The Power of Learning Targets Transform Learning in the Classroom

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The Power of Learning TargetsTransform Learning
in the Classroom

• Ken Mattingly
• Rockcastle County Middle School
• Stephanie Harmon
• Rockcastle County High School
• Representing PIMSER K-12 Outreach

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Group Norms

• Start and end on time
• Put cell phones on silent
• Be respectful of all comments
• Everyone participates
• Exercise the rule of two feet
• You may not agree with me
• and Im okay with that!

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Whos in the Room

• Please stand for the role that best
• represents your current position
• Classroom Teacher
• Resource Teachers (curriculum coaches, academic
  specialists, etc.)
• Building level administrators
• District level administrators
• Others

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Our Roadmap for Today
Implications of Senate Bill 1
Stephanies Journey
Where have we been? Where are we going? Preparing
for Day 2
Kens Journey
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Tools

• T-chart
• Things I want to remember
• How will this impact my classroom/school district?

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Why are we here?

• Questions you have about
  Learning Targets

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Why are we here?

• Senate Bill OneMarch 2009
• KRS 158.6453
• (4) (a) The assessment program to be implemented
  in the 2011-2012 academic year shall be composed
  of annual student assessments and state and local
  program reviews and audits in selected content
  areas.
• (b) The state student assessments may include
  formative and summative data.
• (8) Local school districts may select and use
  commercial interim or formative assessments of
  develop and use their own formative assessments
  to provide data on how well their students are
  growing toward mastery of KY academic core
  content. Nothing in this section precludes
  teachers from using ongoing teacher-developed
  formative processes.

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What Does Senate Bill 1 mean for the Classroom?

• A shift in how assessment is used
• Formative Summative
• Becoming assessment literate
• SB1 requires that KDE provide professional
  development programs that support assessment
  literacy

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Point of View

• Senate Bill 1 defines what it means to be
  assessment literate and the types of assessments
  that should be included in instruction. Explain
  what assessment means from the viewpoint of an
  administrator, a teacher and a student.

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Point of View

• Table Share
• Pair Share

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SB 1 Talking Points

• Assessment Literacy
• How assessments are defined/described

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Balanced Assessment

• What does it look like?
• How is it developed?
• Assessment for Learning vs. Assessment of Learning

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Targets, Assessments, Grading

• What do I do with targets after I have them?
• Ken Mattingly
• B.A. University of Kentucky
• M.A. Eastern Kentucky University
• National Certification in Early Adolescent
  Science
• ken.mattingly_at_rockcastle.kyschools.us

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My Job

1. To show you the process I have taken to
   incorporate Classroom Assessment for Student
   Learning into my classroom practices.
2. To give examples of how I used it to sharpen my
   focus on what my students learn, how they learn
   it, and how they are assessed.
3. To show you how I have taken CASL and transformed
   the way I assess my students and report their
   successes and shortcomings.

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I will do that by

1. Sharing a year-by-year synopsis of my progress.
2. Introducing you to ways of linking targets to
   activities and summative assessments.
3. Sharing examples of formative and summative
   assessments that focus on learning targets.
4. Presenting a method for using targets as the
   structure for a standards-based grading scale.
5. Sharing examples of student opportunities to
   demonstrate target mastery that allows them to
   take ownership of their learning.

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Rockcastle County Middle School

• 625 students grade 6-8
• 2 teams per grade level
• 70 Free and reduced lunch
• 2007 AI 95, 2008 AI 98, 2009 AI 105
• Science PD
• 2007 70
• 2008 73
• 2009 84

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Classroom Assessment for Student Learning

• Assessment of Learning
• Summative, documents individual or group
  achievement, occurs after learning, sorts
  students into groups, primary motivator is threat
  of punishment or promise of rewards
• Assessment for Learning
• Formative, promotes increase in achievement,
  occurs during learning, help teachers diagnose
  and respond to student needs, primary motivator
  is the belief that success in learning is
  achievable.
• Classroom Assessment for Learning, p. 33

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What are targets, really?

• Statements of intended learning.
• The building blocks for student attainment of the
  standards.
• Principal driver of classroom instructional
  decisions.
• The framework for classroom assessment practices.

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Year One In the beginning

• The Long and Winding Road

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What do we want to assess?

• Start with the end in mind.
• What do we want students to know and do?
• Sources Common Core Standards, POS, CCD, not CCA
• Turn those documents into manageable chunks of
  information
• Take standard and break into the learning pieces
  that when put together form the scaffolding for
  performance of the standard (Deconstruction)
• Knowledge, Reasonings, Skills, Products
• These are the pieces that give your instruction
  direction and you want to assess

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Side Note on Deconstruction

• Taking standards and deconstructing them is hard
  and time consuming.
• Decisions often have to be made on what is
  essential learning.
• There will be differences of opinion on how
  standards break out.
• Put the book away when deconstructing
• Dont let this step frustrate you and keep you
  from implementing AFL.

