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When teachers see learning through the eyes of the student and when students see themselves as their own teachers

IMPACT SERIES

The Visible Teacher

A Visible Learningplus

Resource Guide

What is the outline of today’s professional learning session?

Session(s)

Session Title

Resource Guide Page

One

The Research that Drives the Visible Teacher

Page 4

Two

Developing Learners Who Use Learning Dispositions

Page 12

Three

Developing Learners Who Know How to Learn

Page 19

Four

Developing Learners Who Are Assessment-Capable

Page 35

Five

Developing Learners Who Use Effective Feedback to Learn

Page 50

Six

The Mindframes of a Visible Teacher

Page 61

What are our learning intentions and success criteria?

Learning Intentions

We are learning to:

· Understand the role the teacher plays in positively impacting student learning

· Understand pathways to develop visible learners in your classroom and/or school

· Understand strategies to implement and monitor that develop visible learners

· Understand how mindframes shape beliefs about teaching and learning

Success Criteria

You will be successful when you know how to:

· Identify the linkage between dispositions of learning and student achievement

· Identify strategies to use to establish a shared language of learning in your classroom and/or school

· Identify strategies to use with students to support surface, deep and transfer learning

· Determine ways to monitor student application of learning tools and strategies

· Determine how to use standards to establish clarity

· Identify strategies to use with students to support understanding of learning intentions and success criteria

· Identify how to elicit focused evidence of student learning

· Analyze evidence of learning to provide effective feedback

· Identify strategies to use with students to support self and peer feedback

· Determine an entry point in your current practice to apply the learning from today

· Identify potential challenges to visible learning mindframes

· Determine actions that support visible learning mindframes and develop efficacy

19

Session 1:

The Research That Drives the Visible Teacher

Key messages

Notes

“When teaching and learning are visible, there is a greater likelihood of students reaching higher levels of achievement. To make teaching visible requires an accomplished “teacher as evaluator and activator”, who knows a range of learning strategies to build the students’ surface knowledge, deep knowledge and understanding, and conceptual understanding” (Hattie 2012)

“Visible teaching and learning requires a commitment to seeking further challenges (for the teacher and for the student) – and herein lies a major link between challenge and feedback, two of the essential ingredients of learning. The greater the challenge, the higher the probability that one seeks and needs feedback, and the more important it is that there is a teacher to ensure that the learner is on the right path to successfully meet the challenge” (Hattie 2012).

“The messages in Visible Learning are not another recipe for success…It is a way of thinking: “My role, as teacher, is to evaluate the effect I have on my students.” It is to “know thy impact”, it is to understand this impact, and it is to act on this knowing and understanding” (Hattie 2012).

“Powerful, passionate, accomplished teachers focus on seeing learning through the eyes of the students, appreciating their fits and starts in learning, and their often non- linear progressions to the goals, supporting their deliberate practice, providing feedback about their errors and misdirections” (Hattie 2012).

The Visible Learning Evidence Base

95% - 98% of what teachers do with students has some sort of positive impact on their learning...if we start the bar at zero. Students deserve a year’s worth of growth for a year’s worth of input, and many of our students need more than that. Visible Learning helps to serve as a compass that teachers can use to support instructional decision-making. The research offers educators and leaders insight into better understanding the impact approaches, tools and strategies have on student achievement. The goal of Visible Learning is to create teachers who can see learning through the eyes of their students and students who can be their own teachers. That is no small feat and contains a wide range of complexities. The Visible Teacher will support you in developing visible learners in your classroom by understanding how focused decisions guided by research can have a significant impact on teacher practice and thus student learning.

Activity: GREATEST IMPACT? Circle the influences that have the potential to CONSIDERABLY accelerate student achievement.

Feedback

Within Class Ability Grouping

Boredom

Homework

Challenging Goals

Summarization

Retention

Collective Teacher Efficacy

Mentoring

Teacher-Student Relationships

Reducing Class Size

Classroom Discussion

Teacher Subject Matter Knowledge

Response to Intervention (RtI)

Teacher Estimates of Student Achievement

GOING DEEPER: For two of the influences that you circled above, provide an explanation for why you believe this influence has the potential to considerably accelerate student learning.

#1

#2

Visible Learners Need Visible Teachers

The visual of the Visible Learner is overlaid with the actions that are required by the teacher in order to create visible learners in their classroom and school. Each quadrant defines key actions needed by the teacher so that learners are equipped and empowered to own their learning and truly be visible learners. Often times, teachers are aware of what they want students to know and be able to do, yet they encounter a challenge when developing a pathway to bring that awareness to life in the classroom. The Visible Teacher ties together the moving parts of teaching and learning necessary so that teachers can see learning through the eyes of their students and students can see themselves as their own teachers.

Teachers are to DIIE For

Each of the moving parts of visible teaching have a place in supporting one or more pieces of The DIIE Cycle. This acronym is focused on teachers and leaders being able to “Diagnose, Intervene, Implement, and Evaluate” the impact of their approaches on learning. The focus is

on excellent implementation and evaluation of the intervention (see the figure, which captures the interrelatedness of the four practices). Too often there is an overemphasis on the teaching or intervention, and it is not related to what students already know

or do not know. Often the same intervention is repeated even though it was not effective the first time, so the key message here is to be able to coach teachers in building a variety of instructional approaches in response to the impact observed on student learning.

What does Teaching to DIIE for look like in practice?

Take a moment to review the indicators captured below. As you read them, think about how each of the indicators would come to life in practice. Perhaps there are already actions you take that support the indicators. The purpose is to identify what teachers or teacher teams would be doing to meet each of the indicators. What actions would be taken?

DIAGNOSIS

I use evidence of student learning to determine my impact.

Example: I use a tool to scatter plot my data so I can look at the impact I have had on the growth and achievement of all of my students in each unit.

I have a system to monitor student progress against learning outcomes.

Example: Create data walls to track the progress students are making against learning intentions established for each quarter.

I collect evidence to determine the needs of my learners.

INTERVENTION

I select interventions using evidence of student learning.

I select high-impact strategies to move learning forward.

I have access to resources and support for student intervention.

IMPLEMENTATION

I identify what has made interventions successful or unsuccessful in the past.

I use a variety of implementation strategies.

I utilize strategies to engage in reflection on my instruction.

EVALUATION

I use evidence of student learning to determine the impact of interventions.

I monitor both the growth and achievement of students.

I make changes to my practice based on the evidence of the impact on student learning.

Where are you in becoming a Visible Teacher?

1 - This is commonplace and systematically embedded in my classroom or practice.

2 - This exists in pockets, but couldn’t be considered commonplace, yet.

3 - This is not yet established in my classroom or practice.

Statement

Rating

Learning intentions are accessible to students in my classroom (i.e., posted, included on learning task, etc.).

Success criteria are accessible to students in my classroom (i.e, posted, rubrics, scoring guides, progress monitoring sheets, etc.)

I collaboratively design learning intentions and success criteria with my PLC.

I communicate the learning intentions to my students so they always know what they are learning.

I communicate the success criteria to my students so they are clear on what success looks like.

I employ strategies in my classroom to support students in understanding and applying the learning intention and success criteria.

I use exemplars in my classroom to show what success looks like.

Students self-assess their progress using the learning intentions and success criteria.

I design or select learning tasks to elicit evidence of student learning focused on the success criteria established.

