Assessment for Learning

An assessment is formative when it is used as an assessment for student learning, rather than assessment of student learning. It can be formal or informal, and entails any assessment or learning task used to gather information about what a student understands and is able to do in order to make adjustments to increase student learning.

This course is designed for BPS educators seeking to expand their formative assessment toolkit with a community of educators. In this course, designed using Dylan Wiliam’s five key strategies for effective formative assessment, participants will reflect on their own formative assessment practices and beliefs, learn about formative assessment principles, practice new learning in a collaborative environment with the feedback and support from peers, and make concrete implementation plans to use new learning in their own classrooms. Throughout the course, participants will practice in-the-moment formative assessment strategies, including sampling, show-call, and peer review. They will use tasks and student work from their own classrooms to apply their new learning.

Session 1: What is Quality Formative Assessment?

Objectives

Anchor our learning in our current beliefs about formative assessment
Build a shared understanding of Dylan Wiliam’s framework of effective formative assessment
Practice developing criteria for success and expectations for learning
Practice the “Show Calll” strategy to clarify success criteria
Draft expectations for an upcoming classroom-based activity

Session 2: Engineer Effective Discussions, Questions, Tasks, and Activities that Elicit Evidence of Learning

Objectives:

Reflect on the learning from last class by sharing formative assessment artifacts and debriefing the impact of your formative assessment moves
Build shared understanding of engineering effective discussions and tasks that elicit evidence of learning
Engage in a task analysis protocol to assess a task’s alignment with intended learning expectations
Plan an upcoming classroom discussion to elicit evidence of desired learning

Session 3: Provide Feedback that Moves Learning Forward

Objectives:

Reflect on an artifact from your classroom that was designed to elicit evidence of learning (either a task or a series of discussion questions)
Build a shared understanding of high-quality feedback by jigsawing three texts and observing a feedback session for CLASS quality indicators
Practice crafting feedback for a specific student and task, and receive feedback from a partner on your plan

Session 4: Activate Students as Owners of Their Own Learning

Objectives:

Reflect on the process of providing feedback that moves learning forward and name areas of strength and growth
Build shared understanding of why it’s important to activate students as owners of their own learning, and the three steps to doing so
Name strategies for supporting students in collectively establishing success criteria
Practice a goal-setting conference with a student

Session 5: Activate Students as Resources for One Another

Objectives:

Reflect on implementation of student ownership strategies, and the extent to which student ownership over learning changed
Share current level of work activating students as resources for one another
Build shared understanding of how and why to activate students as resources for one another
Practice effective methods for activating students as resources for one another
Develop a plan to implement peer review or nameless voice in your own classroom

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