In this week’s webinar we will continue our assessment conversation as we discuss how we can use the evidence we collect to help learners make more progress. We will explore ways to clarify learning goals and targets and to establish criteria for success, including a demonstration of some tools for creating conventional matrix-style rubrics and branching rubrics. We will end with a discussion of evaluative and descriptive feedback as we explore ways to use digital tools for giving and receiving feedback and how students can become resources for each other.

Please join us this Thursday, December 1 at 3:15 or 7:15. Click on the Webcast tab above for more information about registering and accessing this webinar.

Recording of the session:
http://stateofmaine.na4.acrobat.com/p84983759/
Slides in PDF format

Notes from the text chat:

Resources:

• More Leadership Webinars: http://www.leadandlearn.com/webinars
• Book: “If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students: Guide to Success for Administrators and Teachers“
• Classroom Management Tips
• Copyright and Intellectual Property:
• http://copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com/Scenarios
• http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/
• Digital Citizenship:
• ⁃ http://handouts.wesfryer.com/footprint
• ⁃ http://commonsensemedia.org
• Skype: http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/Directory

Prompt:
How do WE model using computer tools for innovation, creativity and problem solving in the work we do?

• Use the tools you encourage your teachers to use
• Ask a lot of questions
• Encourage teachers to share
• “One example; in the past my observations were “secretive” until the summative evaluation. This year, no more guessing what’s on the teacher’s mind as all observations are on google docs for immediate review and response. Much better.”
• Teachers need time to interact with the tools during a modeling session — “Content without activity = no learning” — Thiagi
• Give teachers permission to play. Suggest teachers login to the student login account on their laptops to play so that they have no fear of data loss or misconfiguration accidents
• Make “home visits” to help teachers learn to use the technology
• Resist reacting to the multiple issues that have arisen with our implementation, things like resisting blocking everything, resisting permanently taking kids computers who break the rules, etc.
• Admin maintains their own web page

Classroom Management Challenge:
Faculty are stuggling with management issues and that has been a big concern.

• “Technology isn’t the tool to manage student behavior–it’s still the teacher’s job”
• “Close and Focus – Teachers can ask students to simply close their laptops and direct their focus to the teacher.”

The Effect of Feedback on Learning

• Dylan Wiliam and Paul Black, Inside the Black Box
• Kappan article, “Working Inside the Black Box.” The full text of this article is available as a PDF through MARVEL. Authenticate to MARVEL first and then click here.
• Susan Brookhart, How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students

Evaluative vs. Descriptive Feedback

• Product descriptors and rubrics (highlight for descriptive feedback)
• For copies of documents that Julie and Sara shared, contact me and I will forward your request to them.
• Anne Davies – Assessment for Learning

Establish Criteria

• 6+1 Traits of Writing
• Look at examplars
• Have students contribute to building a rubric (Jill Spencer says, “Also, I’ve found that taking time to reflect with questions like…Why is it important to use criteria? Why is quality work important? These questions begin to help students see the purpose for their efforts.”
• Rubistar

Teaching students to give feedback

• Laurie Walsh’s document, How do you comment on a classmate’s writing? (Thanks, Laurie!)
• Give kids sentence starters based on your criteria or model like 6+1 Traits
• Create a culture where kids care about their work and agree on criteria that is not personal but that really describes high-quality work.

Ways to give feedback digitally

• NoteShare – Voice Memo
• Pages (and other word processing programs) – use callouts in different colors
• Use markup and annotation tools in Preview for PDFs.
• Some Studywiz activities are good for feedback.
• Lisa Hogan suggests using callouts to have students self-assess. They use callouts to point to evidence that they have met the criteria for high-quality work.

Online programs that give students feedback

• MyAccess
• Criterion®
• Class Blogs
• Online writing sites where students can submit writing

Recordings of the webinar will be available in a few days on the Webcasts Archive page of this blog. Please join me again on February 25 when we will talk about drafting, revising and editing.

Image by Terry Hart licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Lisa Hogan, Tech Integrator at MSAD 75, will also be in the room to talk about her experiences with middle school students and the writing they did in science classes. We will look at some resources for getting feedback online and discuss the difference between evaluative feedback and descriptive feedback and how we can teach students to give each other feedback that really helps them in revising their writing. Finally, we will demonstrate how teachers and students can give each other feedback on their digital drafts, without having to print each one and mark it up. And of course, we hope you will let us know what techniques and strategies you are having success with in your classrooms.

Please join us Thursday, January 14 at 3:15 or 7:15 pm. You can find links for registration and information about how to access these sessions by clicking on the Webinar tab at the top of this page.

Illustration by Ann Marie Quirion Hutton