Abstract: The purpose and use of assessment is a controversial topic in education today. High stakes assessment has increasingly become the format to measure student learning, with mixed results. In this study my aim was to re-examine the use of assessment by incorporating student voice into my assessment efforts in a 7th grade Humanities class at High Tech Middle. I tried several strategies to check students’ understanding and solicit feedback, ranging from exit cards, student-led conferences, student-led comments, critiques, goal-setting, and questioning strategies. Through the analysis of surveys, interviews, and observations three themes emerged. First, by asking students to reflect on their learning, I saw an increase in student voice more generally in my classroom. Also, students became more aware of their own learning and progress. Lastly, I learned to use student feedback to inform instruction. One of the positive byproducts of this research was an increase in student-teacher-parent communication. These findings indicate that attending to student voices can have many positive outcomes for students’ learning and for teachers who want to improve their practice.
Introduction and Research Question
The teachers at High Tech Middle, where I teach, discuss assessment practices frequently and have made strides to make them authentic for students and teachers. Last year, for example, we revamped POLs (presentations of learning). Each school in the High Tech High organization conducts the presentations differently through exhibition of a specific project or as an overall reflection of the semester. High Tech Middle changed the focus of the presentation from steps and progress of a project to an emphasis on content learned from a project in each class. Students had to demonstrate their learning and reflect on their semester with a panel of students, their parents and a teacher. My teaching partner (from last school year) and I asked our students for their feedback on the new version. They felt the same as the teachers; the presentations were more engaging and interesting. Students felt the new presentations were more difficult because they had to explain in detail what they learned, but they felt a purpose to the presentation. Students demonstrated their current knowledge and reflected on areas of improvement and set academic goals. Asking students for their opinion was helpful because it solidified the fact that this change wasn’t just something for the teachers, but ultimately it impacts the students. I began to wonder what else could be learned from students about school and our classes in general.
In addition to my colleagues, another influence on my teaching and assessment practices has been Ron Berger. Over the years the community of HTH has read and discussed his book, An Ethic of Excellence, often. In the last several years I have been fortunate enough to meet Ron Berger, hear him speak and share his work with the teachers at the High Tech village. During the 2008-2009 school year he visited our graduate school class and we looked at student work from all over the country. What I appreciate the most about Ron Berger’s visits is that he emphasizes the importance of the process of creating a project and not just the final product. He also de-emphasizes the role of the teacher and places importance where it should be, on the students. Ron Berger also introduced the term “beautiful work” as a standard for students and teachers to look at student work. Throughout the village teachers have adopted Ron Berger’s emphasis on the process, critiquing and creating work that students are proud of. As a result, I began incorporating drafting and critique more into projects. Last year my 8th graders created a gift for an immigrant they interviewed for the New Americans project. Students created drafts of their work or brought their work in progress for peer critiques. These were extremely helpful in guiding students to know what they were doing well and what their next steps could be. I used to only think of “drafting” as something that happens with writing, but found that it is applicable to almost everything that students create.
The influence of five years at High Tech Middle, Ron Berger, and the High Tech High Graduate School of Education led me to examine my own teaching practices and what I wanted to explore in my action research question. Just as the BTSA (Beginning Teacher Support & Assessment) program asks teachers to reflect on what they are currently doing as teachers and what they need to work on, I wanted my students to do the same thing on an ongoing basis. I want the students to be self-aware of their learning and understand what they need to do meet the goals of the project, class, or topic. I wanted to increase the amount of feedback between the students and between the students and me. After many months of research and exploring the topic of student voice/feedback and assessment practices, I began focusing on formative assessment as a method of incorporating the “voice” I wanted to increase in my classroom. Formative assessment is not a new trend in education, but an outlook on how to use assessment for learning in the classroom. So, as I began my first year teaching 7th grade, I wanted to investigate how to bring all students’ voices into the classroom through a variety of strategies. With the influence of my four years of experience at HTM, I wanted to explore the question: What happens when I incorporate student voice into assessments?
Understandings
With hindsight, teachers often realize that when students are consulted about, and feel they have made an active contribution to, any proposed changes, they too have ownership of new practices and so work to make them a success. David Hargreaves
Hargreaves (2004) places the student at the center of the classroom to increase engagement and motivation. He also alludes to the notion that there is a process that should occur between students and teachers to help students feel responsible for their learning and success. It is this process and relationship that I want to examine in my study. In terms of my research, “student voice” is the term used to incorporate all forms of student involvement in my study. According to A. Rogers, “student voice is the active opportunity for students to express their opinions and make decisions regarding the planning, implementation, and evaluation of their learning experiences” (2005 Online). In the context of my study, the term “student voice” also includes student feedback. I want to examine the use of student voice in curriculum through various strategies in my classroom. The purpose of these strategies is not only to help the students express and explain their learning, but also to inform my teaching. Student voice and assessment for learning have considerable impact on blurring the line of teacher and student roles. This is necessary if teachers are to learn about student needs, learning preferences and strengths and weaknesses (Hargreaves, 2004). Why shouldn’t we look at students’ experiences in our classrooms to help inform our work and improve our practice? Students have had more experience with classrooms and assessment in recent years than most of their teachers.
Over the last two decades, there has been a tremendous change in the way many schools and teachers view assessment. Many educators have moved away from the notion that assessment happens once at the end of a unit of study. For example, a standardized test is a snapshot of a student’s ability and is then used as a generalization of what the student has learned. The use of summative assessment results in many missed opportunities for an intervention to change instruction and to assess where all students are in their knowledge of the subject matter at more than one point in time. Often assessment is not seen as a process, but a final result. The ultimate user of assessment information that is elicited in order to improve learning is the pupil. Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.
In the article, “Inside the Black Box,” Paul Black and Dylan William (1998) use the general term assessment to refer to all those activities undertaken by teachers—and by their students in assessing themselves—that provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. Additionally, Kaftan et. al. (2006) have defined formative assessment as “the process used by teachers and students to recognize and respond to student learning in order to enhance that learning, during the learning;” Formative assessments serve a myriad of feedback related purposes such as diagnosis, prediction and evaluation of teacher and student performance (Black & William, 1998). Incorporating student-teacher feedback and vice versa in assessment and in curriculum can lead to opportunities to learn through assessment, not only for students but teachers, too. If a teacher places importance on student voice, it allows students to create opinions, ideas, and belief and in turn they feel that they are valued. I would like my students to develop as reflective learners. Student voice and assessment for learning have considerable impact on blurring the line of teacher and student roles. This is necessary if teachers are to learn about student needs, learning preferences and strengths and weaknesses (Hargreaves, 2004). In addition, involving students in assessment is perceived as being valid, reliable, and fair and contributes to a growth in competences (Dochy, 1999).
In October of 2006, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) in collaboration with more than 20 states created the following definition: Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students that provides feedback to adjust to ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes. Similarly to the Middle School Journal’s definition, assessment is seen as a process that occurs continuously in the classroom. According to Popham (2008), formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they are currently doing. Self-assessment plays a much greater role than in conventional testing. It is a continual self-reflective process. The assessment involves the teacher and the students in a dialogue. The process can be informal or formal-the use of formal tests or informal observations and teacher-student interviews (Popham, 2007).
While one can identify tools that can be used formatively, such as student led conferences, it is what is done with those tools and what is learned from the tools that matters. An exit card can be used to determine what students learned or did not learn from a particular lesson, or a quiz may be given at the end of class. To turn it into formative assessment the teacher must look at that data and determine what changes she or he needs to make during instruction in response to the feedback obtained from the students. Formative assessments make students’ thinking apparent to themselves and to others. The teacher helps the student by giving continual explicit feedback to the students in response to the feedback the students give to them. Coffey (2009) explains that the goal of this feedback is to assist students in answering the following:
- Where am I going?
- Where am I now?
- How can I close the gap?
Students can become engaged in school if they are involved in and take ownership of their work. The engagement can increase students’ motivation to learn. Examples of student involvement may include defining quality work and the criteria for a project. Formative assessment can also lead to engagement because it is personalized by nature; it is another form of differentiation. It meets students where they are and helps them realize where they need to go.
A teacher should reflect on their techniques, curriculum, project designs, etc and look to others for help, advice, guidance and feedback. The importance of student feedback can be overlooked by some teachers as a way to gauge student learning before a summative assessment at the end of a unit. While looking at student reflections at the end of a project can help us make changes for the next year, it is an example of a missed opportunity to make changes during the project. HTH schools place importance on transparency in our classrooms and opportunities to reflect on our teaching practices with collegial coaching and observations. We should use those same techniques with our students to help them reflect and grow. Formative assessment relies on the role of the teacher, but it also places importance on the students’ roles too. The teacher is still involved in the assessment process as they work with students to set learning goals, establish expectations and design assessment tasks where students can provide evidence of their learning (Garrison & Ehringhaus, 2007).
As Ron Berger stated in An Ethic of Excellence, “most discussions of assessment start in the wrong place. The most important assessment that goes on in a school isn’t done to students but goes on inside students. How do we get inside students’ heads and turn up the knob that regulates quality and effort? How do we affect self-assessment so that students have higher standards for their behavior and their work?” (2003). These are extremely important questions, yet there is not a simple answer. I would like to explore these questions by asking the students themselves in my research study.
Description of the Setting
History of the School
The High Tech High community of schools began in the fall of 2000 with one single high school. In the nine years since, the organization expanded to include five high schools, two middle schools and one elementary school. In the fall of 2009, it added a third middle school to make a total of nine schools on three separate campuses. There is HTH North County, which has a middle school and high school as of 2009. HTH Chula Vista is in the south bay of San Diego, and finally the main campus is located in Point Loma with three high schools, two middle schools, and one elementary school. The schools are all project-based, meaning that a majority of student learning and assessment is through projects. HTH was created by a group of business leaders and educators that were dissatisfied with a lack of student involvement and interest in school coupled with low achievement for many. The creators of High Tech High are proponents of project-based learning to battle the previously mentioned issues with public education in our country. The school where I teach, High Tech Middle opened in the fall of 2003 next door to the original High Tech High. I am currently in my fourth year teaching at High Tech Middle. I taught 8th grade humanities for three years and am teaching 7th grade for the first time in the 2009 school year.
Physical Location
The main campus for the HTH organization, otherwise known as the High Tech Village, is located in Point Loma in the Liberty Station area. The campus is located between a residential area and a large shopping area. High Tech High, HTH International and High Tech Middle (HTM) are in their own buildings. Explorer Elementary, HTM Media Arts and HTH Media Arts each have their own floor in a three-story building across the street from the other three schools.
School/Community Demographics
The nine schools in the HTH organization consist of more than 3,000 students and over 300 employees. High Tech Middle has a total of 336 students, breaking down to a little over 100 students in each grade level. The breakdown of my classes this school year is explained below along with the ethnic breakdown of the entire school this year. Students are admitted from districts throughout San Diego County. Students are admitted through a lottery system. The system admits students by zip code; the only way we can ensure a diverse student body population. The organization allows a certain number of students from each zip code and allows some preference for siblings of students that already attend a HTH school. As part of the charter of the school, our goal is to be at 40% free and reduced lunch. High Tech Middle admitted applicants via blind lottery, with no zip code provision in response to the terms of a Federal grant that was received through the state for the 2009-10 year.
|
Gender |
American Indian | Asian | Black | Caucasian | Hispanic | ||
| Female | 1 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 7 | ||
| Male | 0 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 9 | ||
| HTM | 3 | 49 | 40 | 123 | 108 |
High Tech Middle demographics for the 2007-2008 school year
| White | Hispanic | African-American | Male | ELL | Free/ReducedLunch | Students with IEPs | |
| HTH | 42% | 32% | 11% | 53% | 2% | 21% | 8% |
| SDUSD | 26% | 43% | 14% | 52% | 17% | 55% | 11% |
Comparative Demographics (statistics reflective of the 2007-08 school year)
The information in the tables above comes from the 2007 school year comparing HTH to San Diego Unified School District high schools. The information comes from the HTH School Quality report.
School Structure
Walking into most of the schools on all three campuses, while they are all different, there are several components that they all share. Each student has a humanities teacher and a math/science teacher that make up a team. The middle schools have two teams per grade level and the space between the teams’ classrooms is called a grade level commons area where students can frequently be seen working on projects or taking their laptops out with a group. Another common theme in each school is large windows. The classroom doors and office doors are rarely locked and all have large windows for all to see what is happening in each classroom. The start and end time for each school differs. At High Tech Middle, schools starts at 9:05 and ends at 3:30. Students are on a block schedule where they spend two hours in each core class and one hour in their exploratory class. There is also a class called x-block where students choose from a variety of activities that is three times a week. The other two days of the week the students have advisory where they are with students from all three grade levels, similar to a homeroom at traditional schools.
My Classroom
At High Tech Middle my classroom has a wall that opens up and on the other side is my math/science teaching partner. There are large windows in the humanities rooms. Students sit at two person tables and they are frequently in small groups around the classroom. There is a large projector that is used several times a week as well as a computer cabinet with 15 computers. I am currently completing my third year at High Tech Middle as an 8th grade humanities teacher. I really like the set up of the teams and the classrooms as well as the spaces throughout the school available for students to work on projects. The school is open for students to work in conference rooms, empty classrooms, offices, etc.
