Preparing Your Students For Testing - How To Prep Less And Teach More!

Preparing Your Students For Testing - How To Prep Less And Teach More!

Our State test results just came out last week.  My week with PLC groups was much more enjoyable than usual. Our scores are steadily improving and I can see the anxiety of teachers falling.

We have been working with teachers and schools to find that magic bullet to raise scores and lower anxiety.  Although We have not found one thing that will help students meet and exceed their targets, we have a system that comes close.

Step 1 - VOCABULARY

Think of vocabulary as a quick way to give students background information and experiences that are critical in building schema.  Vocabulary helps students navigate reading passages that contain information that students have not had experience with.  There are many resources to help your students navigate ACT Vocabulary, NWEA MAP Vocabulary, SAT Vocabulary, and Common Core vocabulary often found on most state tests.  Get your students familiar with the critical vocabulary and they will be better prepared for assessment.

 

MyPATHS TPT

Step 2 - PRACTICE

If you look at State and National assessments you will find many similarities.  Reading assessments for example often contain informational passages, fiction (poems, and stories), and paired passages. The questions are divided into word recognition, key ideas and inferring, author's purpose, summary, and chronology.  There are many resources available to help students prepare. One of my favorites is this site from Common Core Practice.  

Engaging Formative Assessments!

What if I told you that your students could be assessed while playing  games?  Don't think it is possible?   Watch this!

Academic Vocabulary - Student Pathway to Success

In developing curriculum in our district, many of our collegial groups underestimate the power of teaching academic vocabulary. Many experts agree that vocabulary can be the pathway to student success.  Robert Marzano states:

 "Given the importance of academic background knowledge and the fact that vocabulary is such an essential aspect of it, one of the most crucial services that teachers can provide, particularly for students who do not come from academically advantaged backgrounds, is systematic instruction in important academic terms.

In terms of research of what works for higher student learning many experts agree, including Marzano, that vocabulary is essential:

Marzano goes on to say:

 "Teaching specific terms in a specific way is probably the strongest action a teacher can take to ensure that students have the academic background knowledge they need to understand the content they will encounter in school. When all the teachers in a school focus on the same academic vocabulary and teach it in the same way, the school has a powerful comprehensive approach. When all the teachers in a district embrace and use the approach, it becomes even more powerful".

Getting schools, collegial groups, and individual teachers to teach academic vocabulary in a systematic way will lead to student growth and achievement.  Our district uses NWEA MAP to track student growth from Fall to Spring in Reading, Math, and Science. We have found that teachers who create opportunities for students to learn academic vocabulary in their RIT band and above leads to significant growth rates.  

The Low Down On The BFF (and not best friends forever)

In reality ‘learning’ and ‘change’ are synonymous. Change is not an issue if it makes sense to and is ‘owned’ by those involved, rather than being arbitrarily imposed. An appreciation that change is a continual process, involving confusion and difficulty, is vital for future learners. ‘It is not change that kills………… it is the transitions’.
– Michael Fullan


Are you a district or school that is starting the transition to standards based grading?  If so, what should you expect? My bet is that many conversations will occur over grading behaviors, abandoning percentages, sports and activities eligibility, valedictorian, DOK (depth of knowledge), proficiency scales, and my favorite "The Big Fat Four".  Never heard of it?  Be patient you will.

The BFF is what we refer to in our district when defining proficiency (especially the advanced or (4)) and the four point rubric. In standards based grading you replace traditional letter grades with rubric scores of 4,3,2, and 1. In many SBG systems a 4 is advanced, 3 is proficient, 2 is emerging or "not quite there", and a 1 is no attempt or "you really don't get it".

Right now there are two schools of thought on the BFF, Marzano's camp believes you define proficiency (3) and the 4 would be "above and beyond". This sounds fine in the beginning but when your groups start to tackle defining what "above and beyond' means you quickly run into trouble. The other current theory comes out of the Guskey camp that says you define a rigorous 4 first and  then decide what could still be considered proficient (3) (this can also be a challenge).  Both the 4 and the 3 would be proficient in this system.