I communicate to students how their learning tasks connect to the learning intention and success criteria.

I explicitly teach students different strategies to use during the learning process (i.e., summarizing, number lines, graphic organizers, etc.)

I make adjustments to my lessons based on the evidence I elicit from my students.

I use evidence of student learning as feedback on my impact.

I use evidence of student learning to make instructional inferences and plan next steps.

I teach students how errors are opportunities to help them learn.

Session 2:

Developing Learners Who Use Learning Dispositions

Success Criteria:

You will be successful when you can:

· Identify the linkage between dispositions of learning and student achievement

· Identify strategies to use to establish a shared vision of what a good learner looks like in your classroom and/or school.

How a student thinks about learning and feels about being a learner greatly matters to their success. In 2002, Hattie and Purdie did research focused on assessing a student’s conception of learning and found that a strong correlation exists between the lens students have about learning and their achievement. Establishing a shared language of what it means to be a good learner is essential in creating visible learners. We can create this foundation for learning through three strategies:

Step 1: Get evidence from teachers, parents, and/or guardians, and students on what they think it means to be a good learner.

Step 2: Determine dispositions of a GOOD learner and what they “look” like.

Step 3: Incorporate learning dispositions into everyday lessons and classroom community.

Let’s explore this further in the following activity.

What makes a good learner?

Step 1: Get evidence from teachers, parents, and/or guardians, and students on what they think it means to be a good learner.

Part 1: Respond to the following question: What makes a GOOD learner a GOOD learner?

Part 2: How would your students respond to the same question: What makes a GOOD learner a GOOD learner?

An important aspect in creating visible learners involves shaping the lens students look at teaching and learning with. As teachers begin to dig deeper into gathering evidence around what teachers and students believe makes a good learner a good learner, it will become apparent that education has fostered setting expectations that being a good learner means being a behaviorally compliant learner.

Now, take a look at what you captured in both boxes and code them. If what you wrote down is a compliant behavior response, code it with a CB (i.e., “brings supplies to class”). If it is a disposition of a good learner code it with a GL (i.e., “doesn’t give up if learning gets hard”).

Examples of compliant behavior

Examples of a good learner

· Raises their hand to be called on

· Follows directions from the teacher

· Gets good grades

· Walks quietly in the hall

· Obeys the classroom rules

· Has all of their supplies

· Sets challenging goals

· Tries again if they fail the first time

· Asks questions

· Sees mistakes as a chance to grow

· Doesn’t give up when learning is hard

· Seeks feedback

It is important to note that there is not a suggestion to abandon everything in the compliant behavior column. Classrooms and schools need rules and expectations to create environments that are conducive to learning. The opportunity lies in distinguishing the two and then knowing how to help students understand that while there is a needed component of compliance in learning, it isn’t those behaviors that define who they are as a learner.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

· What do you notice about how you coded your list?

· Are there more CB or GL responses over the other? Why do you think that is?

· What shifts need to occur to equip students with the right lens of what it means to be a good learner?

Strategies to Gather Student, Teacher, and Parent Voice

Strategy #1 - Have students, teachers, or parents respond to the open ended question - What makes a good learner a good learner? Identify trends in the responses, specifically focusing on compliant behavior versus true dispositions of a good learner.

Strategy #2 - Have students draw a picture of a good learner. This is especially good for younger students. Identify trends in the responses, specifically focusing on compliant behavior versus true dispositions of a good learner.

Strategy #3 - Capture videos of students, teachers, or parents responding to the question - What makes a good learner a good learner? Identify trends in the responses, specifically focusing on compliant behavior versus true dispositions of a good learner.

Strategy #4: Engineer a lesson that allows students a platform to think about a good learner. I.e., today we are going to explore what good learners have in their “backpack.”

Strategy #5: Run a focus group with students asking them what makes a good learner a good learner and why. Identify trends in the responses, specifically focusing in compliant behavior versus true dispositions of a good learner.

Step 2: Determine dispositions of a GOOD learner and what they “look” like

Once there is an awareness of what students, parents, and teachers think makes a good learner, teachers need a plan to be responsive to the evidence. There are many students who think a good learner is a student who is quiet in the hallway, listens to the teacher, and sits criss-cross-applesauce. And while those are needed structures in certain classrooms and schools, somehow students have connected those behaviors to define what makes a good learner. Teachers need to shift that lens and offer students a new way to look at learning and what it should mean to be a learner.

Strategies to Create Dispositions of GOOD Learners

Strategy #1: As a PLC, come up with a list of dispositions of a good learner. The length of the list will depend on the age appropriateness for the students, but no fewer than three and no more than 10. After the list is generated, brainstorm examples of what that disposition would look like coming to life.

· What are teachers doing?

· What are teachers saying?

· What are students doing?

· What are students saying?

Strategy #2: Use the letters in the school mascot to create dispositions for what makes a good learner.

Strategy #3: Engineer a lesson where students are invited to determine the dispositions of a good learner. Here are a couple of strategies to get students into the right mindset:

· Read a story where a character faces some sort of challenge and have the students discuss how the character handled that challenge. What helped? What didn’t help? Make the connection to dealing with a learning challenge.

· Examine great innovators of figures in history and identify parts of their character that supported or led to their innovation or success.

· Expose students to a challenging situation and afterwards have them explore what actions helped them and what actions didn’t.

Step 3: Incorporate learning dispositions into everyday lessons and classroom community

Once everyone is clear, not only with the dispositions of a good learner but what they “look” like, it’s time to incorporate them in planning and preparation. How will teachers weave them into teaching and learning with students?

Strategy #1: Create posters of dispositions of good learners and post them in the classroom or school.

Strategy #2: Include good learner dispositions in parent communication accompanied by questions they can ask their student to support the dispositions.

· What mistakes did you make today and how did they help you grow?

· What do you do if you get stuck in your learning?

· What do good learners do and why do they do it?

Strategy #3: Make connections between characters in stories or other people being studied and the dispositions of good learners. For example:

· So class, today we read The Little Engine That Could. How did the little engine show perseverance? How did he feel as he tried to get up the hill? What happened because he persevered?

· Good morning class, today we are going to be working on some pretty challenging trigonometry. What learner dispositions might get tested today? How can you respond that will move learning forward instead of paralyze it?

Strategy #4: Have students self-assess how well they exuded the class or school dispositions of a good learner at the end of a lesson or unit. Ask them to support their assessment with an explanation, proof or evidence.

Strategy #5 - Create a series of lessons to accompany each disposition. Lessons can include links to websites, samples of tasks students will engage in, texts to be used, etc.

My COMMITMENTS Moving Forward:

Session 3:

Developing Learners Who Know How to Learn

READ AND RESPOND

DIRECTIONS: Read through the quotes below and pick the one that resonates with you the most. Think about why it resonates with you and capture your thoughts in the space provided below.

1. “The guild knowledge of teachers should consist less in knowing how to evaluate student work and more in knowing ways to download evaluative knowledge to students” (R. Sadler, 1989, p. 141).

2. “While less successful students may not use metacognitive strategies effectively, these skills can be taught, and this can lead to improvement in achievement” (Barker, 2008).

3. “When students are encouraged to practice thinking about their own learning, they are more able to discuss their understanding with others” (Absolum et al., 2009).

