Term 4 Week 1 Further Feedback from Students

Student voice is vital in the assessemnt and reflection process. Following on from the cross country training which was somewhat different this year compared to past years, (see previous post)  I asked the students to reflect on what we had done and to give me suggestions for next year. This is a link to what they said. 

Cross Country Reflection Room 22

I will use these ideas to take into cross country training next year.   Empowering students in the learning process gives them ownership which I see as a vtal component iof teaching and learning. 

Term 2 Week 10 National Standards

Having just completed Mid Year reports and sent them home, I refected on this blog post I read.  I used an OTJ - Overall Teacher Judgement - to assess if the students 

• required further support
• on track to achieve the standard
• likely to exceed 

The students have the usual reaction when handing them their reports with the instructions that they are addressed to their parents so they have to take them home and not open them. Mixture of pretend terror and nervousness and bottled excitement.  My comments to the students - there will not be any surprises in the report. You know where you are achieving, you know how much effort you have put in and you know what you can do and what you need to do next. If there are surprises, then you and me need to talk - so email me when you have read your report and we can talk through anything that did surprise you. I ddint get any emails and the next day, students all said they didnt have anythi  ng they needed to talk to me about.  

National Standards - 10 reasons why they have to go

So what are my feelings towards National Standards?  Like many teachers I was opposed to them when they were first introduced. No consultation, seemingly forced on us, a reluctance to "assess" the studenst on a set of criteria that seemed to move away from the group teaching model that enabled students to move at their own pace and make progress at their own speed. 

So as I read through the blog post linked above, here is my current thinking on National Standards.

1. They are not standard.
No, I guess they are not standard but they do set a standard to be acheived at a certain level of schooling. By using these standards, I believe my uderstanding of what students are expected to do at the levels through their school life gives a base line that we didnt have before. I believe there is less variation across schools now than there was before, even though there are questions around moderation from school to school. 

2. There was little consultation.
No, there didnt seem to be but we need to move on past this. They are here so just get on and make the most of them! 

3. They are confusing.
I dont find them confusing. I find them straight forwards and descriptive and progressive through the levels.  I have a good understanding of what is expected at Level 1, 2 and 3 and am starting to understand Level 4. 

4. The first 3 years is an absolute nightmare.
No, not an absolute nightmare - difficult in some cases yes, takes a bit of thinking around but this is possible. There are problems though with students who havent started on their 5 year old birthday so even though the anniversary report is after their first year at school, this catches up with the student between third year and Year 4 - they may have only had 2 years at school where they are at standard however by the time they get to Year 4 they are now below based on year level. 

5. Label children as below and well below.
Yes, but maybe this needs to be said? Life isnt always about being the best and the brightest - and schools can design reports so that the other qualities that students bring to learning are highlighted and reported on. It deepends on how narrow you make your focus. I think wording could be changed to say not meeting the standard, meeting the standard or exceeding the standard - semantics maybe but gives a different perpective.  

6. They cause teachers to rush.
This one I do agree with. The early learning years are a time for students to adjust to school at very different levels that they come in with.  Students need time to learn at their own spped and especially literacy must come when the students are ready. Learning through play and Move to learn I think are vital components of a junior school programme which will address the key competencies which is where I truly believe our focus should be on developing rather than the narrow academic band. 

7. Schools are compared against each other.
The story behind each school is important as all schools have their own strengths - however - and maybe this is said becasue of the school I work in and have worked in for a 14 years - the standards are achieveable when the key competencies are addressesd and focussed on. 

8. Narrowed the curriculum.
Rubbish.  They standards have not narrowed so that I no longer have the teachable moments or the arts - take a look around my room and it is full of colour and students work - I simply find a way to integrate what I know the students need into the direction they are interested in. If the learning intention is aming no sense, then you need to look at what you are teaching ......  

9. The standards give us nothing.
Disagree. The standards give a guide as to what students are expected to do at certain levels in their schooling. They do not take away the students talents - they enable teachers to look for ways to incorportae the talents and thus enhance the learning in math and literacy - If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have alwyas got. Teachers need to be willing to take a risk, as we encourage our students to do and move out of their comfirt zone. 

10. They cause us to feel that we have to prove ourselves.
Scared of accountability? Scared to be learners and to grow? Children are very very much the centre of my classroom. I dont believe the standards are killing our education system - but teachers who can't move away fromtraditional styles of teaching and look to what really is going to help children to be successful learners - KEY COMPETENCIES - I believe are the vital missing ingredient. 