Pedagogical Approaches
The school emphasizes teacher autonomy in the classroom. For example, teachers address the state standards in a non-traditional way by choosing topics of interest to allow students to explore various principles and delve into topics more in depth. Classroom activities vary from traditional lesson plans to building large structures. The schools also emphasize personalization and choice for students to be more involved in their own learning. The schools also emphasize the importance of the teacher not only in the classroom but also as a leader throughout the school. Teachers meet frequently by grade level, team, and discipline as well as in all staff meetings. Teachers meet to reflect, look at student work, design projects and discuss large school issues and create solutions.
The High Tech village receives many visitors and many inquire about our methods of assessment. Some are surprised that we use traditional forms of assessment. While “traditional” forms are used, it is one of many ways teachers ask students to demonstrate their learning. The High Tech schools emphasize the benefits of project-based learning and often assessments are given in that context. Teachers strive for authenticity in their projects and incorporate the real world as much as possible so students see a connection between what they are doing at school and outside of school. Although our schools are unique in many ways from other public schools, teachers still struggle with issues surrounding their practices of assessment.
Guiding Principles
The High Tech schools have three main design principles: personalization, adult world connection and common intellectual mission. Students have two core teachers, one exploratory teacher and one advisor that will be with them throughout their years at middle school or high school. The goal is to build close relationships with teachers and other staff members. The organization also strives for full inclusion in classrooms. For example, students taking a foreign language are in the same class with beginners as well as fluent speakers. The second design principle is adult world connection. Teachers strive to bring the outside world into the classroom to enhance student engagement and learning. At the middle school teachers instill this principle through field trips, guest speakers and interviews with adults in the community. For example I took students to the downtown courthouse to talk to judges, bailiffs and lawyers about the judicial process. The third guiding principle is common intellectual mission. In essence, the school is preparing all students to continue their education after high school. All students are assessed through exhibition, presentations, and projects. Rob Riordan conducted an investigation on assessment at High Tech High in 2003 where he stated that “there is a quality of dialogue at HTH about standards, effort and growth, about ideas and products that is compelling in its authenticity (Riordan, 2003).
Data Collection and Analysis
Methods
- Surveys
I used surveys throughout my action research. The surveys varied in length, however. I gave one survey to both the students and my colleagues at the beginning of the year. I continued to use surveys throughout my research as a means of obtaining students thoughts, opinions and questions. The surveys I gave were a combination of open ended and closed questions.
2. Exit Cards
Exit cards are a key strategy to formatively assess students. I used them to check for learning while in the middle of a unit or after a topic was taught. I also used exit cards when I wanted short responses from students after a project, class discussion, lesson or when responses from surveys or observations brought up something I needed feedback about. I used exit cards primarily as check-ins to see what information and content students were learning and remembering. The cards were used once a week or once every two weeks depending on the other methods I was using at the time to learn from the students. I coded the responses for trends to see if particular forms of formative assessment have overwhelmingly positive or negative responses from students.
3. Student Led Conferences
Student led conferences were completed in the beginning of November. All students participated in these conferences with a parent present. I recorded a few students by video and also collected written responses from each student. I used the conferences as a mid-semester check-in to inform me of any changes or modifications that needed to be made for the remainder of the semester. The students reflected on what they are doing well and what they struggled with. They used examples of work to guide the conference. Based on these responses from the students, I was able to see what changes I needed to make in the classroom and what some of my projects/lesson plans would need to change based on the needs of the students
4. Observations
Another important tool for formative assessment is observation, but the importance of observing students is not a unique strategy. I observed students while using questioning strategies in class or while the students were working independently or in groups on assignments and projects. It was important to make note of any issues that arose or when a strategy or lesson went particularly well. I recorded observations on a clipboard as I walked around to check in with students. They weren’t formal observations, just notes that would then find their way into questions I asked of the students, exit cards, surveys or conferences.
5. Student-Teacher Feedback
In addition to the forms of feedback and voice I was collecting from students, I also included any critiquing or conferencing I completed with students in class as part of the feedback. This feedback happened the most for students when it came to writing. If I wasn’t conferencing with the students in class, I asked them to complete a sheet when they turned in writing, communicating with me what they did well and what they needed help with specifically. After completing a cycle or more of feedback with students, I asked them about the feedback and what was helpful about it. I also used the conferences to make notes of commons mistakes I was seeing from students so I can then make plans for lessons based on the feedback.
6. Student Led Comments
At the end of the first semester, my partner and I completed comments as usual, except we included the students and parents in the process. The comment cycle took place over the course of three weeks and is explained in detail in my Findings section. These comments were my final piece of data I collected from the students for the purpose of my study. It was a good place to stop, as it was the end of the first semester. The comments were used for students to reflect on the semester, how they learn and to think about goals they have for the second semester. The student led comments were the final piece of my data collection, as stated earlier. I kept track of common themes or comments I saw from students to make overall changes for the new semester. While this strategy may not be formative because I didn’t make immediate changes the next day, I was able to give individual feedback to each student and parent.
Description of Intervention
Introduction to Findings
My Understandings section contains explanations of formative assessment and the positive outcomes for students and teachers when it is used. While the experts on the topic emphasize the positive aspects of formative assessments, they also recognize that it can be time consuming for teachers because they must look over student responses promptly in order to make changes to the next day’s lesson. Luckily I have the freedom when it comes to my projects and lessons, but time is another story. Projects by definition require a lot of pre-planning to make the hectic process as smooth as possible. I knew that using formative assessment strategies would require possible changes to the next day’s lesson, thus making throwing off the project schedule. I knew that the schedule was not as important as the need to make changes if the students’ feedback indicated they needed clarification on a topic.
Towards the end of the summer, as preparations were underway to begin the school year and get ready to start our action research, I began having doubts about my question. I knew that I wanted to stay focused on the topic of student voice, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. While it was scary to have these feelings and doubts, it was helpful for me to clear my head and refocus. I met with my critical friend to share my thoughts and we decided that it wasn’t too late to tweak my question. I found myself a little behind schedule at the beginning of the year because I was doing more research and updating the Understandings section to reflect my redesigned question. I used various formative assessment strategies in the past, but didn’t always use them consistently in lessons and throughout the course of a project. Around the same time that I began using formative assessments in my classroom, I surveyed my colleagues at High Tech Middle about their thoughts, issues and use of assessment
Findings-Preliminary Surveys
Learning from Colleagues
At a professional development meeting, I explained my action research question to my colleagues and told them that I would appreciate their open and honest reflections on the topic. I asked a total of eight questions about assessment and found their responses useful in my quest to discover assessment practices that are helpful to students and teachers. The responses that struck me were ones that indicated growth and change in practice over the course of their teaching career. I gave this survey at the time that I was in limbo about my question, so I ended up focusing on four questions that connected to my questions about formative assessment. I asked a total of nineteen people: director, resource specialist, tutors and teachers. Some were first year teachers and some have been teaching for several years. Despite the differences in experience, all saw assessment as an important part of teaching. In addition to acknowledging the importance of assessment, most were conflicted as to the best methods to assess students , as shown in the chart below indicating how often the teachers use traditional (summative) forms of assessment.
Figure 1 Frequency of summative assessment at HTM
2. In general, what are your thoughts/issues around assessment?
One teacher said, “I feel that assessment in general is a vital part of a child’s education and teacher’s practice. Assessment in some shape or form holds students accountable for their learning and helps teachers gain a better understanding of what individuals need.” My goal during my action research was not only to keep students “accountable” but also actively involved in assessing their learning. I wanted to use assessment to inform me about what a student has learned, but also what they feel they still need to learn and how they will get there.
Another response that struck me was, “Assessment should be ongoing always and personalized to keep kids moving forward.” I agree that if assessment is actually going to help a student and teacher that it shouldn’t happen only at the end of a project or unit. I don’t think the answer is little quizzes along the way either. If a student does poorly on quizzes, giving them many won’t help them show their understanding unless a teacher looks at what they can do with the lesson to help students move forward. There isn’t one method to meeting the needs of each student and it isn’t easy to do. Finally, one teacher said, “I think that assessment is a very important tool in the classroom and one of my goals for this year is to use formative assessment to more effectively guide my teaching.” While one of the purposes of action research is to identify and issue and see what one can do to address it, it is also a way for a teacher to learn more about their own teaching practices and how to become a better teacher. So while my action research question focuses on the students’ learning it will also give me feedback about how to be a better teacher.
2. How have your assessment practices evolved/changed over the years?
One teacher said, “In the beginning of my teaching career I saw them as separate from instructional time whereas now I see them as part of the learning process. Students can learn while they are involved in various types of assessment processes.” Several teachers noted a change from larger, high stakes tests to more frequent quizzes to help them track students’ progress closely. I also noted that every teacher has changed their practices in some way, an indication that the teachers may be reflecting on their teaching and the purpose of assessment in their classes. I found this question and the responses I received indicative of the fact that my research question could not only help my teaching, but also help my colleagues in some way.
3. Throughout a project, topic or unit do you give pre-assessments, assessments in the middle and post assessments? Why/why not?
The answers to this question varied, often depending on the subject(s) that the teacher taught. I wanted to understand their purpose for using or not using these assessments at different points in a unit or teaching of a topic. Teachers responded to the question by explaining their reasoning for using or not using pre and post assessment, etc. One response that struck me said, “I want to know what the kids know when they began, if they’re getting it along the way, and what they can do at the end.” I chose this quote because part of formative assessment practices are to understand where each student is at in their learning and identify what they need to do to get to the final goal, whatever that may be. Part of measuring a student’s learning is to see the growth they are making. Another important part of this person’s response that is connected to my action research is the part that says “if they’re getting it along the way.” I think many teachers, me included, are guilty of not realizing until the end that some students did not fully understand the material or concept. What good can this do for the student or the teacher when it is time to move onto the next project? Another teacher said, “Baby steps are key to build the students’ knowledge slowly and accurately.” Over the years I have learned the importance of slowing down, but am guilty of forgetting this at times when a deadline is looming. The emphasis of depth not breadth is a reason for project-based learning. This helps students absorb information and learn skills that they will take with them beyond that school year. Part of formative assessment is using assessment as practice, but to also see how a student is progressing and what they are having trouble with. Below is a bar graph demonstrating how often teachers use assessment throughout a unit. Not every teacher gives pre assessments, but most do; about 11 out of 14 teacher respondents said that they did. Thirteen teachers said they give an assessment during the unit or project to ensure students are learning and to discover what they still need to learn. Post assessment received the most responses from the teachers. Fourteen teachers (the other five responders are not classroom teachers) gave a final assessment at the end of a project or unit.
Figure 2 Teacher use of assessment at HTM
4. What do you consider “authentic assessment” to mean in your classroom/HTM?
The final question I selected from the teacher survey was to ask what “authentic assessment” means in their classroom. In the original version of my Understandings section, I dedicated a section to “authentic assessment.” When I updated the section with research regarding formative assessment, I reduced the emphasis on “authentic.” However, authenticity is a component of PBL that we all incorporate as much as we can to engage students in the topic by helping them see the connection between school and the real world. One teacher thinks, “Assessment is authentic if it can lead me to what I should do next or show me something about the whole class.”
Another colleague stated, “I think when students can point out what they learned rather than discuss a grade, then they are reaching the authentic voice.” Helping students find their “voice” is something I want to try to do this year. I want to help students move away from placing importance on a number or letter and focus on what that number or letter may represent.
Assessments are authentic if, “They are useful for driving the class/student forward.” Finally, one of my favorite responses was, “Honest, but thoughtful feedback from students. Open discussion between teachers and students about the work. Asking students to elaborate on their ideas with each other to strengthen work.” My colleague’s thoughts on authentic assessment in their class are a short summary of my action research plan. My goals for using formative assessment is to help students use their voice to inform me of my teaching practices, help assess their own learning and help each other create beautiful work.
Asking the teachers these questions helped me tremendously by validating the fact that I was going to be doing something this year that could potentially help my colleagues when it comes to assessment and their teaching. From these surveys I learned several things from my colleagues: assessment is a significant part of teaching and learning, assessment practices are constantly changing at High Tech Middle, and assessment in a project based school takes form in many different ways. In general, teachers at my school use a wide variety of assessment practices, both summative and formative. Assessment is sometimes seen as an ugly word and there are plenty of negative connotations surrounding it. As teachers we know we must assess students for various reasons, but do we concentrate on what we can learn from assessing our students?
Learning from Students
After looking at the responses from my colleagues, I wanted to hear from the students regarding their thoughts on HTM, what they like about the school, what teachers do effectively and what teachers can do differently for students. I created a survey that I gave to my students to complete the next weekend. The survey was an adaptation of one that Melissa Daniels, a teacher at HTM, gave to students last year. I had two reasons for conducting this survey. First, I wanted to get to know my students better. Second, I wanted to know their thoughts about the role of the teacher and their thoughts about the school in general. The survey was made up of seven questions (Appendix II) and I focused on a few of them more closely as they related to my action research question. I received surveys from 53 (out of 56) students in my 7th grade Humanities class. Below I examine the common themes that emerged from the three questions that I analyzed.
