End of Course Reflection – Standards-based Assessment EDU6613

Prior to this quarter, I have had limited practice using standards-based assessment, especially as it pertains to formative assessment. Having taken courses on instructional strategies, I have learned about various formative assessments, but not really how to incorporate it into an overall unit structure. Through this quarter, we have seen the value of formative assessment and how to incorporate this in our unit plans. We began looking through Embedded Formative Assessment (Wiliam, 2011) and creating our learning progression.

This process of looking through the trajectory of a unit and determining what the steps in the progression of learning looks like was a new task, particularly laying it out in some sort of format other than just looking through the book or curriculum provided. For me, this represented a start to really looking deeply at the focus standards of a unit and laying out what each step in reaching that standard looks like. My learning progression (Learning Progression) began as a rather well-defined process to get from one step to another, however, I was not sure how to determine whether my students had learned the material. I was afraid that my assessment of student understanding would not tell me what students had learned, similar to the story of Jy (Wiliam, 2011, p. 47). Through feedback provided by my peers, I was able to create formative assessments that I believe will be beneficial in correctly determining where my students are at in the progression. We then looked at ways to incorporate peer and self-assessment into the learning. This was once again aided by feedback received by peers and the professor and the opportunities that I have provided, I believe, are quality and will help me and my students a great deal to gauge learning.

The other major area we looked at was through our assessment into action paper. For this, I decided to research how to provide quality feedback to my students. This was a focus because I feel like I have either provided feedback that is too specific and does not really require thought to figure out, or too vague and is not useful in helping my students get to the next level of their learning. In order to figure out how to provide useful formative assessment, I found some good resources that allowed me a bit of insight into what it means to provide quality feedback. One of the articles I found provided some great information with a quote, “Feedback functions formatively only if the information fed back to the learner is used by the learner in improving performance” (Wiliam, 2012, p.120, emphasis in original). This quote really struck me because I had not come to the realization that it does not matter what sort of feedback I provide if it is not useful to help students improve their understanding. In my paper, (Assessment Into Action), I looked through several different resources, mainly articles by a couple authors, Dylan Wiliam and Susan Brookhart. Both authors have similar approaches to providing feedback which boil down to about three elements; feedback occurs while students are learning, feedback is appropriate for the understanding of a student (not too high or too low), and feedback must be used by students. One more element that I really had not thought about was provided by Brookhart (2012), where she asserts that feedback, “can’t work if students don’t have an immediate opportunity to use it” (p. 26). This was another element of new learning for me as I did not really think about immediate practice being necessary to build learning (although this seems a bit naïve now). The elements necessary for feedback to be high quality and effective are really informative and important to my practice moving forward.

This course really helped out with my approach to assessment, particularly formative assessment. We were constantly working with program standard 11, utilize formative and summative assessment in a standards based environment. This work is really important for me in becoming the teacher I want to be and will have a high level of impact on my practice moving forward. I will be able to utilize this information in any class and at any level. Overall, this class has provided me with a great deal of information to help improve my teaching, my analysis of where students are in their understanding, and ways that I can provide feedback to students to help them improve their understanding. Ultimately, my students will reap the benefit of this shift in approach as they will be able to build on their understanding far more independently than they could previously.  

Brookhart, S. (2012). Preventing feedback fizzle. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 24-29.

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Solution Tree Press, Bloomington, In.

Wiliam, D. (2012). Feedback: Part of a system. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 31-34.

Accomplished Teaching Final Reflection

This quarter, I started with the intent of learning how to differentiate instruction in ways to allow all students to gain access to algebra regardless of where they came to me. Although differentiation was not the focus of this course, I did find ways in which I could help my students at their level through reflection and the work we have produced. My learning about the use of reflection to help guide our practice as an individual, small group, or even an entire staff has had an impact on the way in which I teach and interact in my class.

First, the general information concerning reflection as a tool was enlightening. Early on, the Reflective Practice Spiral as presented by York-Barr, Sommers, Ghere, and Montie (2006, p. 20) revealed the power that the use of reflection may have starting with the individual and eventually leading to an entire school staff. One aspect of individualized reflection that I struggle with is the ability to maintain perspective when teaching. My most difficult class, due to both attitudes and abilities (the class is comprised of approximately 50% students with an IEP) is also at the end of my day. When lessons do not go well during that period, regardless of their success throughout the remainder of the day, I have great difficulty taking a step back and evaluating how things went overall. Instead, I have tended to focus on the way that single class period goes and taken that as the level of success the day attained. However, I have begun to reflect with a partner who is constantly asking how all class periods went in an attempt to get my focus away from the single class that may not have gone well and refocusing my reflection toward the bigger picture of how all of my classes went. This particular reflection partnership has helped me a great deal in including how all classes went rather than fixating on the one class that may not have gone well. The practice of reflecting with a partner is not one that I would have appealed to me without this class, and the readings and research in which we have participated.