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Learning/Achievement Targets
Statements of what we want students to learn and
be able to do.
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Student Friendly Learning Target Example

• Standard SC-07-4.6.2 Students will
• describe the transfer and/or transformations of
  energy which occur in examples that involve
  several different forms of energy (e.g., heat,
  electrical, light, motion of objects and
  chemical).
• Explain, qualitatively or quantitatively, that
  heat lost by hot object equals the heat gained by
  cold object.

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Student Friendly Learning Target Example

1. I can give examples of energy.
2. I can give examples of energy transfer. That
   means when energy is moved from one object to
   another.
3. I can give examples of energy transformations.
   That means when energy is changed from one form
   to another form.
4. I can describe the exchange of energy between hot
   objects and cold objects.

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Impacting My Classroom?

• Formulated targets for a unit.
• Put those targets on the bulletin board.
• Read them to the students the first day of the
  unit.
• Never referred to them again.

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So What Was The Benefit?

• I had to examine my standards in greater depth.
• I learned what I needed to learn about my
  content.
• I was more aware of the specifics I wanted my
  students to know.
• My students had at least a casual exposure to
  what they needed to learn.

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Working Group Discussion

• How would developing learning targets change the
  instructional environment in your school?
• What challenges do you foresee with developing
  learning targets?

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Year Two Implementing Targets

• Now Were Getting Somewhere

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• Students who can identify what they are learning
  significantly outscore those who cannot.
• Robert Marzano

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Clear, Student-friendly Targets

• Turn knowledge, skill, reasoning, and product
  pieces into I can target statements.
• Targets should use student-friendly language.
• Targets should be attainable.
• Provide clear, stationary targets for students to
  aim at and they will hit them.
• Give students a copy of learning targets for the
  unit.

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Using Targets for Post-Assessment Development

• Matching the assessment method to the type of
  target.
• Determining adequate sampling size.
• Assessment format considerations open response
  vs. multiple-choice, time constraints
• Quality of questions, information value of
  incorrect answers

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Working Group Discussion

• How do you determine the questions that are on
  your assessments?
• What is the benefit, if any, for common summative
  assessments?
• How would you have to prepare your faculty for
  this process?

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Year Three

• Targets as the driving force of instruction.

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Using Targets for Pre-Assessment Development

• Targets can easily be turned into questions for a
  pre-assessment to see where students are at the
  beginning of a unit.
• Develop questions that give students an
  indication of what they are to learn.
• Pre-assessment as feedback throughout unit.

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Linking Lessons to Targets

• Each learning experience should be explicitly
  linked to a target.
• Students are introduced to the target at the
  beginning and ending of the experience.
• Each learning experience is evaluated for its
  effectiveness at moving students toward mastery
  of the target.

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Year Four

• How can I identify problems before its too late?

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How do I know my instruction is good?

• The students seem to enjoy the activities?
• I think they understand it?
• When I get back their unit test results?
• When the state test scores arrive?
• By the number of parent compliments or
  complaints?
• What my peers/administrator say about me?

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Formative Assessments

• Assessments conducted during learning to promote,
  not merely judge or grade, student success
• Provide information to teacher and student on
  student performance.
• Supplies opportunities to make mid-course
  corrections to learning experiences.

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Research on Feedback

• Quality of feedback matters. Specifically
  descriptive ,criterion-based feedback is better
  than numerical scoring or letter grades.
• Emphasis on the importance of learning leads to
  greater learning vs. looking good or being
  compared to others.
• Descriptive feedback that focuses on strengths
  and weaknesses is most effective
• Classroom Assessment for Learning, p. 40

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My Philosophy on Formative Assessments

• FA does not count as a grade
• Feedback is generally descriptive or otherwise
  informs on attainment of mastery
• Blanks, I dont knows, IDCs, etc. are
  unacceptable (You have to develop a classroom
  culture of this)
• Returned to students and compared to good work
  to inform them of where they are
• Followed by a discussion of how to close the gap
  to mastery

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Working Group Discussion

• What are your thoughts on not grading formative
  assessments?
• How would your classroom have to change in order
  to incorporate it?
• As a learner, what makes you feel an assignment
  is worth doing?