4. “Teachers need to work with awareness that learners who are asked to critically appraise their own work need to do so in a safe, learning-focused environment, where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth. This requires sensitive instruction and usage, as for some students self-evaluation may impart a sense of failure and reduce self-confidence” (Wragg, 1997).

5. Simply sharing assessment knowledge with students in supportive classrooms will not, in itself, promote student self-evaluation. Nor is it enough to leave students alone to self-assess. Students need to be provided with sustained and supported experiences in questioning and improving their work (Gipps & MacGilchrist 1999; Sadler 1989), as they need specific language to describe, discuss and evaluate their learning (Absolum et. al. 2009; Moss, Brookhart & Long, 2013).

6. “Peer assessment is a key activity through which students can learn to make evaluative judgements by appraising the work of others. However, the teacher needs to teach students how to engage purposefully in self and peer assessment to provide students with practical experience and conceptual knowledge” (Sadler, 2010).

7. “To realize the vision of the assessment-capable student, teachers will need to enhance, or change, their teaching, learning, and assessment practices. This is because the locus of control changes when student assessment for learning is implemented authentically (Earl, 2003) and it requires teachers to rethink what effective learning is, and their role in bringing it about (James 2006).

Which quote (#) resonated with you and why?

SURFACE, DEEP and TRANSFER Learning

The art of teaching is to balance the need for surface-level or factual content with deep processing of this content. Deeper-thinking skills need content on which to work. You cannot use deeper-thinking skills unless you have something to think about.

The important questions are:

· Do the students have the surface understanding to then apply the deep thinking?

· What is the proportion of surface to deep thinking in this lesson?

· When is it the right time to move from gathering ideas to relating and extending them?

When you are learning something new, you need a greater proportion of surface to deep thinking, but as you become more proficient, the balance can change to more deep thinking.

Consider, for example, the following popular teaching programs which favor deep learning:

· inquiry-based learning;

· individualized instruction;

· matching teaching to styles of thinking;

· problem-based learning;

· whole-language learning;

· student control over learning.

The average effect-sizes of these programs are very low (0.31, 0.22, 0.17, 0.15, 0.06 and 0.04 respectively)--well below the average of many possible influences of 0.4. It is not that they are not worthwhile programs; the problem is that too often they are implemented in a way that does not develop surface understanding first.

John Hattie, 2015 The Politics of Distraction

Activity: Surface, Deep, and Transfer

How would you explain

surface, deep and transfer learning?

Look at the following strategies and determine what phase or phases of learning the strategy best supports. Capture your responses in the table below.

Strategy

Surface, Deep and/or Transfer?

Summarizing

Class Discussion

Feedback

Vocabulary Instruction

Problem Solving Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching

Teacher Clarity

Cooperative Learning

Focus Questions:

How do you currently select strategies to use in the classroom with students?

What drives the decision making process?

ENSURING A SHARED LANGUAGE OF LEARNING

STRATEGY

STRATEGY DEFINED

1 WORD

1 PHRASE

#1 Summarizing

Summarization involves students writing summaries of texts they are reading with the aim of capturing the main points and excluding unimportant or repetitive material. The generality and accuracy of the summary are important moderators, and it is not clear whether it is better to summarize smaller pieces of a text (more frequent summarization) or to capture more of the text in a larger summary (less frequent summarization). Younger tudents are not as good at summarization. The research suggests summarizing is more effective when the subsequent assessments of learning are performance or generative and not closed or multiple-choice tests.

#2 Class Discussion

The research suggests that when students are involved in classroom discussion, their level of comprehension improves. But not all discussions are created equal. A number of discussion strategies were included in the research (collaboration reasoning, questioning the author) and some were identified as being more effective than others. A classroom discussion is effective if it enables students to build and check their knowledge and if it allows the teachers to see what the students know and understand. A simple rule of thumb, however, is that as teacher talk decreases, student talk increases and this can be beneficial for learning. It’s about dialogue, not monologue. The obvious question to consider is who does most of the talking in your classroom, and could you develop more opportunities for effective classroom discussion where students can build their own knowledge and teachers can check understanding?

#3 Feedback

Feedback is about providing information about task performance to the learner/teacher. Feedback research is extensive and varied which makes interpreting the findings complex. Effect sizes from these many studies show considerable variability, meaning some forms of feedback are more powerful than others. Feedback can be very powerful, especially when it is from the student to the teacher. If the teacher is open to feedback regarding what students know and understand, where they make errors, when they have misconceptions, and when they are disengaged, then they can respond accordingly and this can have a large positive impact on student achievement gains. The least effective types of feedback are programmed instruction, praise, punishment, and extrinsic rewards. Feedback is more effective when it provides information on correct rather than incorrect responses and when it builds on changes from previous tries, so students can make connections to prior attempts and efforts. It is also more impactful if the type of feedback is correctly aligned to the phase of learning a student is in.

#4 Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction explicitly focus on improving students’ knowledge and understanding of words and vocabulary. Students who have experienced vocabulary instruction had major improvements in reading comprehension and overall reading skills. Most effective vocabulary instruction includes providing both definitional and contextual information, involves students in deeper processing, and gives students more than 1 or 2 exposures to the word to be learned.

#5 Problem Solving Teaching

Problem-solving teaching involves defining or determining the cause of the problem - identifying, prioritizing and selecting alternatives for a solution; and/or using multiple perspectives to uncover the issues related to a particular problem, design an intervention plan, and then evaluating the outcome. Studies here range from problem solving teaching in math and science and reading through to problem-solving around conflicts between groups/individuals and approaches to solve these problems.

#6 Reciprocal Teaching

Key aspects of the Reciprocal Teaching procedure require teaching students to learn and use strategies such as summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting as they discuss and interact with text. Dialogue between teacher and students around text is also a key element. In Reciprocal Reading, students take turns taking on the role of teacher and leading dialogue in the group with the aim of improving understanding of what they are reading and to learn to monitor their own learning and thinking.

#7 Teacher Clarity

There are two parts in Teacher Clarity: the first is being clear about is the knowledge and skills to be learned from the lesson(s) (the learning intention); the second is having a way of knowing that the desired learning has been achieved (the success criteria). Teacher clarity involves the teacher knowing where he or she is going with the lesson and ensuring that the students also know where they are going. These pathways must be transparent for the student. Teachers need to know how to keep all in the class on track for the learning goal and then evaluate their success in moving all toward the goal.

#8 Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning approaches are those involving students working in groups to complete learning tasks and they may sometimes be assessed as a group. The research shows that cooperative learning is most powerful when students have acquired sufficient background knowledge to be involved in discussion and learning with peers. It is most useful when learning concepts, verbal problem solving, spatial problem solving, retention and memory. Results also show that the effects increase with age - i.e. as you get older, you are more likely to benefit from cooperative learning opportunities.

Supporting Students with Selecting Tools to Guide their Learning

The Role of Metacognition

Metacognition is most commonly defined as “thinking about ones thinking.” However, it is much more complex than that. What does “thinking about ones thinking” look like? How do teachers support students to be able to plan, monitor and respond to their thinking about learning? Metacognition presents itself on two platforms: knowledge and regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is when a student possesses knowledge about themselves as a learner as well as understanding the factors that might impact their performance, having knowledge about strategies, and knowledge about when, why and how to use those strategies during their learning. Metacognitive regulation involves students monitoring their own cognition. This includes planning activities, having an awareness of comprehension and task performance, and the ability to evaluate the efficacy of monitoring processes and strategies.