Lets use free throw shooting to illustrate both sides. We have a target that says students will be proficient in free throw shooting. The collegial/PLC group decides to use the Marzano method and the assessment will be to shoot ten free throws. The group decides that a (3) proficiency will be making 7 to 10 from the free throw line, a (2, not proficient)  would be 4 to 6 out of 10 and a (1, not proficient) would be less than 4. In tackling the (4) there is much disagreement. One group member says 10 out of 10 is a (4) but other members quickly point out that this is not "above and beyond". The next idea is that a student is a 4 if they can make at least 5 out of 10 with their opposite hand which is also quickly dismissed. The group settles on the (4) being the (3) criteria (7 out of 10) plus the student can make two three pointers which is farther back from the free throw line. They decide this is "above and beyond".   See the problem? Using this method you have to change the target (i.e. moving the line back to the three point area or shooting with your opposite hand) to determine a 4 (above and beyond).

The other collegial/PlC group decides to use the Guskey method. They decide that making 10 out of 10 free throws is a rigorous target and defines proficiency as follows: (4) would be 9 or 10 out of 10 (advanced) (3) would be 7 or 8 out of 10 (proficient), a (2) would be 5 or 6 out of 10 (emerging but not proficient) and a (1) would be less than 5 (novice and not proficient). Using this method you don't change the target. One issue using this method is that you might disagree defining what can be missing but still proficient. 

Whichever method your district chooses just remember the key is consistency and communication. Make sure your chosen method is fully understood by all staff and that it is communicated to all stakeholders. The more time you spend defining your rubric is key - leaving any level vacant or vague will cause you a lot of grief! If you want total buy-in and understanding make sure you have all the hard conversations and take your time. Change is never easy but doing it "the way we have always done it" is not acceptable. "The times are a-changing and if we don't we will sink like a stone". 'Bob Dylan

Assessment Now Conference - Grand Rapids Michigan

I was lucky enough to attend the Assessment Now Conference last week in Grand Rapids Michigan. I was able to hear many educational experts including Thomas Guskey, Nicole Vagle, Eric Twadell, Cassandra Erkins, and others.



The message from the conference is clear - Get your district involved in the following process and student learning will increase - dramatically!

Step 1 - Form strong collegial/PLC teams
Step 2 - Prioritize  standards
Step 3 - Create targets/success criteria
Step 4 - Design quality common assessments
Step 5 - Design Engaging Formative assessments to track student learning
Step 6 - Create Student Self Assessment sheets/organizers to help students track their learning
Step 7 - Get together with your team  to analyze results and discuss what worked and what didn't
Step 8 - Identify students who get it and those that don't and differentiate to their needs

Every presenter shared a part of this process or something that supported this process. In fact, it was shared that the PLC process will be taking over the #1 position in Hattie's list of learning effects. Wow!

Many of the presenters also made clear that we must create Engaging Formative assessments to get students to commit to the work. Doing the same thing we have always done will not create better results. It is time to roll up our sleeves and get busy because it is crystal clear what works!

Why Do We Teach?

WHY DO WE TEACH?
As our summer draws to an end, sometimes teachers need to draw other teachers' motivation to get ready for the upcoming school year.  At the beginning of each school year I like to ask, "Why do we teach?"

We are nothing without our students.  They are the reason we teach and have any success.  Our motivation for dealing with the bureaucratic business that teaching is turning into is simple…the smiles we see, the tears we wipe, the laughter we hear and the relationships we build with each of our students.  Being a teacher is peering into the eyes of each student that walks through our door and searching for what strengths and insecurities they have inside.  We will connect with every child, their family, and their experiences that they bring, and in doing so, help them make connections to standards and skills that we need to make relevant to their lives.

Teaching is a recycling business.  Teachers have a diverse group of students, some of whom feel unwanted, inadequate, ugly, fearful, and helpless.  In contrast, there are also those students who have supportive homes and feel validated, hopeful, beautiful, and courageous.  Our mission is to validate every student and build them up, so each feels valued, capable, and protected.  Together, we fight to help students see that they can recycle their weakness into a driving force that helps them relish success.  We believe that it is our job to reach them wherever they are and take them as far as they can go.  We never look for perfection of a standard or skill…but growth.

The single biggest quality of being an outstanding teacher is having a group of exceptional students who are not just students, but fellow colleagues in the classroom.   To truly understand what makes an excellent teacher, we have to seek the council of our fellow student colleagues.  When we sit and listens to the hearts of our students, we can grasp the very essence of what students desire in us as teachers.  Many of their voices echo:

“I like how the community service projects make me feel good on the inside!”

“You make learning fun and exciting.”

“The activities that we do allows me to not just learn the content but experience the content.”

“I always feel successful!  Even when I wanted to give up, you never let me."