Another element that has helped me a great deal is the lesson plan (KC's Lesson Plan) that we had to create and debrief with a partner. My work with Sara was difficult to get going because of our different schedules, but was very interesting and informative. The lesson I created, centered around solving systems of equations, has been very difficult in the past because although it has some real world applications, it is not the most intuitive types of problems to solve. The fact that I had Sara’s input, a teacher with relatively little experience in the world of math, was very interesting and helpful, especially the fact that she provided me with some suggestions and ideas that turned out to be very appropriate to the content being taught (even though this was definitely out of her comfort zone). The helpfulness was hopefully reciprocal as I provided feedback on her lesson based off of To Kill A Mockingbird, even though Language Arts is definitely outside of my comfort zone. This collaboration was also helpful in revealing how useful it can be to collaborate with those outside of my content area. I have found myself rarely in the position to make an obvious connection with teachers from the Humanities contents, but this collaboration allowed me to discover that there are possibilities to collaborate with other contents even when the opportunity is not obvious.

Finally, when we were required to research some of our own material concerning the traits of accomplished teaching, I was struck by the ways in which my peers and I approached this task. The article I found dealt with personalized learning environments and was very specific to my initial reflection desires. In the article, there were many informational topics, but the aspect that resonated with me most was the definition of educational equity presented by Hanover Research, “Educational equity is not simply about equal access and inputs, but ensuring that a student’s educational path, curriculum, instruction, and schedule be personalized to meet [the student’s] unique needs” (2012, p. 7). In ensuring that my students get the most they can out of their class, I need to be able to not only work toward individualizing their lessons, but may also need to take into account that they have other commitments that require them to miss classes and require other modes for them to gain access to the information provided in class. Another article I found interesting had a Language Arts focus, but was surprisingly informative to my practice. The article by Tobin (2008) titled, “Conundrums in the Differentiated Literacy Classroom”, helped to offer information about grouping and the benefits and potential pitfalls. One of the best tidbits of information I found from that article is that whatever the method for grouping, a focus on homogeneity versus heterogeneity for example, it is important to not let the groups get remain stagnate or else the practice loses its’ effectiveness (2008, p. 164). Since I am considering using grouping as a differentiation strategy, this struck me as very important moving forward. Further, the work we did at the beginning of the course and throughout with respect to the Danielson framework was important to shaping the way in which I approach the idea of differentiation. In Domain 1, Danielson outlines the requisite elements for an effective teacher, particularly with 1b and 1e. Knowing the student, their interests, skills, and needs, as well as providing appropriate grouping are all elements needed to differentiate successfully in today’s classroom (2013, p. 11, 23). For example, the Distinguished level of 1b offers elements that teachers should be cognizant of when designing lessons and utilizing strategies. These elements range from planning with a various level of follow up tasks so that students with low ability will experience success and learning as will the students who have shown or previously acquired a high level of ability to taking into account the various cultures in the room and participating in them to gain greater insight into the lives of students (2013, p. 13). This, along with many other articles and discussions, provide information that I will be taking with me moving forward in my planning for, and use of, various differentiation strategies.

Overall, I am grateful for having had the opportunity to take this class early on in my Master's program. The elements involved with this class have helped shape my thoughts moving forward with respect to what it means to become the type of teacher I hope to be. My synthesizing elements paper (Accomplished Teaching Paper) turned out to be something different than it would have been if I had been required to produce this at the beginning of the quarter mainly because of the aspect of reflection this class has emphasized. The number of resources I have been exposed to, as well as, the opinions and research provided by my peers and professors has provided me with a much clearer vision of the teacher leader I would like to become through the duration of this program. Moving forward, I hope to deepen my understanding, and use, of differentiation strategies so that I can better reach all of my students regardless of their skill level. I also want to continue building my skills as a teacher leader so that I can help my colleagues become better teachers, but also to become more comfortable working with teachers of various contents and experience from whom I can further learn and hone my practice.

Danielson, C. (2013). The framework for teaching: Evaluation instrument. Retrieved from: https://www.danielsongroup.org/download/?download=448

Hanover Research. (October 2012). Best Practices in Personalized Learning Environments. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from:https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwi9_ZWXu8PJAhVU_mMKHWxDDtcQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hanoverresearch.com%2Fmedia%2FBest-Practices-in-Personalized-Learning-Environments.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEydYQaMsjIIYiMSC2_VwjAfGK1Ow&sig2=Nb8qdMTqC5yBIOGNTS6XzA

Tobin, R. (Winter 2008). Conundrums in the differentiated literacy classroom. Reading Improvement, 45, 159-169. Retrieved from: http://ezproxy.spu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip&db=eft&AN=508023571&site=ehost-live

York-Barr, J., Sommers, W., Ghere, G., and Montie, J., (2006). Reflective practice to improve schools: An action guide for educators. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.