FALCON Meeting #3 Preparation for 3.26.12

1. FALCON Meeting #3Preparation for 3.26.12 Harnett County Schools Thursday, March 8, 2012

2. HB 200 Day 3 SEA Activity As always, teachers need to register prior to March 20, 2012 (each school has a Day 3 section under the following activity numbers): • Western/Overhills Area Elementary Schools--Activity #6-699 • Central/Triton Area Elementary Schools--Activity #6-700 • Middle Schools--Activity #6-679 • High Schools and STAR--Activity #6-688 • NOTE: This session has been adjusted for READING credit to assist with the professional educator license renewal requirement of 1 literacy credit. FALCON reps are responsible for the official SEA System roster on the day of the workshop (March 26)--again, staff must register through the SEA System in advance and rosters must be printed for sign-in on March 26th. • During our session today, we will focus on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (RBT) module. • As before, information should be added to the wiki at http://hcscurriculum.wikispaces.com/FALCON_HB200days for Day 3 activities. 

3. Eight Standards of Mathematical Practice (K-12) are: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Model with mathematics. Use appropriate tools strategically. Attend to precision. Look for and make use of structure. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

4. FALCON: Modules 1 and 2 I. Importance of Formative Assessment This module provides an introduction to formative assessment, its importance and role in North Carolina’s 21st Century Balanced Assessment System.  At the end of the module, participants will be able to say, I can... - Explain the purpose of formative assessment and why it is defined as a process; - Distinguish between formative assessment and benchmark/summative assessment; - Articulate how formative assessment is used in their classroom/school and how they plan to use formative assessment in the future. Module PLC - Importance of Formative Assessment This PLC provides participants with an opportunity to reflect on information found in the module Importance of Formative Assessment and to share lessons learned, strategies, and insights with other NC Educators. II. Learning Targets and Criteria for Success This module focuses on how teachers can write clear learning targets and define criteria for success in order to help students answer the question, “Where am I going?” At the end of the module, participants will be able to say, I can... - Recognize clear and unclear learning targets;- Develop clear learning targets and their associated criteria for success to use in a lesson or series of lessons. Module PLC - Learning Targets and Criteria for Success This PLC provides participants with an opportunity to reflect on information found in the module Learning Targets and Criteria for Success and to share lessons learned, strategies, and insights with other NC Educators.

5. FALCON: Modules 3 and 4 III. Collecting and Documenting Evidence This module explores how teachers can collect and document evidence of learning to help students answer the question “Where am I now?” At the end of the module, participants will be able to say, I can... - Identify at least three ways to collect and document evidence of student learning;- Choose strategies for collecting and documenting evidence of student learning that provide accurate information about where students are in their learning and align the strategies with the targets and criteria for success. Module PLC - Collecting and Documenting Evidence This PLC provides participants with an opportunity to reflect on information found in the module Collecting and Documenting Evidence and to share lessons learned, strategies, and insights with other NC Educators. IV. Analyzing Evidence and Descriptive Feedback This module provides teachers with an understanding of how to analyze evidence of learning and how to use descriptive feedback to reflect student strengths and weaknesses with respect to specific learning goals and success criteria to help students answer the questions, “Where am I now?” and “How can I close the gap?” At the end of the module, participants will be able to say, I can... - Effectively examine student work; - Understand the differences between evaluative and descriptive feedback; - Enhance student learning through descriptive feedback; - Plan instructional modifications to address learning gaps or enrich instruction. Module PLC - Analyzing Evidence and Descriptive Feedback This PLC provides participants with an opportunity to reflect on information found in the module Analyzing Evidence and Descriptive Feedback and to share lessons learned, strategies, and insights with other NC Educators

6. FALCON: Module 5 Module PLC - Analyzing Evidence and Descriptive Feedback This PLC provides participants with an opportunity to reflect on information found in the module Analyzing Evidence and Descriptive Feedback and to share lessons learned, strategies, and insights with other NC Educators. V. Administrator's Role in Formative Assessment This module looks at the role of the administrator in formative assessment.  At the end of the module, participants will be able to say, I can... - Describe formative assessment and how an administrator can use it in his or her school; - Discuss elements of formative assessment; - Determine the extent to which a school implements formative assessment; - Monitor and build capacity for implementation of formative assessment in schools.

7.  Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Course Module The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy module provides an overview of the Cognitive Dimensions, Knowledge Domains, verbs and their relationship to instruction, learning, and assessment. (Time online for completion of this module is approximately 90 minutes. However, time offline for the inclusion of various activities will vary for each user or group.)

8. COMPONENTS OF TRAINING • Using Firefox, go to NC Education and log in (https://center.ncsu.edu/nc/login/index.php ). • Find the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy course (My home> Courses> Educator Training> New Standards> Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy ) click the enroll button, and complete the modules. Complete all FALCON Modules. Complete all the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy module.

9. Purpose: More frequent and more effective formative assessment of standards communicated clearly, taught effectively, and assessed in alignment with instruction. Today we will look at LITERACY through the lens of RBT to increase rigor in all content areas.

10. The use of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy increases the probability of improved validity of assessment and improved quality of instruction through the alignment of instructional objectives, instructional activities/materials, and assessments. What are some examples?

12. Discussion: What Makes a Standard Essential? There are three main criteria that all educators agree must be met for a standard to be considered an essential standard. 1. First, the standard must demonstrate endurance. This means the knowledge and understanding a student learns from an essential standard must endure, or last, beyond a test or class.  The understanding from an essential standard should help students make connections throughout his or her college, career, and life. 2. Second, an essential standard must have leverage.  In other words, the knowledge and understanding a student learns from an essential standard should have wide applications and connections across other concepts and content. 3. Lastly, an essential standard must be written clearly, taught effectively, and assessed in alignment with the instructionso that it increases a student’s readiness for success in the next grade and level of instruction.

18. Designing an Activity for UNDERSTANDING What activities work well at your site?