Question 1: What do you like about High Tech Middle?
The purpose of this question was to hear from the students about their school. My colleagues and I have expressed over the years our reasons for working in the High Tech organization, but I wanted to hear from the students about their experience at the school. Many students gave more than one reason for liking the school. Twenty-five students responded that they liked projects, which wasn’t surprising given the fact that we are known for project based learning. Twenty students explained that the teachers were what they enjoyed best about the school. Fourteen students cited other reasons from freedom to x-block to art.
Figure 3 What do students like about High Tech Middle?
I focused on the twenty responses that cited teachers. The role of the teacher in formative assessment is more involved that in traditional assessments. Many students explained that the interaction between teacher and student was important and the relationship is not always seen at some schools. Kiahna said, “I like the teacher-student relationship. I think that most students know that the teachers are the kind of people that you can go and talk to about issues at school or even at home.” Another student, Maddie explained, “I like that the teacher are awesome, understanding and fun. I like how we are challenged and how the teachers are always there for you.” Formative assessment strategies require a constant dialogue between teacher and student and the students had experienced a close teacher to student relationship the previous year.
In addition to feeling comfortable with their teachers, students explained that they know teachers are there to help them and that we want to help too. Christian said, “I like that the teachers can always help you one on one and they spend a ton of time helping you.” Another student, Kenny said, “I like how the teachers are all very kind and encouraging. It seems like a nice, comfy working environment.” Will said, “I like that teachers are more hands-on than at other schools.” Lastly, Andrew said, “All of the teachers are full of energy and want to help students all of the time.” While I don’t think these responses are unique to my school, I don’t think every school would receive some of these responses. Having many students that already see the purpose of teacher is to help guide students would help me implement my formative assessment strategies a little more seamlessly.
Question 2: What do teachers do that makes it easier for you to learn in class, homework, projects, etc?
I wanted to hear the students’ thoughts regarding how teachers help them learn. I thought that asking them what teachers do in regards to the classroom environment, homework and how they set up projects could help me get a better gauge of what is working at our school. Similarly to my survey of teachers regarding assessment, I wanted to see the students’ thoughts about their history with regards to learning and their thoughts on how they learn best. I pulled out four different themes from student responses: differentiation, student to teacher interaction, using models and visuals, and assessment strategies. All 53 students responded to this question and many gave several examples where teachers helped them learn. The graph below shows the four commons themes that came out of the responses.
Figure 4 Ways teachers help students learn at HTM
Differentiation
Many students cited examples of different methods by which teachers presented information and different methods for students to demonstrate their learning. While no student used the word “differentiation,” they recognize that they learn in many different forms. Daniela said, “Teachers at HTM make class fun, but they take teaching us seriously. They give us chances to try different studies and we get different in-class work based on our needs.” Alex said, “It makes it easier for me to understand if we use it in homework and do mini-projects about it.” Alec A said, “The teachers use homework, research, projects and every learning method to make you understand.” I am a proponent of different methods of assessment to get a more complete picture of what the student is learning and what they still need to learn about a topic. The students appreciate when attention is paid to their interests and learning styles too.
Student to Teacher Interaction
Similarly to question 1, many students cited the interaction with teachers as a significant component of their attitude towards school. Will said, “Teachers always know what they’re teaching. Teachers are always happy to help you.” Carlos said, “They help you understand more about the project because they help you hands on and talk about the problem more. If you need help the teachers will help you not like in other schools.” Kiahna said it simply, “They communicate well with students.” Reilly said, “They care if you are doing badly. They are informative and energetic.” What I found is that the one on one time appears to be important to students in that their teachers want to give those individual help and attention based on their needs.
Using Models & Visuals
Over the years the school has adopted more of Ron Berger’s philosophy on the use of models to motivate students and give them frameworks of beautiful work. Francesca said, “Visuals! It’s really hard for me to get things that are just written instructions so when you show me how to do it I understand it better.” Mark said, “They explain what we are doing, then they give examples of how to do it. The directions they give make sense and are straightforward.” Maddie said, “They always explain everything and the visuals help us understand.” Brandon said, “I think that it makes it easier when teachers show examples of the thing that we are doing. That way, we have an idea of what we are doing.” Joanna said, “I like to be given examples on what we work on to understand better.” Many students responded that models and visuals help them learn. In general, similarly to assessment, information should be given to students in a variety of ways to ensure they understand requirements, expectations, etc.
Assessment Strategies
The final theme was assessment. Again, no student ever said the word assessment or testing, but they were alluding to assessment. Michael said, “They give us chances if we make a mistake. If we do something wrong they correct us.” This quote struck me because it is exactly the purpose of formative assessments. It allows students to see what they are unclear about or don’t understand yet and gives them an opportunity to see what they need to learn and strategies to help. Christian said, “They really explain everything thoroughly and take the time to make sure you understand it.” Formative assessment emphasizes the process of learning and not just the final test. Fiona said, “I like that the teachers explain the subject, explain the work or assignment that needs to be done and then let us get to work. They don’t hover; of course we can always ask separate questions once we have started working.” Angela said, “They understand if you need help or you can’t do some kind of assignment, so they help you to make things easier to finish.” These last two students mentioned the idea that students can work independently on an assignment and receive feedback or help as they need it.
Question 3: What do you wish that teachers did differently?
The majority of responses that students gave were related to having more time to complete work, explanation of steps/lessons and one on one time with the teacher. Jazmine expressed, “I feel like if you give us your time, it would make it really easy.” Sergio said, “We need more time to do work and to do homework because we barely have time.” While the former expresses more one on one time with the teacher, the latter wants more time to do work in general. Mark answered, “I wish that the teachers explained a bit more about the steps of a project. I think they should also give us more time to do work.” Alec said, “Maybe talk to everyone one on one to see if they are struggling on something.” Britton declared, “I wish that teachers gave us more written instructions because I understand better if I read what I am supposed to do.” Based on their responses, I started the school year knowing more about each of my students as learners and their thoughts on school in general and HTM specifically.
Findings and Actions
Action research begins with a teacher’s practical question, proceeding in a spiral of planning, action, observation, and reflection to learn from personal experiences and make those accessible to others (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988).
Throughout the semester I used a variety of formative assessment strategies and other ways to bring out my students’ voice. I highlight five of them below where I collected and analyzed data from the students. I choose these strategies because I used them throughout the semester for several lessons and projects. Formative assessment can take form in many different ways, because it has been defined and explained in a variety of ways. In a project based learning school environment, in my 7th grade humanities class, it was a little different as well. Normally I make a set project schedule with check-ins, due dates and a final exhibition. Using formative assessment strategies required flexibility within the schedule for the students and me. For each strategy there is a description of the strategy, the form it took in my classroom, student responses and a teacher reflection on the experience.
Formative Assessment Strategy 1- Criteria and Goal Setting
According to the National Middle School Association, criteria and goal setting with students engages them in instruction and the learning process by creating clear expectations. In order to be successful, students need to understand and know the learning target/goal and the criteria for reaching it. Establishing and defining quality work together, asking students to participate in establishing norm behaviors for classroom culture, and determining what should be included in criteria for success are all examples of this strategy. The use of models and visuals in my classroom is a teaching method that I have implemented more frequently throughout the last four years. Below I have highlighted two projects in the first semester where students viewed models, critiqued them and created criteria for what beautiful work looks like. I continued to use this method throughout the school year for various projects and find it extremely helpful and purposeful in my classroom.
- Team Culture Puzzle
This project was created by my teaching partner and his partner from two years ago. The project is an introduction to our 7th grade team, each other and what important components we would like to bring to the classroom to make a positive team environment. We showed the students the puzzle pieces from the last year’s class. Each student receives a puzzle piece made of cardboard. The pieces fit together in a particular order, but the final product is a large rectangle that is hung above our classroom doors. Before showing them the puzzle pieces we asked the students to brainstorm ideals, actions, words, etc that they feel are necessary to create a positive team culture. After getting the list to 56 (the number of students we have on our team) we randomly gave each student a word. The students defined the word and thought of examples where one could see the word in action at school. We took the puzzle from last year apart and began looking at models and critiqued the quality of several pieces. Using the guidelines such as the image should be clear from a distance, the students created the criteria for beautiful work together. Once we had the idea for expectations of quality, the students began making drafts and sketches. We went through three drafts and two rounds of peer critique, using the criteria that the students created earlier. Using Ron Berger’s method, we asked the students to be kind, specific and helpful. At the end of this two week process, students had their completed piece and were ready to make the puzzle piece together. They had to work together to figure out the order that pieces were placed in without help from the teachers. The final piece is hanging above our doors for the entire year.
2. Family History Project
The Family History Project required students to interview a family member that lived through an historical event, study the event, create a script and finally put everything together into a mini documentary. This project began in early October and ended at the beginning of December with an exhibition where family members came to view the students’ documentaries. Below is a project overview and a list of learning objectives that was given to the students before the unit began.
Project Overview:
During this project you will have the opportunity to learn more about a person in your family and to learn about an event in history experienced by that person. One thing that makes history exciting is when you can hear about it first-hand. Another thing that makes it exciting is when you are doing the investigative historical work – you are researching to find clues about what happened in the past. In this project, you’ll get to do both those things, and you’ll create a documentary movie about your family member and their experiences.
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn how to “do history” by learning to use the tools of the historian: books & periodicals, images, photographs, artifacts, ephemera, maps, and electronic media.
- Students will learn about a specific event or period in history, experienced first-hand by a family member or close friend.
- Students will learn to read non-fiction texts and take notes on the information they read.
- Students will learn to synthesize and organize the information in their notes into a documentary script.
- Students will learn to use Windows Movie Maker to create a documentary film.
This was the major project in my humanities class this semester and took a significant chunk of time because of all of the steps and components that were requirement to make the documentary. At the beginning of the project timeline, I showed the students several examples from the previous year. This was my first year with this project, so I too was evaluating the documentaries with the students. Earlier in the year, I had modeled how to critique and give constructive feedback on a mini-project. After watching the videos, the students shared what they thought the requirements and criteria for the project were to create a professional looking documentary. There is a lot of argument among educators around the purpose and usefulness of rubrics. There have been times where I created rubrics that I doubt students looked at in depth as they were working on the project. For this project and future projects I wanted to ensure that if I did use a rubric it was purposeful. Later I highlight in the Family History project where the criteria students created together turned into the project rubric and was used for self-assessment purposes too.
Student Feedback on Criteria and Goal Setting
After the Family Film Night, I gave students another copy of the rubric we created together (attached). This time I made room for the students to assess themselves and teacher assessment. Since I input the grades into Powerschool, I didn’t have one student ask me why they received the score that they did. While there were some variations in grading between the student and myself, overall the students were aware of the quality of work that they created. After the assessment was complete, I asked the students three questions regarding the experience. Overall they responded favorably to the assessment.
Question 1: Did you like being able to grade your own project for the Family History Project?
A total of 43 responded favorably. One student said they like it because, I know what I need to work on.” Another student said, “Yes, because we know what we deserve.” One of my favorite responses was from a student who said, “Yes, because we have to say what we did good on. It’s like a mini POL.” The eight students that didn’t seem to care either way, gave a few different reasons for their response. They felt that some students would give themselves an unfair grade if they knew they give themselves any grade. Only four students responded with a definitive no. There were about seven students that liked and disliked the self-assessment, so I put them in a separate category. The students that responded with a definitive “no” explained their reasoning such as, “No, I like it more when you grade. I like it because I feel it’s my real grade.”
Figure 5 Student opinions of self-assessment of FHP documentary
Question 2: In the future, would you like to be able to tell me what you think you earned on a project? Why?
Overwhelmingly, students expressed that they would like to share their thoughts and opinions on assessment in the future. Forty-five students responded with a solid yes, while two expressed yes/no and nine responded with a definitive “no.” Those that responded “yes” stated a variety of reasons. Chase said, “How we feel on how good we did on the project might be different than how you feel and gives us a chance to compromise.” Alexa said, “It would make me feel like I can honestly say what I think about my project.” Sarah said,” Yes, because it makes it fair and I understand why I got that grade on the project.” Angela said, “You can hear it from our point of view.” Britton said, “When a teacher gives you a score that’s not perfect, you want to know what you did wrong.” Maddie said, “I would like to explain what grade I think I should get on my project because I can show what I struggled with and did well. It also helps me reflect on my work.” These six students expressed the thoughts of most of the 45 students that liked to explain how they think they performed during the project and the final product. It is important to express how hard they worked, something they are afraid the teacher might not take into consideration.
The two students that gave the unsure responses struck me because they made valid points. Logan said, “I think that you should grade first so that we can fix what we think was wrong on what you graded.” Logan is essentially asking for a formative assessment; however this was a final grade. He makes an interesting point and I think that if I do this project again in the future, I would ask students to grade themselves a few days prior to the final due date so they can see what changes they need to make before turning it into the teacher. Another student, Fiona said, “Yes, but maybe you could just take it into consideration, not actually have it affect the grade.” She makes an interesting point, because there are some students that give themselves a score that doesn’t align with the criteria on the rubric. I discuss this issue in more detail below.
