Welcome to CUR 509: Monitoring and Aligning

Curriculum, Instruction, and AssessmentDr. Becca Gibson

Agenda: The Necessary 1st Class Items!

• Attendance (sign-in sheet each class)

• Announcements

• Syllabus (and sign-up sheets)

• Blackboard site https://blackboard.mcdaniel.edu/

• Introductions

• Some actual “work”!

Your first task… complete form and turn in at end of class

• Getting to know you…• Some demographic questions: • • Name: Dr. Rebecca Gibson• Prefer to be called: “Doc” – just kidding!• Current job title/duties: Lecturer in Education and Area Coordinator for

Assessment• I am taking this course because: N/A• Grad class pet peeve(s): when one person dominates discussions, when no

one talks, when a class runs over the time allotted!• I learn best: when I have time to reflect, and when I can talk, and write• Something I’d like to “get” from this course is: having my students help

make the material relevant• When I’m not 100% engaged in class, I’m probably thinking about: my

daughter (she just turned 2!)• Anything else you would like me to know: recent Ph.D. grad (2006), 9 years

as a Reading Specialist in PA public schools, 2nd year here at McDaniel

Our Blackboard site

• http://blackboard.mcdaniel.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_29764_1%26url%3d

• Please check our site and your McDaniel email regularly! Especially if the weather is “wintry”!

Syllabus• I know, it’s long…!

• scoring rubrics are included

• The “calendar” on p. 3 will be helpful for the semester at a glance!

Assignments

• Discussion Boards – 5 @ 2 points each (due 2/4, 2/11, 4/1, 4/8,

4/22)– Attempt to stagger your 2 posts (by Sat.

evening and Monday evening)– Let’s take a look at what the board looks like!

Discussion Facilitator

• Sign-up for one session (starting next week!) and you and your partner are in charge! –for helping the class have some depth of understanding about the supplemental reading for the session.

Communication Letter

• Take a letter you already have (or create from scratch) and “kick it up a notch” to really communicate to parents very specifically and clearly some aspect of the assessment process their child is a stakeholder in.

Mid-Term

• You already have it! It’s in your syllabus!• There are 2 parts:• For the first part you are creating some sample

assessment questions (4 selected response items and 2 brief constructed responses) that are linked to content standards.

• For the second part you are beginning to formulate some goals for the Assessment Plan.

Assessment “Make-Over” Project

• This is a “pilot” assignment, so we’ll see how it goes!

• Basically, you’re going to select an assessment you use and give it a face-lift.

• You have the option to work alone or with a partner or group, we’ll be presenting your made-over assessments toward the end of the semester (I’m not sure how to structure that yet)

Assessment Plan

• This is the “big one”! Our NCATE Assessment…• You’ll have several opportunities to work on

conceptualizing this project in class, and some opportunities to bring in drafts for peer review/support. I’ll also have some samples available to examine.

• There are options for this assignment and I’m open to the further individualizing of your plan. We can co-create your scoring guide.

• Other assignments in this course can “fit into” you’re A.P.• This project also “aligns” with other CUR projects, so you

may be able to use it for other purposes…

On-Line class

• April 8th: no face-to-face class• Since you are a CCPS cohort section and

you don’t have school this day, we’re going to have on-line assignments instead of meeting.

• You’ll have a discussion board and also an assignment that requires visiting 2 State Dept. of Ed. Websites, answering a few questions and sending them to me.

Now – let’s get to know each other even more – “speed dating style”!

• Your goal is to begin to get to know your community of learners a bit more in order to help you work in groups etc.

• You will be meeting each class member eventually in a small group…Complete each box of information on your form for each class member! Ready… Set…

• NAME• Current job title/location• If you could change 1 thing about your job it would be…• 3 words that describe yourself• A topic in assessment or education that you are

passionate about

So formulate your own answers now!

Now – let’s get to know each other even more – “speed dating style”!

