Thoughts on Assessment - Lesson Planning.

In my most recent lesson planning, I decided to build a unit for RI.5.7, and I’ve been thinking about formative assessments.

In case you don’t know the difference, the Eberly Center website (n.d.) says “the goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning,” in contrast, “the goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.”

The objective:

At the completion of day 4 of this 5 day unit, 90-95% of students will be able to examine print and digital resources for 10 minutes and use in order to quickly locate answers with 80% accuracy.

This will be a short reminder of how to skim and scan for information. Then students will be given two articles on the same subject. Then I will follow up with a graduated release of responsibility close read using the I do, We do, You do method and ending in a completed group scavenger hunt worksheet. There are many ways I can assess this, but since I’m really looking at the formative, I wanted to talk about a few assessments I’m considering as part of this lesson plan.

1-     Think-Pair-Share– West Virginia website (n.d.) says the “Think-Pair-Share is a summarization strategy that can be used in any content area.” I will discuss with the students what they know and what we’ve previously learned about the three techniques used in this particular lesson; close read, skimming, and scanning. They will then pair and share what they think. We will then repeat for the branches of government.

2-     The close read. – In close reading students look closely at the text and notice how the article has been segmented and draw connections between the texts (Greenstein, n.d.). I can watch students as they close read to see if they are highlighting the important information in the text. I feel that this small step alone can make or break a student’s ability to find accurate information. If students have highlighted the important sections and circled powerful vocabulary in the text, it is quite likely that they have highlighted or circled the answers to the questions.

3-     Reciprocal Discussions – Dodge City Middle School (n.d.) says during Whisper-Skim-Scan students use fingers “to skim and scan the text, while they whisper key words.” This will help students to find key terms that might be in questions they must answer. Skimming and scanning are great tools for reading and finding information quickly (Beale, 2013). Listen to student discussion for signs of understanding how to skim and scan and what information is integral and what is superfluous. This will allow me to see if students understand how to use close reading and scanning to find information quickly and accurately.

References

Beale, A. M., (Feb 4, 2013). Skimming And Scanning: Two Important Strategies For Speeding Up Your Reading. Retrieved from http://www.howtolearn.com/2013/02/skimming-and-scanning-two-important-strategies-for-speeding-up-your-reading/

Dodge City Middle School website. (n.d.). Formative Assessment. Retrieved from http://dodgecitymiddleschool.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/61883414/Formative%20Assessment.pdf

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation. (n.d.). What is the difference between formative and summative assessment? Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/assessment/basics/formative-summative.html

Greenstein, L., (n.d.). What Teachers Really Need To Know About Formative Assessment. Retrieved from http://www.ocmboces.org/tfiles/folder874/DailyFormativeAssessment.pptx 

West Virginia Dept of Ed website. (n.d.). Think-Pair-Share. Retrieved from https://wvde.state.wv.us/strategybank/Think-Pair-Share.html

Picture from Wiki Commons

The original uploader was Hwilliams at English Wikibooks https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lesson_Plan_Template.pdf

More Thoughts on Lesson Planning.

I’d love to share my thoughts on creating lesson plans. It’s important to really think about all the parts and pieces of a standard while creating a lesson plan.

Unpacking a standard

Unpacking a standard helps a teacher to reflect on all the parts of a standard and discover how many activities are hidden within the standard.

Example standard;

(5.RI.3) “Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.” (AZ Dept of Education, 2010)

This standard is not simply about the relationships between two or more individuals in a historical text. It has many layers. Even the simple difference between explaining the relationships and explaining the interactions can require a teacher to use two lessons. Another way a teacher might have to alter the instruction would be the specific texts. The standard does not simply call for historical texts, it also mentions scientific and technical texts. It’s important that a teacher see all the parts of a standard and address them. This gives students the best opportunity to succeed in tests and in life.

Backwards mapping

This type of lesson planning helps a teacher develop a more interesting and pointed plan. The teacher knows what assessment he/she intends to give, and can tailor the lesson to that particular assessment. It also helps the teacher stay focused on the lesson at hand, instead of veering off on a possible tangent that isn’t needed for the current standard and does not enhance the standard.

Example standard;

For this standard, I might begin with an assessment where students must discuss the interactions between multiple figures during the revolutionary war. Alternately, I might have students enumerate the relationship between two scientific theories they are reading about.

Writing objectives

Writing SMART objectives helps a teacher verbalize their final goal for student understanding.

Smart Goals are Specific, Measurable or observable, Attainable for the audience, Relevant and results oriented, Target to learner and desired level of learning. These goals help the teacher measure if a lesson was effective for the bulk of students and offer an expected time frame for this student learning.

Example standard;

This standard should be effective for 80-90% of students. They should be able to explain the interactions between multiple figures in the revolutionary war with 80% accuracy.  

Resources

Arizona Department Of Education Website. (June, 2010). Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards English Language Arts. Retrieved from https://cms.azed.gov/home/GetDocumentFile?id=550c579caadebe15d072a992

Planning my RI.5.7 Unit

I’m creating a unit lesson for my students to work on and I thought I’d show you how I plan to create the lessons in the unit. I teach 5^th grade elementary, so I’ve chosen a common core standard from the state of Arizona’s 5th grade curriculum. I want to explore this standard because the fifth grade students I work with are developing their logic and they need help with exploring different articles and finding information in those texts.

RI.5.7 --- Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

There are several lessons that can come from this standard, once it has been unpacked that should lead to them being able to do the following proficiently (note how each one rolls into the next to make a unit);

1.     Students can use multiple print sources to find information.

2.     Students can use multiple digital sources to find information.

3.     Students can locate answers quickly in digital and/or print texts.

4.     Students can use multiple print and digital sources to solve a problem in an efficient manner.

5.     Extending the standard - Students can use multiple digital and print sources to debate and defend their solution.

How will I know the students got these skills? The assessments;

1.     Students will complete a worksheet with questions from two newspaper articles on a similar topic.

2.     Students will complete a worksheet with questions about the three branches of government.

3.     Students will have 20 minutes to find and write out the answers to 20 questions.

4.     Students will read multiple “witness accounts” of the same mystery or crime.

5.     Students will write debate notes and verbally defend their solution.

How will I get them there? The activities;

1.     Students will use multiple print sources to answer questions correctly.

2.     Students will use multiple digital sources to answer questions correctly with cited sources.

3.     Students will work in groups to complete a timed online scavenger hunt and locate answers quickly in digital and/or print texts.

4.     Students will use multiple print and digital sources to solve a mystery in an efficient manner.

5.     Extending the standard - Students can use multiple digital and print sources to debate and defend their solution to the mystery.