Figure 6 Student opinions to self-assessment in general
For the nine students that said they did not like to grade themselves, I chose two responses that encompassed the feelings of all nine students. Erick said, “No, because sometimes we aren’t completely sure in our grades which we gave ourselves.” This student’s response demonstrates a common struggle for teachers too. Teachers struggle with what grade or score is correct, so why wouldn’t the students? Another student, Chella said, “No, because I would want the teacher to recognize how much work I put into a project.” This response demonstrates that some students still crave the feedback from an adult or teacher. They want the positive feedback of the teacher to feel validated in what they did. As a teacher it is important to allow your students the chance to express their thoughts and for you as the teacher to express yours.
Question 3: Was watching the student documentary models and creating a rubric together helpful? Explain.
In response to this question, 45 students said it was helpful, eight said it was somewhat helpful and three said it wasn’t helpful. Students that found the models helpful did so for the variety of reasons that teachers use them in the classroom: to demonstrate, inspire and create criteria and expectations for the project. Maddie said, “I think that was helpful because you got to see generally what yours was going to look like. You also saw mistakes and good things and could apply that to your own.” Andrew said, “I was able to see a project so I had a better understanding of what I am making.” Chella said, “The documentaries showed me what to do and what not to do and making a rubric was very helpful.” Kara said, “By watching the other documentaries, I learned from them.” Sarah said, “I understand how to create a good clear movie and learn what I could do and could not do.” Alec M said, “It gave me a better idea on how to make it better than theirs.” Kenny said, “We saw what was expected of us.” Overwhelmingly, the students found it helpful to look at models. Even those the eleven who did not response with a definitive “yes” still were able to see what the project was about by watching the examples.
Figure 7 Student opinions on use of models and criteria setting
The eight students that found the models somewhat helpful gave responses that are a double edged sword of using models. Alexa said, “Not really, because it made everyone want our documentaries to look like theirs.” Milo said, “No, not really. It made me feel I had to do the same exact thing as them.” Even though I showed a variety of documentaries, some students feel that they should copy what previous students did, when the purpose of the models is to inspire and allow for creativity.
Teacher Reflection on Criteria and Goal Setting
In my previous years of teaching I asked students to reflect on a project. I asked them to describe their work ethic, what they learned about the content and themselves. These reflections were similar to the semester POLs, but weren’t used as a form of assessment. This is the first time I have created the criteria with students together, used the rubric throughout the project and asked students to evaluate themselves using the rubric. As I looked over student self-assessment, I made note of students that assessed themselves similarly to me, gave themselves a higher score, or gave themselves a lower score than me. The total point value for the documentary was out of 100. If the students graded themselves within four points of me, I counted it as “similar.” If they gave themselves a score higher than four points or lower than four points, I counted it. The graph below demonstrates that 33 students graded similarly to me, 12 gave themselves a higher score and 11 graded lower.
Figure 8 Student self assessment results on FHP
Nine of the 12 students that graded higher were due to the project being late, so I had to take more points off, which counted for the discrepancy in scores. The students that graded themselves lower were being hard on themselves or had higher expectations for their worked based on the rubric. To only have a large grade discrepancy (more than four points) with a few students out of 56 made me see that giving students a chance to self assess can have positive results. While I don’t know if I will continue to allow students’ scores to count (averaged with mine) in the future, I would like them to self-assess themselves in the future for major projects. A teacher couldn’t have known everything that went into the project, for example, students’ efforts or work ethic. The students found this a major part of grading themselves. They want everything to be considered in the grade and to feel that they are being graded fairly and aren’t being compared to other students.
Formative Assessment Strategy 2- Questioning Strategies
Another assessment strategy I implemented and used more frequently than in previous years were questioning strategies. Black and William encourage teachers to use questioning and classroom discussion as an opportunity to increase their students’ knowledge and improve understanding (1998). Teachers need to make sure to ask thoughtful, reflective questions rather than simple, factual ones and then give students adequate time to respond. While I did ask factual questions throughout a lesson, when I was checking for understanding, I used questions that had more than one possible answer or interpretation from the students. Below I explain the two strategies I used the most in my action research.
Exit Cards
I gave an exit card a few times during each project/unit in the first semester. Exit cards were something that was new to me and I regret not using them before. An exit card at the end of a class period can help a teacher determine students’ understanding of the day’s lesson and see what concepts the students understand, what they are having difficulties with and what the teacher can do in the next day’s lesson plan to help students reach their goal. I used exit cards several times throughout the year, but for the purposes of space, I am including one data collection and analysis cycle in this paper. During the Model United Nations project I gave an exit card a few weeks into the project. Students were learning about the formation, purpose and function of the UN. I gave them an exit card asking four questions before we continued forward with the project. I wanted to see what information the students knew. After reading about the importance of types of questions, I made sure to ask a combination of open ended questions and questions that had a specific answer based on factual information students learned in prior lessons.
Figure 9 MUN project exit card responses
Using exit cards throughout the semester were extremely important for me to check in with all students in a short amount of time. In the example above, the four questions I asked indicated to me that students understood some concepts of the UN, while others needed some more clarification. Students that only partially answered correctly or were incorrect were put in a separate pile for me to look through. I made note if students were answering all questions incorrectly or only a few. By the graph above, you can see that for all four questions, a large majority of the students answered the questions correctly. I felt that these results didn’t validate an entire class period, especially because a majority didn’t need the review and students were working on research for their country for the conference. I decided to have the students correct the exit cards together with their UN partners. Students that did poorly on the exit card were ones that I made sure to check in with over the next few days to help them understand and use their notes and lesson plans to correctly find and identify the answers.
Teacher Reflection on Questioning Strategies
This was one of the first times in my four years teaching that I used exit cards or asked students questions as they were leaving the room on a frequent basis. I observed a few teachers at my school using exit cards or asking students questions as they left and found that while it would only take 5 minutes to complete this task, it could do much more for the teacher and the students than the small amount of time it takes up. The daily check-ins with students allowed me to see who was getting the concepts, who was not, and gave students the opportunity to ask questions of me regarding something they were still confused about. It is important not to overdo the amount of exit cards or exit questions for the students. It is also important to leave a sufficient amount of time for students to complete the questions. I wouldn’t even call them exit cards, because I noticed a difference in the quality of responses if students thought they could leave for break or lunch early if they answered quickly. Because formative assessments are for practice, I couldn’t call them quizzes either, but told the students to answer them completely and as best as they could.
In addition to exit cards, I also used Think Pair Share; a questioning strategy I used frequently throughout my four years of teaching. I used it one to two times a week and I find it extremely helpful to get students thinking about concepts learned the previous day or week. I felt the students would appreciate talking about the concept as opposed to writing all the time. I do use quick writes from time to time if I want students to give a longer response about a quote or a topic, not always a single concept. Even when I have students write, they would still share with someone else. While this strategy required all students to engage in the activities, I wasn’t sure if it made students that wouldn’t normally speak up, volunteer to answer questions. There are times when I would call on students and not ask for volunteers to ensure that I would hear from a larger percentage of the class in a given class period.
The Think Pair Share could be a question posed by a teacher, a picture, a video, etc. According to the NMSA, questioning strategies should be embedded in lesson/unit planning. Asking better questions allows an opportunity for deeper thinking and provides teachers with significant insight into the degree and depth of understanding. Questions of this nature engage students in classroom dialogue that both uncovers and expands learning. I used this strategy because it gave every student the opportunity to think and share their thoughts with a classmate. Once the pairs spoke, students can then address the entire class if they like. Asking students to talk to one another will prevent the same extroverted students from being the only ones to speak, and therefore be the most engaged in class.
Formative Assessment Strategy 3- Conferences
Another formative assessment strategy is the use of conferences. For the purpose of my action research, I wanted to collect data regarding student led conferences. Another strategy I discuss later is teacher feedback to students and I did this in a Writer’s Workshop teacher conference format. My teaching partner and I wanted the information shared in the student-led conference to provide a balanced picture of the student’s strengths and areas for improvement. In a conference students discuss the process of learning, and the progress they have made, with reference to their goals and the criteria against which their work has been evaluated (Taylor-Patel 2006). As explained in more detail below, we asked students to bring examples of their work and to show evidence of growth and progress through their work examples.
Student Led Conferences were held at the beginning of December. My partner and I chose to forgo the traditional parent teacher conferences and require all students to lead a discussion with their parents. The conferences were held in my room with four students leading a conference every thirty minutes. My teaching partner and I rotated around the room and were able to converse with all students and parents. While we were exhausted at the end of the week, we felt that the conferences served a purpose because the students were reflecting on their learning so far in the school year. To help students prepare, I asked them to respond to several questions (Appendix III). In the course of the 30 minute discussion they were to discuss all three classes and the goals they set for each. Students led the discussion with their parents. My teaching partner and I came by and sat in on each conference for about 10 minutes and then continued the rotation.
Student Feedback to Conferences
I asked the students to reflect on the experience of leading a conference by giving them a survey. I received 54 surveys out of 56 total students. A total of 55 students participated in the conference; one student’s parents couldn’t make it to the conference. I asked the students four questions about the experience. Questions one and two are connected because one is asking students to explain what they liked and to rate it. For the most part, the students that rated the experience lower, a 1 or 2, went on to explain why they did not like the conference.
Question 1: What did you like about the way we did conferences?
There were a variety of responses to these questions. I focused on responses where students gave a more favorable response. The students that gave a score of 1 or 2 are focused on below for Question 2. The students liked the conferences for the following reasons: less pressure, they were able to share their thoughts and opinions, share work with parents and discuss their goals and areas of improvement. Students felt less pressured because it was a small group of people and the conversation did not take place in front of their peers, as our POLs so at the end of each semester. I chose four student responses that I felt articulated the four main reasons that students rated the experience with a three or four. Fiona explained, “I liked the fact that I was able to sit down and honestly talk about school and work.” Because the conference wasn’t graded, students didn’t feel the need to give answers they felt parents and teachers wanted to hear. Grant expressed, “I liked that we talked about our grades and told them what we need to improve on so we can actually go for the goal.” A mid-semester check allowed students to reflect on their habits thus far in the year and set goals for themselves for the rest of the semester. Graciella said, “I liked the reflective questions to organize my thoughts and showing them to my parents. I liked setting goals about how to be a better student.” Many students liked sharing their work with their parents and taking a moment to think about themselves as a student. Eric articulated, “I liked that the students got to lead the conferences rather than having the teacher lead the whole conversation.” It makes sense to have students involved in conferences instead of just the parents and teachers. The student is the most important person and discussing their strengths and areas of improvement without their presence doesn’t always help make changes.
Question 2: On a scale of 1-4, rate the experience of leading a conference.
I gave the students four different options to choose and then to explain their reasoning. The graph below demonstrates the responses from the 54 students. The option “never again” received four responses, “wasn’t too bad” received six responses, “good” received twenty six responses, and “enjoyed it” received seventeen responses.
Figure 10 Student ratings of the experience of leading a conference
The students that rate the experience “never again” were the students that had some areas of improvement, particularly when it came to classroom behavior and completing assignments. They did not enjoy having to explain this to their parents, but as the teacher, it is important for the student to talk about their decisions and thought process themselves. Students that gave the score “wasn’t too bad” typically did not enjoy speaking in front of their teachers and parents or they did not like the extra work and preparation they had to do. They preferred the parent-teacher conference format instead. Overall, the students that gave the negative score (a 1 or 2) were 10 students out of 55. The percentage of students was small enough that I am not discouraged from doing these types of conferences again in the future.
Teacher Reflection on Conferences
The last time I conducted student led conferences was my first year teaching. I enjoyed them thoroughly, especially because POLs were done in advisory at the time and didn’t feel authentic to me as a teacher. I didn’t find the experience of bringing academics into the advisory setting useful or beneficial to the students. I didn’t know my advisees as students and didn’t know enough about projects and concepts to feel that I was accurately or fairly assessing their presentations. I enjoyed SLCs more than POLs because they weren’t graded, students ran them and both their core teachers were able to participate in the conference. SLCs allowed a mid-semester check in with parents, teachers and students to discuss the progress the student has made in math, science and humanities. The student had to run the conference and give thoughtful answers to the questions we posed to them. I also liked that the conference required students to show evidence of their learning, progress and areas that they still needed to work on. I find it important to have all the main players involved in a student’s learning: themselves, their parents and teachers. We all play important roles to ensure that a child feels successful, but also confident in themselves to articulate what they need help with or are struggling with. The conversation isn’t formal or high stakes. I recall so many students commenting the next day in class that it was so easy and much better than POLs. I casually asked them why, and most responded that it was because it more personal, other students weren’t present and they felt they were running the conference.
Formative Assessment Strategy 4- Self-Peer-Teacher Feedback
The most important relationship in formative assessment is that between teacher and student. There is a constant dialogue between the students and teacher, but it isn’t the only important form of communication in formative assessments. While feedback generally originates from a teacher, learners can also play an important role in formative assessment through self-evaluation. (Fontana & Fernandes, 1994; Frederikson & White, 1997). Self and peer assessment helps to create a learning community within a classroom. Students who can reflect while engaged in metacognitive thinking are involved in their learning. When students have been involved in criteria and goal setting, self-evaluation is a logical step in the learning process. Students that are aware of the purpose of an assignment or project, because they contributed to the criteria, are more aware of the expectations while critiquing themselves or their peers. With peer evaluation, students see each other as resources for understanding and checking for quality work against previously established criteria (NMSA). Gathering information on student understanding, analyzing that information, then using it to guide instruction is a teaching practice promoted by National Science Education Standards (NSES). Formative assessment helps students interpret feedback as a means of learning rather than punishment or reward. Formative assessment serves the dual purpose of giving the teacher information on the effectiveness of the lesson and giving students information on the current state of their learning.