• You each have a number on your name-tag

• Get into groups of 3 to begin• Write class member’s name with

corresponding number as we group/regroup

• Get to know your group members, and then form a new group with classmates you haven’t yet collected information from

Take a break?• Take a look at sign-up sheets… get out

your calendar and corral the classmates you might like to work with and “make a commitment” (if possible)!

• Snack/beverage machines on 1st floor, opposite of main door

Now… back to work!

• The text… what do you think so far?• Some “big names” in “assessment”

– Stiggins– Popham– Reeves– Black & Wiliam

• Much of the class work we’ll engage in has a goal of giving us some time and space for active reflection

Reflection…• Reflection is looking back on experience in

a way that informs practice, learning in the midst of practice, and/or making informed and intelligent decisions about what to do, when to do it, and why it should be done. (Shulman, 1987; Richert, 1990; Schon, 1983)

It’s my hope that this course forces you to become very conscious assessment creators/consumers!

4 Keys to Assessment Quality

Assess How?What method?

Built of quality ingredients?

Why Assess?What’s the purpose?

Who will use the results? How?

Communicate How?Reported to whom?

In what form? How?

Assess What?What are the learning targets?

Are they clear? Appropriate?

“Shifting” our thinking about assessment…

• We all know things in education change, cycle, evolve…

• Has assessment changed as our curriculum and instruction have?

• Something to think about…

“OF” or “FOR”?• One of the goals for this course is to

perhaps “shift” your thinking a bit about assessment…

• Assessment “OF” or “FOR” student learning… or Assessment “AS” learning!

• Educators have a vast amount of assessment choices available to them!

The Changing Role of Assessment

• Skim pp. 14-19 for a quick frame of reference

• Group Activity: “Traditional Assessment Horror Stories”

1) Share stories from your own schooling in group.

2) Chart common themes, post chart.

3) Whole group share

Why We Assess

• What’s the purpose? Who will use the results? How?

Program LevelClassroom Level Institutional/Policy Level

Jot down a list answering the above questions from your own perspective.

Why We Assess

• What’s the purpose? Who will use the results? How?

Program LevelClassroom Level Institutional/Policy Level

Assessment Users & Uses: Group Activity

• Working in 3 groups, list the benefits and frustrations of using assessment at your assigned level.

Classroom Level

Program Level

Institutional/ Policy Level

Benefits

Frustrations

Use Stiggins Ch. 2 for support if needed

Popham’s “Test Better, Teach Better: The Instructional Role of

Assessment”… a few thoughts• “…how a teacher tests – the way a

teacher designs tests and applies test data- can profoundly affect how well that teacher teaches.”

• What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Popham …

• “The Links Between Testing and Teaching”

• Popham’s definition of a “test” = A formal attempt to determine a students’ status with respect to specific variables, such as the students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes

• “Test” vs. “Assessment” other synonyms? Exam, measurement, etc.

Popham sees educational testing as “an inference-making enterprise”

Teacher makes a test-based

inference about

Student’s overt test performance

Student’s covert status

The more accurate the test-based inferences a teacher makes, the more effective the instructional decisions can be that are based on those inferences.

What Sorts of Teaching Decisions Can Tests Help?

• Decisions about:– The nature and purpose of the curriculum– Students’ prior knowledge– How long to teach something– The effectiveness of instruction

Reflect: In your “teaching world”, what kinds of decisions are MOST influenced by your current assessments?

Students as assessment users…

• Stiggins p. 39, “Traditional school improvement plans and strategies have operated on the belief that the most important instructional decisions- the ones that contribute the most to student learning- are made by teachers and other adults in the system. Little attention has been given to students as assessment users and instructional decision makers”.

Reflect…• What’s the status in your school? Why?

• How are students USERS of assessment?

• Be ready to share with the rest of the class.

• Exit ticket: What does assessment FOR learning mean to you?

Next Week…

• Stiggins Ch. 3, + 2 articles for supplemental readings (short and located on Bb) Our first discussion facilitators should be ready to go…

• 1st Investigation/Reflection Discussion Board Posts: Successes and challenges of translating standards into “student-friendly” achievement targets…