I dont want to go back to what I had before. My learning has increased enormously in the past 5 years and the edcuation expereince I offer my students now is hugely more than what I did before national standards. National Standards were not the catalyst for change - but the teaching and learning that has come out of managing national standards has been instrumental in my development as a teacher. 

Term 2 Week 5 AsTTle assessment

AsTTle testing week - just another piece of the data to build up the child as a learner.  

I make a point of telling the students that this is one test on one day and is just one aspect of assessing where they are in their reading and math learning.

This time the tests were completed on line which was good as it saved printing the paper booklets and  the tests were adaptive. This means that the programme chooses the next set of questions based on the responses given in the previous set - so adjusts up or down. 

There were no surprises in the data. I will share the printouts with the students though so they have an understanding of the process and why they do the tests.  This I'll do to start next term so they can set a goal based on what the data has shown. 

Working through PROBE and GLOSS, other peices of the evidence for each learner.  I share with each child after each test 1 to 1 with me what the results are.  

Week Five Feedback and Feed forward

Feedback and Feed Forward

Very interesting discussion with the class about the purpose of feedback and feedforward and what it looks like in their learning. From the class - 

Feedback:

• You tell the person what they did wrong
• It is the negative parts
• The parts you didnt understand and they need to change
• The parts you didnt like
• You can say what you think is good about the work and what you liked

Feed Forward:

• What they need to improve on
• What they need to make better
• What they need to change
• The spelling. What words they need to write properly.
• Handwriting: How they could make their handwriting better. 

I was surprised that this is how the class saw feedback and feed forward as it isnt my understanding of these two aspects of peer conferencing. The vital part missing is the individuals ownership of the work and the reflection part for them to respond to feedback and feed forward that has been given. The class had the understanding that it was their job to make the work better by telling the person what had to be improved - rather than the owner making the changes in response to suggestions that had been made by their audience. 

I started a discussion about prompt beginnings to use when giving feedbck and feedforward. We took the word negative and bad out of the discussion completely. The new understandings we developed were:

• Feedback is when you show someone a part of their work that meant something to you.
• Feed forward is when you show someone a part of their work that as their audience you found confusing or would like more information on. 

The following prompts were developed by me with the class but as a class we talked through them together and they will become what we use when we are peer conferencing.  

Before I can get peer conferencing happening though, there are basic understandings of self management (key competency) that I would like to develop with the class so feedback and feed forward can be more meaningful. 

The personal reflection is the most important in the whole process and the part the class did not talk about at all when we were generating our ideas on feedback and feed forward. This personal reflection is where the student uses the feedback and feed forward to improve their writing / work and move forward in their ability to respond. 

Sentence Starters for Giving Feedback to your Partner:

Positive/Neutral:

I was really interested in what you were saying when…

My favourite part of your writing was…

I could really see / hear / feel what you were describing when…

I could relate to what you said when…

My favourite word / phrase you used was ….

This part made me feel…

This part reminded me of …

Your most convincing part / reason / evidence was…

Sentence Starters for Giving Feedforward to your Partner:

I was confused when you said… can you explain this to me?

I would have liked to hear more about….

I didn’t have a picture in my head. Could you use nouns / adjectives / verbs / adverbs in this part…

This part is hard for me to understand because the punctuation isnt clear. Can you make it easier to understand?

I didn’t understand this part … can you clarify it please?

I don’t understand what you meant when you said  ….

What else could you tell me to make me want to agree with you when you said…

What is your main point in this paragraph?

What do you plan to do next?

Personal reflection

My initial writing goal was… did I meet it?

What part of my writing did my buddy / group get confused by?

Where did they need me to tell them more?

What is one part of my writing that I could improve on?

What still needs to be added to my draft so that it feels finished?

Have I checked the Remember to?

What words could I add to make my reader see / hear / smell / taste / feel something I describe?  (have a picture in their mind)

Have I used paragraphs that make sense?

Week Four Recording Assessment data

Looking at ways to record student assessement data on Classroom. 

I have discovered how to make an excel doc from Classroom after the grades and comments have been returned to students.  This is a good step forward as last year I hadnt been able to find tis feature - maye its new as the Classroom is being updated regularly. 

Hectors World Comments   for the Slide Share they have been working on. 

Home Learning Comments   for this weeks home learning based on the relationships chart.