Reflecting on the On-Demand Performance Assessment

This week's learning has been around the On-Demand Performance Assessment of narrative writing from the Calkins units of study.  Eight teachers, myself and our interventionist are planning to support one another as we study, implement and reflect on the use of several elements of the units of study.  We began by administering the on-demand assessment. 

This was a long 45 minutes for some.  The teachers and I took anecdotal notes on post-its and documented anything we could see.  Such notes included: Students who started right off, those that didn’t, those that engaged in pre-planning, the amount of time students could sustain their writing, rereading, revising, editing, getting up, sharpening pencils again and again and long pauses with lots of looking around only to come back to writing again.

I thought about the environment of that long block of silent writing and what it did or didn’t do to support writing.  And I thought about the environment of our writing workshops and what we can do differently to shift student writing.  Clearly routines and procedures such as sharpening pencils need to be established.  But I also think that students need to be made aware of their own process, what they need as writers and how that changes throughout the process.  Some environmental and instructional considerations might include a very quiet room so that a long pause in thinking doesn't end up in a distraction because of class noise.  This would require a place in the room where talk in whispers could happen.  Or maybe it means a location of inspirational resources (books, maps, brochures, video clips, poems) for those who just can’t get an idea to start. 

I’m planning to celebrate when we complete the next on demand assessment and more students effectively use those 45 minutes for writing!

An Idea for Navigating the Writing Pathways

I tend to be a reader who reads, jots, flags, and underlines all at once and then has to go back and figure out where the important bits really are.  My reading of the Writing Pathways from Lucy Calkins units of study has been no different.  I realize though that busy teachers need a quick reference guide.  I’ve started a list of critical pages to review along the way and I’m going to have teachers write them down inside their books.  For example: 

Narrative on-demand assessment pages 19-22, 182, 183

Teachers can always go back and reread the in between pages during those lovely summer days that are now just a memory for summer 2014!

Compass Points

The book Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners  by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison is FANTASTIC!  The book has routines, designed by researchers at Project Zero at Harvard, that scaffold and support thinking. These routines allow thinking to become visible through questioning, listening, documenting, expressing and reflecting.  Give one of the routines a try on the first day of school.  The following link will take you to an explanation of Compass Points. Please post a comment if you give it a try:-)

http://www.pz.harvard.edu/pz_in_practice.php

Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners 
by Ron Ritchhart et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/047091551X

Harnessing the power of a Quick Write

Harnessing the power of a Quick Write

Intentional planning and explicit teaching are the keys to our students’ success.  Knowing the purpose of why we might use a tool such as Quick Writes is essential.

Quick Writes are timed, focused writing experiences that can be used for a wide variety of purposes.  They can provide a means to build writing stamina and fluency over time.  Quick Writes can be used as a way to activate prior knowledge or back ground knowledge on a new topic or synthesize current understandings in order to go deeper. They can be used to try new strategies in the writing process without getting bogged down in longer pieces.  These short bursts of focused writing encourage critical thinking and allow students to demonstrate deeper understanding or application.  Quick writes can also promote reflection of learning and provided a way to informally assess student thinking. This information can then be used as evidence toward meeting the lesson target and standard.

Here are some resources to get you started:

Revise with the RADaR Strategy

http://www.freebookezz.com/pdf/48767274401/

Quick Write: Description, Purpose, Directions, Extensions

http://www.upei.ca/uwc/wac/strategies/quickwrite.html

The Quickwrite: A Brief Introduction

http://tinyurl.com/chc656h

So what are you waiting for!  Let’s give it a tryJ

View the  video clip and think of an experience or adventure you’ve had that has taken your breath away. Provide evidence and then conclude with a statement that explains your personal take away from the experience or adventure.

To blog or not to blog?

