Byron Center Professional Development

1. Byron Center Professional Development November 17, 2011 Common Assessments for Writing Erin Busch-Grabemeyer Elizabeth Nelson

3. OBJECTIVES Common Assessment Experts ________________ Rick Stiggins Mike Schmoker Robert Marzano Steve Chappuis Jan Chappuis Judith Arter Rick Wormeli Ken O’Conner Rick DuFour , 1. Develop a shared understanding of the principles, methods, and design of good writing assessment. 2. Recognize the power of assessment and collaboration as a key to affecting instruction. 3. Look at writing from the perspectives of student work and teacher instruction.

4. I am not a writing teacher! I don’t have enough time to cover one more thing! What’s the big deal? Isn’t this the job of the English dept.? Why do we need to use the same assessment?

5. Nearly 1/3 of high school graduates are not ready for college-level writing. Achieve, Inc., 2005

6. Only 1 out of 4 high school seniors is a proficient writer. . Salahu-Din, Persky, and Miller, 2004

7. The benchmark for good writing in the 19th century was on “correctness” of mechanics versus the deep rhetorical thinking required today. Carnegie Report, 2010

8. The Information Age, full of high tech devices, is writing based.

9. Each phase of writing requires problem solving and critical thinking. Because Writing Matters, Carl Nagin and NWP

10. Writing can support learning and retention of knowledge in all disciplines Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

11. Good writing is essential • For obtaining • high school diploma • college degree • acquiring a good job • participating in society.

12. How we assess depends on why we assess. Step 1 Who is the stakeholder?

13. Why Assess? Accountability

14. Why Assess? Motivation

15. Why Assess? Monitor Progress

16. Why Assess? Provide Feedback

17. Why Assess? Inform Instruction

18. Why Assess? Judge Teacher Effectiveness

19. Why Assess? Determine Strengths

20. Why Assess? Determine areas of deficiency

21. Why Assess? Report to parents

22. Why Assess? Determine how many meet standards

23. Why Assess? Measure American students’ success

26. Step 2 What we assess depends On our learning targets.

27. What did I want my students to learn? Step 2

28. learning targets A learning target is any achievement expectation we hold for students. It’s a statement of what we want the students to learn.

29. How do we know the assessment measures this? Step 3 Is this of sound assessment design?

30. Sound Assessment Design • Create quality rubrics • Control for bias • Design the assessment • so that students can self- • assess and set goals

31. What is our inter-rater reliability? Inter-rater reliability is dependent upon the ability of two or more individuals to be consistent. Step 4 Do we have a shared understanding of what student learning should look like?

32. What is our inter-rater reliability? This involves a change in focus from looking at our work to looking at student work.

33. What is our inter-rater reliability?

34. There are many different kinds of writing assessments No one assessment can measure everything or do everything for all stakeholders

35. 7 Practices of Assessment FOR Learning Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing It Right, Using It Well by Rick Stiggins (2004) Where am I going? Provide a clear learning target Use examples and models of strong and weak work Where am I now? Offer descriptive feedback Teach students to self assess and set goals How can I close the gap? Design lessons to focus on one aspect of quality at a time Teach students focused revision Engage students in self-reflection and share in their learning

36. Where do we begin? Remember: You are not in this alone.

37. Working Together will share the work load and allow you to create the best assessments.