"You stayed with me until I was successful!”

“You are willing to do anything to get us to be our best even if it means dressing up as a woman, rap star, country singer, or sumo wrestler."

"I also liked when our class met learning goals, and you let us vote to shave your head into a “Mr. T” haircut.  This helped to motivate me to do my best.”

Our favorite personal responses come from one of our most struggling students when they say, “I learned without knowing I was learning.  It was not until I was asked to perform what I had learned that I realized how much I had grown.”

Looking back at the responses that resonate from our fellow student colleagues, we surmise that an excellent teacher knows their students well enough to discern what instructional techniques and activities best engage them. Routinely, we sit with our student colleagues and analyze the final performance, and through backward design, devise different approaches to progress towards that product.  Put simply, students have a say in what instructional techniques and activities would best engage them and help them grow towards a specific skill or standard. The results are highly engaging, differentiated, and rigorous approaches toward difficult concepts where students want to learn because it was a collaborative design.  We also understand from their responses that an excellent teacher wants every student to successfully develop towards meeting standards and skills.  They are the teachers that help students break through the obstacle of impossibility and open their eyes to possibility.  Those teachers make differences in the lives of students.  That is the teacher that we strive to become.

Our beliefs are the pulse that drives our unconventional teaching style.  We greet our students each day and ask them about their life outside of school.  The connections that we share go beyond the concrete walls of the school. We invest in the lives of our students, so they understand that education is more than just schooling, but how we learn to interact with one another.  Students collaborate in groups to work, reflect, and synthesize new ideas into a deeper understanding.  We pose challenging questions to one another and search for meaningful answers to those questions.  According to Andrew Carnegie, “There is little success where there is little laughter.”  Therefore, humor and laughter are a common place inside our classroom.  We remember that we are in that classroom for a greater purpose than Language Arts...to experience life together.  Validation of students’ thinking is written across every wall and ceiling tile. Their greatest learning, reflections, goals, and attempts are murals that serve as purposeful reminders of the testimonies that we share as a classroom family.  We strive to guide our students to collaborate with one another to find exciting, inventive, and creative ways to approach a standard so they can learn and experience their content with deep reflection and purpose.  Sometimes that means we dress up as a beauty queen, a rap star or shave our hair like “Mr. T” because they meet their individualized goals.

Monetary rewards, nor awards hung on a wall, cannot measure up to the rewards that we get living out each day with our students.  Some of our greatest accolades come in the form of smiles, laughter; those “ah-ha” thought stricken faces when they have a deeper understanding, and thought-provoking questions that begin with, “What if…?”  We find affirmation when students invite us to eat lunch with them at their table, ask us to attend their sporting events, and write “Thank-You” notes sharing a success that they recently experienced in class.  We teach because of the emotional high we get when a struggling student walks away a few inches taller because they feel confident in their understanding of a difficult concept, or when our students work together to accomplish a huge task they never thought possible.

Teach like never before,   Josh and Mike

My beautiful bride at our school clothing drive!

My two AMAZING superheroes!

Engaging Assessments

I never imagined in my teaching career that I would see engaging and assessment used together in the same sentence. In fact, if you use the term assessment with any student or teacher in today's educational landscape you will undoubtedly cause shakes and shivers. That is why engaging assessment is so revolutionary - build assessments that immerse students in learning.

From the very beginning of our conversations, Josh and I discussed creating high level, rigorous educational content that students would commit to without force. If you read my last blog you know the four components that are necessary for students to learn at high levels (Clarity, Formative Assessment, Student Self Assessment, and Feedback). If you can wrap all of these things nicely in Engagement and Design (see Phil Schlechty and the Schlechty Center) you are close to the educational Holy Grail. 

Here is our first attempt: Figurative Language Quest. This is a game simulation that Josh designed around the figurative language components (Metaphor, Simile, Alliteration, Personification, Pun, Onomatopoeia, Idiom, and hyperbole). The student engages in eight different battles with various creatures in a far away medieval kingdom. The student must answer three questions, each progressing to a higher depth of knowledge, before winning the quest. Each level tracks the progress of players and displays it on the screen for teachers and students to view. Each level has an option to view a complete power point for remediation. When the student feels comfortable with new knowledge they can return to the quest and complete the level. It truly combines formative assessment, clarity, student self assessment, feedback and packages all in an engaging simulation.

 Too good to be true?  Check out the trailers below and see what you think!

  

What do you think? We would love any comments and feedback.