sincere thanks to the team–support staff and consultants–for your loyalty and your willingness to do whatever it takes. I am blessed by your contributions to our vision each and every day.

Contributing Authors – Your combined years of leadership and teaching experience are invaluable to this project. Thank you for stepping up to the challenge.

Participating Districts – Your partnership across the years makes Southwest Plains who we are. Thank you for sharing your teachers, your classrooms, and your students. And a special shout-out to the student groups who created the videos! Your work has moved this book to the next level.

Foreword

The premise for this book relates to President Bush’s famous question about schools: rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning. Rather than correcting the surface language features of his quote, the book goes to the deeper meanings of the question about learning. It uses the powerful techniques of clear success criteria, checking for understanding, providing feedback, and helping to best decide where to next in the learning progression.

I worry about the notion of formative assessment as most assessments can be interpreted in a formative or summative manner. The test rarely changes, but the timing and implications for future learning can differ. As Bob Stake once said: when the cook tastes the soup it is formative, when the guests taste the soup it is summative. This clearly points to the critical importance of ensuring highly valid interpretations are made at the formative phase; which puts much pressure to get the measurement and consequential interpretations most right.

Here is where this book is magic – it provides so many worthwhile ways to check for understanding, to check for optimal interpretation, and to maximize the chances of impact on learning. The ideas are tied to explicit instruction and make clear that formative interpretations are the oil in the system. The multiple tactics can make the difference in teaching and learning, starting at the beginning with great diagnoses, through to methods to help teachers know how to improve themselves; let alone the positive effects on students.

This book provides the how-to to put into action the big ideas in formative interpretation and could well take its place with the more detailed expositions by Susan Brookhart, Jim Popham, and other gurus. Wonderfully illustrated with classroom videos, the book certainly can answer the famous question: is our children learning.

- John Hattie

Preface

This book is for classroom teachers–for educators on the front line interacting with and caring about students–in every school, in every classroom, every day! We understand the need to focus on excellent teaching and to set high expectations for learners. We understand the urgency to create an environment that meets the needs of students from diverse backgrounds with a variety of unique experiences. We understand that rigor and relevance are paramount in curriculum and instruction.

But this time, in this book, we ask you to sit back and begin with the end in mind. That end is student learning. Indeed, the linchpin of education is student success. Instructors must continually ask and answer the question, are my students learning? With student success as the target, it is the responsibility of educators to continually monitor progress toward that end.

So how will we know students are learning? How can we monitor student progress? What is the most efficient method to measure gains toward a learning goal? A small but mighty team of educational consultants in southwest Kansas took up this challenge. The focus, student learning. The mission, an efficient and effective method to support up-to-the-minute awareness of student understanding (by BOTH the teacher and the student). The result, support for continuous adjustment of teaching AND learning to enhance opportunity for student success.

The research regarding this process is clear. Formative assessment is the key to unlock the answer to the question–are my students learning? When a formative assessment system is implemented with fidelity, both achievement and motivation increase (Brookhart, 2010). A formative assessment system establishes clear learning targets, checks for understanding, provides feedback, and then aligns and adjusts future instruction and student learning with the data collected during the Check for Understanding.

Will this take time and effort? Yes. Will it require an intentional, culture shift in the classroom? In many cases, yes. Will teaching and learning change? Absolutely. The vision is that learning will no longer be left to chance. Teachers and students will engage in a common goal. That goal is student success and student success thrives when teaching and learning are integrated, when teaching and learning become one.

This integration, the intersection between teaching and learning, is formative assessment. Formative assessment is the process of checking for student understanding, in real-time, while simultaneously using the data to do one or more of the following: (1) adjust instruction; (2) provide alternative learning opportunities (which may or may not include re-teaching); and (3) deliver feedback to each student in order to nurture personalized learning.

Formative assessment has a potential effect size of .90 (Hattie, 2012) ranking it among the most powerful influences on student achievement. Coupled with teacher clarity (effect size .75) and feedback (effect size .70) (Hattie, 2018), the journey toward student success and future-readiness can be a reality. Seal the deal with high-quality professional learning to build collective efficacy (effect size 1.57) (Hattie 2018) across the entire staff. The result will be student achievement of learning targets unleashed!