Metacognitive Knowledge (Declarative, Procedural, and Conditional)

Metacognitive Regulation

· Awareness of factors that influence your own learning

· Knowing a collection of strategies to use for learning

· Choosing the appropriate strategy for the specific learning situation

· Setting goals and planning

· Monitoring and controlling learning

· Evaluating own regulation (assessing if the strategy you are using is working or not, making adjustments and trying something new)

Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning

Metacognition requires appropriate instruction. As Kuhn and Dean (2004) explain, metacognition is what enables a student who has been taught a particular strategy in a particular problem context to retrieve and deploy that strategy in a similar but new context. There is empirical evidence supporting the notion that students can be taught to reflect on their own thinking. Its potential to positively impact student learning is high, so it is a worthwhile topic to explore and one that Visible Teachers are aware of and employ regularly in their classroom.

Dignath et al. (2008) meta-analyzed 48 studies investigating the effect of training in self- regulation on learning and use of strategies among students in first through sixth grades. Table 2 reports selected effect sizes for the various types of interventions.

Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice can be defined as the type of practice/repetition/rehearsal that is purposeful, systematic, deliberate, effortful and designed to address particular gaps in learning or to refine already high level skills in a carefully planned way. This is different to just practicing an activity often and repeatedly. The research - which ranges across many different domains of learning e.g. music, sports, education - shows that such practice is strongly correlated with gains in performance.

Anything that you want to become routine for your students is going to require the need to deliberately practice it. For example, if a teacher was going to use reciprocal teaching as a strategy to support students with reading comprehension, she would need to go through a series of steps before the students actually got “good” at it. She may begin by modeling how to use the sentence starters she created for summarizing, questioning, predicting and questioning. She may then have the students use some of the sentence starters with her, and finally, she might put students in groups and assign each student an area to focus on. Students would then still need time to interact and apply reciprocal teaching before it became something they developed a comfort level with. If the teacher expected the strategy to come to life with perfection the first time it was implemented that would have been an unrealistic expectation.

Below are strategies that you can use with students to support them in building not a only a repertoire of strategies, but a knowledge of where and when to use them, too.

Strategy #1 - Elicit evidence of awareness that students have for a particular strategy to determine your entry point for instruction.

Developing Assessment Capable Visible Learners Learner Notebook 6-12 Hattie, Fisher, Frey, Flories 2018

Strategy #2 - Incorporate strategy use into goal setting. As students set goals in class, have them identify the strategies they will use to support them in reaching their goal.

What is my learning goal?

Why is this my learning goal?

What strategies will help me reach my goal?

Strategy #3 - Use scenarios to support students in identifying when and why certain strategies are more useful than others.

Examples:


Strategy #4 - Explicitly teach students what the strategy is and have them think about when to apply it in learning.


Kuhn, D. & Dean, D. (2004). A bridge between cognitive psychology and educational practice. Theory into Practice, 43(4), 268-273.

Session 4:

Developing Learners Who Are Assessment-Capable

Teaching is to DIIE For – Part of the foundation of the DIIE cycle comes from the learning intentions and success criteria established for student learning. Too often students are given prescriptions before any diagnosis has occurred, which can potentially lessen the impact of interventions. When teachers are clear about what students need to learn and how they will be successful and this information is transferred to the student, the elements of the DIIE cycle have a strong opportunity to flourish.

Teacher clarity is an influence that has high potential to positively impact student achievement. The two main parts of teacher clarity begin with establishing clear learning intentions and success criteria. Planning and preparation void of starting with teacher clarity is no different than building a house without laying the foundation first. The likelihood that the house will collapse without a foundation is high as is the likelihood that without teacher clarity the impact on student learning will lessen. In addition to the creation of learning intentions and success criteria, teachers also need to be equipped with strategies that invite and engage students in them as well. Teachers need to plan how they will communicate the learning intentions and success criteria to students as well as check for understanding of them. While it is a start to post them somewhere in the classroom that practice alone will not support understanding, transfer and application by students. Students also need support and opportunities in applying the learning intentions and success criteria to monitor their learning. Possessing a clear understanding of the learning intentions and success criteria help students set challenging goals, self and peer assess, as well as provide and seek feedback. All essential components of visible learners.

Adapted from Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning

TEACHER CLARITY – 0.75 Effect Size

There are two parts in targeted learning (teacher clarity): the first is being clear about what is to be learned from the lesson(s) (the learning intention); the second is having a way of knowing that the desired learning has been achieved (the success criteria). Teacher clarity involves the teacher knowing where he or she is going with the lesson and ensuring that the students know where they are going. These pathways must be transparent for the student. Such teacher clarity is essential, and by this I mean clarity by the teachers as seen by the students. Teachers need to know how to keep all in the class on track for the learning goal and then evaluate their success in moving all toward the goal. Transparent learning intentions can also lead to greater trust between student and teacher, such that both parties become more engaged in the challenge provided and invested in moving toward the target. It does not mean knowing if and when the students complete the activities, but knowing whether they gain the concepts and understandings relative to the intentions of the lesson(s).

Learning Intentions

The goals (that is, the learning intentions) of any lesson need to be a combination of surface, deep, or conceptual, with the exact combination depending on the decision of the teacher, which in turn is based on how the lesson fits into the curriculum. Good learning intentions are those that make clear to the students the type or level of performance that they need to attain, so that they understand where and when to invest energies, strategies, and thinking, and where they are positioned along the trajectory towards successful learning. In this way, they know when they have achieved the intended learning. Effective teachers plan effectively by deciding on appropriately challenging goals and then structuring situations so students can reach these goals.

Learning intentions describe what it is we want students to learn and their clarity is at the heart of formative assessment. Unless teachers are clear about what they want students to learn (and what the outcome of this learning looks like), they are hardly likely to develop good assessment of that learning.

Clarke, Timperley, and Hattie (2003) noted some important features of learning intentions and planning, as follows.

· Share the learning intentions with students, so that they understand them and what success looks like. This is more than students chanting the learning intentions at the start of the lessons, but a deeper understanding of what is desired, what success looks like, and how the tasks relate to the intention.

· Not all students in the class will be working at the same rate or starting from the same place, so it is important to adapt the plan relating to the intentions to make it inclusive of all students.

· The cascade from curriculum aim, through achievement objective, to learning intention is sometimes complex because the curriculum documents do not all follow the same format and learning does not happen in neat, linear sequences.

· Learning intentions are what we intend students to learn.

· Finish each unit or lesson by referring to the learning intention and help students to understand how much closer they are to the success criteria.

A key issue is that students often need to be explicitly taught the learning intentions and success criteria.

Success Criteria

Success criteria relate to knowledge of end points - that is, how do we know when we arrive? A learning intention of ‘To learn to use effective adjectives’, for example, does not give the students the success criteria or how they will be judged. Imagine if I were simply to ask to get in your car and drive; at some unspecified time, I will let you know when you have successfully arrived (if you arrive at all). For too many students, this is what learning feels like. At best, they know that when they get there, they will be asked for more (to ‘drive’ more), and it should be no wonder that many students get turned off school learning. In the case of the ‘effective adjectives’, success criteria might be: ‘What you’re looking for is that you have used at least five effective adjectives’, or ‘What you’re looking for is that you have used an adjective just before a noun on at least four occasions that will help to paint a detailed picture, so that the reader can understand the feel of the jungle and the light of the jungle’. Students can be actively involved in devising success criteria with the teacher.