2. Writer’s Workshop
There is a large variance in how teachers implement a Writer’s Workshop into their classrooms. In my classroom I spent about two-three hours a week giving students time in class to write, critique and edit. Students are free to write about a topic of their choosing, usually beginning with a non-fictional narrative about their life or an event in their life. However, the students had to write a non-fiction piece for the first two pieces that were published. The purpose of the workshop aspect is for students to self-critique their writing and share it with others. The students write several drafts of their writing before they have a conference with the teacher. Responding to student work with comments such as “explain what you mean by …” or “describe in detail” focuses the students’ efforts on understanding the content more deeply (Kaftan, Buck, & Haack, 2006).
Student Feedback to Self-Peer-Teacher Feedback
Once students completed two rounds of Writer’s Workshop, including brainstorm, first draft, peer critique, second draft, peer critique, third draft, teacher conference, and final story. I asked them a few questions about this format of writing in my class.
Question 1: What do you like about self critiquing and peer critiquing during Writer’s Workshop?
Looking back at the wording of this question, I realized that it was maybe a bit too open. I chose four common responses that I saw from students, and as one can see from the chart below, two of the responses were not responses to the questions I asked. A few students liked the drafting process and liked writing about their lives. These questions are not related to critiquing, as my question asked, but to what they like about the workshop overall. However, a majority of the students did answer the questions correctly. Many students gave more than one reason for liking the critiquing process. Most students explained that they like peer conferencing and critiquing more than examining it themselves first. However, many students also said that peer conferencing made them more aware of their own writing and ways to improve their own writing.
Figure 11 Reasons students like critiquing in Writer’s Workshop
Question 2: What is helpful about conferencing with me with your writing piece?
In the writing process for Writer’s Workshop, conferencing with the teacher is at the end of the process. The reason for this is that when it comes to writing, the teacher wants to focus on the content of students’ writing, and not on grammatical issues or punctuation. Ideally, those will be fixed through the drafting process, although not always. A total of 50 students found the conferences helpful and three found them somewhat helpful. (The survey was given to 53 students, three were absent).
Figure 12 Do students find teacher conferences helpful?
For the conference, the students sit next to me and we read the paper together out loud. I ask them questions when something is unclear, or if I see a mistake I ask them to read it over or wait until they tell me what is wrong. The students that answered “yes” gave a variety of reasons. They explained that the teacher catches stuff that they or the students don’t catch. I check for content more than grammar or punctuation, as is the intention of the conference. They like the one on one feedback that they get from me too.
Question 3: What would you like to see change about Writer’s Workshop? Explain.
It was my first year using this format for writing, so I wanted the students’ opinions on what was working and what they would like changed. I found six common responses that were stated most. Students often gave more than one answer which is shown in the chart below. Even though students wanted some changes made to the workshop in general, they still expressed liking this writing format.
As a result of looking at the students’ responses, I made a few changes to the work shop. One, I allowed the students to type their second draft instead of rewriting it. Two, I gave students the option to write a fiction piece if they wanted. Three, I allowed students to write on the story of the person they were peer conferencing with. As far as giving them more time, I gave more time for the workshop if students were using their time in class well.
Figure 13 Recommended changes to Writer’s Workshop from students
2. Family History Script:
The script was a narrative of what the students learned from their interview with their family member and the historic event they were affected by. The students received papers to help them combine the two different topics to flow into one script which they would then record to play with their documentary. The script went through several drafts where they peer critiqued with classmates and then had a conference with me for their final draft. As students were completing the three drafts, I asked them to respond to a few questions for exchanging papers. I wanted them to explain what they think they did well with their script thus far, what they are unsure about and what they want the person critiquing their paper to look for specifically. There are a few overlaps between formative assessment strategies and methods of critique that we conduct in our graduate classes. When students turned in their script for me to make final edits, I asked them the following questions.
Question 1: Describe three things that you think you have done well in your final script
Question 2: What would you like me to look at specifically? What do you need help with?
Because there wasn’t time to conference with each student (I helped them during project time along the way) in class, I wanted to hear from them in some capacity before I looked at their paper. Editing 56 papers can be extremely time consuming and I needed to return the papers to the students quickly so they could move forward with their project. I was able to give targeted feedback to each student based on what they needed help on.
- Model United Nations Project Resolution:
The final project of the semester (the end of my data collection) was the Model United Nations project. The final product students turned in was their resolution, written from the perspective of the country they represented. The resolution went through a few drafts and I checked in with each “country” along the way. When students turned in their most updated draft of the resolution, I asked them to tell me what they needed help with on the resolution.
Figure 14 What students needed help with on their resolutions
I did this just like with the Family History Project script. I found it helpful when going through the resolutions to know what to look for and answer those specific questions on the paper.
In addition to giving the students targeted feedback, I also asked them if they had any additional questions for me about the project or any other issues they were having. I organized these responses into the four most frequently asked questions. I was then able to address all four of these questions the next day in class. This project was extremely complicated because students were making an adult world connection to a complex and intricate organization, the United Nations.
Figure 15 Questions students have regarding the project
The next day in class I addressed each of the four concerns students had. To look at the quality of the resolution I brought in another student example from HTH’s MUN for students to look over with their partner. I re-explained the conference with the help of Sonya Park, my mentee and the person who was going to take the role of Madame Chair for the conference to help answer questions. I found a few more websites about child soldiers and UNICEF to help the students add more information if necessary. Finally, I went over the length/logistics of the resolution by referring students back to the project description they had, but didn’t refer back to. Instead of answering these questions several times to each pair, I found it was beneficial to address the entire class with regards to these questions.
Teacher Reflection to Student-Teacher Feedback
The use of feedback from the students in these three instances, Writer’s Workshop, FHP Script and MUN Resolution, helped me better understand the struggles of the students, their questions and what was helping and working for them. While it was stressful at times to complete all the feedback, particularly when it came to writing feedback, it was worth it for me as the teacher and for the students. I felt more in tune with these students as individual learners than previous years of teaching. The one on one time is extremely important. I found ways to have that feedback outside of class by asking students to respond to a few questions when turning in assignments.
Hearing back from the students also helped me improve lessons in my classroom. I was able to change parts of Writer’s Workshop to meet issues students had with the format. Their reasons were valid and I understood how to improve the format because I asked the students.
Formative Assessment Strategy 5- End of the Semester Comments
One of the guiding principles in the High Tech organization is personalization. This plays out in many different ways throughout the year. One common form of personalization is end of the semester comments. In addition to the Presentation of Learning and semester grades, teachers also write a personal comment about each student. Each school or teacher may write their comment in a different format. At High Tech Middle we have traditionally written a short description of the semester overall and major projects. Teachers then write a longer description of the student. Teachers may write about a student’s work ethic, strengths and areas for growth, etc. The purpose of the comment is to accompany the letter grade because a letter doesn’t represent the potential of the student, their behavior, personality, and highlights from the semester. In addition to parent-teacher comments, student led conferences and POLs; this is another way to communicate with parents what is happening with their child at school.
The teachers see the purpose in the comments, but there are some frustrations with them too. Many have expressed the notion that we end up repeating what we have already said to the students and parents over the course of the semester. Teachers spend a significant amount of time writing these comments while conducting POLs, final grades, ending the semester and preparing for the second semester. With all the time spent, we are not sure if parents or even students read the comment. I have written comments many times over the past four years at HTM. While conducting research on formative assessment, I realized that comments would be a wonderful opportunity to formatively assess the students. My teaching partner this year, Mike Vasquez, tried something new with comments last year. I recall he shared his format with the staff at an end of the year meeting. He explained that he included students and parents in the reflection through emails sent back and forth over a three week time period. While that sounded meaningful and worthwhile, it seemed a daunting task to take on. Mike and I discuss our students frequently and how to best assess them so there is not only a purpose to the assessment, but an opportunity to learn from the assessment. We both found student led conferences meaningful and useful for us, the students and the parents. As the end of the semester was approaching, we met to discuss semester comments. We decided that with the adoption of Google docs this year, it would be easy to use the format Mike explained to the staff the previous year. Below, I explain each step we took in detail to complete the process. The entire process took three weeks from start to finish. As you can see, it took a lot of planning, checking in with students and time management on the part of the teachers.
Steps of the Comment Process
- Mike and I explained the new comment format for the semester. We shared the document (in Appendix) using Google docs. Each student made a copy of the document and saved it. We gave them a week to respond thoughtfully to the 15 questions. There were questions for Math/Science, Humanities and general questions about their classroom behavior and work ethic.
- Once the students completed the questions, they added Mike and me to the document. Over the course of a week, we responded to the students’ responses. We added our thoughts to their reflections, asked them questions or asked them to give more detailed responses if we didn’t feel the student was being honest or thoughtful.
- Students then responded to our responses and answered any questions we asked them.
- Students were then to add their parents to the Google document. We sent a letter home to parents at the beginning of the process outlining the steps and due dates. Parents shared their email addresses with us so that the students could add their parents easily and that the parents knew to expect an important email from their child.
- Parents had a week to read through the document and comment on the back and forth conversation between their child and teachers. We also asked parents to respond to a few specific questions they had for the teachers.
- Once the parents responded, the teachers responded to the parents if it was necessary. We ended the comment with and “Areas of Strength” and “Areas for Improvement” section.
Student Feedback on Semester Comments
The response to the comments was mixed from the students. Out of all of the different strategies of assessment and feedback I conducted throughout the semester, I felt the students found this the most difficult. Their reasons were varied as is explained below. I asked the students to reflect on the experience by responding to three questions. It was the first time for the students completing comments in this format or being included in the comments at all, as explained above. Similarly to student-led conferences, some enjoyed the old way because it required less work and their participation wasn’t required.
Question 1: Why do you think the teachers did comments this way?
I was curious to hear from the students in regards to why we changed the comment format. Most students’ responses matched with the teachers’ reasons, but a few were off base. Some students thought we did it because we wanted to use technology to make it easier. While technology, in this case Google docs, helped us complete the conversation, it wasn’t the reason we did it. If anything, this process took more time than the previous comment format. Aside from the few reasons explained in the introductions, most students understood the purpose of the comment format. Christian said, “It gave a ton more information to me and you and as a result the comments from you were very helpful.” Chella reflected, “I think you wanted us to think for ourselves and responded to us so we would know your thoughts.” Alex said, “I think we did it this way so you can get a chance to understand how we feel.” Celine responded, “So parents can see how we are doing in school and communicate with teachers.” Britton concluded, “So that the kids have a say in it or that they know what they did wrong by themselves.” The students above gave comments that spoke for the rest of the team. They knew we wanted to hear from them about the semester and how they think they are doing. They recognized that we read over what they wrote and wanted to know more by asking questions to further their thinking.
Question 2: Describe the experience of writing about your learning and receiving responses from your teachers?
Several students liked the experience because it allowed their opinions and thoughts to be known. Alexa explained, “I liked it because I could say what I felt about my learning.” Sarah, “I liked it because you got to comment on yourself and say what you felt. There was no wrong answer. The teacher got to learn about how you are feeling, also got to respond, not correct us.” Connor, “I liked that I got to say what I thought about myself instead of the teachers being the only ones saying their thoughts.” Mayra, “I had to be honest, but I also had to be thoughtful.”
Other students cited the feedback from teachers as a reason for liking the comment experience. Alex, “Well, I already know how I learn and I know how I feel about that, but I thought it was cool to see what teachers think about it.” Keenan, “I thought it was pretty interesting that I could share my thoughts and also get feedback from my teacher on what I did.” Sam, “I thought it was interesting to say what we thought and get feedback.” Payton, “I think it was pretty cool to be able to write about our work and how we behave, then for our teachers to give feedback on what we wrote.” Milo, “It was cool that the teachers replied to your own thoughts.” I think after the experience was complete, students saw that their teachers took the time to read everything they wrote and all responses were unique.
The experience also allowed for students to make goals for themselves or know areas that they could improve upon. Grant, “I thought it was good because I could see how you felt about my goals.” Christian, “It really had me think about what I could do better. The responses were very good and condensed what I needed to work on, with how I can accomplish that.” Kara, “Some comments made me feel happy and some helped me improve.” Sergio, “I think this was helpful because teachers told us what we had to improve and it was like a conversation.” Frannie, “It was pretty helpful. It got many different opinions out and made me learn about what I’m doing and helped me improve.” The students appreciated the format it seems because we were talking directly to them, not about them to their parents, as if behind their backs in the original format. The students wanted a chance to explain and defend themselves.