Introduction

The greatest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching, and when students become their own teachers. (John Hattie)

Teachers and schools are under constant scrutiny. Expectations are high. Simultaneously, kids come to the classroom with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. This diversity creates a challenge as teachers navigate the process of differentiation and personalization of instruction. Despite the challenges, the goal remains learning for all!

Bottomline, the expectation is that students must learn. Consider the gravity of that statement. How will teachers know if, when, and what students are learning? What will teachers use to measure this pivotal outcome?

Using a word picture from the medical field, consider the stethoscope. This iconic instrument is carried by every doctor. No matter how general the examination, nor how specialized the diagnosis and treatment plan, the results obtained by using a stethoscope are invariably a factor in guiding the process. So, too, teachers have a stethoscope to continually check the heart of teaching. The heart of teaching is learning; the stethoscope to monitor learning is formative assessment. Indeed, learning must be frequently checked and regularly monitored with a formative assessment process.

Simply put, this book will help teachers reimagine formative assessment. Readers will revisit the process of checking for understanding as teaching is in progress. These learning checks should be on-going, and both teacher and student must actively participate. Essentially, formative assessment is a 3-part process. A formative assessment system: (1) establishes clear learning targets; (2) checks for understanding (CFU) as instruction is being delivered; and (3) provides feedback to align and adjust both future instruction and student learning based on the data collected during the CFU. Formative assessment is powerful, seamless, and continuous.

When formative assessment is implemented with fidelity, teachers and students truly join forces. Together they begin the educational process with specific learning intentions including criteria for student success. These criteria allow the teacher and the student to measure learning and to monitor progress toward achievement of a given learning target. When there is a gap between the learning target and current understanding of the student based on the success criteria, teachers and students make adjustments. The data collected during a Check for Understanding inform these adjustments and guide both the teacher and the student as instruction and learning simultaneously move forward.

In tandem, teachers and students can now ask and answer the 3 questions central to all teaching and all learning: (1) where are we going? (2) how are we going or where are we now? And (3) how will we know when we get there and where to next? Teaching and learning become one. The power of this partnership grows exponentially as the formative assessment process becomes more frequent and more fluid in daily classroom practice.

This book provides the professional learning a teacher needs to initiate formative assessment. Check for Understanding: Formative Assessment Made Easy is an activation guide that distills formative assessment into a step-by-step process for classroom implementation. It begins with a clear and detailed discussion of formative assessment–what it is and what it is not.

Next, the book provides a rationale for why formative assessment matters. Why should teachers implement a formative assessment system? What are the benefits? Bottomline, can teachers truly leverage increased student achievement by frequently checking for understanding (and making adjustments to reteach or provide additional opportunities to learn)?

In the third section, best practice formative assessment is shared. To maximize the impact of implementing a formative assessment, the research is synthesized and then summarized in practicable components. Discussion includes challenges teachers can expect along the way. Teachers will know exactly what a formative assessment system should look like and how to get started today.

Using formative assessment data is the linchpin. In the final section of the book, the nuances of using formative data to enhance learning are shared. Checking for understanding is not an end in itself. Data generated during a Check for Understanding are powerful only if they are used to leverage student learning.

Finally, teachers will gain direct access to formative assessment techniques that work. These formative assessments are research-based and proven effective. Detailed steps for implementation of each Check for Understanding tactic are included. Teachers will be armed with 65 strategies to monitor student learning–ready for immediate use in the classroom. A video clip for each tactic, captured during real-time instruction, is also provided to demonstrate the formative technique in action.

In summary, formative assessment supports teaching and learning DURING the process, Formative assessment allows BOTH students and teachers to receive continuous feedback on progress. The reality is this: any classroom can become a nimble learning environment in which the status of each student on a given learning target is available. Transparency (including the freedom to fail) nurtures confidence. Confidence nurtures independence. Independent, self-directed thinkers and independent, self-directed learners become capable, motivated, and future-ready.

Think of Check for Understanding: Formative Assessment Made Easy as