We must not make the mistake of making success criteria relate merely to completing the activity or a lesson having been engaging and enjoyable; instead, the major role is to get the students engaged in and enjoying the challenge of learning. It is challenge that keeps us investing in pursuing goals and committed to achieving goals.

Citations:

Clarke, S., Timperley, H., & Hattie, J.A.C. (2003) Unlocking formative assessment; Practical strategies for enhancing students’ learning in the primary and intermediate classroom (1st New Zealand ed.). Auckland; Hodder Moa Beckett

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing impact on Learning. London, Routledge

Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

Designing Learning Intentions and Success Criteria

Learning intentions and success criteria make clear to students what they will be learning and how they will be successful in learning. Oftentimes, teachers get paralysis from over-analysis when first working on establishing learning intentions and success criteria. The trick is not to worry about getting it right, but about getting it started. As teachers continue to design learning intentions and success criteria and engage students in understanding and applying them become more versed in how to design them. Teachers will learn where to make small tweaks or changes, where things can stay the same or where they may need to abandon what was created and rewrite new learning intentions and success criteria.

Learning intentions and success criteria are derived from the skills and concepts in standards. Skills are usually represented by verbs and concepts are captured by the nouns or noun phrases in the standard. It is incredibly common for a standard to include more than one skill and concept, so it is important that teachers take the time to analyze everything that lies within the standard. Take a look at this example.

STANDARD: Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.

CONCEPTS

(Nouns & Noun phrases)

SKILLS

(verbs)

Theme of a story, drama or poem from details in the text

DETERMINE

Characters response to challenges

DETERMINE

The text

SUMMARIZE

Possible Learning Intention:

· Today we are learning to determine the theme of a story.

Possible Success Criteria:

· I can identify the key details in the story.

· I can determine how the key details connect to each other.

· I can analyze the key details and how they connect to determine the theme of the story.

______________________________________________________________________________


· Today we are learning how characters in a story respond to a challenge.


· I can identify the challenge characters have in a story.

· I can identify details that support how a character is responding to the challenge.

· I can explain how the character responds to the challenge using my key details.

______________________________________________________________________________Possible Learning Intention:

· Today we are learning how to summarize the text.


· I can identify the key details in each paragraph of the text.

· I can identify the main idea of each paragraph using my key details.

· I can summarize the text using the main ideas of each paragraph.

Your Turn! Designing Learning Intentions & Success Criteria

STANDARD:

CONCEPTS

(Nouns & Noun phrases)

SKILLS

(verbs)



Sample Rubric for Student Clarity

Learning intentions and success criteria are only as powerful as your students’ understanding of them. This rubric can be used to gather baseline evidence to see how well students understand the learning intentions and success criteria. If you so choose, the rubric also has a question to gain insight into how kids respond when faced with a challenge in their learning. There are many ways to use this rubric. Below are a couple of ideas.

· As a PLC engaging in peer walkthroughs focused on gathering evidence on how clear students are about what they’re learning and how they’ll be successful.

· As an individual teacher with a personal goal to improve clarity in the classroom for students.

· As a way to gather baseline evidence with an intent to gather evidence again at a later date to measure growth made.

1

2

3

QUESTION-

What are you learning today?

1. Student is unable to articulate what he/she is learning/Can only reference task or activity.

2. Student articulates what he/she is learning (articulates the target/learning intention).

3. Student articulates what he/she is learning and how this connects to the learning task or activity.

QUESTION-

How will you know you’ve learned it/know you are successful?

1. Student is unable to articulate how he/she will know they’ve learned the target or gives no response.

2. Student articulates how he/she will know they’ve learned the target by referring to the success criteria.

3. Student refers to the success criteria and can articulate how the success criteria links to their current learning task.

Why are you learning it?

1. Student is unable to articulate why he/she is learning what they are or gives no response.

2. Student articulates why he/she is learning it connected to their learning task.

3. Student is able to elaborate why they are learning what they are to a larger context than the current task.

QUESTION-

What happens if you get stuck?

1. Student is unable to articulate a response.

2. Student’s only response is to ask the teacher.

3. Student references multiple strategies - ask a peer, review the success criteria, review notes, look at exemplar, etc.

Strategies to Build Student Understanding of Success Criteria

It’s one thing to create effective learning intentions and success criteria as the teacher, but if the students aren’t clear in what those are, little will teachers yield from the potential impact of teacher clarity. Not only do teachers need transparency about learning and the evidence that will show mastery, students need that same transparency, too.

Reflect

Building on your current expertise…

· How do you currently communicate learning intentions and success criteria to students?

· How do you know if they understand it?

· How do you or the students interact with the learning intention and success criteria throughout the lesson?

The Solid 7

Strategies to use with students to help communication, understanding, and use of learning intentions and success criteria. (Hattie and Clarke, 2019)

1. Showing excellent and different examples of the same skill, either in written form or finished product and asking, ‘What features can you identify in these examples?’

This strategy works very well with short extracts of writing, examples of art, design and technology and so on, and analysis of previous examples helps scaffold understanding and develop expertise.

What could this look like in YOUR classroom? What ideas do you have on how you might be able to use this strategy?

2. Demonstrating a technique or skill (possible projected if for instance, drawing the stages of a line graph) stopping after each step and asking, ‘What did I just do?’

Demonstrating a particular art technique, for instance, or specific skill, such as looking up words in a dictionary, with the teacher thinking out loud throughout, helps students identify the steps or ingredients of the skill. They can be asked repeatedly, ‘What did I just do?’ as a way of gathering the criteria. Older students can compile their own success criteria during the demonstration. This technique can also be used to develop quality in writing for instance, where the teacher thinks aloud her choice of words, encouraging students to call out better words or phrases.


3. Demonstrating good and bad/Showing good and bad examples of old student work

PE, music and art are examples of subjects for which a practical demonstration of how to do the skill well and how to do it badly both entertained students as well as helping them identify key features. Seeing a good example alongside a poor example helps students identify more clearly what should be included and what should not, or what makes the difference between good and better.


4. Doing it wrong

The teacher demonstrates how not to do the task in hand, inviting students to correct her and draw up the criteria as they go along. Especially good for mathematics with closed elements and very popular with young students.


5. Providing feedback to examples of work

One teacher showed her class a really bad example of how to film someone. Students offered feedback to the film-maker, thus generating the success criteria.

Another teacher showed a picture of a butterfly that a student drew held next to a picture of what he was trying to replicate. Students provided feedback using the features of the picture the student was trying to capture.

Showing a calculation from old student work in which there is an error is powerful in forcing students to analyze the mathematics step by step, thus generating the criteria as well as seeing common errors.


6. Working through it

Analyzing a bar graph, for instance, and discussing what helped students interpret it, is a good way of pulling out its elements and identifying what students need to do to be successful.


7. Co-constructing success criteria with students

Present the learning intention to the students and invite them to tell you what they would need to do to be successful in mastering the learning intention. This provides a place for student voice in the classroom as well as builds buy in and engagement from students as they authentically contributed to setting up the success criteria for their learning.


Using Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to Monitor Progress

As students begin to better understand and have “clarity” around what they are learning and what success looks like, the next step is to use that clarity to have them begin to monitor their own learning. Students need to be able to know where they are making progress and where their next learning steps are. Using success criteria is the way that they can do that. It is important that students learn how to support their level of learning with proof or evidence, as well as establish learning goals.