Students learned about themselves more because they had to think about their role as a student. Maddie explained, “I got to reflect on myself which I have done before, but having my teacher comment on my reflections and share things with me and ask questions was really helpful.” Kenny stated, “It was mostly a good one, I don’t feel attacked, it was gentle responses and quite useful.” Alec M said, “I feel that I wrote things that would help me and I got a lot of feedback on how I could improve.” We asked the students questions, particularly in response to the quote provided to get them to think about themselves and what they bring to our learning community each day.
Some students had some difficulties with the process and other didn’t like it. Angela, “I thought it was a little hard because not all of us know instantly what we’re good at or bad at, so you really have to think about it.” Mark expressed, “It was hard for me, because I’m used to showing people what I learned, not explaining.” I was particularly struck by one comment by Josh who said, “Depressing, annoying because we’ve already talked about this stuff.” I recall that he also did not enjoy SLCs either, which is what he was referring to when he said “stuff.” While I think this process helped students who wanted to receive the feedback, it may not have been the pleasant for all students. I don’t think there is anything wrong if students struggled with the process. If they provided an answer that we didn’t feel was complete, we could ask them questions or bring up examples for the students to respond back to.
Question 3: Describe the experience of sharing this conversation with your parents.
Many students found sharing the conversation with their parents to be a positive experience because their parents gave them more feedback. Christian said, “They had some thoughts that I would never have had, so having them in the conversation was quite helpful.” Logan said, “They could see both what I said and what you said so they can help.” It was good to know that many of these conversations took place either on the computer or at home.
Other students liked the experience because it was another check in about their learning. Frannie stated, “It was interesting because my mom got to see what I have been up to in class and saw my goals this year.” Tannia said, “My parents got to see my teachers and my comments and it was good for them to catch up with my school behavior and grades.” Maddie commented, “It was interesting because I got to share with my parents about my learning and they could be a part of education and helping me.” Matt said, “I thought it was good to show your parents what you did instead of just showing grades.”
Other students liked the experience because they received positive feedback from their teachers. Quillian said, “It made me feel good so my parents could join the conversation with my learning.” Will said, “It wasn’t that bad because I had a lot of good things to say about how I have been doing well in school and it went better than I thought it would go.” Connor commented, “I liked showing it to them because the teachers gave me some good comments and it made me proud.”
Some students were apprehensive about sharing the comments with their parents. Chase, “It was a different experience because I’m not used to sharing my work to my parents. So I felt an effort to make exceptional work.” Angela, “Honestly I was a little nervous on what they might say.” Eric, “Well for me it was hard because of the language translation to my parents so they can answer the questions.” As teachers it is important to be reminded that we don’t know much about the relationship between parents and students in the home. While we made efforts to help parents who spoke Spanish, it was difficult for a student whom we didn’t have a translator for.
Teacher Reflection on Semester Comments
The process took a lot of organization on the teachers’ part as well as checking in with the students to make sure they were keeping up with their portion of the assignment. Changing the format of comments also led us to change the format of the semester POLs. It was no longer necessary or authentic to ask the students to reflect on the semester in the time limit of the presentation.
As I explained above, teachers aren’t sure if their comments are read and discussed with the parent and student. Over the course of my five plus years at High Tech Middle, I have only heard from a few parents (at a conference or field trip for example) regarding the comment, never from a student. I found it odd that students were not required in some way to read or respond to their teacher’s comments. While we have the freedom to adapt or change assignments as we deem fit or necessary, I am glad that I adopted this comment format this year. While they took a significant amount of time to complete, I felt it was time well spent for the teachers, students and parents. I liked that I was able to have a “conversation” with each student and it was a back and forth dialogue, not one sided like the original comment. Parents were able to see their student’s honest thoughts and reflection, something that may not happen at some homes. We were essentially forcing a dialogue between the student and their parent. I also enjoyed the comment format because it gave parents an opportunity to ask questions of the teachers and share their thoughts about the team, class or projects.
Next year I am hopeful that my new teaching partner wants to complete comments in this format again. Although we sent reminders home with students to give to parents about the schedule, many parents forgot or their student forgot to remind them. Looking back, my partner and I should have made a point to remind parents again at the POL to complete the comment online if they hadn’t already. About 70% of the parents responded to our survey, but we wanted 100% participation. There were also a few parents that had trouble with the assignment because of language issues. We asked the students to translate for their parents and type up the responses. This helped alleviate that issue, but there was still the issue of technology. We ended up writing traditional comments for a few students that didn’t complete the assignment and that was unfortunate for the students and their parents.
Mike and I shared what we did with the other teachers at our school at a staff meeting at the start of the second semester. People seemed interested, but since everyone was getting ready for the new semester, it wasn’t the appropriate time to have a serious discussion. I would like to continue this format in the future and want to share the idea with the rest of the staff. Moving forward, I may want to change the format of the comments or the timing for the end of the year comments. The students will no longer be with us in June, so we are going to brainstorm what makes sense in that case.
Parent Feedback on Semester Comments
The parents wrote comments on each reflection document, but a few parents emailed us after the entire process was complete to share their thoughts with us. While the purpose of using this format wasn’t to receive praise, it did let us know that parents saw the value in the comment because they were included in a dialogue. It gave the parents an opportunity to share their thoughts about the classes and see what their student is learning, their goals and behavior in class.
Response #1
I just wanted to let you both know how impressed I was with the reflections that you did with Christian. I can’t even begin to imagine how much work that was with all the kids. Kudos to both of you! I love that it was done over time with responses back and forth. I believe it made Christian truly reflect on the past semester and think about where he wants to go and how to get there. I can’t remember, ever, having this type of discourse with a teacher or professor and think the experience was amazing for him and us. Thank you!”
Response #2
“Thanks for giving the parents the opportunity to participate in the reflection. I felt that my questions were addressed and I enjoyed finding out more about David’s learning style.”
Conclusions and Implications
As a result of using various assessment strategies in my classroom I was able to learn more from my students as learners and about myself as a teacher. The importance of the student-teacher relationship is one that isn’t evident on high stakes summative tests. The relationship happens daily in and outside of the classroom and establishing a relationship of bi-directional feedback benefits all. Over the course of my action research, I saw three themes emerged as a result of five different strategies with the aim being learning from students about themselves and myself. First, by asking students to reflect on their learning, I saw an increase in student voice more generally in my classroom. Also, students became more aware of their own learning and progress. Lastly, I learned to use student feedback to inform instruction. Below I explain each theme in detail and what I learned from the students’ reflections and my own.
Theme 1: Increase in student voice in the classroom
Since the beginning of the school year I have conducted several activities to increase student voice in the classroom. Students have completed activities in small and large group settings with the aim that all students participate, not solely those who are extroverted in nature. I also sought to hear each student’s voice through conversations, formal conferences and comments. The students overall like to share their thoughts and feelings about themselves, their projects or their goals. They felt that they were being listened to regarding their opinions and that the teacher wanted to know what they thought. I also allowed the students to make changes in the classroom based on the feedback I got from them. Increasing voice changed the role students played in the classroom. They led their own conferences and semester reflections and were important to their peers through the amount of peer feedback we did this year. Looking back at all of the student reflections in regards to the five different strategies I used, it is clear why I know these students so well.
Theme 2: Increase in student self-assessment
Another result of using formative assessment in my classroom was an increased ability in students to assess their own work and learning. The National Middle School Association expresses that students take ownership of their learning when they assess their own work, using agreed-on criteria for success. Asking students simple questions such as, “What have you done well? “ or “What do you feel confident about?” requires them to reflect on their work in a non-threatening way. One of my hopes for using more formative assessment strategies was to reduce the amount that students relied on a teacher to tell them how they were doing and to only care about the percentage or letter grade that they earned on an assignment. When students are involved in the assessment process, they are required to think about their own learning, articulate what they understand and what they still need to learn- and achievement improves (Black & William, 1998). I also wanted students to see assessment as a continual process and not a singular event at the end of a unit or project.
Theme 3: Increasing student feedback improves teaching
There were two forms of feedback I received from students that helped me improve my teaching and better meet the needs of the students. One, asking students for their thoughts, opinions and recommendations on classroom norms, protocols, assignments and projects is a great way to create a relationship between students and teachers. Two, I asked students content based questions about lessons and projects. Both these forms of feedback helped me as a teacher because I was more aware of what worked for the students, what they needed help with and what changes I could make as an instructor to help them reach their goals. Who knows best how we perform as teachers? The people that spend the most time with us and interact with us the most are the students.
The larger implications of the findings can lead to increased student self-reflection, student voice and teacher to student interaction. There are a few constrictions when using formative assessment in the classroom. First, teacher must be willing to be flexible when using formative assessment because the next day’s lesson could change depending on the information gathered. Teachers must also be willing to immediately look over or correct the work obtained from students. Taking two weeks to pass back a paper is not formative nor is it helpful to the student. Second, teachers need to have freedom and willingness within their classrooms to implement the strategies. Even teachers working in schools that have a strict schedule of standards based learning can implement many of the strategies that don’t take much time. Third, creating a classroom culture of collaboration can take some time and a teacher must be willing to put the time in to help student learn how to critique, reflect on themselves and to express what they know and what they are struggling with.
Below are a few strategies, techniques and ideas that I found useful in my classroom this year.
- Self critique and Peer critique
This year I began asking students to explain what they think they have done well with an assignment (usually a draft) as well a few parts in particular that they would like feedback from a peer or teacher on. Asking them to do this requires the student to look over their work and think about it before turning it in. By doing this, the critique has a focus when looking at the piece of writing, for example, when giving feedback. I recommend spending some time at the beginning of the year reviewing what it means to critique and to give helpful feedback. Modeling for students with examples from former students or examples from the real world is recommended.
- Student Led Conferences
Every school seems to require parent teacher conferences in some form. If teachers have the flexibility, I recommend student led conferences. In my paper I give details regarding the set up of our conferences. Most students responded favorably because they were included in the conversation and teachers participated when needed. Emphasis should be placed on the fact that this is a check-in for students and not a high stakes graded presentation.
- Student-Teacher Conferences
Take time to meet with your students individually. Meeting with them one on one throughout the school year, particularly at the beginning of the year can help set a tone for the rest of the year and create a culture in your classroom where students feel comfortable approaching the teacher. Incorporating something like Writer’s Workshop is a great method to conference with students. I also recommend conferencing with students while in the middle of a project. These check-ins are important to ensure that students are on the right track. It may take a few days to get through all the students, but it is worth it in the end. Plan ahead to have students doing a quiet activity that doesn’t need much supervision to conference with students during class.
- The Last Few Minutes of Class
If a lesson or clean up ends earlier than expected, the last few minutes of the day should not be wasted by letting the students talk amongst themselves. Sometimes I like to bring students up for quick rounds of Jeopardy type games where I ask questions related to the topic we are studying. Another method is asking students a question as they leave the classroom or asking them to tell you something they learned from the lesson that day.
- Unit Chart
If a teacher is in the middle of a unit or teaching a concept using a chart to quickly gauge where students are at in their understanding of a topic can be extremely useful. A teacher can make a chart with categories of understanding on one side and different aspects of the topic on the other. The teacher can give students stickers, color coded for each class, and ask students to place the stickers where they feel they are at with understanding the topic. The teacher is then able to see what percentage of the class understands the topic well, not so well or needs more instruction. This is a strategy that can be used in place of exit cards or exit surveys if time doesn’t permit.
- Use of Questions in the Classroom
By thinking more carefully about the questions they ask in class, teachers can check on students’ understanding while the students are still in the class rather than after they have left, as is the case with grading. The issue with traditional classroom questioning is that a teacher only hears from one student at a time. One method I found online was to give each student a dry-erase board when asking questions. This way, teachers can quickly scan if students understand.
- Semester Comments
The HTH schools write comments each semester for students that accompany their letter grades and speak more about the student overall. Most schools do not require individualized comments, but if a teacher is looking for a way to add some validity to a letter grade, I strongly suggest adding comments. Completing comments that include both the student and parent are a great way to connect school to home. I recommend using Google Docs so all parties can access the document no matter where they are.
Final Reflection
The journey of a teacher researcher can be complicated, frustrating and rewarding. My journey over the last two years is evidence of this fact. I have come out of these two years as teacher leader and researcher feeling empowered and exhausted at the same time. I felt that entering a Masters program at the start of my third year teaching was necessary to push my own work as a teacher, but to ensure that I didn’t fall into the large percentage of new teachers that burn out on the profession after a few years. As we were told in our classes, we would have lots of questions and those questions would lead to more questions. At times it was a scary feeling because all these questions were pulling me in different directions with regards to my action research question. I finally found a question that I knew would lead to more questions and I was content with this at the start of the 2009 school year. My question evolved over the course of the semester and my findings are evidence of this evolution. I end my journey with more questions that I will explore in the next school year.
I finally settled on the topic of assessment because it is a word that conjures up lots of discussion and frustration for all teachers, new and veteran. I found the common thread in three previous years of teaching to be around effective use of assessment for students that didn’t feel like I was wasting my time because the students were just going to focus on the grade or score. It didn’t matter whether my action research happened in project based school, what I was embarking on would be helpful at High Tech Middle and anywhere else I ended up teaching.