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Year Five

• Into the Grading Abyss

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Summative Feedback

• Before using targets score 65
• Student knows what questions they got right/wrong
• Kept the score and went on, maybe reviewed, but
  still went on
• No diagnosis of problems and ways to address them
  perhaps taking a test again but no plan as to
  what to focus on
• No idea on student or teachers part of strengths
  and weaknesses

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Summative Feedback

• After using targets score 65
• Get results broken out by target
• Students know what they do well and what they
  need to work on
• Students have opportunities to work on identified
  targets and gain understanding before trying
  again to show mastery
• Diagnostic tool to show strengths and weaknesses
  by student and class

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Re-testing

• Students have received summative assessment
  results by target
• Identify targets needing improvement
• Work on target practice in preparation for
  re-testing
• Re-test only over identified targets
• Evaluate results, rinse, and repeat!

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Summary of Targets and Assessments

• Learning targets form the backbone of instruction
  and assessment program
• LT allow for focused development of pre- and
  post-assessments
• LT give clear direction to selection and
  development of instructional activities
• LT provide students with clear learning goals and
  a format for organized feedback on their
  performance

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My Take Home Message

• Learning targets inform students and teachers
  specifically what the learning intention is
• They can be used as a basis for instructional
  design and assessment formulation
• Formative and summative assessments should
  provide feedback to all parties on how to improve
  understanding
• Students should be given multiple opportunities
  to develop and show mastery of learning targets
• Standards-based grading gives students the chance
  take ownership of their performance

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The Teacher I Was . . .

• Stephanie Harmon
• Rockcastle County High School
• BS Cumberland College
• MS Eastern Kentucky University
• Rank I Union College
• stephanie.harmon_at_rockcastle.kyschools.us

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• If you grade it, then they will do it.
• The grade should be enough motivation to
• get the student to complete the work.

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Ready, Set, Change

• Deconstructing Standards
• Learning Targets based on Standards
• Reviewed Units of Study
• Assessments
• My attitude about grading
• Teaching is more deliberate

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Year One Power of the Learning Target

• Why I began Deconstructing Standards
• What I learned from it
• The Power of the Learning Target

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• Deconstructing standards is NOT about my
  teaching its about what the STUDENT needs.
• It IS HARD but worth every moment once I
  realized the depth of the standards my teaching
  became more focused.

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Deconstruction of Standards

• Combined Curriculum Document
• Classroom Assessment for
• Student Learning (CASL)

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Clear Learning Targets

• Making targets clear to students at the
  outset of learning is the fundamental
  underpinning to any assessment for learning
  practices we will implement.
• Rick Stiggins, Classroom Assessment for Student
  Learning, p. 59.

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Clear Learning Targets

• Know what kinds of targets are represented in the
  curriculum
• Know which targets each assessment measures
• Communicate the learning targets in advance in
  student-friendly language

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Chemical Concepts Unit

• SC-HS-1.1.1
• Students will classify or make generalizations
  about elements from data of observed patterns in
  atomic structure and/or position on the periodic
  table.
• The periodic table is a consequence of the
  repeating pattern of outermost electrons. DOK 2
• SC-H-STM-S-1Students will classify samples of
  matter from everyday life as being elements,
  compounds, or mixtures.
• SC-H-STM-U-1
• Students will understand that the configuration
  of atoms in a molecule determines the molecules
  properties. Shapes are particularly important in
  how molecules interact with others. (stop at
  shape personal note)
• SC-H-STM-U-4
• Students will understand that not all atoms of an
  element are truly identical. Some may vary in
  their number of neutrons (isotopes) or electrons
  (ions). These variations result in properties
  which are different than the more common forms of
  that element

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Knowledge Reasoning Skills Products
SC-HS 1.1.1 - protons - neutrons - electrons - element - compound -mixture - electron configuration -Periodic Law - electron cloud - nucleus - Families on Periodic Table - valence electrons - Periods on Periodic Table - heterogeneous - homogeneous - molecule - isotopes - ions - group elements based on certain properties - determine if a sample is an element, compound or mixture - determine the number of protons, neutrons and electrons in an element - compare/contrast periodic tables ordered by atomic mass vs. atomic number
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Learning Targets

• I will group elements based on certain
  properties.
• I will determine if a sample is an element,
  compound or mixture.
• I will determine the number of protons, neutrons
  and electrons in an element.
• I will compare/contrast periodic tables ordered
  by atomic mass vs. atomic number.

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Learning Targets in Daily Instruction

• Daily Agenda (what the student sees/uses)

• AGENDA
• I will determine if a sample
• is an element, compound or
• mixture.
• Review criteria for
• element, compound or
• mixture.
• - Sorting Samples
• - Quick Write Describe the method you used for
  sorting the samples into the categories (element,
  compound, mixture).