Secondary Example:

Elementary Example

Capitalizing on Collaborative Expertise: Give 1, Get 2

GIVE: What is one strategy you currently use to help students monitor their progress? What is the impact?

GET: STRATEGY #1

GET: STRATEGY #2

Session 5:

Developing Learners Who Use Effective Feedback

Teaching is to DIIE For – Students are given a lot of feedback but do they actually hear it and do something with it? Part of implementing interventions includes teacher to student feedback and student to teacher feedback. Students are major players in the learning process and feedback can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of particular interventions on student learning.

In order for teachers to give effective feedback to students, or allow students to give feedback to themselves or their classmates, the right evidence of learning needs to be present to determine where the learner is in relation to where they need to be. Then the intent of the feedback is to close that gap and move learning forward.

One strategy that can help teachers elicit the “right” evidence is to think about potential student misconceptions on a given topic or unit. Before students ever engage in the learning task, think about areas they may struggle in and then make sure you look for that as students are working or in the responses they provide. There is a lot of information that can be gained when students get an answer correct, but there is often valuable information in dissecting the reason why they got an answer incorrect. This will also support teachers in determining how to use student evidence of learning as feedback to drive their instructional decisions.

10 Formative Assessment Strategies to Elicit Evidence of Learning

Strategy

Definition

Notes/Ideas for my classroom

#1 The Best NO

A strategy that is used that supports students in error detection as well as recognizing errors as opportunities to help them learn. Students are given a problem or question and asked to individually respond to it on a slip of paper. Student DO NOT put their names on the paper. The teacher collects the student responses and then passes out piles to groups where they have to first assess if the answer is correct, and for the ones that aren’t, which one is the most incorrect, or “the best NO”? And in groups or as a class the errors are corrected.

*This strategy requires a safe learning environment and level of trust in the classroom.

#2 Concept mapping

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts.

#3 Picture Connection

Students are given a topic or idea to think about and then are asked to select from a wide range of pictures the one they feel connects most with the topic or idea at hand. Students can write about their connection, talk with a peer or a group of peers, or engage in classroom discussion.

#4 Reciprocal Teaching

A strategy that teaches students to learn from each other by summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and predicting as they discuss and interact with text with the aim of improving understanding of what they are reading and to learn to monitor their own learning and thinking.

#5 True or False - Prove it!

Students are shown different answers or solutions and asked a focused question about if something is true or false. Students are asked to justify their answers. For example, Which of the following statements is true? Which of the following statements is false.

#6 Exit Ticket

This is completed by students at the end of a lesson or class. It can serve a number of purposes: provide feedback to the teacher about the class; require the student to do some synthesis of the day's content; challenge the student with a question requiring some application of what was learned in the lesson.

#7 Table Top Discussions

Students are posed with hypothetical scenarios that are designed to expose learners to problems and issues that might emerge in a variety of situations. Students are invited to think about how they might be solved.

#8 Student Self Evaluations

Students are given a template to list the success criteria for the lesson. At the end of the lesson, students self-assess their learning providing “proof” or evidence for why they rated themselves where they did as well as identify their next learning steps.

#9 Feedback Question Cards

Students are prompted to utilize a variety of tools and resources to formulate a focused question seeking feedback on an specific area they need support with.

#10 Co-Constructing Success Criteria with Students

Students are given the learning intention for the lesson and then invited to consider what the success criteria would be. This can be done by taking them through a task, and asking “What did I just do?”

BUILD EFFICACY AND LEARN FROM EACH OTHER

#11

#12

#13

EXAMPLE: STUDENT MISCONCEPTION TEMPLATE

Strategy: Exit Ticket posing the following questions -

What are three key details from the story we read today?

What was the main idea of the story?

Standard and/or skill and concept to focus on:

Identifying the main idea of a story using key details from the text.

Potential misconceptions to look for:

Response to close gap in learning:

Students either think the first or last sentence of what they read is the main idea.

These students lack in their ability to combine details throughout the text as they read. Some students may also not understand what makes a key detail a key detail.

Instructional Response: Give students a graphic organizer that’s a line with boxes along the continuum of the line. (See example below) The first significant key detail of the story will be at the beginning of the line and the last significant key detail of the story will be at the other end of the line. Students will need to add details that are in the story between the first key detail and the last key detail. After students complete that portion, they will look at all of their details together and determine the main idea.

Some students may also benefit from using the “Is it a Key Detail?” Checklist, too.

Students only use key details from one portion of the text to determine the main idea.

These students know how to identify key details, but they lack in their ability to comprehensively capture details in an entire text and synthesize them to determine the main idea.

Instructional Response: Give students a graphic organizer that has a box with two bullets to capture key details for each paragraph in the story. Students will complete it as they read. After they capture key details for each story they will review them all to determine the main idea.

Students identify every detail as a key detail.

These students lack in their understanding of knowing a Key detail from any other detail.

Instructional Response: Create an “Is it a key detail?” checklist. During small group instruction we review each line of the paragraph stopping to determine if there are any key details present using our checklist as our guide.

[INSERT FOCUS QUESTION ICON]

FOCUS QUESTIONS

Pick one strategy that you will use in your classroom in the next upcoming two weeks to elicit evidence of student learning for a particular skill and concept. What potential misconceptions will you look for as you elicit evidence of student learning?

BLANK STUDENT MISCONCEPTION TEMPLATE

Strategy:

Standard and/or skill and concept to focus on:

Potential misconceptions to look for:

Response to close gap in learning:

Student to Student Feedback

Strategy #1 - Is It Time for Feedback? Checklist

Secondary example

Elementary example

Strategy #2 - Feedback Sentence Starters

Strategy #3: Allow students to give feedback to anonymous work. Provide students with the success criteria and then have them use it to give feedback to the student work in front of them.

Going Deeper With Feedback

Scan the following QR codes for examples of good feedback.

https://vimeo.com/38247060 ] Austin’s Butterfly

https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/essentialskills/Pages/Math-Work-Sample-Tasks.aspx ] Oregon Department of Education Math Examples

http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_C.pdf ] Common Core Student Writing Samples

https://www.achieve.org/our-initiatives/equip/all-equip-resources/student-work-protocol/annotated-student-work] Annotated Student Work

STOP AND REFLECT:

Where do you currently have strength with FEEDBACK?

How do you know?

What is an aspect of feedback you would like to develop?

Why is this an area of focus?

What actions will you take to support your development of feedback?

Session 6:

The Mindframes of a Visible Teacher

Teaching is to DIIE For – Mindframes are statements that shape beliefs of visible teachers who create visible learners in their schools and classrooms. Building structures and processes for diagnosing, intervening, implementing and evaluating is hard work and will most likely present challenges as teachers navigate through each of those actions. Mindframes will help teachers stay the course in their efforts and keep the focus on positively impacting student learning.

The Partnership Between Efficacy and Mindframes

You are what you do, not what you say you do.

C.G. Jung

What are your mindframes?