            I have learned a great deal this summer!  I really haveJ  Just in terms of technology  I learned how to use glogster, blogger, navigate google and moodle with some skill, how to embedded images and music into blogger, voicethread, tourbuilder, use google chat, podcast with garageband, record audio clips with quicktime, develop word clouds  with worditout.com, and use my new iphone 5.  The phone had nothing to do with class, but none–the-less is technology and I tackled it.  Technology done well can be effective in engaging and motivating learning.  It often demands higher order thinking to analyze and synthesize information.  Technology allows you to apply what you’ve learned by creating something new.  It also allows you to teach someone else what you’ve learned. And for that you would receive a 4 on most scoring guides!

            I also learned that we need to think even more creatively about scheduling so that there is allowance for teaching and learning opportunities for teachers and students throughout the day.  Scheduling is a serious pain in the neck, but without careful consideration of what you want the outcome to be (grouping students, collaboration time for teachers) you will default to old practices.  Form does follow function.

            Oh…then there’s the whole social networking thing.  I am a stalker by choice on facebook.  I rarely post. I love to keep up with family that are in other states and see pictures of their children.  Not a fan of actually engaging though.  Well, I’ve learned that we need to “power-up” and join in a bit more.  This generation needs us to help them navigate the genre that is social networking.  We can network together and figure out this genre with some grace and dignity.

            I have a better understanding of what global literacy could look like and how I might infuse a more worldview into the classroom.  Technology will ramp those opportunities up as well. 

            An finally,  as I write this post, I am still thinking about my curriculum “menu” idea and how to give teachers AND students choice in teaching and learning.

            Will this blog continue?  Hmmmm….I have tried journaling so many times in my life.  I was only ever successful when I did it for someone else.  I kept hand written journals for my sons during the first 5 years of their life.  I can remember from age 5 on and I was hoping they could as wellJ  So I’m thinking that if I say I’m going to blog for teachers then I might do it.  As a literacy coach it actually would be a great way for me to share resources.  So, yes…..I will try.  First I have to figure out how to write with a great deal more brevity.  My school schedule should help with that!

What she says.......

Word cloud made with WordItOut

There are 3 key ideas from chapters 1-4 of Curriculum 21 that I feel would effect positive change in my district and are also doable…in my opinion.  The first is schedule.  Ms. Jacobs is absolutely correct that “form follows function”.  In order for us to group students effectively for teaching and learning, capitalize on all of our resources and provided collaborative time for teachers we have to push at the daily/weekly schedules.  My thoughts are small in comparison to what we’ve recently read, but large in comparison to the practices we’ve had in our district.  We will be working on lining up our instructional workshops to effectively group students for layered supplemental instruction and project work, establish weekly team time  in order to conduct progress monitoring meetings on striving student and team time for collaboration on units of study/assessment/other PD.  Scheduling is hard…please send good mojo our wayJ

The second key idea is upgrading assessments.  Ms. Jacobs feel that this should come even before looking at content and skills.  I think it could drive purpose and motivation if handled well.  In our district we will be using EDUCATE to “house” student progression through the learning targets.  The means to do that is to attach and “activity” better known as an assessment or outcome to a target or a set of targets.  One the activity is scored on a 1-4 scoring guide and entered into EDUCATE the student’s progression through the learning targets is “populated” with check marks of achievement.  Designing those “activities” and understanding the targets and scoring guides will be our PD work for the coming year.  I am in hopes that, while Ms. Jacobs feels it could wait, we also will create units of study along the way.  This is work I’ve already started this summer with a few teachers. 

The third key idea relates to the tenets Ms. Jacob’s lists on page 31 of Curriculum 21. They all are critical, but I was trying to think about what would be doable. I selected global literacy, technology and media, real purpose and also added essential questions/problems to solve and speech.    I think ramping up our outcomes by establishing real world (global) purpose through essential questions or problems would motivate our students.  Engaging them in outcomes that creatively and effectively use technology and media will also engage and motivate while teaching essential skills they’ll need.  I also really feel what she said about speech starting on page 48 is needed.  There is so little “formality” left in our culture on a daily basis.  Students need to learn that talk has different “genre” and how to navigate with grace.  Providing more opportunity for “talk” in physical and virtual spaces will provide more practice.

Seems like a lot, but I think it’s doable.  It always feels that way in July, right?