Grading and Assessment with @tomschimmer

In June, I offered our intermediate teachers the opportunity to attend, with me, a one day session with Tom Schimmer on the topic  of “10 Things That Matter From Assessment to Grading” (based on his newly released book of the same name).  I have been connected with Tom for about 8 months and we have had some powerful conversations around the topics of assessment, motivation and leadership through Twitter, in person, and on the good ole telephone.  If you ever get a chance to see/hear Tom speak: do it (you can view some of his other presentation slides here).  Be sure to check out Tom’s blog and follow him on Twitter.

The way I often take notes during sessions is to Tweet out comments and info that cause me to pause and reflect.  Although this probably does not “flow” too well, here are my notes from the day (all those without reference are quotes from Tom – I may have missed some references.). Thank you, Tom, for the learning and permission to post this on my blog.

• “We no longer need to accept the assessment legacy of our past. We know better” – Stiggins
• “When we think about change, we must think about possibility… we cannot think about what won’t work”
• “In our current system, how many students are penalized because they do not learn fast enough?”
• “There is an obvious tension between depth of learning and coverage of curriculum in our schools today”

On CHANGE:

• “It is our foible as humans to stoutly defend an established position despite overwhelming evidence against it” – Dr. Hawkins
• “Who is putting the NO in innovation?”
• “I am personally convinced that one person can be a change catalyst, a transformer” – Covey
• “How many people have the same phone since 2000? How many people use the same lesson plan since 2000?”
• “Do any other professions state: it worked back then, why would I need to change?”
• “Just because you say you don’t believe in something does not abolish its existence nor its effectiveness” (ie. I don’t believe in AFL)
• “How often do we, as educators, make people professionally uncomfortable – by challenging each other”
• “Think BIG, start small.”

On Assessment:

• “It’s not good enough to give students the ‘opportunity to learn’. We must ensure that they learn!”
• “If students become frustrated and disengage from learning – what do their grades actually represent?”
• “For sound, accurate assessment – we need to have a clear purpose, clear targets, sound design, effective communication, student involvement”
• “Formative assessments are designed to keep the information within the classroom”
• “If your formative assessments involve a spreadsheet… you are missing the mark” Dylan Wiliam
• “Should be a balance between summative and formative – the pendulum should not swing from one to the other (although formative should happen much more often that summative)”
• “Summative assessment does not mean a multiple choice test”
• “We have turned school into a game – all students have to do is collect enough points to win”
• “How much better would our kids do when the threat of failure has been taken off the table?
• “Assessment For Learning = CLASSROOM assessment for STUDENT learning”
• “Are we OVERteaching some parts of the curriculum while UNDERteaching other areas? How do you know without formative assessment?”
• “We often use methods of assessments that are mismatched with learning targets (ie. multiple choice for a reasoning target) – make sure your assessment methods match the targets.”
• “To be effective, feedback needs to cause thinking. Grades don’t do that…and comments like ‘good job’ don’t either” Dylan Wiliam
• “In elementary schools we often confuse maturity with ability.”
• “Feedback has the smallest effect size when it is related to praise, rewards, and punishments” – Hattie
• “Don’t just say “good job”.  Finish the sentence! Good job… because you…”
• Feedback – what matters? Quality of feedback, focus on learning, include strengths – Black and Wiliam
• When using Descriptive Feedback, make it: Timely, Specific, Clear and Useable
  
• “For rubrics – avoid using numbers. Kids will add up the numbers to give them a score.”
• “Differentiation: Put students in situations where they don’t know the answer often” Dr. C Morreale
• “What role does time play in distorting the achievement level in our kids?”
• “Myth: Differentiation is about creating individual lesson plans”
• “Differentiation is NOT I will teach my lesson and then alter the lesson for those who ‘don’t get it'”
• “Figure out ways that you can infuse AFL into your practice”
• “If we say we can or can’t change the way we assess – we are right.”
• “If we want the system to change – WE need to BE THE CHANGE. Be the example that we want to see.”
• “For change to occur, we need to be able to take heat from our colleagues”

Some Videos Tom shared:

A student describes the power of forms of assessment beyond tests:

An example of what a class can be if we begin move away from a focus on grades, worksheets and tests and make learning more real for our students.