Mindframe #1 - I am an evaluator of my impact on student learning. I am very good at making my impact on student learning visible and using methods for making my impact on student learning visible. I know that student achievements make my impact visible, that student achievements help me to maximize my impact. My goal is always to evaluate my impact on student learning and use multiple methods of measuring student achievement to assess my impact on student learning. I am thoroughly convinced that I need to evaluate my impact on student learning regularly and systematically, that I need to use student learning to assess my impact.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1

5 - Embedded in my practice 3 - I’m on my way 1 - Not quite there yet

Mindframe #2 - I see assessment as informing my impact and next steps. I am very good at adapting my teaching when my students do not achieve their learning goals and using the achievements of my students to draw conclusions on my thoughts concerning goals, content, methods, and media. I know that student achievements allow me to draw conclusions on my thoughts concerning goals, content, methods, and media. My goal is always to measure the achievement levels of my students regularly and systematically and use objective methods of measuring student achievement to assess the success of my teaching. I am thoroughly convinced that I need to check the achievement levels of my students regularly and systematically, that I need to use objective methods of measuring student achievement to assess the success of my teaching.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #3 I collaborate with my peers and my students about my conceptions of progress and my impact. I am very good at saving time by sharing work with other teachers and sharing responsibility in a team. I know that failures can be overcome in a team, that responsibility can be shared in a team. My goal is always to consolidate strengths through teamwork and overcome failures in my team. I am thoroughly convinced that strengths can be consolidated in a team and that it is important to cooperate with my colleagues.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #4 - I am a change agent and believe all students can improve. I am very good at applying successful methods to make my teaching more differentiated, applying various strategies for enhancing the students’ motivation. I know that my teaching has an impact on the students, that there are various strategies for enhancing motivation. My goal is always to have an impact on the students through my teaching and motivate the students in their learning process. I am thoroughly convinced of having a positive impact on the students through my teaching, that it is important to continuously question the impact of my teaching.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #5 - I strive for challenge and not merely “doing your best.” I am very good at developing challenging assignments based on learning levels, setting challenging learning goals on the basis appropriate to the students’ learning needs. I know that the assignments in my lessons should be challenging, that the learning requirements should be challenging for the students. My goal is always to design my lesson to include challenging goals based on the learning level and design assignments to be challenging for the students. I am thoroughly convinced that it is important for students to make an effort, that suitable challenging learning goals can be formulated only on the basis of the learning level.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #6 - I give and help students understand feedback and I interpret and act on feedback given to me. I am very good at obtaining feedback from my students and using the feedback from my students to improve my teaching. I know that I need to act on the feedback from my students and how to give and help students understand feedback. My goal is always to obtain feedback from my students and reflect on the feedback from my students. I am thoroughly convinced that regular feedback strategies need to be integrated into my lessons, that I should use my students’ opinions as feedback for me.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #7 - I engage as much in dialogue as monologue. I am very good at encouraging students to talk about content and leading students to learning success through cooperating with others. I know that instructions need to be clearly formulated and the benefits of cooperative learning methods, such as the think-pair-share principle. My goal is always to encourage students to communicate more with each other and encourage students to present their thinking and solution processes more often. I am thoroughly convinced that students should communicate with each other, that it is important to get students to participate more often.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #8 - I explicitly inform students what successful impact looks like from the outset. I am very good at showing the learner what the goal of the lesson is and showing the learner what the success criteria of learning are. I know that learning needs clear, challenging, and transparent goals, that the visibility of the success criteria is an essential aid for learners. My goal is always to make the objectives of teaching clear, challenging, and transparent and show learners the success criteria. I am thoroughly convinced that it is my job to ensure clear, challenging, and transparent goals, that the visibility of success criteria is important for learners.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #9 - I build relationships and trust so that the learning can occur in a place where it is safe to make mistakes and learn from others. I am very good at taking into account my students’ environment and establishing a feeling of belonging in the class. I know that a positive relationship with students is important, that students’ environment has great influence on their learning. My goal is always to get my students to trust me and build trust among my students. I am thoroughly convinced that a positive relationship with my students is important, that it is important to establish a fair and positive climate in the class.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


Mindframe #10 - I focus on learning and the language of learning. I am very good at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of my students and determining what prior academic knowledge my students have. I know that my students’ prior experiences need to be taken into account and what achievement level my students are at. My goal is always to take into account the strengths and weaknesses of my student and take into account the prior academic knowledge of my students when teaching. I am thoroughly convinced that it is important to know the strengths and weaknesses of my students that I should take into account the prior academic knowledge of my students when teaching.

5_________________4_________________3__________________2_________________1


The Role of EFFICACY

Rachel Eells's (2011) meta-analysis of studies related to collective efficacy and achievement in education demonstrated that the beliefs teachers hold about the ability of the school as a whole are "strongly and positively associated with student achievement across subject areas and in multiple locations" (p. 110). On the basis of Eells's research, John Hattie positioned collective efficacy at the top of the list of factors that influence student achievement (Hattie, 2016). According to his Visible Learning research, based on a synthesis of more than 1,600 meta-analyses, collective teacher efficacy is greater than three times more powerful and predictive of student achievement than socioeconomic status. It is more than double the effect of prior achievement, and more than triple the effect of home environment and parental involvement. It is also greater than three times more predictive of student achievement than student motivation and concentration, persistence, and engagement (see fig. 1).

Mindframe Mingling Activity

#1 I am an evaluator of my impact on student learning

Formative evaluation is oftentimes not as common of a term as formative assessment, but in essence they are the same thing if the assessment is used to guide instruction. The origin of formative assessment stems from the term formative evaluation that was first used in 1967 by Michael Scriven. His notion was more focused on examining aspects of the curriculum. Two years later Benjamin Bloom applied the same concept to classroom assessments. “By formative evaluation we mean evaluation by brief tests used by teachers and students as aids in the learning process. While such tests may be graded and used as part of the judging and classificatory function of evaluation, we see much more effective use of formative evaluation if separated from the grading process and used primarily as an aid to teaching” (1969). Based on how teachers formative assessments, what is its main purpose? Are assessments used more to assign grades or scores, or is the primary focus to “aid teaching”?

#2 I see assessment as informing my impact and next steps

Student assessments are not important feedback just for learners. They are even more useful for teachers themselves, because they provide indications about the lesson they gave - and accordingly also about all relevant pedagogical issues, such as whether the students achieved the learning goals, understood the content, and found the methods appropriate and helpful (Hattie & Klaus). In what ways do teachers use student assessment as feedback? Where are there strengths? Where are there opportunities?

#3 I collaborate with my peers and my students about my conceptions of progress and my impact

The beliefs and conceptions held by teachers need to be questioned – not because they are wrong (or right) but because the essence of good teaching is that teachers’ expectations and conceptions must be subjected to debate, refutation, and investigation. Only then can there be major improvements in achievement (Hattie 2009). The narrative in a school should less be about “how to teach” and more about the “impact of teaching” (Hattie and Klaus p. 27). How often does teacher discourse include debate, refutation, and investigation? What fuels these discussions? What impedes them?

#4 I am a change agent and believe all students can improve

Hattie and Klaus reference four categories of motivation in addition to corresponding motivational strategies are mentioned in 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning:

1. Attention generating strategies include generating a conflict between prior knowledge and an observation, using humor, or given students the chance to ask questions.

2. Relevance generating strategies include highlighting the current or future importance of a lesson’s topic.

3. Confidence generating strategies include presenting tasks that learners are (only just) capable of completing or strengthening their self confidence.

4. Satisfaction generating strategies include strengthening positive developments or unexpectedly giving students recognition for an achievement.