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T-chart Time
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Year TwoLearning Climate

• Would I want to be a student in my classroom?
• Controlled Chaos

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Learning Climate

• Ranking Activity

• Teachers
• Other Instructional
• Leaders

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My Results

• BEFORE
• 1 - Display effective and efficient classroom
  management (e.g., in facilitating cooperative
  groups, in safe and appropriate use of equipment
  or hands-on materials) that includes classroom
  routines that promote comfort, order and
  appropriate student behaviors.
• NOW
• 1 - Create an environment where student work is
  valued, appreciated and used as a learning tool,
  including the sharing of results from student
  scientific investigations.

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• Learning Climate  a safe environment supported
  by the teacher in which high, clear expectations
  and positive relationships are fostered active
  learning is promoted
• URL for Characteristics of Highly Effective
  Teaching Learning
• www.education.ky.gov/KDE/InstructionalResources/H
  ighlyEffectiveandLearning/HETLCommonCharacter
  istics.htm

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Controlled Chaos

• Students learn at different rates, in different
• ways research supports this, personal
• experience confirms this why not use it to
• the advantage of BOTH the teacher and the
• student

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Year Three Grading Feedback

• Student Self-Assessments
• Formative Assessments What do they tell me?
• Effective Feedback

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• Why. . . Would anyone want to change current
  grading practices?
• The answer is quite simple grades are so
  imprecise that they are almost meaningless.
• Marzano, R.J. Transforming Classroom Grading,
  ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 2000, pg.1.

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Grading

• Reflect
• Thinking about your own school experiences
• (as both a student and in your current role)
  . . .
• - What do grades represent to you?
• - How are grades assigned?

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The Shift

• Formative Assessments are just that
• FORMATIVE
• Grades are based on summative evidence.
• (i.e. I stopped grading homework.)

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Not grading homework

• - more time to provide better feedback on
  projects and other forms of assessments
• - keeping the student involved

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• Students should be involved in their own
  learning. Teach them how to evaluate their own
  progress.

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Benefits from Student Self-Assessment

• Cognitive achievement although all students
  benefit, self-evaluation helps the lowest
  achieving students the most
• Motivation students taught to self-evaluate are
  more likely to persist on difficult tasks, be
  more confident about their ability, and take
  greater responsibility for their work
• Attitude about evaluation students who are
  taught and regularly participate in
  self-evaluation have a more positive attitude
  about evaluation and assessments
• from Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning

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Sample Self-Assessment Tools
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• There is a difference between praise,
• guidance and feedback.
• Without a learning target, it is easy to give
• guidance but not feedback.
• The Learning Target allows us to focus on
• feedback.

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Effective Feedback

• Centered on students learning AT THAT MOMENT
• Motivating corrects without tearing down
• - Immediate (timely)
• - Consistent
• - Specific
• - Opportunity to improve
• - Ongoing

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Taking Care of Business

• Providing Remediation Opportunities
• Learning is measured in terms of mastering
• Learning Targets not by the letter grade
• Remediation Structure
• Opportunities

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Grading Practices

• Everything does NOT need to be graded
• The quality of the feedback is what makes the
  difference in learning.
• They WILL do it when they realize that the
  purpose in what we do is focused on mastering the
  content
• Grades based on mastering the content NOT based
  on behavioral factors

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T-chart Time
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Year Four - Communication

• How did I communicate
• the changes in my
• grading practices?

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Get the Word Out

• Concerned Parties
• - Administrators
• - Parents
• - Students

• Methods of Communication
• Open Conversations
• Letters to Parents
• Syllabus

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MY SCHOOL

• 950 students
• 75 Free Reduced Lunch
• Student-Teacher Ratio of 20 - 1

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Year Five Refining My Classroom

• Better communication with Students, Parents,
  Administrators
• Refining the use of student-self assessments and
  other formative assessment tools

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My School

• Beginning our 4th year with CASL . . .
• More than just compliance compliance
• doesnt mean that change will occur.

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Take Home Countdown

• 3 things Ill remember
• 2 people Ill tell it to
• 1 thing Ill try

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Review of Today

• Senate Bill 1 the need for balanced assessment
• Example of CASL incorporated in a middle school
  setting
• Example of CASL incorporated in a high school
  setting
• Reflection similarities and differences between
  the two examples

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Reflecting in Style


Three ideas from our work today
One thing I would tell a friend about this
workshop
Learning targets are best described as a road
map, a recipe book, a lever, or a
self-assessment. Pick one and explain
Before today I thought Now I think