MINEOLA+HS+PLC

Mineola High School Foreign Language Department Professional Learning Communites(PLC)

November 18, 2008

Essential Questions:
 * How do we assess student learning?
 * When do we assess student learning?
 * What do we do when a student does not learn?
 * How can we use formative assessments to allow for precision teaching that is data-driven and provides feedback to students to monitor their own learning?

Remember the paradigm shift as outlined by the [|PLC] model...what was **learned** as opposed to what was taught.

Formative Assessments vs Summative Assessments = Physical Exam vs Autopsy

Checking for Understanding:

What are formative assessments?

Information taken from [|Checking for Understanding by Fisher and Frey]. According to Fisher and Frey (2007), "formative assessments are ongoing assessments, reviews, and observations in a classroom. Teachers use formative assessments to improve instructional methods and provide student feedback throughout the teaching and learning process."

Types of Formative Assessments:


 * 1) //**Oral Language Strategies For Checking Understanding**//:
 * 2) Accountable Talk: describes the agreements students and their teachers commit to as they engage in partner conversations. The guidelines are simple:
 * Stay on topic
 * Use information that is accurate and appropriate for the topic
 * Think deeply about what the partner has to say
 * When using accountable talk:
 * Press for clarification and explanation - Could you describe what you mean?
 * Require justification of proposals and challenges - Where did you find that information
 * Recognize and challenge misconceptions - I don't agree because...
 * Demand evidence for claims and arguments - Can you give me an example?
 * Interpret and use each other's statements - Joe suggested, Mary said....
 * 1) Value Lineups (continuums):
 * Students are asked to evaluate a statement and instructed to line up according to their degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement.
 * After forming a single line, the queue is then folded in half so that the students who most strongly agreed and disagreed are now facing one another.
 * Students then discuss their reasons for their positions and listen to the perspectives of their partners.
 * 1) Retellings:
 * Retellings are new accounts or adaptations of a text that allow students to consider information and then summarize, orally, what they understand about this information. Retellings require that students processing large segments of text think about the sequence of ideas or events and their importance.
 * 1) [|Think-Pair-Share]: is a cooperative discussion technique that allows students to discuss their responses with a peer before sharing with the whole class.
 * Think - The teacher engages students' thinking with a question, a prompt, reading, visual, or observation. The students should take 2-3 minutes to think about the question.
 * Pair - Using designated partners, students pair up to discuss their respective responses. They compare their thoughts and identify the responses they think are the best, most intriguing, most convincing or most unique.
 * Share - After students talk in pairs for a few moments, the teacher asks pairs to share their thinking with the class.
 * 1) Whip Around - The whip around is a useful instructional tool teachers can use to check for understanding in a group setting. While the whip may not provide individual student level information, it can help determine if the teacher needs to re-teach content to the group. A whip is often used at the end of a lesson.
 * 2) Teacher poses a question or a task and students typically are asked to make a list of three items. Students then respond on a piece of paper. Once they have completed the task, they are to stand up.
 * 3) The teacher then randomly calls on a student to share one of their ideas. Students should check off items on their list that they hear and sit down once all of their ideas have been shared with the group. (even if they themselves did not share)
 * 4) The teacher continues to call on the students until they are all seated. As the teacher listens to the students, he or she can determine if there is a general level of understanding or if there are gaps in students' thinking.
 * 5) **//Using Questions to Check for Understanding//**:
 * 6) Response Cards - Are index cards, signs, dry-erase boards or other items simultaneously held up by all students in class to indicate their answer to a question posed by the teacher. Teachers can easily note the responses of individual students while teaching the whole group.
 * 7) Hand Signals - Similar to response cards, hand signals require engagement from the entire class and allows for the teacher to check for understanding in large groups of students.
 * 8) Thumb check - Thumbs up, I understand completely. Thumbs sideways, I am not completely sure. Thumbs down, no idea!
 * 9) Finger count - 5 fingers, I completely understand. 1 finger (hopefully not the middle one), I don't understand. 2-4, not completely sure.
 * 10) ReQuest - or reciprocal questioning was designed to teach students to ask and answer questions as they read.
 * 11) Teacher leads the class in silently reading a segment of text.
 * 12) Students then ask questions of the teacher about the content of the of the section they read. Next the students and teacher change roles.
 * 13) All of the students now read the text silently. When finished with the second segment of the text, the teacher questions the students. They take turns back and forth questioning and responding.
 * 14) As the process continues, the students should begin to acquire good questioning skills as modeled by their teacher.
 * 15) **//Using Writing to Check for Understanding//**:
 * 16) Interactive Writing - allows students to share the pen with the teacher. This strategy can be used with individuals, small or large groups.
 * 17) After agreeing on a message orally, students take turns writing on the board or chart paper.
 * 18) As each writer finishes, the whole group reads the message aloud, both the part written and the parts still in their mind.
 * 19) While the student writes, the teacher provides related instruction to the class.
 * 20) Read-Write-Pair Share - similar to think-pair-share
 * 21) Students read, review,etc the material
 * 22) Students briefly write in response to material
 * 23) Students engage with a partner in conversation about what they have written and then share their ideas with the class as a whole.
 * 24) Teachers can use written material as well as listening to conversation to gain insight to students' thinking.
 * 25) Summary Writing - is a valuable tool for checking understanding because it provides the teacher with insight to how learners condense information.
 * 26) After learning a topic, reading information, watching a video clip, etc, students write a short piece that contains major ideas and concepts from the topic. These should be short, clear and concise ideas.
 * 27) Admit Slips - upon entering the classroom, students write on an assigned topic
 * 28) Crystal Ball - Students write what they think class will be about that day, what might happen in the text next, or the next step in a process.
 * 29) Awards - Students recommend someone or something for an award that the teacher has created.
 * 30) Yesterday's News - Students summarize the information presented the day before, from the previous night's homework, etc.
 * 31) [|Exit Cards]- As a closure activity...the three things I learned today, three questions I have, etc.
 * 32) **//Using Performances to Check for Understanding//**
 * 33) Readers' Theater - is a classroom activity in which students read directly from text to tell a story or inform an audience.
 * 34) There will be no use of props, costumes, sets, etc.
 * 35) This is a reading activity, so students don't have to memorize anything.
 * 36) Students take a small piece of text, read it and turn it into a script.
 * 37) Student can if the teacher permits, act out their script.