The idea of using various formative assessment strategies affected my classroom and the ideas and projects in my classroom affected the strategies that I used. I was on a quest to learn more about myself as a teacher and to learn more about my students as learners. Giving up components of my classroom to become a teacher leader, such as time for exit cards or surveys, didn’t feel as daunting or intrusive as I originally thought. This demonstrates that teachers can take small amounts of time in their classroom to check in for understanding at the end of a class or lesson and make changes for the next day’s lesson. The changes I made to my question also changed the methods in which I was going to collect the data. I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to need focus groups because every student’s response was necessary and that my data was going to take place in real time within the class, for the most part. Other data collection such as student led conferences and semester comments took place outside of class, but every student had to complete those assignments. I also didn’t end up interviewing students individually as I originally thought. The only time I focused on a few students was during student-led conferences because I was running from table to table and didn’t stay from beginning to end at any one conference, but I wanted to have the chance to watch one from beginning to end. I randomly selected a few students, out of the several students I have that are extremely talkative and that I knew wouldn’t be too concerned with a video camera next to them. I feel somewhat guilty because there were times where I thought I was collecting enough data, but when I stopped to think about it, I had serendipitously chosen forms of data collection that didn’t feel like extra work. Checking in with students to inform my teaching and their understanding was helpful, and I was collecting data at the same time. Only a few overall surveys and reading/coding lots of responses felt like extra work.
Looking back over the semester, I wasn’t sure if it was because I was looking more closely at my students in class or any comments I overheard, but I felt more in tune with my students. I recall the UN project I did with the students at the end of the fall semester. This project was new to me and I was treading through it slowly. I could tell after one lesson that students were not understanding the concept of how the UN worked and all the groups within it. A lesson that I thought would take a day or two, took a week instead. While part of me was worried about being off schedule, I knew that it was necessary to make sure the students were learning at the expense of changing the schedule. I stopped myself a few times this year from pushing to end a project because I wanted to follow the semester schedule. In the end, a project ended up being cancelled, but I was okay with this for the first time. I have shortened projects or units in the past, but I always felt like I had failed somehow and that I made a mistake somewhere in all the meticulous planning that goes into projects.
Although this school year isn’t over, I have already mentally planned changes I want to make next year based on my findings this year. I will have the luxury of teaching 7th grade for a second time next year, and I hope with the extra time I will have without grad school and planning projects for the first time, I can continue with small action research quests throughout the year. I am interested in reading many of my colleagues’ theses this summer because I found their topics intriguing and I am positive that I can learn from the journey they took over the last year as action researchers.
I learned that I am open to taking on challenges this year. I put myself into several roles this year: I took on a mentee, planned school visits through the dissemination grant, and planned a trip with my teaching partner to take our students sailing for four days in the Pacific. I learned that as a teacher, I won’t ever feel completely satisfied with a project or lesson and am glad that I have the desire within myself to become a better (everyone has their personal version of what this could mean) teacher not for monetary gain or accolades.
As I look forward to next year, I know what I want to repeat from this year and what I want to continue to work on as a teacher. I found the three main check-ins that I completed this year—– the initial survey to students and parents, the student led conferences in the middle of the semester and the end of semester parent/student comment—-to be extremely valuable. I hope that I can get more teachers on board with this form of comments and to help my colleague Azul Terronez share the positive experience of student led conferences in place of traditional parent-teacher conference with the rest of the staff. I also found that while it is necessary to make project schedules, I should leave myself time in case something like what happened with the UN project occurs in the future. I have left this year feeling positive regarding my strides to learn from the students about my teaching, but also to help students learn about themselves as learners. I want to continue my quest to mold students to think about their learning and not just worry about a final exam, score, or teacher comment. I have answered many questions this year, but am left with many more to explore in the next year.
Works Cited
Berger, Ron (2003). An Ethic of Excellence: building a culture of craftsmanship with students. Heinemann::, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Black, Paul and Dylan William (1998). Research on assessment for learning (Formative assessment). Adapted from Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment.
Boston, Carol (2002). Practical assessment, research & evaluation: The concept of formative assessment. University of Maryland, College Park..
Coffey, Heather (2009). Formative assessment. Learn NC-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dochy, F., Segers, M. & Sluijsmans, D.(1999). The use of self-, peer and co-assessment in higher education: A review. Studies in Higher Education Volume 24, No. 3.
Dunn, Karee E. & Sean W. Mulvenon (2009). Practical assessment, research & evaluation. University of Arkansas.
Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms. Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Deve lopment, (OECD) 2005.
Garrison, Catherine and Michael Ehringhaus (2007). Formative and Summative Assessments in the Classroom. National Middle School Association.
Hargreaves, David (November 2004) Personalizing Learning: Student voice and assessment for learning. Specialist Schools Trust (2), 1-13.
Jones, M., & Yonezawa, S. (2002). Student voice, cultural change: Using inquiry in school reform. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35 (3) 245-254.
Kaftan, Juliann M., Gayle A. Buck, & Alysa Haack (2006) Using formative assessments to individualize instruction and promote learning. Middle School Journal.
Richardson, John (2005) Instruments for obtaining student feedback: a review of the literature. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 387-415.
Riordan, Rob (2003) Assessment at High Tech High: Design Principles and Assessment Practices. ASAP Project at Education Development Center,. Retrieved (4/09) from www.hightechhigh.org/resource-center
Rogers, A. (2005). Student voice: Bridges to learning. Seattle: University of Washington. Online.
Popham, James (2007). Formative Assessment: False pathway to proficiency? Leadership Compass. Vol. 4, No. 3.
Popham, James (2008). Transformative Assessment, Association for Supervision & Curriculum, Alexandria, Virginia.
Stiggins, Richard (2000). Student-centered Classroom Assessment. Hastings, Australia: [City?]: Merrill Publishing, Global Learning Communities.
Sweet, David (September 1993) Performance Assessment (A Question of Thinking; A First Look at Students’ Performance on Open-ended Questions in Mathematics) California Department of Education.
Taylor-Patel, Cherie (2009). Student-led conferences. University of Auckland, New Zealand. [this seems like an incomplete reference. Is it New Zealand?
Wiggins, Grant (April 1989). Teaching to the (authentic) test. Educational Leadership. V46 n7 p41-47.
Wiggins, Grant (1990). The case for authentic assessment. ERIC Digest. Washington DC: Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
Appendices
1. Teacher Survey
High Tech Middle Staff Survey/Questionnaire Wednesday, September 16th 2009
Name (optional): ____________________________________________
My research question: What happens when students are involved in assessments?
In general, what are your thoughts/issues around assessment?
How have your assessment practices evolved/changed over the years?
How often do you give traditional forms (quizzes or tests) of assessment?
- About once a week
- About once every few weeks
- About once every few months
- Almost never
Elaborate below:
Throughout a project, topic or unit do you give pre-assessments, assessments in the middle and post assessments? Why/why not?
In what ways do you allow students to demonstrate their understanding?
Have you ever had students create their own assessments? Please give details.
If so, what were the results compared to assessments that you created?
What do you consider “authentic assessment” to mean in your classroom/HTM?
Please add anything below that you want to share about your feelings/thoughts regarding assessment.
Thank you so much for taking the time to fill this out!!!
2. Family History Project- 1st draft Script Critique
Name: _____________________________________________
Title of documentary: ____________________________________________________________
| Directions: Find a quiet place to read your peer’s script. Read the script out loud to catch mistakes or awkward wording. You will need to read a total of two scripts this period. The second hour will be to work on your script or to search for pictures for the documentary. Ask you read the script look for the following items in the list below. Write your name in the box title Peer #1 or #2. Check off the boxes in your “Peer #” column as you check/comment on each one of the items below. Circle people, phrases, events, etc. that you feel need to be explained more. Make a note of this on their script. | ||
| PEER #1 | PEER #2 | Things to look for…………….. |
| Opening line to the script- Does it grab your attention? | ||
| Paragraph 1- Introduction Do they introduce their topic and family member? Is there a transition from the introductory paragraph to the 2nd paragraph? | ||
| Paragraph 2- Historical Topic 1 Does the paragraph give background information about the topic and how it happened? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 2 to 3? | ||
| Paragraph 3- Historical Topic 2 Does the paragraph explain the event in detail? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 3 to 4? | ||
| Paragraph 4- Historical Topic 3 Does the paragraph explain how the event ended (if applicable)? Is there a transition sentence from Historical to Family in Paragraph 5? | ||
| Paragraph 5- Family Topic 1 Is there background information about their family member? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 5 to 6? | ||
| Paragraph 6- Family Topic 2 Does the paragraph explain the family member’s experience during the event? Is there some detail that should be added? A quote? | ||
| Paragraph 7- Family Topic 3 Does the paragraph explain the impact and influence of the event on the person’s life? Their thoughts/opinions about the event? Is there a smooth transition from paragraph 7 to the conclusion? | ||
| Paragraph 8- Conclusion Do they have information about their family member today? Do they explain the impact and importance of the event today? Is there a “wow” ending? | ||
Family History Project- 2nd draft Script Critique-Thursday, October 22nd
FINAL SCRIPT DUE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27th
Name: _____________________________________________
Title of documentary: ____________________________________________________________
| Directions: Find a quiet place to read your peer’s script. Read the script out loud to catch mistakes or awkward wording. You will need to read a total of two scripts this period. The second hour will be to work on your script or to read for literature circles. Ask you read the script look for the following items in the list below. Write your name in the box title Peer #1 or #2. Check off the boxes in your “Peer #” column as you check/comment on each one of the items below. Circle people, phrases, events, etc. that you feel need to be explained more. Make a note of this on their script. | ||
| PEER #1 | PEER #2 | Things to look for…………….. |
| Opening line to the script- Does it grab your attention? | ||
| Paragraph 1- Introduction Do they introduce their topic and family member? Is there a transition from the introductory paragraph to the 2nd paragraph? | ||
| Paragraph 2- Historical Topic 1 Does the paragraph give background information about the topic and how it happened? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 2 to 3? | ||
| Paragraph 3- Historical Topic 2 Does the paragraph explain the event in detail? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 3 to 4? | ||
| Paragraph 4- Historical Topic 3 Does the paragraph explain how the event ended (if applicable)? Is there a transition sentence from Historical to Family in Paragraph 5? | ||
| Paragraph 5- Family Topic 1 Is there background information about their family member? Is there a smooth transition from Paragraph 5 to 6? | ||
| Paragraph 6- Family Topic 2 Does the paragraph explain the family member’s experience during the event? Is there some detail that should be added? A quote? | ||
| Paragraph 7- Family Topic 3 Does the paragraph explain the impact and influence of the event on the person’s life? Their thoughts/opinions about the event? Is there a smooth transition from paragraph 7 to the conclusion? | ||
| Paragraph 8- Conclusion Do they have information about their family member today? Do they explain the impact and importance of the event today? Is there a “wow” ending? | ||
3. FHP Rubric
FAMILY HISTORY PROJECT RUBRIC
NAME: _________________________________ GROUP: __________________
Directions: Look over the criteria requirements for the documentary. For each criteria, fill out the box to the right under “student assessment.” I am asking you to grade your own documentary. In the box put the total you think you deserve and give an explanation why you deserve that score. I will then take an average of my assessment and yours to give you your final grade.
| CRITERIA | STUDENT ASSESSMENT | TEACHER ASSESSMENT |
| IMAGES -Pictures of family member-Transitions aren’t choppy or distracting-Fade in and out of images
-School appropriate -Image isn’t repeated more than twice -Good quality, not pixilated -No longer than 7 seconds per image -At least 45 different images and pictures |
||
| NARRATION/MUSIC -Voice is clear-Good volume
-Not too fast -Words pronounced correctly -Not monotone -Narration matches images -No heavy breathing or sniffling -Music is in the beginning and end of the documentary (at least) -Music fits the time period |
||
| OPENING/CLOSING CREDITS -Your name and family member-Original title -Topic of event
-Thanks to person you interviewed -5 sources minimum in bibliography -Include interview with family member |
||
| INFORMATION -Information is accurate, organized and understandable-Events, people and concepts explained clearly
- Nearly perfect |
||
| PROFESSIONALISM -Movie looks very professional-There are no spelling or grammar mistakes or other glaring problems. |
Student assessment: _______________________/100
Teacher assessment: _______________________/100
FINAL SCORE: _____________________________/100
4. SLC Questionnaire
SLC Planning Sheet-Humanities
What is one of your major strengths in Humanities?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
What piece of work best represents this strength? (Share with your parents)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
What is a challenge for you in Humanities? (Think about an area you struggle in and pick a piece of work to demonstrate)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
What will you do to overcome this challenge?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Share one piece of work that went through the drafting, critiquing or editing process.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
How did this process help you? How did you improve your work?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
How are your study habits/organizational skills? (Binder, planner, turning in work on time)
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Discuss your participation in class. How is your behavior?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
What is one MEAURABLE goal that you have for Humanities?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
How will you obtain this goal?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Appendix 5: End of Semester Comment Example
Dear parents,
Hopefully, this style of comment has allowed you to voice questions and concerns you have about our classes and see them addressed. We also hope that you feel that you have a more genuine look at how your child feels about the work that is being done in their math/science and humanities classes. We have responded to any additional comments which have been made by students and family. At the bottom of this document we have added a bulleted list of what we see to be your child’s greatest strengths, as well as a list of areas in need of improvement.