Which strategies do you use with students? What is the impact? What strategies

have the opportunity for greater presence?

#5 I strive for challenge and not merely doing my best

Graham Nuthall spent many years listening into the talk among students and with their teachers. What was most apparent from his research was that teachers do not talk to students about learning or thinking, they talk more about paying attention and not annoying others, they talk about the resources the students will need to use, and they talk about activities - how long the activity should take and what will happen if it is not finished on time (Nuthall 2007). Think about how instructional time is currently utilized. Is there more of an alignment or disconnect to what Nuthall discovered through his research? Why is that?

#6 I give and help students understand feedback and I interpret and act on feedback given to me

Teachers cannot answer the question of whether learning is successful on their own. They need to ask the learners what they think, because they provide crucial input. The most powerful form of feedback is from the students to the teachers about their impact on the students. Learning and teaching are dialogic processes. Successful teachers are thus capable both of giving students feedback on their learning processes and demanding and interpreting feedback from students on their own teaching processes (Hattie & Klaus). This makes me think about ____________.

#7 I engage as much in dialogue as monologue

Teacher talk still dominates classrooms, with Karen Littleton et al. (2005) claiming teachers spend 70-90 percent of their teaching time “talking” and not engaging students in any discussion. Janet Clinton et al. (2014) used professional captioners to record classroom discussion across 1500 hour in 100 classes in England, and the median was 89 percent of the talk time was by teachers. What are factors that may cause many teachers to dominate the learning environment with teacher talk? How can more “talk time” be given to students?

#8 - I explicitly inform students what successful impact looks like from the outset

Teacher clarity, specifically learning intentions and success criteria, are needed to create visible teachers who develop visible learners. Success criteria is a non-negotiable for teachers who want to bring this mindframe to life. If teachers haven’t established clear success criteria for the learning intention, it makes it quite difficult to explicitly inform students what success looks like from the onset of learning. Keep in mind that success criteria is not an agenda or a set of tasks to complete, rather it represents incremental skills that students need to acquire to demonstrate mastery of the learning intention as a whole. Where are teachers in their current practice with creating and using success criteria with students?

#9 I build relationships and trust so that learning can occur in a place where it is safe to make mistakes and learn from others

Hattie and Yates discuss te power of a smile in Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn (2014). One important message is that students inevitably read your smiling behavior. They will observe how you smile and use this as an index to tell them what mood you are in, what sort of person you are, and the likely reaction you might have to them today. Your smile will enable them to rate you on approachability. There will be contagion effects in that when you smile at a student, he or she is likely to smile back, and also at his or her classmates. Your disposition to smile at your students will constitute one of the most important aspects about you that they will remember over time (Hattie & Yates 2014). What does this make you think about? What does this make you wonder? What does this make you want to do?

#10 I focus on learning and the language of learning

Data is awash in many schools, and an unintentional consequence is that many teachers are data rich but information poor. Data helps ensure that teachers are diagnosing learning needs before identifying the needed prescriptions. Too often this process is backwards and teachers prescribe the learning students need without any proper diagnosis. This can cause a loss of instructional time. Nuthall’s work (2007) revealed that teachers spend 40%-60% of instructional minutes on material students already know. What data do teachers currently have access to? How is the data used to talk about student learning? How do teachers make adjustments to their instruction based on data?

START.STOP.CONTINUE

What do I need to STOP doing that is a barrier to becoming a Visible Teacher?

* What is the evidence I have to know that this is not working?

What do I need to START doing to support developing becoming a Visible Teacher?

What do I need to CONTINUE doing because it is supporting me in becoming a Visible Teacher?

*What is the evidence I have to know that this is working?

The Language of Learning Glossary

Word(s) or Phrase(s)

Description(s)

Learning intention

The goals of any lesson. These need to be a combination of surface, deep, or conceptual, with the exact combination depending on the decision of the teacher, which in turn is based on how the lesson fits into the curriculum.

Success criteria

Success criteria relate to knowledge of end points—that is, how do we know when we arrive (achieve the stated goal)?

Impact cycle

Impact cycles are cycles of inquiry, focusing and refocusing improvement efforts on questions or areas of interest that have emerged from the findings of school and/or classroom capability assessments.

Mindframes

Mindframes are ways of thinking, based on the Visible Learning research. John Hattie’s claim is that teachers and school leaders who develop these ways of thinking are more likely to have major impacts on student learning.

Feedback

Feedback is information provided by an agent (e.g., teacher, peer, book, parent, or one’s own experience) about aspects of one’s performance or understanding.

Learning processes

The strategies (e.g., self-verbalizing, help-seeking, goal setting, planning, self-instruction, self-evaluation, note taking, summarizing, etc.) we use in the pursuit of learning.

Systems’ thinking

Systems’ thinking is the discipline that integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice. It keeps them from being separate gimmicks or the latest organization fads. Without a systemic orientation, there is not motivation to look at how the disciplines interrelate.

Criterion-referenced assessment

A criterion-referenced assessment is one that has been designed to measure a person’s skills, knowledge, and understanding with reference to benchmarks of expected performance in relation to a specific competency or body of knowledge. It allows us to measure the level of an individual’s learning.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment refers to all those assessment activities undertaken by teachers and by the students themselves, which provide information, to be used as feedback to modify the teaching and learning activities in which they are engaged.

Diagnostic assessment

Diagnostic assessment provides information for teachers on what or how students are achieving at a particular time. Diagnostic tools give detailed information about students’ learning needs and provide prompt reflection on appropriate teaching strategies to meet these. Diagnostic assessment also informs future program planning and gives valuable information to teachers on how they may scaffold the learning to meet the individual learning needs of students.

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Description(s)

Norm

A norm is a statistical representation of a population. A norm-referenced score interpretation compares an individual’s results on the test with the statistical representation of the population. In practice, rather than testing a population, a representative sample or group is tested. This provides a group norm or set of norms.

Norm-referenced assessment

A norm-referenced assessment is one that has been designed to determine the position of an individual relative to others in a population, with respect to the skills, knowledge, and understanding being measured. When combined with a standardized score, it allows us to track an individual’s progress over time relative to a population.

Reliability

This is the extent to which the results from the same assessment can be repeated across time and situations, statistically expressed. If an assessment comes up with very different results each time the student sits for the test, it lacks reliability.

Standardized assessment

In a standardized assessment, the content is set, the directions are prescribed, and the scoring procedure is completely specified. There are norms against which we may compare the scores of the students being assessed. Standardized assessment tools enable the result for any student to be compared with the results for a normal sample of students.

Standardized scores

Standardized scores are derived from students’ results on a norm-referenced test in such a way that the underlying population has a predefined mean and standard deviation and therefore allow us to interpret an individual’s results in a consistent way relative to the population.

Standardized test

A standardized test is a test that has been designed so that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.

Summative assessment

This is an evaluation made by the teacher at the conclusion of a unit of work, instruction, or assessment activity to assess student skills, knowledge, and understandings at the particular point in time. However, these assessments can also be used formatively if they are used to promote future learning.

Validity

Validity is the single most important attribute of a good test. Nothing will be gained from assessment unless the assessment has some validity for your purpose. There are several different types of validity: a) Face validity—do the assessment items appear to be appropriate? b) Content validity—does the assessment content cover what we want to assess? c) Criterion-related validity—how well does the test measure what we want it to? d) Construct validity—are you measuring what you think you’re measuring?

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