Sincerely,
Leily Abbassi & Mike Vasquez
End of Semester Reflection
This evaluation is intended to offer you the student a chance to reflect on your growth and development in a variety of areas of your school life.
Think. Reflect. Write.
Especially for the Family and Parents
Welcome to the End of Semester Reflection. We encourage you to read over what has already been written up to this point and add comments as you see fit. There are also several family specific questions listed below that we would like for you to answer. We appreciate all of your support in this process, and feel free to ask your child for help at any point along the way.
What do you feel is going well in our classroom with regards to your child’s education? Is there anything you think you would like to see changed?
<Janet F> Connor seems to thrive in the project-based learning environment at HTH and so I think that is going well. I can't think of anything I specifically would want to see changed. I would like to continue to see a balance of project-based learning and more traditional content-instruction/exercises in areas of math, Spanish, etc. that might benefit from that.
<mvasquez> You may notice in the months to come that we will spend most of our in class time during math completing a more "project-based" curriculum, while much of the work that goes home will be more traditional math in its design. The work at home is intended to ensure mastery of essential skills needed for more complex algebra work.
Ms Abbassi- I agree. I feel that projects need to be support with mini lessons at the beginning and whole class instruction before students work on their own.
Do you have specific goals for your child for the next semester? How can I help you to see that these goals are realized?
<Janet F> I just want him to continue to be engaged and challenged and excited about school and learning. You can help by occasionally "checking in" with Connor, like in this reflection but verbally, to see if there are things he is not quite getting (like probability) and working with him on learning strategies.
<mvasquez> I will continue to check in with him, and Connor does a great job asking for help when he needs it.
Self Evaluation
Math Science
Learning/Understanding
1. What are you the most proud of having learned this semester in our math/science class?
<Connor FR> I'm proud of learning how to use an abacus. My old third grade math teacher tried to teach me once but she made no sense at all. Now I no how to add and subtract on the abacus. I even think adding is a lot easier and faster on the abacus than on a calculator. Basically all you do is put up as many beads equal to the first number in the problem. Then add on the the second number of beads. But the reason I'm proud of this project because my third grade teacher said it was a really cool style of math, but she never really taught it to us well. But now I'm basically a master.
<mvasquez> Even though we only used the abacus for a short while my biggest hope was that you would be forced to look at a simple concept like adding and subtracting in a whole ncew way. Do you think that if you had grown up using an abacus that the rest of the math we are doing, including perhaps probability and algebra would be an easier or more difficult?
<Connor FR> I think it would be more difficult because the abacus is basically a calculator and with some methods it's actually harder to find the answer using a calculator or and abacuss so I would say it's more challenging.
2. What is something that you were expected to learn but still donʼt feel like you have learned completely? What do you need to learn this?
<Connor FR> I feel that I haven't fully understood probability. I've gotten most of it, like when there are 4 people going to a pick nick and they want to bring 4 different items all together. How many possible ways can they all bring different items? I now know that you can make a list, chart, or tree graph to find out the answer. But in the last sort of probability problem we worked on you could only use 1 or 2 of the 3 strategies to solve this sort of problem and I couldn't find out what strategy to use. This new sort of problem was like 2 people are playing a coin flipping game and they both have an equal chance of winning. One person has one 3 points and the other has 1 point (or something like that). What are both their odds of winning. It sounds really simple but for some reason, I can't find the correct strategy or answer.
<mvasquez> We can review this concept together if you would like. The main point to be taken away from the last problem you mentioned is that it doesn't really matter how many points each player had earned up till the point we are referring to in the problem because each role of the dice (or flip of the coin) is independent of the last. So the likelihood of them winning is affected by how many points they have left to earn before they win, but there are many ways for them to earn these points. Maybe player 1 will win two points in a row before player 2 earns his next point. If you can find all the different ways each player can accumulate points to win the game then you can find the probability that each will win the game.
This is a very tricky problem. I bet you will find that when we review probability for standardized testing that you will know much more than you think you do, because the grade level problems are not nearly as complicated.
Behavior
3. What behaviors do you exhibit that allow you to be successful as a learner in class?
<Connor FR> When I stay focused on the lesson and listen I obviously learn a lot more. I do sometimes have trouble with this, like when people are talking outloud. Another good quality is asking questions. I used to be really shy and just not ask any questions at all. But I started to realize that when I didn't ask questions I had no clue what I was doing. So I started to ask questions and things started to make more sense.
<mvasquez> These are great behaviors because they show that you are staying engaged in the lesson. The moment you start to get confused it becomes very difficult to stay interested in the lesson, and then you become even more confused and even less interested. Asking questions is one way to ensure that if you do become confused that you can quickly get back on track. Questions are always worth asking; if you were the only person who was helped by having a questions answered it would be worth it, but chances are your question will help many more people who are afraid to ask the question for themselves.
<Serge R>I think it is wonderful that Connor is now asking more questions and being less shy in class. He is a very considerate kid and in the past internalized a lot of things. He is now speaking up more when he has something on his mind but still doing so in a respectful and considerate way.
<mvasquez> I know that his classmates value his contributions and respect him as a knowledgeable member of our team.
4. How has your behavior within our classroom taken away from your opportunity to learn?
<Connor FR> It's hard to focus when a lesson is long and boring. Because when I'm sitting through something that I'm not interested in my mind goes elsewhere and it may look like I'm listening, but trust me, I'm not. It's also very hard to understand what's going on when people are talking around me. And even though I sometimes ask them to quite down but they usually don't listen to me so I just wait for Mr. Mike to tell them to quite down. But I'll trying to speak up more.
<mvasquez> It is important that I do not allow lessons to run to long. It is in our nature to be bored when we are only listening for long periods of time. I think we will be able to play more games which encourage active participation in the math we are doing, this will help everyone in the class to stay focused.
<Connor FR> I love games!
Personal Goal Setting in Math/Science
5. Provide one goal for yourself for next semester.
<Connor FR> Challenge myself more. Because I usually think that when I'm finished with my normal work I feel that I'm done for good with my work. But in some deep part of my brain that there is almost always extra credit. But I just don't do it, and sometimes I could use extra credit.
<mvasquez> In the coming months you will have much more control over the math work that you will be doing because we are reaching some concepts where many of the students have had a fair amount of exposure to the topics while some students have had none. You will be working on assignments which will more directly address the topics you have not yet learned or mastered. I think this will make you feel more challenged.
6. Explain what steps you will need to take in order to achieve this goal?
<Connor FR> When I have time in class instead of walking around and talking to people do some sort of extra credit to entertain myself. Do the extra credit on the weekly problems after I finish the rest of my homework.
<mvasquez> Good strategy.
Humanities
Learning/Understanding
7. What are you the most proud of having learned this semester in our humanities class?
<Connor FR> I'm proud of learning about my grandma and World War II in my Family History Project because I always knew she was alive during World War II but she never really told me the story. So thanks to this project my grandma and I got a little closer. Plus I only knew that WWII was the second world war. But now, I know that it killed over 13 percent of the worlds population and that the U.S. actually didn't enter the war until 1941. So I'm proud because I was never interested in history but for some reason I got really interested during this project.
Ms Abbassi- I am pleased that you were able to connect more with your grandma because of this project. Sometimes when we have to do something we end up learning something we wouldn't have without the obligation. I am also glad to learn that you became interested in history. History is very interesting if it is presented in an interesting way. I hope you continue to enjoy learning history in the second semester.
8. What is something that you were expected to learn but still don’t feel like you have learned completely? What do you need to learn this?
<Connor FR> I feel that I haven't fully understood how the United Nations work. Like I don't understand which "organ" decides on what types of decisions because from what I've been told their are at least 3 decision making branches just need someone who fully understands to go over it a couple more times. Like the branches and how they go together.
Ms Abbassi- The UN is a very complicated organization because of all the organs and committees within it. I think as long as you learned what the UN tries to do and how they make decisions you should be happy with your work on the project.
Behavior
9. What behaviors do you exhibit that allow you to be successful as a learner in class?
<Connor FR> When I stay focused on the lesson and listen I obviously learn a lot more. I do sometimes have trouble with this, like when people are talking outloud. Another good quality is asking questions. I used to be really shy and just not ask any questions at all. But I started to realize that when I didn't ask questions I had no clue what I was doing. So I started to ask questions and things started to make more sense.
Ms Abbassi- I find it interesting to learn that you didn't always ask or answer questions in class. I appreciate how much you participate in class and hope you continue to do that in the second semester.
<Janet F> I think it is normal for 7th graders to get distracted sometimes. This does not concern me. Connor has identified some strategies. I do not think school has to be entertaining like a rock concert every minute. Sometimes it is "boring" but the discipline to hang in there develops over time
Ms Abbassi- Exactly. Attention spans of 7th grades is about 15 minutes maximum for teacher led instruction.
10. How has your behavior within our classroom taken away from your opportunity to learn?
<Connor FR> I don't really think I do to much to keep me from my learning. Sometimes I will respond to someone who whispers to me, and it's not always, "Pay Attention!" And it's not always when someones talking to me. Sometimes a couple people will be having their own conversation liken they're in their in their own little world, and I will eavesdrop. People will also shout out pointless remarks and completely though everyone in class of the lesson. When a lesson is not in my interest my mind will drift of and it might look like I'm watching and paying attention, but trust me, I'm not.
Ms Abbassi- I understand that everyone isn't always paying attention all the time. My concern is more with those that are constantly not paying attention and in their own world, as you say. I appreciate your honesty in your response.
11. Provide one goal for yourself for next semester.
<Connor FR> Stay focused and listen to the lesson. Because like I said, when a lesson was to long and complicated, my mind drifts away to la la land.
Ms Abbassi- Sounds like a good goal for next semester.
12. Explain what steps you will need to take in order to achieve this goal?
<Connor FR> For some reason, when I doodle without looking (basically just drawing squiggly lines on the top of my binder) I seem to focus better. I will also try to keep distracting objects out of my reach, like pencils, erasers, etc. Actually telling people to be quiet when they try to talk to me during a presentation. And finally, try not to shout out random things that have nothing to do with the lesson at hand.
Ms Abbassi- Do you feel that you shout out random things during a lesson?
<Connor FR> I don't think that I do to much but I think it's just a good reminder not to do so.
Ownership For Your Education (Both Math/Science and Humanities)
13. Read the following quote:
“One thing that I have learned here is that you own your own education. None of us would be here if we didn't like challenges, but most of us have never failed at what we do, and failure is scary. If I'm going to learn, I'm going to [have to speak up] and sometimes say things that are wrong, and learn from that. I am lucky [to be here], but I am the one who has to make this happen.”
~ Judith Segura Ph.D. Student at Stanford University
Think about the quote above which concerns the idea of “owning your education,” respond to the quote and address how you have taken ownership over your own education this semester.
<Connor FR> I think this quote means that what we do effects what we learn. Like what we do to help us learn and what we do to keep us from learning. We effect our future and education, not our teachers. I feel that I haven’t done much to keep me from getting a good education. But I haven’t done much to make myself get an even better education, like doing extra credit. This is one of my goals for next semester
Ms Abbassi- What will you do if there isn’t extra credit? How else could you go above and beyond in your projects?
<Connor FR> Work very hard on the project and make myself learn because it’s my own choice to learn.
<mvasquez> There is probably a lot more you can do that does not involve credit. Many more ways, especially in projects (as Ms. Abbassi eluded to above) where you can challenge yourself, even though the only reward you see will be greater understanding or better project (which in my opinion are worth more than points and letter grades).
<Janet F> I think “extra credit” is just the concept Connor knows to describe extra challenges. MAybe you can help him identify specific ways to channel his energy to enhance his projects and self-teaching
<mvasquez> I agree with you, and will work on making deeper connection to the content with Connor’s help.
Community Evaluation
14. Of all the things that happen in class which things make you feel as though you are respected and valued by your our classroom community?
<Connor FR> I think that when I ask questions some people might have the same sort of question on their mind, and that’s why I feel like a valued member of our class.
Ms Abbassi- That is exactly why I encourage people to ask questions because someone else has the same question too.
15. Which things do you feel are disrespectful to you as a person and make you feel of little value?
<Connor FR> I think it’s just like what I said when you guys asked me “How has your behavior within our classroom taken away from your opportunity to learn?” When I don’t focus, because when I’m not focusing, I’m obviously not learning anything. And if I’m not learning anything, of what value am I to the class at all if i don’t know what were doing.
Ms Abbassi- I think that students look to each other for models of behavior and if people see several people not doing what they should, they think it is okay to do the same.
<mvasquez> People look up to you as a like-able and smart student leader in our class. “With great power comes with great responsibility.” I think that this is a quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Areas of Strength:
- Shows qualities of a strong leader.
- Respectful and kind to everyone.
- Motivated to produce high quality work and completely understand concepts
- Wonderful personality and a joy to have in class.
Areas in Need of Improvement:
- None at this time . . . we will keep on looking.
We are looking forward to many good things from Connor in the second half of this school year. If at any time he needs individual help he can come see us most days before and/or after school. Please contact us at any time if you have any questions or concerns: mvasquez@hightechhigh.org and labbassi@hightechhigh.org
